The copper era., 1909-11-25
EARLY RESIDENT.
Relates Facts Regarding CIiftOn-MoTenci
District.

The following interesting article
appeared in the El Paso Herald of re-
cent date:
The great copper district of Ari
zona calles' the Clifton Morenci quad
rangle by the United States geological
survey, an elaborate report on which
was made by Prof. Lengrene a couple
of years ago, and which is the pioneer
copper producer of Arizona, was dis
covered by Isaac N. Stevens, now a
citizen of Clifton. his father and
other associates many years ago.
The story of the old pioneer days is
given in Mr.. Stevens's own words. 1t
may be well to add that "Ike" as all
the old timers like to call him, was
also one of the discoveries of the rich
Sabinal silver camp in northern Chi
huahua, Mexico.
"This large copper district was first
reported to the world by Gen. Coro-
-nado, Spanish explorer, so I have
been told,' said Mr.. Stevens. "The
next man to report the copper there
was a trapper by the name of Weanes,
who trapped beaver along the river
in the early sos; also some of the ad-
venturers of the early COS who re-
ported having seen large copper out
crops in eastern Arizona.
"In February, 1870, party of seven
men, from Pinos Altos, the gold camp
near Silver City, N. NJ, went to the
Clifton-Morenci copper field and
located some of these mines, but did
very little work. This party found
what they thought was a very rich
gold placer in what is known as Gold
gulch, two miles west of Morenci.
The Apache Indians being SO bad they
returned to Pinos Altos, it not being
safe for so small party of men to
stay in the gulch.
''In July, 1870, some of this party,
including myself, got up party of
46 men and went back to Gold gulch
to wash out gold, they expecting that
the rainy season would furnish them
water to wash gold with, but as it did
not rain that season they went back
to what is now Silver City, then called
by Mexicans San Vicente. We re-
turned again to Gold gulch July 13,
1870, and stayed there till the latter
part of August following.
SIN 1872 some of the same men that
were after the gold, returned in the
month of June and located four mines,
called the Copper mountain, Arizona
Central. Yankee and Mocsazusna.
These were the first copper mines
ever located in that district, and
afterward patented, and have been
some of the big producers of the cop
per oxide and carbonate ores of that
country.
"What started the first real work
in this new copper camp was pro-
position made by E. B. Ward, a mil
lionaire of Detroit, the famous steam
boat owner on the great lakes, who
agreed with the owners of these four
pioneer claims, that he would pay
them $1,000 each for their locations,
he to pay all expenses for the work
required by law and to obtain patent,
after which he would pay them the
agreed purchase price, which be did.
So you see, the first money spent in
the district was Detroit money.
''Ward sent a man out there, ramed
Cap Jay, an old steamboat captain of
the lakes, who went with a party of
men, of whom I was a member, who
did the first work in that camp.
"While we we're doing the work for
the patent of these four claims, Mr..
Metcalf, came out there and located |
the Metcalf mountain and the Long
fellow mine. The town of Metcalf |
still bearing his name.
"At this time the miners organized
and formed the Copper mountain
mining district, i. e. in the latter
part of August, 1872. Joe Yankee
was elected as the first district re-
corder. The names of the men who
first organized that district were:
Cap Jay, a Mr.. Pierce, Bill Blood,
Metcalf, Joe Yankee, Jim Bullard,
Webb, Isaac N. Stevens, Stuart
Brunnan, Owen Roberts, Joe c. I
Caldwell and George Parker, the
colored cook.
''In 1878, the Leszynsky Bros, Met
calf and others commenced smelling |
copper ores from the Longfellow
mine, Metcalf selling out to Leszynsky |
Bros, after four months of working, |
as the company ran behind. They |
-an III debt to Leszynsky, not having
taken out enough copper to pay ex-
penses.
s'Leszynsky Bros. paid Metcalf $4,000
and the latter had to go to Las Cruces,
N. NJ, as that was the principal place
of business in the southwest.
''Leszynsky Bros. continued to mine
and smelt copper until they sold out
to the Arizona Copper company, a |
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