“Like a monument reaching to the heavens, the massive stack of the neTw Clarkdale smelter of the United Verde Copper Company was completed on Wednesday, May 25, 1914. It is ready to carry away the fumes of the furnaces that are being constructed.” The new smelter began “warming up” and began smelting ore during May of 1915.
According to the old-timers, rapid growth converting the rural village into a prosperous town began during 1915.
For the year ending Dec. 31, 1904, the “Equator” smelter, west of Cottonwood, produced about 1,150,000 pounds of refined copper
Residents were encouraged to buy and use local and Arizona products to benefit every citizen and promote greater industrial and agricultural development of the state.
After negotiating in New York City to lease with an option to purchase the United Verde Copper Company, William A. Clark and his associates went to inspect the Jerome mines and smelter.
Arizona became one of the foremost states in providing safeguards against diseases the War Department considered important.
As part of Arizona’s celebration of the passage of the 19th Amendment, a statue of Frances Willard Munds, president of the Arizona Equal Suffrage Association in Arizona from 1909 until 1912, will be placed on the capitol mall during August, the National Women’s Suffrage Month.
The annual Exodus Day Commemoration is scheduled in Camp Verde Saturday, Feb. 25, hosted by the Yavapai-Apache Nation.
Another example of progress and devotion to Verde Valley history is being demonstrated by a group of Camp Verde residents, known as the Camp Verde Improvement Association, who are busy promoting a museum.
The first golf course in Arizona to have natural water hazards also had no grass when it opened.
A special re-enactment to honor the horseback mail carriers began at Camp Verde on Saturday, Jan. 27, and ended at Phoenix.
Prior to the “1967 Snowstorms” old-timers remembered the 1916 storms. Newspaper reports tell the story.
This new railway was constructed from Cedar Glade (named Drake in 1920) on the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix (SFP&P) Railway to what would become Clarkdale, a distance of about 38.5 miles during 1911 and 1912 with a crew of up to 1,000 men.
“The United Verde Extension Mining Company’s [UVX] smelter at Clemenceau was closed down permanently when Thursday’s shift went off duty, because the company’s mines at Jerome are not producing sufficient ore to justify continuance of smelter operations, it was announced today over long-distance telephone by George Kingdon, of Jerome, general manager.”
The occasion of imbedding the copper-gold-silver spike securely proved to be a very pleasant and interesting event.
“On Saturday, [December 25,] the ‘Journal-Miner’ [in Prescott] received a special telegram from Jerome, giving an account of a disastrous conflagration which occurred there on Friday night."
Jerome residents did not believe the town was haunted or see ghosts, but did believe that the town would survive, according to an article in 1947.
The prohibition-era architectural styles of “Old Town” were modified with the addition of decorative western and old Southwest architectural elements considered to be appealing by tourists to attract shoppers to the district.
“The magic of mining has been well exemplified in the Jerome district during the last 2 years.”
Uranium ore, assayed at .201%, double the .10% required for commercial ore, gives substance to the rosy dream of yawning pits, ore trucks tooting, and throngs of mine employees crowding into local communities.
Mount Mingus in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee on the border of North Carolina, with a summit of 5,802 feet, was named for the Mingus family who arrived there in the late 1700’s. Mingus Mountain in the Prescott National Forest, with a summit of 7,818 feet, was named for the Mingus (Minges, Menges) men who had become residents before 1880. Who were they?
Smart, durable and tenacious as well as obstinate, mean and downright ornery, the burro may have contributed more to civilizing the rugged southwest, including the deserts and mountains, than any other animal. In the barren, nearly waterless hills, the burro adapted well and became indispensable to prospectors.
The new unpaved Prescott-Jerome Road, built over part of the old road, completed during 1921, is now State Route 89A. When the new unpaved Mingus Mountain Road was completed during 1923, local citizens planned for “Mount Mingus” to become the 2nd national park in Arizona.
The first Cottonwood Library began in the Annex on the east side of the Cottonwood Community Club House. It moved to Mingus Avenue and opened as the Cottonwood Public Library on October 13, 1973. The current and third library on Sixth Street opened June 20, 1994.
For more than 1,000 years, Verde Valley residents have been diverting water from springs, creeks and the Verde River for domestic and agricultural uses.
