It was described as the wickedest town in the West by the New York Sun newspaper in a Feb. Jerome, for one, became a hotbed of prostitution, gambling and other vices. Miners also had to endure (or enjoy, depending on their perspective) the attention of others hell bent on separating them from their money. The 1908 blaze wiped out three-quarters of the town.įrom 1888 to 1900, hundreds of people died of typhoid fever, according to Arizona Memory Project documents. In a 23-year period starting in 1885, Bisbee had to rebuild from three devastating fires. In addition to the hard work, miners had to deal with the threats of raids from Native Americans as well as bands of robbers looking to steal their hard-earned wealth.ĭisease, floods, fires and injuries also were constant threats. By 1953 Jerome was out of the mining business.Ĭlarkdale was established in 1912 with the construction of a giant smelter to process the ore coming out of Jerome. The city survived three devastating fires but began a sharp decline in the late 1930s when the Little Daisy Mine shut down. Mining was also the driving force in the development of the Verde Valley cities of Jerome and Clarkdale.Īccording to Herbert Young's book, "Ghosts of Cleopatra Hill," Jerome went from a tent city in 1876 to bustling mining camp to ghost town in the span of about 50 years. That city, which at one time served as the territorial capital, was a hot spot for gold exploration in the late 1800s as rich deposits were discovered in the Bradshaw Mountains. However, in 1886 a fire destroyed the pump house in the mining camp and in 1893 the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act caused a severe drop in silver prices. Those factors, among others, proved to be too much tor overcome for Tombstone to remain a bustling city. Tombstone had a population of more than 4,000 people and at one point in the 1880s was the biggest city between New Orleans and San Francisco. Both were left high and dry when the Gila and Colorado rivers shifted. Gila City (which sprang up from Snively's find) and La Paz were boom towns that grew around around gold findings. Many cities flourished while the mines produced, but they didn’t all survive. More: 10 Native American museums and festivals in Arizona Boom and bust In 1858, Arizona's first gold rush began when Jacob Snively led an expedition that discovered a deposit of gold on the Gila River about 19 miles east of Yuma. He owned the state’s first printing press. Four years later he was literally printing money. Spanish explorers followed a few hundred years later, searching for fabled lost cities of gold and other riches.Ĭharles Poston, sometimes called the father of Arizona (he played a significant role in securing Arizona’s territorial status), opened mines near Tubac in 1854 that employed nearly 1,000 miners. Arizona's mining historyĪs early as 1000 B.C., native inhabitants used cinnabar, coal, turquoise, clay, pigments and other minerals. There were times during mining's boom period when those metals were more valuable than gold.īut those miners weren't the first seek a fortune, or at least make a better life, by exploiting Arizona's mineral riches. Many prospectors who arrived in the mid-1800s with dreams of striking it rich with gold quickly adapted to the more abundant copper and silver. The lure of gold sparked the mining boom in the Arizona Territory in the Old West, but other shiny metals helped the industry catch fire here.
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