Detroit Copper Mining Company of Arizona

On the advice of Dr. James Douglas (businessman), consultant for Phelps Dodge, the smelter was relocated from the San Francisco River to the mines.

In 1897, he sold his 55% interests in the DCC to Phelps Dodge for a reported $800,000, retired to his stone mansion in Denver's capitol hill neighborhood, and earned a reputation as philanthropist and real estate baron.

[4] The Morenci Southern narrow gauge railroad, completed in 1901, connected the mines via five loops over itself in the 18 miles of rails down the mountainside to a junction with the New Mexico & Arizona line.

[6] Detroit Copper Co. founded the town of Morenci (originally named Joy's camp after Ward's first local manager) to supply housing and services to workers employed by the company.

In time, DCC or the improvement company owned a large store, a hotel, and considerable amounts of additional property in the town of Morenci.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the town of Morenci had distinctive southwestern architecture, with Spanish mission style and rustic stone buildings used by the company around a central camp plaza.

[6] The nearby smelter town of Clifton was settled to provide additional housing, and eventually eclipsed the camp becoming Greenlee county seat.

As with many mines in Arizona and New Mexico at the time, the Detroit Copper Co. saw several waves of labor union organizing as well as strikes from 1900 onward.

[9] A significant problem in early copper camps were disputes over ownership of ore bodies based on the 1872 Mining Law's "rule of the apex."