They Cast A Mighty Light: Carbide Mining Lamps

After the California Gold Rush of ’49, and the relative easy pickin’s of gold dried up in streams and riverbeds, prospectors went after precious minerals found in veins running deep underground. Hard rock mining, requiring engineers and big money, soon followed and much entrepreneurial capital was set upon the task of reaching the mineral wealth post haste! The need to shed light on the darkness created an industry, and left a legacy. … Continue Reading

Senator Bill Hardt: Mr Rural Arizona

By Jim Turner, Arizona Historian
If you enjoy driving Arizona’s scenic highways, you may often wonder why we honor certain people by naming roads after them, such as the Senator Hardt Highway. Read on, and you will wonder no more, at least about that one. … Continue Reading

Unforgettable: Danko Gurovich & the Copper Hills

By: John Michael

( contributing excerpts, and all photos, courtesy of Danilo Gurovich,)

For many years the Reader’s Digest featured an article entitled, “ My Most Unforgettable Person.” For me it was always a toss up between reading this article or doing the Word Power Test, with Word Power usually being the winner.  Whenever  I read one of these stories I always found myself having been raised in the local area wondering how anyone could have known just one unforgettable person.

My own memories are flooded with many faces whom I believe to be unforgettable.

But of all the people and all the stories which make up the fabric of our community, there is one who stands out as the most memorable to me. Danko Gurovich and his signature establishment, The Copper Hills, helped to put Globe-Miami on the map.

The story begins in Miami with two men…and a dream. … Continue Reading

The Mighty Vandals and Coach Ernie Kivisto

There are storied moments in history which shine light on those who made history and those who remember it long past the actual event. The Dream Team of 1951 made up of  mostly Mexican kids from Bullion Plaza led by Vandals Coach Ernie Kivisto created many magic moments during that season which still resonates nearly 60 years later with the re-telling.

… Continue Reading

Bullion Plaza Museum featured

Arizona Highways will be doing a feature piece in their August issue on historic schools throughout the state . Photographer, Richard Mack was in town yesterday to photograph Bullion Plaza in Miami which now serves as a cultural center and museum.  The school was “…opened in 1923 as a segregated school for Mexican and Indian children in the area. It became a place of pride and through the efforts of many,evolved from a close-minded,segregated school system, to one of equality and opportunity.  (See our piece on the Mighty Vandals of 1951) . … Continue Reading

The Great Soul Trial

Excerpt: The Great Soul Trial 
 Posted: Saturday, Feb 2, 2008
One of the longest and most sensational trials in Arizona history revolved around a Miami man, James Kidd who lived in the area and worked for the Miami Copper Company for nearly 30 years in the early 1900’s. While his life in the area, as well as his disappearance in 1946 was barely noteworthy, his final will & testament launched him into the history books and initiated what became known as, The Great Soul Trial. 

Kidd disappeared from his little cottage in Miami in November of 1946. When the police investigated they found nothing missing in his apartment, and very little information on the man: he had no driver’s license, or police record. He had no family. He had few friends. He left behind little for the police to go on. Was he murdered in the Superstition Mountains looking for gold, or killed and thrown into one of his own mine shafts? … Continue Reading

Once they Moved like the Wind

Once they moved like the wind… 
 a recommended read

“To the living Apache of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma- 
In sorrow at what they lost, and awe at what they saved.” 

So begins the account by David Roberts of the Apaches of the Southwestern Deserts. It is one of the best accounts of the resiliency and strategic brilliance of the Apache leaders including: Cochise, Geronimo, Victorio, Mangus and others. … Continue Reading

Black History Month: Again,& Again…

by V.Yanez

There is not enough darkness in the world to put out the light of even one small candle. ~ Robert Alden

The fight for equality began in North Carolina, in 1961, at a Woolworth. That day, four young black men demanded to be served lunch at a whites-only counter. The battle for civil rights also began in Montgomery, when a young woman refused to move to the back of the bus. It also started with the resulting bus boycott, led by a young man named Martin, who later marched into our nation’s capital and told the American people about his ‘Dream’. … Continue Reading

The Keystone

By: John Michael

A reprint from an article submitted to GMT Fall ’07. It reflects the memories of growing up in Miami, and a close encounter with a famous “destination” known simply as “The Keystone.”

At a time when there were few jobs in town, especially for a 15 year old boy, Ryan-Evans Drug Store was hiring a stock boy that year. I had been told in no uncertain terms by my parents that they would not provide me with money, nor would they allow my grandmother to do so, and so I jumped at the opportunity to apply. Much to my surprise, I was selected for the job which paid 50 cents an hour and thus began my working career. I worked every night after school until 9 O’clock, all day Saturdays and 3 hours on Sundays.After several months on the job, Alan Robertson, store manager, decided I had enough intellectual ability to work both the floor and the fountain and he promoted me. Of course, this reduced the number of hours he had to pay the higher paid help. … Continue Reading

A Town named Christmas

By Historian Jim Turner

You can see the holiday spirit coming all the way from here to Christmas – Christmas, Arizona, that is. But you can’t go to Christmas any more, nor can you mail your holiday cards from the U.S. Post Office there, because it closed in 1935. For a state with such unusual locations as Big Bug, Bagdad, Gripe, and Snowflake (named after Erastus Snow and William Flake), it should come as no surprise that there once was a town called Christmas, Arizona. It all began when prospectors filed copper mining claims in the southern tip of the Dripping Springs Mountains about six miles northeast of Winkelman between 1878 and 1882. … Continue Reading