The copper era and Morenci leader., 1913-08-22

the Longfellow company sold it's in-
 terests to the Arizona Copper con-
 pany, the transfer being recorded
 about 1885,
 In 1873, thes melting facilities in
 Clifton consisted of one small Mexi-
 can furnace, built of adobe, and lined
 with brick. The furnace was fed by
 a Mexican, who would take basket,
 firmly strap it about his shoulders,
 fill the basket with copper ore, and
 slowly climb small wooden ladder
 to the top of the furnace, when he
 would pitch the baskets contents into
 the fire beneath. The load of ore charcoal, the charcoal being made
 in the Burro mountains The ore and the charcoal would burn in com mon. The blast furnace then used was thought by the men about the shelter to be of great wonder. The blast consisted of a bellows, worked by foot power. There were no con- notAiae- 'f' s.les tie little adobe fur mace. All the ore used in those days was very rich, nothing but the highest grade being profitable to Smelt. The richness of the ore used may be illustrated by what was at that time a frequent occurrence. Often the contents of the furnace would freeze" meaning that the fire was not sufficiently hot to carry the ore to the final stage of smelling. If the proportion of ore thrown in the furnace was too great, the charcoal would be smothered, and could not smelt the ore. When this occurred, no hope of finally smelling the con- tents was ever entertained. The only thing to do was to get rid of the great lump of mixed ore and char
 FTVI, ~R c@I lowed was to destroy the furnace, dig a pit in the earth, and roll the con glomeration into the pit This buried metal was very rich, as was proven by the fact that the A. c. Co.,, at the time the converters were built, dug out of the ground all these Jumps of ore and resmelted them.
 Another old timer, whose memories are aroused by the passing of the old came to this section in 1878, and who is now official court interpreter for the city and county. At the time MT. Ward came to Clifton the cop per industry here was in the hands of the Longfellow Mining Company, and the general manager was MT. Lezin- sky, with Louis Mudbach as chief of the smelter. Even at that time the smelling apparatus was the same lit
 
 burned in different points in this sec tion, especially excellent being the burned in the Eagle Creek section. The ore, which was very rich, was hauled by mule wagons from the Longfellow mine,. About ten gons were used, and the daily amount hauled was about twenty-five tons. One of the big officials at that time was Pat Jordan, wagon boss.
 The people here at that time did not lack excitement to relieve their hard existence. An illustration was the murder of one Mendez, boss mule herder for the company, by Apache Indians, at a 'cut" in the mountains about one mile east of Clifton. Also at the time perished four assistants of Mendez. One of the big men around the smelter at that time was Richard Norte, father of one of Cliff tons present merchants.
 Along about 1880 the little Mexican furnace was equipped with water jackets, great improvement in those about 200 people were in Clifton when he came in 1878.
 In the year 1882 the rights of the Mining Company were purchased by the Arizona Copper Company Limited, a corporation or ganized in Scotland. The new con- pany mediately began preparations for an enlargement of the capacities of the shelter, also one for more working of the mines, which until this date had only been touched, the only ore then available for smelling being that of the very richest. The new company installed furnaces of what at that time were the most modern design, although they would now appear crude indeed. Anyway, they were an improvement upon the little Mexican furnace, and the copper production of Clifton be- gan to attract the attention of the