# Ed Schieffelin — Tombstone character guide

> Ed Schieffelin in Tombstone by Walter Noble Burns.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Schieffelin, Ed

**First appearance:** 0002-tombstone

## Snapshot

The stubborn prospector whose silver strike in the Dragoons called Tombstone into being and gave the whole roaring town its reason to exist.

## Who they are

Schieffelin's discovery of the silver lode is the origin story the book keeps returning to, the moment barren Apache country becomes a boomtown of gamblers, marshals, and gunmen. His own manuscript account, preserved in Tucson, supplies the founding chapter of Tombstone's brief and violent glory. Without his pick and his persistence, none of the feuds and saloons that follow would have had a stage.

## In the story

### [Sources](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/chapters/sources)

The Schieffelin chapter is based on Schieffelin's own manuscript in the archives of the Arizona Pioneers Historical Society.

### [I: Hills of Silver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/chapters/i-hills-of-silver)

Civilian scout who discovers silver in the Tombstone hills; later becomes a millionaire but returns to the wilderness.

### [II: Red Lights and Altar Candles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/chapters/ii-red-lights-and-altar-candles)

Credited with discovering silver and suggesting the name 'Epitaph' for the newspaper.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters/schieffelin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tombstone_se/characters