A black and white postcard of the Oliver and Lowell shaft, circa 1908. One can also see houses in the Warren area and the Evergreen Cemetery in the image. The card has been cut. The front caption reads: “Oliver and Lowell Shafts--Junction, Denn and Saginaw in distance., Bisbee, Ariz.”. The postcard was sent from F.P.A. The message in ink reads: “Bisbee A. T. Nov. 26, 1908. Dear Friend, Hear you are back from your trip. we had snow (?) for Thanksgiving. Mucha fria F. P. A.” The postcard was published by the Albertype Company, Brooklyn New York and the Bisbee Drug Company.

The Oliver shaft was sunk by the Calumet & Arizona Mining company in 1903. It had a 4-compartment shaft and was sunk to the depth of 1600 feet. The upper sections of the mine had high grade oxidized ores that contained 7 percent copper with smaller amounts of gold and silver and the lower levels had rich sulfides. Large bodies of oxide and sulfide ores existed at the 950 to 1350 levels. The Oliver shaft shared a tunnel with the Irish Mag, and it was equipped with an electric tram for hauling ore. The shaft was equipped with a 600-gal Nordberg electric pump and Nordberg electric hoist. The Oliver Shaft was not free of its own share of fatal accidents. On April 21st 1909, two men lost their lives in separate incidents. In the first, a Slavonic miner named Lee Guraservich was one of nine men being hoisted up in a three-compartment cage. Between the 1,000- and 800-foot levels, Guraservich slipped out and was caught between a hoisting cage and timbering. The second was Matt Arola, who was struck with a rock at the 1150-foot level. In eleven years the ore supply was dwindling had diminished and during the slump in 1914 the Oliver shaft was shut down, only to reopen on a far smaller scale summer of 1915. After World War I, the price of copper in slipped from 22 to 18 cents. The Calumet & Arizona Mining company shut down the exhausted Oliver Shaft on February 5th, 1919. - In 1879, the mining claims that would become the Lowell Mine were discovered by W.S. Salmon and was bought by Frank Hanchett in February 1899. Hanchett came from Lowell, Massachusetts and named his mining company the Lowell & Arizona Copper Mining and Smelting Company to honor his origins. The Lowell mine had a double compartment shaft and in one month was sunk to the depth of 900 feet. They employed 60 men and later struggled with water below the 1100-foot level. The Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company acquired the Lowell Mine in October 1902. The mine suffered a serious fire in 1911, the sulfur dioxide produced from the flames damaged the shaft. A second shaft was sunk to provide ventilation, the Dallas shaft. When ore reserves at the Lowell mine ran out, it’s headframe was removed to be reinstalled at the Campbell Mine. Portions of the Lowell Mine were leased out starting in 1935 but all mining ceased in 1940 with the final depth measuring 1,603 feet.

1983.43.6