In the 1870's, Richard Mackey was prospecting and found an outcropping of gold. With no money to work the claim, he found a partner and together they raised money to work the mine. They mined about $30,000 of the "easy" gold, and the next morning, his new partner disappeared on him. Running out of money, Richard worked and worked to find the vein but ran out of money again. Upset, he planted the last two sticks of dynamite he had to close off the hole. The next day, he ate his last bit of food and was ready to leave when he noticed the shattered pile of debris from his dynamite explosion was all ore to the tune of $1800 per ton. Shortly, a town and mill sprang up. Today, there are some remnants of the town amongst the pines.

The main street of Apex was no different from other mining towns of the area. It was lined with saloons, stores and hotels. How the town came into being is, however, much different from most. Sometime during the late 1870s, a Richard Mackey made a good but not overpowering strike in the Pine Creek mining district. He promptly sold it, as did the buyer. This occurred a few times until a man by the name of Mountz acquired to claim. By this time, the claim was known as the Mackey. Mountz, however, had a problem. He had no money to develop the claim. He set about and was successful in locating a partner. Soon, Mountz and his partner had accumulated the tidy sum of $30,000. One morning Mountz awoke to find the partner and the $30,000 gone. He was down to his last dollar. Despondent over the turn of events, he took the last few sticks of dynamite, bored a hole at the terminus, inserted the dynamite, lie the fuse and walked away. The next morning, he returned to the site, probably for the last time, he thought, to see what had happened. The debris from the blast was all rich ore and behind it, the exposed vein of gold. Because the Mackey continued to produce rich ore, it justified its own mill, a rarity. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.