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Weekday Drive to Bagdad
STORY AND PHOTOS BY RICH ANDRADE
On October 20, we had our first weekday AZPCA drive. It was a success in all ways, 56 club members and guests attended driving 35 Porsches. Thanks go to Rook and Debbie for yet another perfectly organized event.
Attendance was large enough that we split into two separate drive groups with lead and sweep drivers .
We enjoyed the early morning socializing and the drivers meeting ensures we’re all informed and driving safely.
I had a great view from behind as well from in front.
Rook’s Route Never the shortest or most direct. Always the most twisty and fun route.
The red dot marks our path. We headed up HWY 89 from Congress in the direction towards Prescott. We turned left on Kirkland Valley Road (County Rt 15), then to HWY 96 and then left on HWY 97. Just before reaching US 93, we stopped at a brake check area, took photos and then backtracked and drove to our lunch location, the Copper Country Bar and Grill in Bagdad.
The brake check area had likely never seen so many Porsches.
Our final stop was at the brake check area on HWY 96, just before the junction with HWY 93. My Porsche 928 was the ONLY 928 in the group and also was the oldest Porsche in the group. We had our own private dining room and ordered from a choice of three menu items. We dined at the bar, where I learned that the original bar top was once was the longest continuous bar in Yavapai and Maricopa Counties.
What is Bagdad, Arizona? (source: Wikipedia)
It isn’t Baghdad, Iraq. Supposedly a father and son operated a small-scale copper mining operation there in the late 1800s. The father dug out the ore and the son loaded it into bags. When one bag was full he asked his father "Do you have a bag, dad?"
Bagdad is a copper mining community in Yavapai County, Arizona. It is one of only two remaining company towns in Arizona. The population was 1,876 at the 2010 census.
In 1882, prospectors W.J. Pace and J.M. Murphy staked a claim for gold, silver, and lead along Copper Creek. In 1883, John Lawler of Prescott, Arizona paid Pace and Murphy $200 for their claims, but were unable to make a success of it. In 1907, the Giroux Syndicate purchased an option on Lawler's claims for $200,000 (equivalent to $6,000,000 in 2020), with Edmond Bronson as president. However, the mine was still not able to earn a profit, and operations languished off and on for years. In 1944, the operation was purchased by John C. Lincoln, the builder of the Camelback Inn, who converted the mine entirely from underground operation to open-pit. In 1979, the operation was purchased by AMOCO Minerals, eventually owned by Cyprus Mines.
Cyprus Mines Corporation operated the copper mine until Cyprus merged with Phelps Dodge.Freeport-McMoRan (which acquired Phelps Dodge in 2007) now operates the copper/molybdenum mine. This copper mine does open pit mining and runs on an aroundthe-clock schedule. The copper concentrate is either trucked to southern Arizona, or taken by semi to 20 miles outside of town to a small railroad community named Hillside.
