Copper Square

The Morenci mine in eastern Arizona, with one of the largest copper reserves in the world. It's owned by Freeport-McMoRan, formerly Phelps Dodge (Tom Blackwell photo).

One of the misbegotten efforts to revive downtown Phoenix in the early 2000s was to rename it. "Copper Square" was the monicker chosen on the, er, thinking that people in the metropolitan area didn't even know where the city's downtown was. Phoenix had nothing to do with copper — aside from the low dome of the Territorial Capitol and an occasional freight car going through with equipment to the mines — and thankfully the name went away.

But the story was far different for Arizona. Copper was one of the "Five Cs," along with cotton, citrus, cattle, and climate and for decades the most profitable. Arizona has by far the largest concentration of copper deposits in the nation — including Butte, Montana — and second only to southern Peru and northern Chile. Copper mining also produces such byproducts as gold, silver, and molybdenum.

Arizona is the only state with an elected Mining Inspector. His office estimates more than 100,000 abandoned mines dot the state. About 10 major copper mines remain today, with controversy over efforts to start the Resolution Mine near Superior.

No wonder the Grand Canyon State is also the Copper State.

Let's take a tour through the years (click for a larger image):

Jerome, a classic mining town, on Cleopatra Hill in the 1930s (Library of Congress). 

The United Verde Mine in Jerome produced 2 billion pounds of copper, silver, and gold from the 1880s to 1953 (Library of Congress).

An ore train passes through Jerome's Hopewell Tunnel circa 1920s (Library of Congress).

Ajo's New Cornelia Copper Mine in 1922, soon after it was purchased by Phelps Dodge (Photographer unknown).

A classic company town, employing about 1,000, Ajo boasted a handsome passenger depot built by Phelps Dodge on the town square. A short line connected it to the Southern Pacific main line in eastern Pima County (Photographer unknown).

Ajo's open-pit mine in recent years (Library of Congress).

Bisbee, location of the Copper Queen Mine, another Phelps Dodge company town, in the 1940s (Russell Lee, Library of Congress).

The infamous Bisbee Deportation of July 1917, arranged by Phelps Dodge during World War I. About 1,300 striking union miners were forced aboard railroad cattle cars by a 2,000-strong posse. The trains went 200 miles into New Mexico and the miners, with little water and no food, were warned not to return to Bisbee (Library of Congress).

Phelps Dodge employees in Bisbee "owned their souls to the company store." Actually, in its heyday, Bisbee paid the highest wages in the state (Russell Lee, Library of Congress).

The miners monument in Bisbee, 1940 (Russell Lee, Library of Congress).

The Bisbee Lavender Pit Mine, named after Phelps Dodge executive Harrison Lavender. It yielded 75 million tons of ore from 1954-70, including copper, gold, silver & Bisbee Blue Turquoise (Peter Corbett photo).

Miami's copper smelter at work in 1940 (Russell Lee, Library of Congress).

Another view of Miami's smelter in 1940, serving the Inspiration Mine, another Phelps Dodge operation, this one in Gila County near Globe (Russell Lee, Library of Congress).

Morenci's copper concentrating plant in 1942, when World War II kept copper prices high. It was a boom-and-bust industry. Morenci is in Greenlee County (Library of Congress).

Whether underground or open-pit, mining is a dangerous business. Here's a blast worker in 1942 at Morenci (Library of Congress).

Bagdad Mine in Yavapai County, another Phelps Dodge property, 1935. It's still going today with one of the state's largest copper deposits (McCulloch Bros.Collection/ASU Archives).

Hayden's mine and smelter in 1935. The mine and town, on the border of Pinal and Gila counties, was founded by Kennecott Copper, Phelps Dodge's arch-rival (Library of Congress).

The interior of Hayden Mine. The copper has been so depleted that Hayden is becoming a ghost town, although the smelter continued to operate in the 2010s (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Ray Mine, flagship of Kennecott's Ray Mines Division in eastern Pinal County, in 1935 (Library of Congress).

The interior of Ray Mine, with tracks for hauling ore cars (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

A Southern Pacific ore car stands near the Ray works in 1935 (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).

Superior early in the 20th century. It began as the richest silver mine in the state. When silver played out, the Magma Mine was developed for copper. The mine closed in 1982, reopened in the 1990s, and fresh discoveries make it the site of the controversial Resolution mine (Western Mining History).

The Clifton Southern Pacific station and railroad yard, circa 1940. The Greenlee County town was a marshaling point for ore cars from Morenci. SP served southeastern Arizona'a copper country from two directions: From Phoenix to Superior, Ray, and Hayden, and from Bowie to Globe and Miami. Yet another line went from Lordsburg, New Mexico, to Clifton. The Clifton depot is preserved today (Library of Congress).

A Southern Pacific GP-9 locomotive hauls empty ore cars at Bisbee in 1971. A spur from the SP's southern line — originally Phelps Dodge's El Paso & Southwestern — served Bisbee (Photographer unknown).

A five-unit lash-up of SP locomotives at Hayden in the 1960s (Photographer unknown).

After SP spun off its mining branches in the 1980s, the Copper Basin Railway handled the job. Here's a train near Kearny (Bruce Schwierske photo).

A three-year strike convulsed Arizona's copper country from 1983 to 1986. Gov. Bruce Babbitt was forced to bring in state trooper and eventually the National Guard. In the end, Phelps Dodge hired replacement workers who voted to decertify the unions. It was a major defeat for organized labor (Photographer unknown).

The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix attests to the state's major exports. It closed in 2011 but reopened in 2017 under the auspices of the University of Arizona (Photographer unknown).

Heavy equipment moves ore at Morenci (Brad Prudhon photo).

Epilogue: Unlike other extraction-based states, Arizona saw little of the billions from its copper. It couldn't even afford a state capitol, even on the scale of Montana much less Oklahoma. Instead, the money went to eastern capitalists and Wall Street. Phelps Dodge finally moved its headquarters to Phoenix in the 1980s; now Freeport-McMoRan has its sign on a downtown building.

The General Mining Law of 1872 "declared all valuable mineral deposits in land belonging to the United States to be free and open to exploration and purchase," according to the Bureau of Land Management. It led to the mining boom in Arizona Territory and across 350 million acres of the West. But it required no royalties be paid to the taxpayers. And it caused disastrous environmental consequences, leading to numerous Superfund cleanups. We live with its consequences today.

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.