Mining activity in Apache Pass started when members of the California Volunteers discovered a, "...gold and quartz bearing ledge..." in 1864. The "Harris Lode" as it became to be known, was later developed by the Apache Pass Mining Company led by John F. Stone.
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With the expansion of the Fort Bowie Military Reservation in November 1877, all mining activity in Apache Pass was prohibited. The early 20th century witnessed a reactivation of old claims and establishment of new mines throughout the Pass.
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This ruin, from the later period, was the home of Jesse L. Millsap (1863-1929) a local prospector and well digger. For years this structure had been unidentified until a park visitor said that as a boy he rode with his dad, in a Model-T Ford, to visit his uncle at this cabin.
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Millsap perished when a dynamite charge exploded below him while digging a well. He is interred in the Bowie Cemetery, 15 miles north of here.
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