Just to your left is a rectangular two-story white stucco building with striking maroon trim framing its large display windows and a flat roofline. Built in 1921 by local contractors Gruninger and Son, this is the Armour and Jacobson Building, sitting right here at 426 to 430 Beale Street. It looks like a polite, standard commercial storefront, but the businesses it originally held tell a much more interesting story. You see, around 1916, this region experienced the Mohave Mining Boom, a massive surge in local prospecting for gold and silver that drew dreamers and experts alike, including a mining engineer named Robert Jacobson. Jacobson partnered with E. E. Armour, who was known around town simply as a humble baker. The two men built this structure to house a rather unusual combination. One side was a bakery, providing daily bread for the growing town. The other side was Jacobson's assay office, a specialized laboratory where local prospectors brought chunks of rock to be chemically tested for precious metals. Bread and gold, right under one roof. But Armour was not just kneading dough while Jacobson tested ore. Historical records reveal the baker was deeply entangled in the mining boom himself. In 1921, the exact same year this dignified building went up, Armour was busy applying for patents on several local lode mining claims, including the Portland and Sunshine sites. He was quietly funding and profiting from the very gold and silver rush his partner was evaluating. Together, they captured how a dusty frontier camp was cementing itself into a permanent, thriving commercial hub built on rock, enterprise, and serious ambition. Notice those large plate glass display windows and the clerestory, the row of smaller windows just above the main entry. Before reliable electric lighting, those were crucial to flood both the bakery and the testing lab with natural sunlight during working hours. From hidden mining investments, let us wander toward some actual secrets. We are heading to the IOOF Building next, just a three minute walk away, where we will look into the secret societies that helped organize this community.
