Arizona citizen., 1877-12-28
THE CLIFTON COPPER MINES.
H.. H. RedheId AgaIn-The DiscOv- ery-PrOgress and Extensive Op- eratiOns on the MInes-Where the Timber Comes From,

CLIFTON, ARIZONA, December 16.
 EDITOR CITIZEN: - Your reference
 to L. H. Redfield and the Longfellow
 Company, and the kind mention you make of us induces me to give you a
 few items and facts connected with our
 business here,
 In 1870, copper was discovered in
 thls district and we among others
 bought some of the mines. We were
 three years in constant experiment be
 fore we could find material that would stand in the furnaces. After this con
 siderable time was consumed in bring
 ing scientific men and skilled labor from the East, we finally got ouI works under good headway and during the last two and a half years have
 been smelling and producing about 45OO pounds of copper daily.
 The fuel used for smelling purposes IS charcoal, this we buy from a hundred different persons; men who have a wagon or two bring it to us, we do not know from whence it all comes, nor Is it our business to know. The charcoal is brought here for sale and we buy. A great portion is brought from Pueblo ViejO, there the people burn the mesquite growing on their own lands. Some is brought from Grant county, New Mexico, over 12O miles east from here. \ small portion of what we use we burn ourselves, that Is we buy wood from those who offer It for sale, and burn it in a place where 1t Is impossible to enter with wagons, we pack the charcoal over a rocky trail for seven miles. That tim. Der can not be of the least commercial value to any one, as timber, for as such 1t can never be hauled out of those mountains, it is only valuable when reduced to charcoal.
 People on the Gila who have taken up farms clear the land of mesquite roots, make coal and bring it to US. MT. Redfeld's statement tIat We en- plOy 3J0 men, and produce 5000 pounds of copper daily is incorrect If MT. Redfield had come here he would have found that the government looses nOth- ing by our using wood, otherwise use less to any one. He would have found what every one knows, namely that before we came here not a soul could be found living between Silver City and this point. We made roads to- Pueblo Viejo, built bridge across the Gila, and through our energy in open ing up the country the Gila has been settled for fifty miles; that which al few years ago was a wilderness, is to- day a grain field, and where small par ties of men dared not travel then It isl now comparatively safe for one man toI travel. The Indians always lived here, they brought their plunder here, and no one could find them Tn this place. We drove them away and made homes where none before existed. It is thus that several hundred people make their living through these works. They bring grain, vegetables, coal, meat and all other necessaries of life and busi- ness. The farmers on the Gila and at Pueblo Vieio find here a ready market for their produce.
 The law forbidding the use of this timber we did not know of until lately. 1 If such law really exists we have no disposition to defy or violate it. We. desire to know whether we are for bldden to buy charcoal from people who claim the wood belongs to them, as is the case with the Pueblo ViejOI people.
 If the overnment would send a sensible man here, It would easily be seen that instead of robbing the gov ernment we are greatly aiding it in making the wilderness habltable, bring ing revenue to the country and Terri tory as well as to the general govern ment. Furthermore we are willing and even anxious to have the wood valued and we will pay for it. We only wish we could induce the government to send a man here who would arrangei this matter without prejudice.