Ghostly Revenge at Cerro Colorado Mines in Arizona: Racial Overtones, Unknown Murderers and Missing Silver Remain a Mystery

During the 1860s one of the Cerro Colorado mines, near Arivaca, was the single largest silver producer in southern Arizona. It was in the middle of nowhere in the frontier, but miners are always attracted to the payload, regardless of their nationality or ethnicity. Then came the unexplained hard-rock cave in. Death was common on the frontier that would become a state, but this was an unexplained tragedy with racial overtones.

Mine supervisors routinely separated workers into Mexican and native American groups to help relieve racial tension and overcome language barriers. Unfortunately, when the walls of the silver mine came tumbling down, more than a dozen native Americans were trapped and killed in one of the two main shafts. Their bodies were never recovered, and the unmarked wreck of a mine stands as a gruesome monument to those who died in the unexplained incident. Their bodies are still interred there.

The surviving native Americans, who apparently suspected their Mexican counterparts of having a hand in the fatal incident, vowed revenge and slowly drifted back into the desert toward their villages or outposts to watch for opportunity.

Morale deteriorated steadily and hit an all-time low when the mine foreman was called away and his younger, allegedly meaner, brother was left in charge. Soon after, most of the workforce that had remained had deserted to the relative safety of the cantinas south of the border.

One fateful afternoon a Mexican shift supervisor was caught smuggling silver out of the mining camp red handed. He was made an example for the other workers, who were lined up and forced to watch as he was executed.

Within the next few weeks the remaining Mexican workers, fearing for their safety, fled across the border. The only people who were left in the once-busy town of Cerro Colorado were the foreman, John Poston, brother of the so-called "Father of Arizona" Charles Poston, and two German supervisors.

As legend has it, the workers were waiting for their chance to get the ore for their themselves, to settle the score. Whether former workers were the culpirts or not will probably never be resolved. Perhaps it was the Apache workers who though they were so wronged to begin with.

All three men were murdered and buried near the town and it is said that $30,000 in silver remains hidden somewhere in the rolling foothills nearby. At today's conversion rates, the value of that silver has inflated considerably, though no trace has allegedly ever turned up.

The site's biggest mine (the one that caved in) was named the Heintzelman Mine, in honor of Sonora Exploring and Mining Company President Samuel P. Heintzelman. Heintzelman was no stranger to the Arizona Territory. The West Point graduate had already established a military post at Yuma and attracted such noteworthy investors as Charles Poston and Samuel Colt, of Colt gun fame.

To find Cerro Colorado, take the paved road from I-19 toward the town of Arivaca. Slow down at mile marker 9 and turn right on the dirt road behind the Circle 46 Ranch mailbox. Within a quarter mile, the surprisingly well-preserved grave of the foreman, John Poston, is easy to see on the left. On some years the concrete is reinforced, though no one seems to take claim for the effort.

You can see the ruins of Cerro Colorado, though they disappear by the day, by walking up the hill behind the grave toward the southwest. Explore enough and you'll find the rusting remains of a jail truck or milk truck, depending on the author you prefer. Either way, this place just a little off the beaten path has an unusual history--one that beckons back to Arizona's statehood, and a time when language barriers and misunderstanding led to death.