In 1863 Austrian Henry Wickenburg discovered gold, according to legend, while retrieving a vulture he had shot. The Vulture Mine went on to become one of Arizona's richest gold mines and helped spark the development of Arizona and the city of Phoenix. In the 1880s and 1890s, Vulture City's population grew to almost 5,000 people and included a large stone Assay Office, miners' dormitories, houses for company officials, a mess hall, a school, a post office, and an 80-stamp mill. The mine is estimated to have produced more than 200 million dollars' worth of gold and silver, though the exact amount is unknown because of theft, or "highgrading," for which some 18 men were hanged. President Roosevelt's Executive Order 208 closed the mine during World War II in 1942.