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Hugo Miller in Assay Office Twenty-three year old Hugo Miller set up his own assay office in Nogales, Arizona. (Photo courtesy of Wynell Kisner, 1912) |
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Hugo Miller Showing Off Ruby
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Column No. 37
Bob Ring, Al Ring, Tallia Pfrimmer Cahoon
By 1944, the Eagle-Picher Lead Company’s mining operations at the Montana mine
had been suspended for four years and what little remained of the Ruby mining
camp had been virtually abandoned. But mining at the Montana was not quite dead
yet. A man named Hugo Miller was about to make a move on the Montana.
Hugo W. Miller had been associated with mining all his life, continually being
tempted away from his regular job, assaying ore for others, to develop and
manage mining operations himself. Miller was born on July 10, 1889, in
Ballinger, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1910 with the
degree of Engineer of Mines. Miller spent several years in the western United
States and Sonora, Mexico working engineering, geology, chemist, and assaying
jobs. He came to Nogales in 1912 and set up his own assay office.
Over the years, Miller’s “reputation for assay work was known throughout
northern Mexico and southern Arizona, and in two World Wars, he was instrumental
in the tungsten and manganese ore fields.”
While a Nogales resident in 1922, Miller was an outspoken juror on the trial of
Placido Silvas, convicted of the murder of Ruby store proprietor, Frank Pearson.
Miller was also active in politics, as a founding member of the Board of
Directors of the Nogales Chamber of Commerce in 1914, and Santa Cruz County
Supervisor in 1924 and 1926.
From World War I on, Miller was frequently involved in mining himself, including
tungsten, manganese, molybdenite, copper, and lead. He leased mines, managed
mines, and promoted mines.
Miller’s mining interests brought him to the Ruby area in the summer of 1939. On
August 11, 1939, Miller secured part ownership of seven unpatented mining claims
(Brick, Ruth, Irish Mag, Davis, La Paz, Santa Clara, and Rough and Ready No. 1)
just to the west of Eagle-Picher’s Montana Group of 19-patented mines. Miller’s
partner was Emma K. Hanson, the widow of Charles Hanson, a long-time local
mining engineer and mine developer.
During the next three months, Hugo Miller sank a 50-foot shaft at the Brick mine
and dug out and shipped four carloads of low-grade gold-silver ores.
In November 1939, Eagle-Picher took a 90-day working option on the
“Miller-Hanson” group of claims to explore for lead or zinc ore. Eagle-Picher
built a head frame over Miller’s shaft at the Brick mine, but after a few months
of purposeful work at greater depths, concluded that there was not sufficient
payoff to warrant taking over the property.
So Hugo Miller went back to working the Miller-Hanson group of mines himself,
but he had established a good relationship with Eagle-Picher that would soon be
of benefit. In January 1943 Miller obtained sole ownership of the Miller-Hanson
group of claims.
From 1939 to 1944, he shipped 72 carloads of ore from the Miller-Hanson mines.
Miller then turned his attention from the Miller-Hanson group to the Montana
Group. On November 29,1944, Miller leased the Montana mines with an option to
buy from the Eagle-Picher Company. The property included all 19-patented mining
claims of the Montana Group of mines. The lease extended for 10 years with a
total purchase price of $5,000.
On that same date, Miller bought outright for $1,000 the mining camp of Ruby,
including “all buildings, structures, materials, lumber, scrap, and other
miscellaneous personal property situated on the surface of those certain
patented mining claims.”
Miller began actively mining the lead carbonate ores near the surface of the
Montana. He mined enough lead at the Montana over the next two years to enable
him to complete his deal early with Eagle-Picher for the Montana Group of mines.
Having paid Eagle-Picher $5,000, on December 18, 1946 Miller received the deed
for the Montana Group of 19-patented mines.
Besides mining, Hugo Miller and his family spent a lot of time in the Ruby area
enjoying boating, fishing, hunting, and in general, the unique natural
environment. Miller and his wife frequently entertained visitors, some spending
a week in the “old mining camp.” Miller also enjoyed relating the history of
Ruby to visitors from the Pimeria Alta Historical Society from Nogales.
(Sources: Private papers of Mr. and Mrs. Hugo S. Miller; University of Arizona
Library Special Collections, AZ175; Tucson Citizen; Nogales International; The
Connection; “Hugo Miller Leases Montana Mine from Eagle-Picher,” Mining Journal,
December 15, 1945; Mining Deeds, Santa Cruz County Recorders Office)
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Hugo Miller in Assay Office Twenty-three year old Hugo Miller set up his own assay office in Nogales, Arizona. (Photo courtesy of Wynell Kisner, 1912) |
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Hugo Miller Showing Off Ruby
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