Histories

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.

Source: 1919 The Story of Arizona by William H Robinson, pages 271-273.

Newspapers

Duncan Arizonian Newspaper 1908-1915

Founded in 1908 by Loren F. Vaughn and L. B. Stephens. The weekly newspaper covered the happenings around Duncan, Arizona, in the Gila River Valley a few miles from the Arizona-New Mexico border, as well as the surrounding Graham County and Greenlee County and throughtout the state of Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. The link provides browseable copies of the newspaper for 1911-1913.

The Duncan News 1914-?

Published weekly starting in April 1914, publisher was J. I. Cohn. Not much is known about the paper but Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records in Phoenix AZ may have it available as microfilm and/or original copy.

The Clifton Clarion 1885-1889

Clifton had been under the jurisdiction of several counties, including Graham. Clifton became part of Greenlee County, Arizona's 14th county, when the new county was formed from the eastern part of Graham in 1909. The link provides browseable copies of the newspaper for 1885-1889.

The Arizona Republican, Phoenix, 27 Feb 1909

The first issue, all of four pages, of the Arizona Republican appeared on 19 May 1890 and was published until 1930 under several name changes. While not located in Greenlee County, the 27 Feb 1909 issue announced the formation of Greenlee County. You can see the original article here.

The Copper Era, Clifton, 1899-1911

The Copper Era contains many articles and advertisements related to mining but you can also read about local happenings. If you have family history here, you will no doubt learn something new about them browsing the "Minor Mention" or "Purely Personal" columns of this newspaper.

Read more about the formation of Greenlee County in the original 4 March 1909 article on image 2 of 4: "ANOTHER MASS MEETING" Large Number of Citizens Resolve Against Wait for County Division.

Read about "The Passing of a Pioneer" Mason Greenlee, after whom Greenlee County was named.

The Copper Era and Morenci Leader, Clifton, 1911-1929

On 1 September 1911, The Copper Era absorbed the Morenci Leader and changed its name until the Copper Era consolidated with Duncan Valley News and Morenci Leader and became the Coppera Era, Morenci Leader and Duncan Valley News through January 1944 when it was sold to the Gila Printing and Publishing Company.

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