I set out this morning for a daytime road trip to see "The Good Enough Silver Mine Tour" in Tombstone, Arizona. The silver and gold mines attracted prospectors, cowboys, and all sorts of rift raft including "ladies of the night." There is so much history at Tombstone that I would recommend a full day to soak in all the information. Many of the Westerns included Tombstone in their movies.
The tour lasted 45 minutes and it was exceptional. What truly captured my interest was that it is considered the
number 1 attraction in Tombstone and trust me, there is a lot to select from once you arrive. I learned that miners were paid around $4.00 a day which really put them at the top of the economic class. However; most of the miners were from outside the United States and they were considered low on the social ladder due to their jobs. Most other professions paid significantly less.
Back in the day, miners would spent $15.00 a month on a place to live and it only cost 50 cents for a complete lobster meal and only a nickel for a brew. Essentially, they had money to spend compared the majority of the folks.
There are different levels of silver and the first ore that was discovered was $3,000 a ton and everyone was absolutely thrilled. This is how word spread and eventually there were thousands of mining companies in Tombstone. Later, they realized that there was even a higher grade silver in the mine and it was worth $5,000 a ton which was even better.
It was extremely dark in the mine and we had to walk 60 steps down to get there so the photos are dark.
One funny story was that the job that paid $5.00 per day is the miner who managed the loo and had to cart it out each day!
Thanks for the info @senseicat