A colored postcard of the Denn, Junction, Hoatson, Oliver and Irish Mag. The front caption at the top reads: “Denn, Junction, Hoatson, Oliver, and Irish Mag Mines Bisbee, Arizona.” The postcard is unused and was published by the Taylor’s Cyclone Store, Bisbee, Arizona. Roy Nelson Collection.

Denn The Denn mining claim was owned and named after the prospector and hard rock miner Maurice Denn who owned thirteen claims alongside Lemuel Shattuck and Joseph Muheim. The Denn & Arizona copper company sank the shaft in April 1905 and struck an ore body on December 10th 1906 with their efforts hindered by ground water constantly flooding the mine. Pumps were installed to remove the water and the shaft was sunk to the 1000 level. The Denn Mine suffered a severe accident on January 4th, 1907 when four tons of dynamite exploded, leaving a sixty-foot-wide crater and damaging property on the Denn site. Despite the strength of the blast, the miners were fortunate as the resulting casualties amounted to five men injured with no lives lost. When the hassle of removing the water outweighed the value of the ore, the pumps were pulled out and mine shutdown temporarily from 1910 to its reopening in 1917. Miners returned to Denn in December 1917 and in February 1919 they had to deal with a fire that burned out of control for over a week. Copper production at Denn shut down completely when the mine was fully flooded in 1920. In 1925, the Denn and Arizona merged with the Shattuck & Arizona becoming the Shattuck and Denn Company. The copper production improved at the Denn shaft and high quality ore was found at the 1700 level soon after the merger. The deepening of the Junction Shaft allowed for the Denn to drain and reach its full potential. The Denn Mine produced ore for the company from 1925 to 1944. The Phelps Dodge corporation bought out Shattuck and Denn in 1947. After seventy years, the Denn Shaft finally shut down in 1975. Along with copper, the Denn-Arizona mine also produced lead and zinc with smaller amounts of bismuth, gold and silver. Junction The Junction Shaft sunk on July 15th, 1903 by the Junction Development Company. At the end of July, they hit water and their steam-based pumps made it difficult to remove. The stopped at the 1,006 level and began developing the upper levels. In 1905, the Junction Development Company became the Junction Mining Company before merging in 1906 with the Superior and Pittsburg Copper Company. Superior and Pittsburg pumped enough water to produce a decent amount of copper to settle its debts. They sought a merger with Calumet & Arizona which was initially rejected. After negotiations, the two copper companies officially consolidated on April 25th 1911. The Junction Shaft served Calumet and Arizona as its main hoisting shaft. Almost all of the ore from the Briggs and Hoatson mines was hauled by motor trains on the 1400-foot level to the Junction shaft and hoisted to the surface. The shaft was 200 feet deeper than any shaft in the district it sank to the depth of 1837 feet. Lined with concrete, it was built with five compartments. The Junction mine was responsible for draining both the Calumet Arizona and the Copper Queen mining operations at its peak pumping 1,500,000,000 gallons of water a year. Two pump stations operated at the 1,000-foot level and the 1,800-foot level. The water pumped from the mines was used in irrigation around Naco. The Denn mine couldn’t be fully productive until the Junction drained its ground water. The Junction shaft had replaced its timbers with concrete to eliminate the threat of extreme fires. In 1924, the steam pumps were replaced with modern pumps and in a single year removed over a billion gallons of water from the mine. Calumet and Arizona merged with Copper Queen in 1931 to survive during the Great Depression. The Junction mine ended production in 1958 and since then it has suffered off and on by floods of acidic mine water. A small section of the shaft is reserved for safety training. Hoatson In April 1905, the Hoatson Shaft was sunk by the Calumet & Pittsburg Mining Company and work began with a wood headframe rather than a metal one. The shaft was sunk in an isolated claim, the Del Norte, that was separated from the Junction property by a claim belonging to the Copper Queen Company. It was sunk to almost to the 900 foot level by the end of the first year, breaking multiple records. The Calumet & Pittsburg Mining Company merged with the Lake Superior & Pittsburg Development Company to form the Superior & Pittsburg Copper Company in 1906. The following year the old wooded headframe was replaced with a steel headframe and ground water was encountered at 1200 level where it was pumped out. The Hoatson’s ore bodies were some of the largest in the Warren mining district. The Superior and Pittsburg Copper Company merged with the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company in 1915. The Hoatson Shaft was shut down on August 7, 1916 and the remaining ore was hoisted through the Junction and Briggs Shafts. Mining came to an end at the Hoatson in 1919 and was partially filled in with waste rock during the Lavender Pits expansion. Irish Mag The Irish mag claim was owned by James Daly who feuded with the Copper Queen Mining Company. They had cut wood and made plans to lay down train tracks through is property for the Arizona & Southeastern Railway without his input. Daly was shot though the leg by the Constable Dan Simmons who came to serve a lawsuit after Daly assaulted a Mexican worker. In the next incident, the Constable W.W. Lowther came to serve yet another suit and was shot through the heart by James Daly and died. After the murder, James Daly fled from Bisbee and never returned. The rightful ownership of the Irish Mag claims went through a number of legal battles. The United States Supreme Court settled matter was eventually settled on May 15, 1899 the favor of Martin Castello. The rights to the Irish Mag were bought by the Lake Superior and Western Development Company on October 24, 1899 and was acquired by Calumet and Arizona not long after. On November 4, 1899 the sinking of the Irish Mag began. The shaft was eventually sunk to the depth of 1,350 feet and had four compartments. The shaft was sunk through hard limestone, except for occasional ore bodies. Levels were driven at depths of 440, 550, 750, 850, 950, 1050, and 1150 feet. The main ore body existed north of the shaft and became the largest ore body in the Warren Mining District. The shaft was equipped with a 78-foot steel headgear, a 114-foot ore bin and a 250 hp electric hoist raising a 3 decked cage. The Oliver mine relied on the Irish Mag shaft to hoist its ore to the surface. In eleven years of operation, the Irish Mag produced 1.5 million tons of ore and was the first mine opened by Calumet and Arizona. By 1911, the Irish Mag resources were exhausted and from 1915 on it was operated under a basis of leasing. Mining operations ended in 1928. The old mine shaft of the Irish Mag remained open to the elements until 1968 when in was filled by the tailing piles. Oliver The Oliver shaft was sunk by the Calumet & Arizona Mining company in 1903. It had a 4-compartment shaft and was sunk to the depth of 1600 feet. The upper sections of the mine had high grade oxidized ores that contained 7 percent copper with smaller amounts of gold and silver and the lower levels had rich sulfides. Large bodies of oxide and sulfide ores existed at the 950 to 1350 levels. The Oliver shaft shared a tunnel with the Irish Mag, and it was equipped with an electric tram for hauling ore. The shaft was equipped with a 600-gal Nordberg electric pump and Nordberg electric hoist. The Oliver Shaft was not free of its own fatal accidents. On April 21st 1909, two men lost their lives in separate incidents. In the first, a Slavonic miner named Lee Guraservich, was one of nine men being hoisted up in a three-compartment cage. Between the 1,000- and 800-foot levels, Guraservich slipped out and was caught between a hoisting cage and timbering. The second was Matt Arola, who was struck with a rock at the 1150-foot level. In eleven years the ore supply was dwindling had diminished and during the slump in 1914 the Oliver shaft was shut down, only to reopen on a far smaller scale summer of 1915. After World War I, the price of copper in slipped from 22 cents to 18 cents. Calumet shut down the exhausted Oliver Shaft on February 5th, 1919.

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