University of Arizona

Everyone is welcome to visit Special Collections without an appointment from 9 am - 5 pm, Mon - Fri. Note that beginning April 1st, our hours will be 9 am - 4 pm

Papers of William Field Staunton

Group Outside of Congress Gold Company's Mill Number 1

William Field Staunton was a mining engineer in Arizona and California. Staunton worked as the mill and mine superintendent at the Tombstone Mill & Mining Co. in Charleston, AZ from 1885 to 1894, and as superintendent of the Congress Gold Co. in Arizona from 1894 to 1910. Staunton also served as general manager of the Tombstone Consolidated Mines Co. from 1901 to 1910; vice-president of the Imperial Copper Co. in Silverbell, AZ and of the Arizona Southern Railroad Co. from 1903 to 1910. He held the position of vice president for the Southern Arizona Smelting Co. in Sasco, AZ from 1904 to 1910.

In 1910, he established a consulting practice in Los Angeles, CA to develop oil and copper properties in Arizona and California. In 1911 he became vice-president, treasurer, and later president of Calumet Oil Co., Los Angeles, and president of the Verde Central Mines, Inc., Jerome, AZ. 

Collection contains Correspondence, diaries, financial records, photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, and other papers, relating to mining and Staunton's personal activities in Arizona and California. Personal papers consist of diaries, notebooks, photographs and his memoirs. Mining records which include correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, photographs, blueprints, maps, and articles by Staunton form the bulk of the collection. Correspondents include Frank M. Murphy, V.L. Mason, Henry M. Robinson, and James S. Douglas.