A mine that ended up yielding hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of minerals was purchased for just $100 in 1884.
That year a local blacksmith, Frank Powers, acquired the World's Fair Mine from owner William Moran.
Located at Alum Gulch in the Harshaw Mining District in the Patagonia Mountains, the mine was active between 1879 and 1957.
The primary minerals extracted from the area were silver, gold, lead and copper from a contact of diorite and intrusive rhyolite.
The mine consisted of 15,000 feet of drifts, shafts, tunnels, stopes (steplike excavations) and winzes (vertical and inclined shafts). It was dug to a depth of more than 450 feet below the main haulage level adit (a nearly horizontal mine entrance).
The mine entrance is at 4,680 feet.
At times the World's Fair Mine employed as many as 20 men. A 10-stamp mill and several concentrators were built at the site to process the ore. A flotation concentrator near the adit of the World's Fair Mine milled ore from both the World's Fair Mine and the nearby Trench Mine. A steam hoist within the main tunnel and power drills serviced the mine, which was accessed by wagon road due to challenging topography.
During most of its years of operation, the World's Fair Mine was owned by Powers and his wife, Josephine, and operated under lease to several companies, including the World's Fair Mining Company, for whom the mine was named, the Copper Queen Company and ASARCO in the 1950s.
The World's Fair Extension Mining Company owned eight claims between the World's Fair Mine and the nearby Flux Mine.
By 1903 Powers had succeeded in blocking out $600,000 worth of high-grade lead-silver ore ready to be sent to the mill. However, Powers only worked the mine at intervals of his choice, figuring that the mineral wealth was safer in the ground than in the bank.
Sometimes Powers needed additional funds to support his mining ventures and travels. Among locals it is said that the Powerses used some of the mine profits to finance at least one trip around the world.
The mine shipped its carloads of rich ore to the smelter at Douglas and as far as the smelter in Selby, Calif., because its ore-reduction cost was cheaper.
According to a report sanctioned by the U.S. Geological Survey, the ore is reported to have contained 20 percent copper, 500 ounces in silver and $15 in gold to the ton. In 1914 the Arizona State Tax Commission assessed the mine's value at $155,000.
Between 1915 and 1930, the World's Fair Mine yielded $1 million in production. However, there was litigation between the World's Fair Mining Company and Frank Powers over the ore profits. Additional legal issues that plagued the mine owners included delinquent taxes.
Concerns over the past several decades regarding the high levels of metal concentrations, including cadmium, lead and manganese buildup in the nearby Alum Wash watershed, prompted recent remediation efforts at and around the World's Fair Mine by the U.S. Forest Service.
Since 2006 the Forest Service has remediated waste-rock piles around the mine and installed two hydraulic, watertight plugs to stop the flow of contaminated water from the adit.
Share your photos
"Mining Tales" writer William Ascarza is working on a book about the history of mining in Arizona, and he's looking for historical and modern-day photographs depicting mining operations, towns and camps to include in the book. If you'd like your photos included, email him at willascarza@gmail.com
William Ascarza is an archivist, historian and author. Email him at mining@azstarnet.com Sources: "History of Mining in Arizona, Vol. III," Michael Canty, Michael Green and H. Mason Coggin, eds.; Hydraulic Adit Plug Closure World's Fair Mine, Patagonia, Arizona, Mine Design, Operations and Closure Conference May 2011; "Deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains Arizona," Frank C. Schrader; World's Fair Mining Co. v. Powers, 224 U.S. 173 (1912); Mines Register, Vol. 15, American Metal Market Co., 1922
