The mines quickly assumed prominence
Organized in 1872, the Clifton-Morenci District included the prominent towns of Clifton, Metcalf and Morenci near the junction of the San Francisco River and Chase Creek.
Robert Metcalfe — a Confederate veteran and former member of Terry’s Texas Rangers, as well as the namesake of Metcalf, seven miles north of Clifton — was credited with discovering the rich Longfellow claim while his nephew, Charles Shannon, located the Shannon Mines atop Metcalf Mountain.
The mines quickly assumed prominence with the investment of wealthy New Mexico merchants, including Henry and Charles Lesinsky and their uncle, Julius Freudenthal, in the Longfellow Copper Mining Co. and the Longfellow Mine, whose ore in the late 1870s averaged 20 percent copper.
Lesinsky later sold the property to the Arizona Copper Co., a Scottish firm located in Edinburgh.
Before Henry Lesinsky built the Coronado Railroad in 1879, the ore was transported by wagon to Silver City then to Colorado and the copper markets of Kansas City and San Francisco.
Morenci was originally called Joy’s Camp for Capt. Miles Joy, an affiliate of Capt. Eber Ward, principal stockholder of the Detroit Copper Co. in 1872, acquired by William Church in 1875.