Street Smarts: A total wreck of a hillside became a silver mine that became a road

Its founders were miner John T. Dillon, who is credited with naming the Empire Mountains, and his boss, Walter L. Vail, owner of the Empire Ranch and the namesake (along with his brother Edward) for the town of Vail.

Total Wreck Lane, near the intersection of Arizona 83 and Interstate 10, is named for the mining town and mine.

While walking through the desert, Dillon noticed a number of quartz and granite formations on a slope of the Empire Mountains. Pointing it out to others, it’s said that he commented the hill “looked like a total wreck.” But upon closer inspection, it seemed the rocks had traces of silver in them.

When the mining claim was filed, Dillon called it Total Wreck; but until the arrival of the railroad in 1881, very little was done with the mine.

In 1881, the same year the post office opened, the Total Wreck Mining and Milling Co. was created, with Walter Vail as one of the main stockholders. Vail invested heavily in the mine, building a mill and a 600-foot tramway that connected the mill to the mine. He also purchased a huge steam-powered hoist. A creek a couple of miles south was used to bring water to the town and the mill.

In 1883, with the mine in full swing, there were about 50 homes, four saloons, three hotels and a bank and brewery.

In June of that year, a crew of Mexican woodcutters was employed to chop wood to be used as fuel for the mill, near the Whetstone Mountains. They were attacked by some of Geronimo’s Apaches, who left six dead and stole a team of mules. The men were the first to be buried in Total Wreck’s small cemetery.

Around 1884 or 1885, the mining operation lessened and eventually stopped. In 1890, with just a small population remaining, the post office closed, and most of the residents slowly moved away in search of work elsewhere in Arizona’s thriving mining districts.