Copper is a miraculous and contradictory metal, essential to nearly every human enterprise. For most of recorded history, this remarkably pliable and sturdy substance has proven invaluable. Yet the history of copper extraction and our present relationship with the metal are fraught with profound difficulties. Copper mining causes irrevocable damage to the Earth, releasing arsenic, cyanide, sulfuric acid, and other deadly pollutants into the air and water.

Mining historian Kerby Jackson introduces us to a classic mining work in this important re-issue of the Department of Interior publication “Mineral Deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains of Arizona”. Originally published in 1915, this important publication on Arizona Mining has not been available for nearly a century.

A Memoir of Underground Life in the San Manuel Copper Mine takes the reader inside the San Manuel Copper Mine in Arizona, to witness the never-before told story of one of the most productive mines of the world. Be “lowered” into this amazing world, and see the intense and admirable endeavor of a courageous group of men who live and die inside the entrails of Mother Earth. A great piece of Arizona’s history.

Southeastern Arizona has one of the most diverse mining localities in the state. Towns such as Bisbee, Clifton, Globe, Miami, Ray, Silverbell, and Superior have earned reputations as premier metal producers that are most notably known for their copper. Other mining towns that have made their marks in the region include Dos Cabezas, Gleeson, Harshaw District, Helvetia, Patagonia District, Pearce, Ruby, and Tombstone.