A color postcard of the Cochise County Court House and the Iron Man statue. The front caption at the top reads: “Cochise County Court House, Bisbee, Arizona” The photo was taken by John Ball. Larry Bird Collection.

The county seat of Cochise County was moved from Tombstone to Bisbee in 1929 necessitating the construction of a new courthouse on Quality Hill. The land was donated by the Phelps Dodge Corporation and Tucson architect Roy Place was hired. The construction was temporarily hindered by a strike of 30 workers on January 9, 1931. The design is an example of art deco architecture with white walls hinting at adobe buildings. Both the exterior and interior feature art deco art that was added as part of the WPA Federal Art Project. The interior was furnished by the Phelps Dodge Mercantile company. A small dedication ceremony was held on Friday, October 16, 1931 and was attended by a number of attorneys and judges. In 1935, the copper coated Iron Man statue sculpted by Raymond Phillips Sanderson was unveiled in front of the courthouse. - In 1935, during the Great Depression, artist Raymond Phillips Sanderson was commissioned to create a monument to Bisbee’s Miners through the . It was Sanderson’s first major work, and he was paid 30$ a month by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration for the six months it took to complete the statue. Despite the name, the Iron man is mostly concrete with a thin coating of copper. Sanderson used 200 pounds of copper wire through a oxyacetylene heated gun to spray the solid cement. The physic of the statue was modeled after Bisbee resident Lee Petrovitch. The Iron man statue was Sanderson’s first major commission. Along with the statue, he was commissioned for a second art piece through the WPA Federal Art Project, a bass relief in plaster “A Cavalcade of Cochise County History” tin Cochise County Courthouse. In a 1965 interview conducted by Sylvia Loomis, Sanderson is quoted “It stood up beautifully, except that the people of Bisbee don’t like copper to turn green and they like a bright copper, so every year they paint with copper paint which annoys me to no end. But as long as they like it why it’s all right with me. “ His goal of the statue was to portray ‘Beauty, toil and simplicity”. He was paid 30$ a month by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration for the six months it took to complete the statue. The plaque at the bottom of the statue is inscribed with : “To Those Virile Men The Copper Miners Whose contribution to the development of the wealth and lore of the state of Arizona has been magnificent – Erected by the Citizens of the Warren Mining District this Eleventh Day of November A.D. 1935.” Today, the more mischievous of Bisbee’s residents will decorate the Iron Man statue for various occasions, anything from a festive Christmas hat to a football jersey during the high school’s football games.

2020.17.2