Coronado National Forest

Kentucky Camp | History | Buildings | Preservation | Directions | Information | Cabin Rentals

Late in the 19th century, the east slope of the Santa Rita Mountains bustled with the activity of hundreds of miners. Gold had been discovered in 1874, in what became known as the Greaterville mining district. It proved to be the largest and richest placer deposit in southern Arizona.

Placer deposits consist of gold mixed with sand and gravel. The miners quickly discovered that water was more precious than gold. In most placers, they could wash the sand and gravel with water to separate the gold, but the arroyos of the Santa Rita Mountains were dry. Miners hauled sacks of dirt to the few running streams, or packed water to their claims in canvas and goatskin bags, on the backs of burros. The rich deposits that could repay these efforts were worked out by 1886, and the miners gave up and moved on.

However, in 1902 a California mining engineer named James Stetson thought he could solve the water problem. He conceived a grand scheme to channel seasonal runoff from the Santa Rita's streams into a reservoir that would hold enough water to last ten months. With that, he could keep a mine operating.

Stetson convinced a wealthy Californian, George McAneny, to invest in the plan, and with other investors from Tucson they formed the Santa Rita Water and Mining Company to bring it to life. After extensive prospecting in the Greaterville district, Stetson and McAneny decided to begin mining in Boston Gulch. Nearby Kentucky Gulch was selected as the site for the mining headquarters, and from 1902 to 1906, the buildings at Kentucky Camp served as the offices and residences for company employees. The origins of the names "Boston Gulch" and "Kentucky Gulch" are obscure - perhaps they were named for the homes of miners who worked the gulches in the 1870's.

This sketch of George McAneny was drawn for a San Jose, California newspaper in 1905. A report by the Arizona Territorial Geologist described McAneny as "formerly of Tombstone." Perhaps his experience with that mining boomtown led him to look favorably on another opportunity to invest in an Arizona mine. He was no doubt greatly disappointed by Kentucky Camp, however. Before the project was abandoned, he spent between $125,000 and $175,000 in developing the mine, and received only $3,000.

Tragedy struck in 1905. The day before a meeting with stockholders, Stetson died in a fall from a Tucson hotel window. McAneny's finances and health deteriorated, and although the other partners tried to keep the operation going, it was abandoned by 1912. The buildings and land were purchased by an attorney for the McAneny family, and were used as a cattle ranch until the 1960's, when it was sold to ANAMAX Mining. The Coronado National Forest acquired the site through a 1989 land exchange. To satisfy public interest in the history of mining, the Forest is working with volunteers and other partners to preserve and interpret Kentucky Camp.

A hydraulic mining operation in California. This is the type of mine which McAneny hoped to develop. High-pressure streams of water were used to wash gold-bearing gravel into sluices, where the gold was recovered. Courtesy of Malakoff Diggings State Park, California.