Peabody Western Coal company
While driving through the scenic Navajo reservation one sees the following tower from miles away (image to the right) on the main highway, on the Black Mesa where the Navajo and Hopi reservations meet.
What could it be?
It's the terminus of a long conveyor belt that stretches for miles into the Black Mesa, extracting the black gold known as coal. From here it is shipped via train to the Navajo Generating Station near Page, AZ and Lake Powell.
This is where the water that replenishes Tucson's water table enters Arizona from the snow-capped mountains of Colorado that was discussed in the last column. This is also where energy is created to power some of the pumps for the CAP project that brings water to Tucson.
This is the home of the only coal operations in Arizona and thus provides 100% of the coal produced in this state and is only one small part of the larger topic we will explore today dealing with one of the three Cs of Arizona's economy:
Mining.
The three C's
The history of Arizona's economic foundation was built on the 3 C's: Copper, Cattle, and Cotton.
In today's modern world where tourism plays an important role, we might add Canyon and Cactus to the list, and indeed the Grand Canyon has played an important role in the recent (within the last decade) history of coal mining in Valentine State.
In the 1870's, the Copper Queen Company starts its operations in Bisbee, AZ and by 1888 copper surpasses gold and silver production in this state and Arizona becomes the largest copper producer in the country. During the 1900's over 90% of the world's copper production came from a 100 mile radius of Tucson, which includes places such as Morenci by the New Mexico border, and Cananea just south of the Mexican border.
The San Manuel copper mine, just north of Tucson, was the largest underground copper mine in nation until it stopped operations in 1999. It had over 350 miles of tunnels running underground and the largest smelter of its type in the industry.
Morenci copper mine overlook
The Morenci mine is still in operation and is one of the largest open-pit copper mines in the country. The video to the left shows just a fraction of the landscape. You can actually drive for miles through the actual mine along US-191, which is also known as the "Devil's Highway" since it used to be numbered 666.
The numbering had do with the highway being connected to the main highway US-66, Route 66, the "Mother Road" which the current I-40 follows in the northern part of the state.
When one stands on the overlook to the Morenci mine, or any other mine, there is sometimes a feeling of sadness that accompanies this technological achievement. It is as if a permanent scar has been left on our Mother Earth just to extract the resources inside. One graffiti marking asks "what have we done?" There was a response just underneath that said something to the effect of unless we would like to return to an age without copper, without electricity, then we are just as guilty as the mining corporations that continue to extract the minerals deep within the body of the Earth.
This is also where science enters our story and it does so in two ways. The first is the emerging issue of sustainability, which we also discussed previously in dealing with water. The second is due to the dependence of modern science and technology on natural sources of energy such as coal.
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