Missing: McMillanville Historical Marker

Arizona’s highways will take you to many places and monuments, like the one along US 70 in memory of Chief Bylas or the Hi Jolly Monument off I-10 in Quartzsite.

One marker you won’t see? The missing McMillanville historical marker on US 60 about 15 miles north of Globe.

Actually, the stone marker remains, but the plaque that tells the story of this long-gone ghost town is no more. What happened to that plaque is nearly as shrouded in mystery as McMillanville itself. But first, a little history.

In his book “Roadside History of Arizona,” Arizona state historian Marshall Trimble wrote that the town was founded in 1876 after two prospectors discovered a vein of nearly-pure silver north of Globe. McMillanville, according to Trimble, totaled more than 1,500 miners by 1880, but by 1884 the silver had run out and by 1890, McMillanville was abandoned and on its way to becoming a ghost town.

In 1957, the Arizona Development Board distributed a two-part publication called Amazing Arizona! Historical Markers in Arizona, which recommended placement of 100 historical markers around the state. The Board hoped Arizona fraternal organizations, civic clubs and other groups would sponsor the markers’ placement “to better inform motorists of the historical lore of Arizona.”

One of those markers was for “The ghost mining camp of McMillenville.” We know, “McMillenville” is spelled differently here than in other periodicals and that’s a testament to how quickly it grew and flamed out. The wording of its plaque, as shown in the 1997 version of “Historical Markers within the Arizona Department of Transportation Right Of Way,” read:

LOCATED ALONG THIS ROAD

MC MILLENVILLE GHOST MINING CAMP

IN 1874 NATIVE SILVER WAS DISCOVERED

IN WHAT BECAME THE FABULOUS STONEWALL

JACKSON LEDGE. THE DISCOVERY BROUGHT

BOOM CONDITIONS THAT LASTED LESS THAN

10 YEARS. AN INDIAN ATTACK ON THE

CAMP WAS REPULSED IN 1882. MINE

PRODUCTION CEASED IN THE MID 1880’S.

In our research, we could not determine the year the marker and plaque were placed. The earliest reference to it that we found came in the August 8, 1965, issue of The Arizona Republic. 

The year the plaque vanished is also unknown. All that remains is the stone and five screws used to attach the plaque.

The photo above shows the marker as it appears today. The photo below, courtesy of the Arizona Memory Project, shows McMillanville as it appeared in the 1940s when it had been a ghost town for half a century.