The Arizona copper camp., 1920-03-27
(By R. ". Johnson)

A great many of us are bewailing
the fact that business is dull, and are
we owned farm or cotton
ranch some place in the valley. Ray
has no cotton, alfalfa or stock farms.
Ray is no manufacturing center, but
Ray has more value in dollars and
cents than all the cotton or farming
land in Arizona. l speak Of minerals.
Copper, silver and lead liberated by
man from the bowels of the earth,
where it has slept for millions of
years before the pyramids were built.
before man existed, and for these mill
ions of years it has patiently waited
the ingenuity of the human brain to
release it from it's dark and sunless
abode. Today or tomorrow the fairy
moves her wand, and, 10! this thing
of life and power is revealed and TAX
en- from the earth's dismal depths to
bless all human beings, to do the
work Of the world. to solve the prob
lens Of civilization. Yea, even to
work miracles.
Minerals, the creator of wealth, the
producer of comforts and luXuries, the
necessity of the. human race, you are
one Of Gods choicest and most indis-
pensable gifts to man. Without you
the world would drift back into the
darkness and despair of savagery.
/ HUNDREDS OF PROSPECTS
AS rule, conditions are what men
make them. This may not apply ex-
actly to Ray, but conditions can be
better. Hundreds of good copper, sill
yer, lead, and even gold prospects lie
dormant at the very door of Ray
They need development a good angel,
if you please, to develop them. The
Ray district is the largest proven min
eralized district in the world. With
in a circle of twenty miles of Ray are
some of the richest looking prospects
in the entire state awaiting only de-
velopment to make mines out Of some
of them. These prospects are gen.
orally owned by prospector who can
not and does not come in contact with
mining money Men of small capital
cannot always make big mines, but
they can and do get the property in
such shape that big men will take hold
and make the mine.
There are hundreds of responsible
mining men looking for just these
same prospects today. They have de-
cided that the made mines are just
about exhausted and they must turn
their attention to prospects if there
are to be any more big mines brought
in. Kindly excuse the oil phrase.
CAPITAL IN THE MARKET
We have these prospects; we have
very little else. Why not capitalize
what we have and get busy? l do not
mean that the Ray chamber of COM
merce or other citizens of the town
should put up the money for develop
ment. 1 mean, advertise Get money
from the outside to develop them.
Ray is in way already one of the
best advertised sections in the world,
but men looking for mining proper
ties think that all of our good prop
erty is tied up or owned ty capital or
they would bave heard about it. In
the past we have depended on the two
big companies to do all the advertis-
ing, boosting and building in Ray.
What we want and need along with
them are one hundred small outfits
mining in this district. Remember,
every big mine was originally pros
pect.
Back in 1906, before the big panic,
John Tillman labored faithfully over
here on the hill east of the gulch.
One day there came a number of men
to the site Of Tillman's activity. They
asked many questions and took many
notes, and then in 1909 they purchased
these claims that John Tillman had
worked since the early eighties. That
was the branching out of the Ray Cen
trail Copper company which in 1912
developed into the Ray Consolidated
Copper company. And John has an
other good silverlead prospect today
just four miles north of Ray, besides