Jack San Felice
Author, Lecturer, Historian, Treasure Hunter and Mining Enthusiast
Jack San Felice is the author of Superstition Cowboys, When Silver Was King, Lost El Dorado of Jacob Waltz, Treasure Trails of the Superstitions, Lore of the Superstitions, Squaw Peak- A Hikers Guide, and numerous published short stories about the Superstition Mountains. The author’s books contain many photos and illustrations that depict sites, trails, treasure signs and hunters, cowboys, miners, strange characters and activities of his subjects.
Jack’s 371-page book, When Silver Was King, has over 200 photos and illustrations and is about Arizona’s famous 1880s Silver King Mine, located north of Superior, just outside of the Superstition Mountains. When Silver Was King is all about the exciting Wild West days about, as well as stagecoach holdups, frontier justice, and numerous short stories. The book includes life in the mining camps and humorous tales from the1880s mining camp towns of Silver King and Pinal City. Marshall Trimble, the official state historian says of this book, “no bookshelf should be without it.”
Fighting fierce Apaches and the heat, four prospectors barely eaking out a living on the Arizona Territory frontier find a fortune in silver. They discovered a “King” of a mine. In fact, they called it the “Silver King.” It soon became one of the most famous mines of Arizona. Its riches provided prosperity for many of Arizona Territory’s Pioneers. This mine was the catalyst that enabled settlement of east central Arizona Territory during the 1870s. The mining camps of Silver King and Pinal sprang up overnight to handle the flood of miners and speculators.
Jack San Felice has been a part of the reopening of the Silver King Mine for over 12 years.
Jack has also lectured on various other Arizona historic topics such Mining and Minerals of East Central Arizona; Searchers for The Lost Dutchman Mine; Prospectors of the Superstitions; Cave Creek area mining and history; Al Sieber and the Apache Wars; Cowboys of the Superstitions; Elisha Reavis the Hermit of the Superstitions; Lost Prospector James Kidd and the Ghost Trial; James Addison Reavis and the Great Land Fraud of the 1880s, to mention a few topics. Jack lives with his wife Wynne in Mesa, Arizona.
