Edward Schieffelin
1847-1897
The son of a miner, Ed learned everything about prospecting from his father, except how to strike it rich! For twenty years, Ed prospected the west. He tried the "regular life," but after 18 months remarked: "No better off than I was prospecting, and not half as well satisfied."
He arrived at the foot of the Huachuca Mountains in March 1877 working as a supplier for the cavalry. Soldiers told Ed that all he would find would be his "tombstone or his graveyard" if he kept venturing away from camp.
Ed remarked: "I wasn't looking for bullets, but if one happened my way it wouldn't have made much difference to anyone but me, and I never could figure out that to be dead was unpleasant. Some people seem to know all about such things but I'm a bit stupid I suppose for I've never been able to learn the alphabet of birth and death."
Instead he found silver, which lead to the founding of the town of Tombstone. In his will, he specified that he was to be buried in his prospector's garb with canteen and pick by his side near the site of his first camp. The grave marker was to be a simple stone cairn that prospectors used to mark claims. Tombstone's citizens complied with his wishes, save one; they erected the 25 ft. tall monument you see before you.
Marker is on West Schieffelin Monument Road, on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
