Graham County Today

Some years back a Graham County Chamber of Commerce secretary, as part of his promotion duties, coined the slogan, Imprisoned in Paradise. For a time this catchy phrase appeared on the chamber's letterheads and in advertising. Anyone familiar with the county's terrain would know the imaginative secretary figuratively designated the Gila Valley as Paradise, with the Pinaleno, Peloncillo, Gila, Whitlock and Santa Teresa mountain ranges forming the prison walls. Because slogans are necessarily concise, the secretary used other approaches when elaborating on other Graham County valleys ringed by the Galuiro, Natanes and Stanley Mountains. Threading through this southeastern Arizona land, and across Arizona for that matter, is the storied Gila River, whose gentle to raging waters help to make land verdant with alfalfa, make grain shimmer in the sun and give ripe cotton fields a cloud-like appearance. Such Graham County streams as the Bonita, Eagle and San Simon contribute varying volumes of water to the Gila or River of the Sun, while the Aravaipa reaches the San Pedro River. Dominating Graham County's 2,963,000 acres is Mt. Graham of the Pinaleno Mountains. Soaring to a height of 10,717 feet, pine-clad and often snow-covered, Mt. Graham serenely views valleys and tablelands that little know intense cold, snows, strong winds or high humidity. Even the valleys' summer heat, due to higher elevation, disappear at sundown. Shopping facilities may be found throughout Graham County, but especially in the Gila Valley, where large and modern stores attract trade from a wide area. Due to their proximity to Phelps Dodge's vast Morenci mine, many Gila Valley businesses profit from the company's payroll.

Two Safford newspapers The Graham County Guardian and The Eastern Arizona Courier and radio station KATO represent the county's news media in a lively and efficient manner and also make many invaluable contributions to the county's burgeoning economy. The news media trio not only stimulates Graham County trade but in addition lures customers to Gila Valley stores from neighboring counties and several New Mexico areas. Churches representing many faiths may be found in the county's larger communities, where their reverent and dignified appearance lends assurance to the town's character and stability. A host of schools grade schools, four high schools and a junior college are widely dispersed throughout the county. Eastern Arizona College's rapid growth especially punctuates the fact that education is playing a vibrant role in Graham County's cultural and economic life. Farming and cattle ranching dominate Graham County's no-boom, no-bust economy. Fields of short and famous Pima long staple cotton, alfalfa, barley, hybrid grain sorghum and sugar beets are farming mainstays in the Gila Valley's 40,000 acres of rich soil. Huge yields from plantings of hybrid grain sorghum in the Bonita area's 30,000 acres further enhance the county's agricultural position. At some future date, no doubt, dude ranches will play a part in the county's economic picture. Presently, however, the county's many cattle ranches are working ones concentrating on the production and marketing of Hereford, Angus, Brahma and other brands of cattle. Several of the county's ranches the Sierra Bonita and Eureka are old, large, famous and picturesque. Rex Ellsworth, whose Swaps won the Kentucky Derby,

THE AUTHOR

If the byline William R. Ridgeway often appears in this particular issue, there are good reasons why it does. He writes of the land of his birth, he writes of the land he intimately knows and loves because of the many years he has spent exploring its mountains and valleys, and he writes with affectionate understanding of the people who figured in the history of the land he writes about because many of them and their descendants have been or are neighbors and friends. Bill Ridgeway's interest in Southwestern history was kindled as a youth by reading James H. McClintock's Arizona, The Youngest State. History has been throughout his adult life an engrossing and time-consuming passion, resulting in a library which overflows with precious and rare books, manuscripts and diaries written by pioneers, court and church records, official county and state documents, and valuable photographs depicting an era of human endeavor that lives now only in the memory of a very few. His historical research has led to articles in newspapers, historical journals and magazines including ARIZONA HIGHWAYS. His greatest reward, he says, in his historical research, has been knowing and working with so many of those who were true pioneers of the area, some now gone, some still living, all helpful and cooperative, all friendly and interesting. Long an inspector for the Arizona Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture, he recently commenced additional duties as research historian for a joint Arizona State University-Arizona Historical Foundation project. We couldn't have found a better person to guide us on a pleasant journey to Graham County, past and present . . . R.C.

owns and operates the Hackberry ranch near the county's eastern border. No few of the county's ranchers (Ed, Everett and Skeet Bowman, Hugh Bennett, Breezy Cox, Dale Smith) have won world championships in national rodeo competition. Both cattle and swine feeding are major Graham County industries with bright futures. Cattle numbering in the thousands are daily fed at the Safford Packing Company and at the Mattice brothers Pima operation. The Safford Packing Company, located south of Safford, is a dual operation which not only readies cattle for the market but sells the finished beef to stores throughout Southern Arizona. Numerous smaller cattle feeding setups are scattered throughout the county, while lucrative swine-feeding operations and several sizable poultry farms are also located in the Gila Valley. Assuming importance of late in Graham County is the pecan industry. New and old orchards of the soft-shell variety provide the county's farmers with a profitable cash crop. A few small peach orchards and one large apple orchard in the Pinaleno Mountains mainly represent the county's fruit production. Graham County's mining industry, in past years, has had few successes and many failures. Lead and zinc was profitably mined at the historic Aravaipa Mines during the World War II period, and the Grand Reef Mine of the same general area has several times known moments of glory. North of Safford, in the Gila Mountains, a massive body of low-grade copper ore drew prospectors' attention as early as 1878. Around the turn of the century, Peter Anderson and Jim Lindsey shipped ore from the Lone Star Mine with fair success, but the Qualey brothers were beset with financial difficulties while mining and smelting in the San Juan District.

In recent years new explorations in the Gila Range and nuclear power have combined to alter Graham County's mining picture by replacing its glum look with an exciting and rosy one. After test drilling, commenced in 1955, determined the extent of the Gila Mountains' ore body, the Kennecott Copper Corporation implemented "Project Sloop," which is now nearing completion. For the first time in mining's long and varied history, a nuclear device will be utilized in one of its operations a testing which could lead to the development of an entirely new mining technology. Aware of Project Sloop's tremendous potential, Graham County happily anticipates a bright mining future and the impact a new and vigorous industry will have on its economy. The Valley National Bank and The First National Bank serve Graham County in many fields. Noteworthy is the fact that Solomon (formerly Solomonville) is the birthplace of the Valley National Bank, which is now the Rocky Mountain West's largest financial institution. Chartered in 1899 with a starting capital of $25,000, the forerunner (Gila Valley Bank and Trust Company) of the present statewide organization opened its doors January 16, 1900, in the northeast corner of I. E. Solomon's 1893 brick building. This two-story structure was destroyed by fire in 1940, but the bank's second Solomonsville home (the Fitzgerald building) still stands. Many factors indicate Graham County's 16,000 population figure will continue to increase with the passage of time. With its solid-based economy and no few of its many assets and resources untapped, the county surveys the past with pride and confidentially looks forward to a prosperous future.