3. A Gargantuan Gilded Age Land Theft
Throughout the Arizona Territory, people were bewildered and incredulous at first when confronted with James Reavis’ claims. Incredulity turned to panic when they read that the wealthy owners of the Silver King Mine, Arizona’s richest and one of the Gilded Age’s most powerful mining corporations, had paid Reavis $25,000 to avoid litigation. That was quite the princely sum back then. If such big shots had believed Reavis enough to pay him that much, it stood to reason that his claim really was solid. Suddenly, the threat that their land might get taken from them by this Reavis fellow seemed a distinct possibility.
Reavis had no desire to actually evict the occupants of his “barony”. He simply wanted to extort as much as he could out of them in rent or quit claim fees, to support him and his “noble” wife in a manner that befitted an aristocratic land magnate. Surprisingly, it was the large and wealthy landowners who proved to be the easiest marks. They figured it was cheaper to pay the Baron of Arizona, instead of risk litigation that might end in the loss of their valuable properties. Arizona’s biggest mining company paid him $25,000, and he got the Southern Pacific Railroad to cough up $50,000. Thousands of others paid smaller fees that added up to a nice bundle.
