About the Vulture Gold Mine
The Vulture Mine and the Birth of Phoenix

In 1868, Jack Swilling saw the ancient irrigation canals along the Salt River, and saw an opportunity.

Swilling caught gold fever in 1857, a fever which brought him to Arizona. He was an enterprising young man who had worked for both the Confederate and Union armies during the Civil War. When Swilling saw the old canals left by the Hohokam Indians, he realized that, with proper irrigation, crops would grow in Arizona.

Swilling needed financial backing to dig out the old canals. When he went looking for funds, he went to Wickenburg. Here Jack Swilling raised enough money from Henry Wickenburg and others to start the Swilling Irrigating Canal Company. By 1872, there were eight thousand acres of land under cultivation and a thriving farm community along the Salt River. Swilling sold food and grain to the U.S. Army, and to mining areas such as Wickenburg and Vulture City. An educated British immigrant, “Lord” Duppa, noting that the farm community had risen from the ashes of an ancient civilization, christened it Phoenix.

Gold Fever | Henry Wickenburg | Highgrading | Ghosts | The Goldwaters | The Vulture's Discovery
The Glory Hole | The Hanging Tree | The Walnut Grove Dam Disaster |
The Vulture's "Profit Sharing Plan" | Gold Mines vs. Gold Placers | The Depression at the Vulture |
John and Marge Osborne | The Birth of Phoenix, AZ

Web Site Created by
JPC - "We Tell Your Story" Let us tell Your Story