The railroad serves the copper mining region of southeastern Arizona, and the agricultural Gila River Valley.

The railroad offers a transload location for lumber, building materials and other consumer commodities at Globe, Arizona, and can handle railcars weighing up to 286,000lbs.

[2] RailAmerica sold the railroad to Permian Basin Railways, a subsidiary of Iowa Pacific Holdings,[3] in December, 2004.

[5] In December 2008, weekend excursion service under the name Copper Spike[6] began operating from Globe to the Apache Gold Hotel Casino near San Carlos.

[10] The Copper Spike excursion train did not resume operation for a 2011–2012 season due to the transfer in ownership.

[11] On 2 August 2011, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. announced that it planned to purchase the Arizona Eastern from Iowa Pacific for US$90.1 million, with the deal expected to be completed by the end of the year.