Raphael Pumpelly's Arizona. The Frontier Adventures Of A Young Mining Engineer

C. GILBERT STORMS

Publication: Published by Wheatmark, 2022, Tucson

First edition. 8vo. Pictorial stiff, perfect-bound wrappers, [4], 147 [1] pp., introduction, illustrated, portraits, chapter endnotes, bibliography, illustration credits, index.

Raphael Pumpelly (1837-1923) came to Tucson in 1860 as a young mining engineer. He was 23 years of age and a recent graduate of the Royal Mining Academy in Germany. During his stay in the Southwest Pumpelly learned how to mine silver and how to survive in the lawless environment of the borderlands. He met miners, ranchers, soldiers, bandits, Mexican revolutionaries, and raiding Apaches in a territory where there was no law enforcement and no effective military force to oppose the attacks of hostile Indians.

After he left Arizona he became an internationally renowned geologist, a consultant to foreign governments on geology and mining, a pioneering researcher in geoarchaeology, and a professor of geology and mining at Harvard. He tells us how life on the western range used to be. An entertaining read. Fine, unread copy.