Metcalf - Greenlee County

Updated: 7/4/2016

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County:  Greenlee

 

Dates:  Original finding of copper was in 1870 with the town taking hold around 1882.  It dwindled in occupants during the depression years and eventually got overtaken by the large scale mining in the area.

 

Noted Aspects of Town:  The wood burning locomotive nicknamed “Little Emma” was the first steam engine on the first railroad in Arizona in 1880.

 

An interesting article about Little Emma can be read in the Reading Eagle Newspaper from Thursday, November 25, 1954 (pg. 27).

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=dQsrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MJoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5709%2C4430185

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History:  Metcalf was a town formed in Chase Creek about 8 miles from present day Clifton.  The Longfellow mine was the major working mine at the time.  The town was named after Robert B. Metcalf an early miner who came to the camp in 1872 and was one of the first owners of the Longfellow mine.

 

While Robert was scouting the area for Capt. Chase in 1870, he discovered a rich copper deposit.  He returned two years later with his brother Jim and located the Longfellow mine.  The two-year delay was due to unrest in the area with the local Indians.

 

The Metcalf’s sold off the mine to the Leszynsky brothers from Las Cruces, New Mexico.  The Leszynsky brothers began developing the mine and erected an abandoned furnace in Chase Creek Canyon.  This first attempt of using the furnace was not profitable and later replaced with a water jacket smelter at the canyon entrance.  Transportation of the ore to the smelter was performed by building a twenty-gauge railroad.  A gravity incline at the mine provided the energy to get the ore to the smelter.  This was later replaced by a wood burning locomotive which came from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The locomotive was christened “The Coronada” but was known affectionately as “Little Emma”.

 

Operation of the mine was taken over by The Arizona Copper Company in 1882.  With the growing mine, the town of Metcalf continued to grow with a total of 4000 to 5000 people living there at its peak.  The town included establishments of a bank, school, hospital, dairy, pool hall, and movie theater.  The post office was established on August 25, 1899 and discontinued on May 15, 1936.

 

During the depression Metcalf fell to the closing of mines and people moving away.  Eventually the town became part of the expanding dumping ground of the Morenci Pit.

 

People:  Robert B. Metcalf, Jim Metcalf, Leszynsky brothers, Army Officer Captain Chase

 

Mine(s) supporting town:  Longfellow Mine

 

What you will see today:  The old town of Metcalf has been overtaken but the open pit mining operation.

 

Acknowledgement:  Arizona Place Names (Will C. Barnes), Ghost Towns of Arizona (James E. and Barbara H. Sherman)