THE OLD DOMINION
The first locations of record in the Globe district were the Globe and the
Globe Ledge claims, which were made in 1873 by a group of prospectors from
Florence. Their locations were made on a large iron and copper stained
out-crop, which is now a part of the Old Dominion mine. The copper claims
received but little attention for the first few years as, encouraged by such
findings as the Silver King, prospectors were looking for rich
native gold and
silver ores. The first mining
camp to be established in the district was called Ramboz, after its founder,
a miner by the name of Henry Ramboz. On account of better location and water
supply, in about 1876, a camp was located on Pinal Creek, near the Globe
claims, which name was given to the settlement.
Numerous mines in the vicinity that became famous for their rich silver ore include the McMillen, the Mack Morris (sometimes spelled MacMorris), the Stonewall Jackson and others. Records of production are non-existent, yet the mines around the McMillen are estimated to have produced about $750,000, of which $600,000 came from the Stonewall Jackson. The Mack Morris, which was located in the Richmond Basin, is credited with producing $650,000. Gradually, however, the claims of copper began to attract attention and, in 1881, the Old Dominion was mining carbonate and silicate copper ore on the Chicago and New York claims near Bloody Tanks, about a mile and one-half from the present town of Miami, and erected a thirty-ton furnace. The deposit was soon exhausted and the furnace was moved to the Globe, where the Globe Ledge and other claims were grouped under the name of the Old Dominion mines. In 1886, the high cost of operation and the low price of copper proved too great a handicap for the operators to overcome, and by the end of the year the mines closed down. The Old Dominion up to that time is reported to have produced 23,000,000 pounds of copper besides some gold and silver. The company was reorganized in 1888 and again in 1895, when there was formed the Old Dominion Copper Mining and Smelting Company, which is operating the property at the present day. The Old Dominion is fifth in the list of the State's largest dividend producers. It has 1,400 men on its payroll and about 500 tons of ore are taken out daily.
MIAMI COPPER
The Miami Copper Company's mines, eighth in the State's list of dividend
producers, are situated at Miami, a short distance west and north of Globe,
where low, red, iron-stained hills in the early '90s induced "Black Jack"
Newman, Jim Falls, J. P. Gates and others to make location on the ground now
owned by the Miami Copper Company. For a number of years but little
consistent development work was done. In 1906 the owners of many claims
grouped their locations and Fred Alsdorf and F. J. Elliott took an option on
them, and soon afterwards had the location examined by J. Park Channing,
consulting engineer of the General Development Company, a Lewisohn
corporation, who was negotiating for the Inspiration claims. As a result,
the General Development Company took over the Alsdorf-Elliott option and, in
1906, started development work. Three per cent ore was found for a total
vertical depth of 490 feet, and by November, 1907, there were about a
million tons of ore in sight. The Miami Copper Company was organized with a
capital of $3,000,000 which was later increased to $4,000,000. The company's
president is Adolph Lewisohn. About one thousand men are employed.
ARIZONA COPPER
The mines of the Arizona Copper Company, Ltd., are situated in the
Clifton-Morenci district with the mill at Morenci and smelter in the
outskirts of Clifton. Among the earliest copper properties to be worked in
the State were some in this district, although it lay right in the heart of
the Apache country, and every prospecting party entering it did so at
infinite risk. Henry Clifton, whose name is now borne by the mining town,
was the first prospector to enter the district and notice the promise of its
copper indications. At that time, however, the Apaches were so hostile that
the discoveries were not followed up. In 1870, a party of 46 miners came
over the mountains from Pinos Altos, New Mexico, found a little gold and two
years later located the Arizona, Central, Yankie and Moctezuma. The same
year the famous Longfellow, which developed into the first notably rich
copper producer in the State, was located by Robert Metcalfe.
By 1873 mining was actively prosecuted in the district, and the Leszynskys were operating an adobe smelter in the district below the Longfellow, and, although of crudest construction and using charcoal for fuel, it managed to work something like a ton of ore a day. To solve the problem of getting the ore from the Longfellow to the smelter at Clifton, the first railroad in the Territory was built. The track was twenty-inch gauge, and was operated by mule power until, in 1880, a four-ton locomotive, the Little Emma, was hauled into the district by freight wagons, put together and set down upon the toy track. Its duty was to haul the empty ore cars to the mine. On the return trip when the ore cars were full, gravity supplied the necessary motor power.
At first the Apaches viewed the little train with something like awe, but later, with the contempt that familiarity is said to breed, tried to hold it up by a frontal attack as well as one from the flank. Dad Arbuckle, the engineer, pulled the throttle to the last notch, and the Little Emma gallantly leaped to battle. The engagement was brief and eminently satisfactory to Dad. After the Apaches that had been left intact had cleaned up the muss occasioned by those of their tribe that Little Emma had butted, they decided to eliminate frontal attacks from their book of strategy.
The Leszynskys sold out in 1883 to a Scotch corporation, The Arizona Copper Company, Ltd., for $2,000,000. The new owners built a narrow gauge railroad from their mine at Clifton to Lordsburg on the Southern Pacific, and, in 1892, erected a leaching plant to handle certain types of the ore, which like all of the ore in the district averages only about three per cent copper. In order to operate with a profit, most efficient methods are used both in handling and treating the ore. A daily output from the mine of 3,000 tons requires a working force of but 1,600 men. Reverberatory furnaces are used in the company's present smelter, which was erected in 1914, at a cost of several million.
DETROIT COPPER
The Detroit Copper Company's mines, sixth in order in dividend production,
are also located at Morenci. The company was incorporated in 1875, and in
1882 constructed a small smelter six miles from Morenci, on the San
Francisco River. Two years later the smelter was moved to the mines. In 1893
the discovery had been made of the immense amount of low-grade ore within
Copper Mountain, and the Phelps-Dodge organization, after making careful
examination, became satisfied with the financial possibilities of mining
operations in the district and, in 1895, bought up a controlling interest of
the Detroit Copper Company stock. Fifteen hundred tons of ore is the mine's
daily output, and thirteen hundred is the number of men on the company's
payroll.
THE SHANNON
The Shannon mines, of the Shannon Copper Company, at Metcalf, are in the
Clifton-Morenci neighborhood, and although they produce but 150 tons of ore
daily, with seventy-five men, rank tenth in the list of the State's great
dividend producers. The company was organized in 1900, with a capitalization
of $3,000,000. It has since produced in the neighborhood of 140,000,000
pounds of copper, of a value of more than $15,000,000, and has in sight as
much more copper as has been taken out. Its property consists of about
twenty claims located near the summit of
Shannon Mountain, rising 1,200
feet about the bed of Chase Creek. These claims were grouped
around the original Shannon claim which was one of the earliest claims in the district. At the
Shannon mines is the Shannon incline,
down which ore cars drop a distance of eight hundred feet in a horizontal
distance of one thousand feet. Occasionally, a rash passenger goes down in
the cars, when the sensation is much the same as if he took a tail dive in
an aeroplane. The company has a model smelter below Clifton to which it
carries its ores over its own railroad line.
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