These 18 Rare Photos Show Arizona’s Mining History Like Never Before
By Monica Spencer|Published January 20, 2017
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Monica Spencer
Author
Monica is a Diné (Navajo) freelance writer and photographer based in the Southwest. Born in Gallup and raised in Phoenix, she is Tódich'ii'nii (Bitter Water People) and Tsi'naajinii (Black Streak Wood People). Monica is a staff writer for Only In Your State, photo editor for The Mesa Legend, and previously a staff writer for The Navajo Post. You can reach her at monica.d.spencer@gmail.com.
It’s no secret that mining has played an important role in Arizona’s history. It led to commerce boom and bust, brought in thousands upon thousands of American settlers, and has been the catalyst of some controversial history and legislature over the decades.
Here’s a peek at some historic photos from public and private collections that help illustrate what the job has looked like over the years.
First, let's take a look at what some of the working sites looked like. Here's a Globe copper mine from 1899.
This miner from 1930 looks like he'd seen some rough days. In 1900, Jerome miners saw their wages increase to $2.50 per day.
As the years progressed and the work became more industrialized, the work outfit hanged to include hardhats and clothes worn specifically for work (1942).
The deportation involved kidnapping approximately 1,300 miners and some of their supporters who were on strike for higher wages and better working conditions. They were immediately loaded into cattle cars with just the clothes on their backs and deported to New Mexico.
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The fear of worker uprisings spread to other prominent mining towns, like Jerome and Globe, though on a smaller scale. This photo shows some men guarding the Old Dominion Mine in Globe (1917).
This last set of photos show how mining conditioned to develop in the twentieth century, with strip mining taking place at the Peabody coal mines near Kayenta and Black Mesa (ca. 1973).
If you want to get a better sense of what life in the mines was like, especially in the 1800s and early 1900s, you might want to check out a mining history museum, like the Mine Museum in Jerome or the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum.
