Copper Basin News Celebrating More Than 50 Years of News Coverage in the Copper Basin
Vol. 53 No. 10
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Periodicals Postage Paid at Hayden, Arizona 85235
50 Cents
Kearny Koyotes 4-H Club to show at Pinal County Fair If you give a pig a pancake ... Savannah Willis, member of the Kearny Koyotes 4-H Swine Project, grooms her pig for competition in the Pinal County Fair. The fair opens Wednesday, March 16 at Eleven Mile Corner. (Vicki Clark photo)
Members of the Kearny Koyotes 4-H Club will be heading for 11-Mile Corner next week for four days of competition and exhibition. The 4-H Livestock Show is held in conjunction with the Pinal County Fair which runs March 16 through 20. 4-H exhibitors from throughout the county will be showing in a variety of categories including swine,
beef, sheep, goats and more. These young people raise the animals, paying special attention to diet, grooming and exercise. Competition includes Market, Showmanship and Skill-a-Thon. The Livestock Auction will be held Saturday, March 19. If you would like to help a 4-Her, add-ons are still available. Contact Zane or Patti Bingham at 363-5956 for information.
A pig in a poke or pokin’ a pig? Exercise and discipline are very important aspects when raising a pig and 4-H’er Tanner Willis shows off his skills as he practices for the show ring. (Vicki Clark photo)
Freeport McMoRan, Millrock, Redhawk exploring Copper Creek near Mammoth; potential for copper mining increasing is pursuing is an additional right-of-way through state land. The permit is for a new spur off the existing Copper Creek Road. Each step brings Redhawk and the Copper Creek mining district closer to being active again. “We’re trying to push Copper Creek towards getting it in to production at some point in time, hopefully sooner rather than later,” Sandberg said. Gregory Beischer, president
A little snow won’t stop us ... Drilling continues on the mountain above Mammoth in spite of the cold wintery weather. (Submitted photo)
By Lana Jones Exploration in and around Copper Creek is building momentum. Three companies are at varying stages of development around the historic mining district east of Mammoth. Freeport McMoRan is a new arrival, Redhawk is working on expanding its current deposits and finding new ones, and Millrock is exploring but hasn’t discovered any large deposits. Eric Kinneberg, director of external communications for Freeport McMoRan, confirmed that Freeport was active in the area. “We’re conducting some very early stage exploration work on the property,” Kinneberg said. Redhawk Resources is doing the most work in the area. They’re working on the last hole in their 2010 drilling program now. Joe Sandberg, Redhawk president, said that they brought some better drillers in to finish the drilling program. “It’s been a little slower then we wanted but we’ve been getting that issue resolved,” he said. “We’ve still got a lot of drilling left to do that we’re working on this year.” The drilling will continue throughout the year. In addition to drilling, Redhawk is working on road building, longer-term permitting, and archeological and biological studies on the entire property. One of the permits Redhawk
By Rosalind Padilla Dia De Los Pioneros features pioneers of the Copper Basin area from 1846-2011. Georgianna Wood is writing about early settlers in Aravaipa and the next few weeks other families from the Copper Basin will be featured. Comments in parenthesis and italics are my comments relating to those of Ella Goodridge, sometimes pointing out present day locations of items mentioned for the early 1900s. As we begin Part 2 remember that these are Ella Goodridge’s memoirs and written in and about 1969. I have not changed anything, just condensed a major portion. Keep in mind that this is 1910 and written by a young lady who was beautiful, living in a town with lots of men, and kept her strict Christian values as her guide in life. Picture in your mind that there are two canyons that separate Smelterside, the little village of Hayden and San Pedro that are located on three hills that have not yet been terraced or leveled. Ella describes the area in this way: “Just across the canyon on the hill, the Mexicans were building their own little town of San Pedro, the
They stopped by the boarding house and listened to the orchestra music of Ely Phillips, overhearing some one say “how awful it was to raise a girl to think that dancing was a sin”. The young man she was with told her how much he admired her for following the rules she had been taught. They walked the dirt road talking as he took her home; the orchestra was playing the latest dance music- the waltz, two step and the Paul Jones which was the thing of the day. The droning of the music and shuffling of feet was all you could hear this first Christmas in Arizona. Ella went home and cried herself to sleep. In 1912 tent houses were springing up on Smelterside just across the canyon from the boarding house. There was no way to get across the canyon (much as it is today 2011) At night the curious young single girls and guys cast all fears of snakes, centipedes and any other living creature and made their way to this canyons edge to see what was going on. Excavation was underway to build a smelter. The men were mostly Negro’s stripped to the waist, muscles rippling, sweat
streaming, and using a language almost their very own. The boys would not allow us to go too near this yawning abyss saying it was too dangerous but we felt it was to keep us from seeing the goading and beating of the stubborn mules and to avoid hearing the swearing by these ‘mule skinners’. (As I write this I realize Ella Goodridge was a spry, active girl with great friends, both male and female, and she loved adventure).”It did not rain often but when it did it roared down through the canyon. It did not stop us. We leaped from rock to rock like mountain goats scrambling up the canyon sides forming trails (probably the same ones people have used for years to get to the other side). One morning we heard pounding by the powerhouse and found that a bridge was being built from mill side to smelter side. When it was finished we all carefully walked across this bridge with fear and trembling. (This must be the swinging bridge I have heard the Kishbaugh siblings talk about). Mrs. Bedalia Ingalls, a pretty Irish widow, had to be led across looking straight up, daring not to look down.”
and CEO of Canadian Millrock Resources, said that Millrock was taking a pause from drilling right now. “We started a program in December,” he said. “We drilled two fairly deep holes. We’re just assessing those results and getting ready to recommence in about three weeks.” Millrock’s claims are in the Galiuros, east of the historic Copper Creek mining district. The company is accessing the
remote areas of the property by helicopter. Beischer said that some interesting prospects had been found but no major deposits. The next drilling program is not finalized yet but will include at least two more holes. Millrock is also mapping geology and collecting surface samples to maximize their chances of hitting a major deposit on their next round of See Copper, Page 4
A view from above ... The view from above reveals the scope of the project. (Submitted photo)
‘A Brave Coward’ The Life of Ella Goodrich and the Town of Hayden, 1910 Kennecott Company had nothing to do with it at that time except to take care of the water system. The little shacks were springing up like little mushrooms”. Ella’s first introduction to Spanish food was in a little two room shack where a little Mexican woman hustled about preparing food, waiting on her customers and serving as cashier in the house that had a dirt floor and wood burning stove. “I was so fascinated by the woman pulling and stretching the tortillas paper thin then deftly flipping them on top of the stove, I tried to make tortillas and realized it is definitely an art. Mexican men carried two buckets on either side of a pole going around town yelling “hot tamales, hot tamales’. Ella was 20 when she arrived in Hayden. It was almost Christmas; all the girls were getting their finery ready for the Christmas dance that was coming up. She had never attended a dance in her life. In Indiana “church people” did not dance. Her friends were disgusted with her and stopped asking if she was going. An Irish-Catholic boy took her for a walk along the dirt roads of Hayden the night of the dance.
Ella states that her two little sons had walked the board rail without her knowledge pretending to be tight rope walkers. Arizona had just become a state in Feb so they decided to have a 4th of July celebration with a picnic and entertainment. Ella attended the morning festivities, went to work at the telephone office for the afternoon shift. Frank Parker had been to Abe Lorona’s livery stable to get a horse and buggy and when her shift was over, he picked her up and they went to the teacher’s dormitory that had a new floor. The 4th of July dance and picnic were held there. Ella states that this dormitory was later converted into apartments and were owned by Raymond O’Neil (1969) (at the time Ella was writing her memoirs I was living in the larger apartment of this duplex. This house still stands on Utah although crumbling from neglect. It was originally for single, female teachers who in the early 1900’s had to quit teaching when they married. In the section where I lived there were four bedrooms and three bathrooms, a super huge kitchen dining room, extra large walk in pantry, small liv-
ing room, office and screened porches on one side and front). Ella tells many stories of Sunday picnics across the river on the Tony Lopez ranch, fording a shallow river by day and not finding the same spot at night and fearing quick sand. This area where they enjoyed going had lots of cottonwoods and provided comfort from the heat in the summer. This favorite area is now under the tailings. The cottage where Ella stayed was the boardinghouse for the telephone workers and waitresses who boarded a train in Phoenix, many hardly staying a day. They wanted bright lights and city living. Myron Webster was the telephone company manager and had a hard time keeping employees; As soon as he trained someone, they would end up marrying and leaving. It was said that if you were looking for a husband, go to work at the telephone office. There were dozen of boys to every girl. Ella’s boyfriend was referred to as her Irish Catholic friend with never a name given, possibly because he See Pioneer, Page 5