James P. Lindsey (1843 – 1910)

Prospector

2024 Inductee from Mining’s Past

James P. Lindsey is remembered as a classic example of the pioneer Arizona prospector. The rich copper deposits that he first discovered above Safford, Arizona at the Lone Star mining district of Graham County, continue to produce to this day and are being mined by Freeport-McMoRan.

The minerals in the district were first discovered in 1878 by Lindsey, who christened his lode claim the “Lone Star of Texas” after his native state.  Lindsey, who would later be known as the “pioneer of the Lone Star district,” was born in Texas in March 1843.  He served in the Confederate Army as a sharpshooter during the Civil War.

In the late 1870s, Lindsey made his way to Arizona.  In an unambiguous reference to his home state, Lindsey claimed a rich ledge of copper ore as the Lone Star of Texas lode, and within a few years the surrounding area would be organized as the Lone Star mining district, known today as the Safford district.

It would take Lindsey and his partner, Gila Valley pioneer Peter Anderson, some twenty years of patient prospecting and development to finally realize a profit on their Lone Star property.  In 1899, they sold the Lone Star to a New York firm for what in today’s equivalent would be well over $400,000.

Within a year he had invested his money in a farm about 10 miles northwest of Thatcher near the Gila Valley farming community of Fairview. Around 1900 he located a group of “promising claims” in the Clark mining district on the western side of the Graham (Pinaleño) Mountains. Lindsey was one of the best known miners and ranchers in Graham County having resided there for over 30 years.

Lindsey was murdered by an employee on those claims in 1910, living the free life of a prospector he began in Arizona in the late 1870s. The killings took place in Lindsey’s cabin on his mining claims.

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