Bisbee daily review., 1908-11-20
CLIFTON Is
PiooNER DISTRICT.

CLIFF TON Is
PiooNER DISTRICT.
The presence of Normal Car
michael. superintendent of the Arizo- !
ma Copper company of Clifton. in
Douglas. Bisbee and Cananea during
the present week Lrings to mind the
fact that Clifton is the place where
the first copper was smelted in the
territory of Arizona and brings to
mind the further fact that the old
Longfeilow mine from which the
first copper ore was smeited at Cliff
ton is still producing ore after having
been yielding this metal for more
than thirty years.
Not only was Clifton the first dis
riot to get into the copper game, but
it has stayed in the game without ces-
sation from the day the first furnace
was started there until the present
time The Arizona Copper company,
a Scotch company with headquarters
in Edinburgh, purchased the Clifton
mines from the Lezinsky brothers in
the early eighties. paying near two
million for the mines at a time when
copper was selling for eighteen cents.
At that time all supplies for Clifton
and ali the product CT the camp was
hauled by OK teams TO Lordsburg ON
the Southern Pacific railroad. The
purchasing company. after securing
the mines set to work building a mar
row gauge railroad to Lordsburg, a
distance of 70 miles, and also began
the construction ~, new smelling
plant Before the snielung plant and
the railroad was completed the price
of copper had begun to decline and
kept going down until the early nine
ties il was selling for less than nine
cents. At that time there were no
teaching plants or eonverters employ
ed il: Clifton. These modern methods
were installed later. But notwith-
standing the fact that the Scotch
steadily lost none for years, they
persistent1y kept at work and copper
production never ceased except for an
occasional enforced shut down to
make repairs caused by floods.
When the Lezinskys began copper
production at Clifton from the old
Longfellow mine it was in the most
crude manner imaGnable; the furn
ace was made of adobe. the blast was
from blacksmith bellows and the
ore and charcoal vas packed up q
ladder on the head Ct q Mexican and
dumped into the mouth of the furnace
For years the fuel used for copper
smelling was charcoal burned from
the Mesquite timber in the surround
ing valleys. In those earliest days
of Clifton copper was at good price
and the supplies Wsre hauled in from
La Junta. Colorado, then the terminu:
OF the Santa Fe railroad. The or
was brought to the little furnace a
Clifton on ifteen-inch gauge rail
road, the cars being hauled up Chas'
creek by mules; the ore and mules
were loaded on the small cars and al
lowed to run down grade to Clifton
Later a small engine was hauled from
La Junfa and set up on this narrow
gauge railroad, this being the first 10
connective TO reach Arizona, as thu
Southern Pacific hai not reached thu
territory.
In the year 1922 Superintendent
James colquohoun saved the Arizona
Copper company's property by th'
erection OF a teaching plant which
solved the problem Of treating thu
very low grade ore Of the mines. The
installation OF the Icacher was wher
copper was at its lowest price and
had this method proved failure. and
it was largely experimental. the com
pany would have become bankrupt
Later came the converters. first EN-
pIoyed by the Copper Queen at Bis