The Total Wreck Arizona Shooting 1882

Total Wreck, Arizona, c.1885.

Today it's a ghost town in Pima County, Arizona, with very little remaining to show that there was ever a "town there." It was founded in 1879. The population was large enough to open a Post Office there in 1881. The population was 200 or 300 residents in 1883, at which time the town included five saloons, three general stores, a butcher shop, a shoemaker shop, and a half dozen Chinese laundries. The Post Office officially closed when the town was abandoned just a few years later in 1890. 

The town was built 7 miles from what is today the ghost town of Pantano, Arizona, which sits between Vail and Benson along the old Southern Pacific Railroad line and the Empire Ranch. 

Silver was discovered in the Richmond lode of the Empire mining district in the eastern Empire Mountains in 1879. By 1884 mines of the area had produced some $5,000,000 in silver bullion. Mining declined through the 1890s and early 1900s.

As for its name, one story says that John L. Dillon, the owner of the mining claim, named his mine Total Wreck because he thought that the mine was on a ledge that looked like "a Total Wreck" -- especially since it sat below a quartzite ledge with large boulders of quartzite strewn all over. 

The other story of its name comes from an 1882 news story in The Los Angeles Times reporting that the "strange appellation" of Total Wreck came about when "After a laborious search for minerals in the vicinity of the mine, one day previous to its discovery, Mr. Dillon replied to a friend's inquiry of 'What luck?' by saying: 'Oh, it's a total wreck!' "

In one report from The Los Angeles Times in 1882, a report stated:

The town of Total Wreck has no appearance of a wreck. It is a thrifty, neat-looking village, the streets laid out at right angles. The main street is named Dillon Street in honor of the discoverer of the mine, and the first to discover minerals in this district... 

The town has two stores, two hotels, a restaurant, five saloons, a carpenter, a blacksmith, a butcher, and a shoe shop; also a dressmaker's store, a brewery, and about thirty-five houses... 

It has a residential magistrate and a deputy sheriff, and in case of trouble with the Indians or roughs,  Ninety men could be mustered within Sixty minutes.

Business owners in that year were "N.R. Vail, Salsig & Ballou, Chas. Altschul, A.J. Bobo, Snyder & Co., Nelson & George, P.J. Delahanty, John Vaughn, Alex. Chisholm, S.S. Danner, McClellan & Williams, and Mr. Ballou."

As for the Total Wreck Arizona Gunfight of 1882? Well, on December 2nd, 1882, The Tombstone Epitaph published the following story: 

Trouble at Total Wreck

The EPITAPH yesterday morning contained a brief telegraphic announcement of the attempted assassination of E.B. Salsig at Total Wreck, last Friday afternoon. Since then we have learned the following additional particulars:

The would-be assassin is a man named John Drummond, who is known to many residents of Tombstone. The trouble is supposed to have grown out of Drummond's interference with the sale of an important mine in the Empire District and the views Mr. Salsig expressed about the matter.

Drummond visited the store of Salsig & Sifford, called Salsig out on the street and interrogated him in relation to the matter, applying to him epithets which most men resist. Salsig hit Drummond. 

In response Drummond drew a revolver and shot Salsig there times. The first shot went through Salsig's arm, near the elbow,  fortunately not touching the bone, only making a flesh wound. The second shot struck his side pocket and went through his pocketbook and a bundle of letters, the ball dropped in the pocket; but for this, it might have produced a fatal wound. The third shot cut his coat just above the hip. 

Drummond was arrested and bound over to appear before the Grand Jury, in the paltry sum of $1500. It would be well if such characters as this Drummond could be summarily dealt with. 

-- (end of Tombstone Epitaph report of December 2nd, 1882).

Now according to some sources, legend has it that E. B. Salsig's bundle of letters were love letters. Legend has it that when Salsig was struck in the chest by that second bullet fired from Drummond, Salsig didn't die because he was saved by the large bundle of love letters. Supposedly, those "love letters" absorbed the impact of the bullet and saved his life. Legend also says that E.B. Salsig married the woman who had written those letters.

While I don't know if those letters were "love letters," it does make for a great legend.

Tom Correa