My opinion is Elmer bought Arizona (or an old claim under a town in Arizona) so he could spend the winter there or maybe retire and still have an excuse to collect his pay.

I did some reading on this mine and it turns out that Van Dyke (the man) owned the land and the mineral rights before the town of Miami existed. He promoted the idea of building a townsite where the miners could live. People bought their lots there and built with the understanding that they only controlled something like 40 meters(?) under the ground. So actually it was a mine first and then a town.

I keep hearing that the Van Dyke mine is quite exciting to...well, I don't know exactly but I think it is generating some sort of excitement and that should mean some money in my pocket eventually.