Cracked Brick Wall
Old loading dock door on the abandoned Morenci Water and Electric Building. This building, built in 1897 is having some serious structural issues with the brick work.
Clifton, Arizona, USA. Once a booming copper mining town but now mostly declining or already in decay and the majority of people and business have moved just up the road to Morenci. The Freeport McMoRan copper mine located in Morenci is one of the largest in the world
Cliff dwellings along the San Francisco and Gila Rivers are evidence of an advanced civilization that existed long before Caesar ruled Rome. Many specimens of pottery and stone implements are still to be found in these ancient dwelling places. In the mid-1500s, both Fray Marcos de Niza and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado passed through the area, following the San Pedro north to the Gila River. Geronimo was born in 1829 near the confluence of Eagle Creek and the San Francisco and Gila Rivers.
In 1856 the first mineral discoveries of the Morenci/Clifton area were found by California volunteers pursuing Apaches, and conflicts between the Apaches and advancing Anglo settlers touched off a 26-year-long war. Mining for gold and silver began in 1864, followed by copper in 1872, and the mine at Morenci quickly grew to become the largest copper producer in North America. Clifton's population ballooned from 600 in 1880 to 5000 by 1910, and it quickly earned its reputation as the wildest of the "Wild West" boomtowns. Neighboring Morenci was swallowed up by an open pit mine in the 1960s, but Clifton was preserved, and today Chase Creek Street is still graced with lovely Victorian-era buildings from the town's halcyon days as the place to quickly make and lose a fortune.
In 1983, Clifton survived two nearly fatal blows, first a nearly three-year-long strike that began on June 30, 1983. Then later that same year, on October 2, 1983, Tropical Storm Octave sent 90,900 cubic feet of water per second into the San Francisco River, which burst its banks, destroying 700 homes and heavily damaging 86 of the town's 126 businesse
Cracked Brick Wall
Old loading dock door on the abandoned Morenci Water and Electric Building. This building, built in 1897 is having some serious structural issues with the brick work.
Clifton, Arizona, USA. Once a booming copper mining town but now mostly declining or already in decay and the majority of people and business have moved just up the road to Morenci. The Freeport McMoRan copper mine located in Morenci is one of the largest in the world
Cliff dwellings along the San Francisco and Gila Rivers are evidence of an advanced civilization that existed long before Caesar ruled Rome. Many specimens of pottery and stone implements are still to be found in these ancient dwelling places. In the mid-1500s, both Fray Marcos de Niza and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado passed through the area, following the San Pedro north to the Gila River. Geronimo was born in 1829 near the confluence of Eagle Creek and the San Francisco and Gila Rivers.
In 1856 the first mineral discoveries of the Morenci/Clifton area were found by California volunteers pursuing Apaches, and conflicts between the Apaches and advancing Anglo settlers touched off a 26-year-long war. Mining for gold and silver began in 1864, followed by copper in 1872, and the mine at Morenci quickly grew to become the largest copper producer in North America. Clifton's population ballooned from 600 in 1880 to 5000 by 1910, and it quickly earned its reputation as the wildest of the "Wild West" boomtowns. Neighboring Morenci was swallowed up by an open pit mine in the 1960s, but Clifton was preserved, and today Chase Creek Street is still graced with lovely Victorian-era buildings from the town's halcyon days as the place to quickly make and lose a fortune.
In 1983, Clifton survived two nearly fatal blows, first a nearly three-year-long strike that began on June 30, 1983. Then later that same year, on October 2, 1983, Tropical Storm Octave sent 90,900 cubic feet of water per second into the San Francisco River, which burst its banks, destroying 700 homes and heavily damaging 86 of the town's 126 businesse