Manifest Destiny: The Beginning of American Mining
The United States' military conquest in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) made all of the territory East of the Rio Grande, New Mexico and upper California part of the U.S. Ironically, the discovery of gold in California, occurring just nine days before the ending of the war through signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, focused the attention of the entire country, indeed, the world, on what was now the American Southwest.

American mining in the region had actually begun several years before that Treaty. In 1847 Tom Childs, Jr. led a party of 19 Americans into present-day Arizona to help locate the legendary Plancas de Plata, where early silver lodes had been discovered. Before being turned back by Mexican nationals, Childs was able to locate abandoned copper mines at Ajo.

Describing the Ajo mines as "open cuts in the hillsides and a shaft at least 60 feet deep", Childs said there were still notched ladders and leather ore buckets in the unworked shafts.

Conflict over the extension of slavery led to The Compromise of 1850, which included creation of the Territory of New Mexico. The territory encompassed much of the American Southwest from the 37th parallel of latitude to the Mexican border and stretching all the way from Texas to California. This was followed in 1853 by the signing of the Gadsden Purchase in which the remainder of the territory, including what would become the southern third of the territory of Arizona, was bought by the U.S.

During the next two decades Americans mined the area using several approaches. One involved locating abandoned Spanish mines. At the same time Americans were busy looking for new deposits. This method, called "placer" mining, involved no excavating. Instead, minerals accumulating in stream beds were washed out by panning, sluicing, hydraulic nozzles or dredging. A dry method of placer mining, involving the use of pans and rockers, was also used.

Drilling Contest
Proud of their skill at single and double jacking hardrock, miners soon began to compete with each other and drilling contests were a major event at major holidays. On important holidays, such as the 4th of July or Labor Day, the larger camps, such as this one at Bisbee in 1904, would attract top miners from all over the West. Prizes offered added up to thousands of dollars. All matches were for fifteen minutes. The record for single jacking was 26 5/8" with the double jacking record being 46 3/4".

Photo courtesy of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum.

While the promise of silver brought Tom Childs, Jr to Arizona it was copper (shown in modern refinement above) that he ultimately found plentiful.

Besides placer mining the other approach was to concentrate the search for mineral wealth in the less explored southwestern part of the territory. Later, new technologies such as lode, open pit and leaching would be discovered and used to develop mineral deposits unreachable by the early American miners.

From Gold, to Silver, to Copper
Just as the introduction of new technologies over time changed the process by which Americans mined in the Southwest, both technologies and economics also changed what minerals were pursued.

American mining in the Southwest began in earnest with the 1849 California Gold Rush. Although gold continued to be mined heavily for nearly a quarter of a century afterwards it gave way, first to silver mining, and later to copper. Today, gold remains a significant part of the refining process. Contrary to some reports, however, it does not pay the cost of mining other minerals.

With fewer placer deposits and a decline in the output of gold from California in 1873, silver became an increasingly important mineral. This led to a demand by westerners for a fixed price ratio (16 to 1) between silver and gold and federal support for silver. This led, in turn, to passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required that the government purchase and coin a fixed amount of silver each month. Although the Act kept the demand for silver high for the next twenty years, the fight for a bi-metallic currency system ended in 1893 when Congress repealed the legislation. This repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act passed despite an impassioned plea by William J. Bryan, remembered as his "Cross of Gold" speech.

The government's decision to stop coining silver and a subsequent drop in silver prices coincided with one of the most important discoveries of the modern age — the development of the alternating current (AC) system of electricity by Nikola Tesla, a former employee of Thomas Edison. Contracting with Westinghouse, Tesla demonstrated his AC power at the World Exposition in Chicago in 1893. This system, which was superior to Edison's direct current, provided for long-distance transmission of electricity and greatly expanded the use of electricity, using copper as a conductor. The birth of the electrical age was, in turn, a major boon to the copper industry. Copper had not only been proven as an excellent conductor of electricity, it was also plentiful in supply and inexpensive.

The next section describes in greater detail the transition from the rugged gold and silver prospecting of early Arizonans and other southwestern miners to the sophisticated, high technology industry that typifies copper mining today.