This mine is located about 60 odd miles north east of Yuma Arizona. It was back in 1896 that prospector Charles Eichelberger discovered some gold in the Kofa Mountains. In fact these mountians are are named after the mine because this mine used to stamp its property "K of A" which was short for King of Arizona mine and eventually became known as the Kofa Mine. News of this discovery traveled fast and within a year there was a small settlement with around 100 people poking around the area, staking claims and mining gold.
Like most mine camps back then it was the placer gold that caught the attention of the miners but within a short while the surface gold ran out and miners starting looking for hardrock deposits. It is said that miners took out around 40,000 bucks worth of placer gold down slope of the main vein but the real prize to be had was the vein that became known as the Kofa Vein. Some of the surface ore was very rich and was valued at $2,000 a ton in gold and some silver. This is back when gold was only around 20 bucks an ounce.
One of the biggest problems with mining then was the lack of water. Water had to hauled into town with mule trains and ore had to be hauled out to be crushed. A small mill was set upat the closest available source of water and that was 50 miles away. Several attemps of drilling water wells failed, however in 1899 a well was drilled about five miles from the mine that struck water at a depth of 1,000 feet. The water was then piped from the wells to the mine site and to the town. Now that the mine had water, a new mill was constructed and the started to grow. By 1900 there were around 300 people living there and the town got a post office. Because this mine camps was so remote it became more of a company town. There were a few boarding houses, a mess hall and because families were moving here for jobs, a small school was also built. From 1900 to 1907 mining was good and the population is said to have reached a high of 700 residents.
The Kofa Mine was not a complex mine like a lot of other mines. It's main shaft was a simple inclined shaft of around 700 feet deep with drifts running east and west running to lengths of around 2,000 feet. Over the 10 plus years of mining the mill pounded out around 200 ton of ore every day at a value of 40 bucks a ton. But like so many old mines, the deeper they dug, the less vlaueable the ore became and by 1910 the mine closed down.
Now, just a couple of miles or so north of this mine, another small mine was located and this mine became known as the North Star Mine. This mine consisted of two inclined shafts of 90 and 500 feet and had around 3500 feet of drift workings. This mine also set up a 100 ton cyanide plant at it's mill and close to 350 workers. Infact a small town named Polaris was built here to the miners and their families. But by late summer of 1911,the ore was depleted and this mine had to shut down.
Although the two mines closed down, the towns did not die off like a lot of other mine camps. Small scale mining continued on with both underground and placers. In 1918 a new company took over the Kofa mine and did invest some money and reopend the Kofa mine however by 1928 most of the town was vacant and the post office closed. Then during the 1950's, the area was mined for tungsten and manganese with little success.
The North Star mine is said to have produced just over a million dollars in gold and silver, however it was also known to have highgraders working there so an unknown amount of gold would have been stolen over the years. Total production of gold and silver bullion from the Kofa mine is said to have been $3.5 million when gold was just 20 bucks and ounce. All together, this district is said to have produced 779,000 tons of ore including 226,654 ounces of gold, 103,257 ounces of silver, 3.5 tons of lead and a couple tons of copper. Total production was valued at $4.8 million.
