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First Copper Mine

Pima County · Beside Arizona Highway 85 at Ajo city park or some other equally strategic site with a view of the New Cornelia mine or mill. · location approximate

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THE NEW CORNELIA Arizona's Oldest Copper Mine Mexicans were mining copper at Ajo when the Gadsden Purchase brought this region into the United States in 1854. Copper deposits here have been mined continuously since then. The first rich ore was shipped to San Francisco and Wales for smelting.

Named in the Arizona Department of Transportation's 1997 list of markers standing in its right of way. That 1997 list covers only state highway right of way, so it does not reach markers on city streets, on tribal land, or in state and national parks.

1958 text, presented as a historical document. It uses the period's terms for Native people. The book proposed 100 markers for Arizona's highways and records 14 as cast when it went to press.

Arizona still marks its history under the same law: the State Historical Advisory Commission approves a marker, the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records certifies that its text is authentic and historically correct, and the Arizona Department of Transportation erects and maintains the markers on state highway right-of-way. Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records ↗

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Marker data: Historical Markers in Arizona, Vols. I-II (Arizona Development Board, 1958), text by Bert Fireman

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