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| Table of Contents |
SPECIAL SECTION - Your History. Our News. A recap of 60 years of News Reporting. Click here for a table of contents.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| End of an Era |
As the amount of ore coming out of Jerome's Phelps Dodge mine steadily dwindled, the activity in Clarkdale's smelter slowed commensurately. But there was nothing similar - let alone equal - in how the two towns reacted to the loss of copper and other valuable ores.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Whatever Happened To... Rip Vaughn |
He shot an 82 the first day. Not bad for a high school freshman in the pressure of a state golf tournament. Good enough to help his team but not enough to have hopes of winning.
A ringing 71 the second day, however, propelled him past the field at the Village of Oak Creek's golf course and into a tie for first place. After the afternoon playoff, Ripley Vaughn was the ABC state medalist and Camp Verde High School had thumped Willcox by 25 strokes to take the 1974 team title.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Growing Pains |
Like Clarkdale's Betterment Association, leaders in Cottonwood, under the banner of the Cottonwood Progressive Association, were looking for improvements to the community after mining abandoned the Verde Valley.
Later, they would lead the drive for incorporation.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Eyesore for the Verde Valley |
Most locals remember the bright orange mine tailings that layered the plain below Tuzigoot National Monument. The tailings have always been a surprising eyesore for visitors to the prehistoric Sinagua ruin, but in the mid-1950s they created political stir and gave Phelps Dodge a black eye.
Bill Cameron, editor of The Verde Independent, led the charge for many aggravated by the blowing dust. "They are ruining the Verde Valley climate," Cameron wrote in a May 5, 1955 editorial. "Dust is blowing hundreds of feet into the air and streaming for miles on a windy day."
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Fightin' Words |
Consolidation of Cottonwood and Clarkdale schools wasn't any more popular in the 1950s than it is today. When citizens decided to push for a single high school for area students, they decided to try to form a new district, Union High School District, instead of consolidating the two existing districts.
It worked.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| The Story of Clarkdale
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In 1931, no one could have predicted that a technology inspired by the United Verde Copper Company would be discarded, left to age like wine or cheese and then be dug up to inspire a new economic boom over and over. It first happened in 1959 when the technology of making rolled steel out of copper mining waste slag was dusted off but not used.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Second Time Around |
What a difference two years can make.
For Sedona, it meant whether or not it would become Arizona's newest municipality.
Efforts to incorporate Sedona began in 1985. The loudest supporter, Citizens for Self Government spearheaded by Cecil Lockhart-Smith, formed to pass this measure, according to The Verde Independent.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Economic Lifeline |
Damming waterways is no longer popular and some dams and containments are being removed today to allow waterways a free movement.
But seven years after the economic rug was pulled from beneath the Verde Valley with the closure of the Jerome copper mines, the future of a dam at Glen Canyon meant prosperity for the Verde Valley. The Valley was found to provide the ideal raw materials for manufacture of cement near a rail line.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| The BIG Flood |
February has always been a big month for floods. The three biggest floods in the recorded history of high-water marks on the Verde River occurred in February. The granddaddy of these gully-washers took place Feb. 20, 1993.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Capture of Danny Ray Horning ends biggest manhunt
in Arizona history |
It was the biggest fugitive manhunt in the history of Arizona.
During the summer of 1992, it was the lead story every day, on the hour, for every major news organization in the United States.
But when bank robber and murderer Danny Ray Horning was at long last arrested by deputies from the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office on July 5, 1992, the only news organization in the United States to provide on-the-scene coverage of his capture was The Verde Independent.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Local Control
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On the morning of Dec. 1, 1986, a group of a dozen or so local residents had gathered at the office of Camp Verde real estate and insurance broker Bob Barker.
They were there to count and be counted. They were there to celebrate.
They were among some two dozen people who had spent the last 145 days knocking on doors, cajoling their neighbors, beating their drum at community meetings and proselytizing wherever their voices could be heard.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| State Parks' favorite fort |
The second oldest park in the Verde Valley is, like Jerome, a historical park. It came into State Parks' inventory in 1970.
The fort had been abandoned in April 1890 and sold off in pieces at auction. Needless to say, when it came time to reassemble the Fort it had to be done piece by piece.
The task was finally completed in 1977 and the 11.25-acre fort was once again, for the most part, complete.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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| Arizona's greatest snow storm |
The absolute silence in Clarkdale on the morning of Dec. 13, 1967, woke me up. I rose and opened the window shade; I could barely see the houses across Main Street through the gently falling, large snowflakes that were smothering our town. It was snowing!
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| Whatever Happened To... Marty James |
He started playing the game at the old Verde Valley Country Club at Peck's Lake when he was 4 years old.
Once Clarkdale's Marty James stepped onto the golf team at Mingus Union High School as a freshman in 1988, he was already one of the best prep golfers in Arizona.
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Monday, February 11, 2008
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| A Mountainous Journey |
In September 1960, 350 students started the new semester at Mingus Union High School in Jerome. Those students came from Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Jerome and Sedona. MUHS remained in Jerome until 1972.
A Page One story in The Verde Independent on March 24, 1971 was headlined: "MUHS is Go!" The decision had been made to move from Jerome to Cottonwood and plans had been made for a new campus.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| Our Own College |
The concept of community college came to Yavapai County in 1969 when Yavapai College opened in Prescott. The college expanded to its new campus in Clarkdale in September 1975.
The Clarkdale Campus was the base of the Verde Valley portion of Yavapai College, but the concept of "community" was truly the objective. When classes began Sept. 2, they were held not only on campus but also in the communities of the Verde Valley.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| Whatever Happened To... Jeff Huson |
Jeff Huson started playing baseball when he was 5. He would tag along with his brothers. His older brother, Steve, taught him to bat left-handed. The entire family was always his support system.
That support took Huson from the dugouts in Cottonwood to the biggest stadiums in Major League Baseball.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| Just What the Doctor Ordered |
At the height of the mining operations in Jerome, the Phelps Dodge Company operated the United Verde Hospital in Jerome. At the location of the Clemenceau smelter in Cottonwood, the United Verde Extension Mining Company established a health facility for their employees and families.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| The Last Picture Show |
The Old Town Palace Theater would have closed one day anyway with the growing threat of competition from multi-screen theater complexes, but it was the last of many Old Town Cottonwood fires that suddenly closed the curtain the final time Dec. 8, 1998.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| On the Banks of Beaver Creek... |
Like so many rural communities in Arizona, Beaver Creek, specifically the portion known as Lake Montezuma, began as a ranch.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| The Long Journey |
Distinct cultures of the Yavapai and Apache people predate any recorded history
The earliest recorded references to the Yavapai date from the late 1600s and the Apache from the mid 1700s.
Throughout their existence, both tribes lived a nomadic life, hunting and harvesting what nature provided. It was a rough way to make a living, especially in a land that is less than generous with its bounty.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| Whatever Happened To... Wayne See |
At 84, Wayne See has seen a lot of changes.
He was born in Camp Verde in 1923, back when there was one general store, four telephones and the roads in and out were dirt.
As a boy growing up on the banks of the Verde River, See, his three brothers and his childhood friends got their entertainment running up and down the riverbank. In fact, there wasn't a whole lot else to do but run around.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| Jerome Historic Park |
The first State Park in the Verde Valley and only the fifth statewide, Jerome State Historic Park opened on Oct. 16, 1965.
From the very inception of State Parks, Jerome had been a target for Arizona State Parks.
In fact, State Parks had been a target for some folks in Jerome.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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| Dead Horse Ranch Park |
Dead Horse Ranch constitutes the first major purchase of a park property for Arizona State Parks.
Before its acquisition, most of the properties owned by State Parks were acquired through either donations, land trades or leases. It was also the first land-based park in the system.
Monday, February 11, 2008
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