COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Throughout the Spanish and Mexican era, the principal modes of
transportation were foot and horseback. Wagons moved freight and
people across the landscape. At first there were few established
transportation routes through the region. Native scouts familiar
with traditional trade routes likely led the earliest explorers.
These were little more than footpaths following rivers and foothills.
Regular routes were established by the early territorial days. The
U.S. military mapped many of these trails and established wagon
roads that linked their outposts and communities in the region.
In the late 1840s, the military established a wagon road that linked
Santa Fe and California via southern Arizona. Large numbers of emigrants
passed along this and other wagon roads during the California Gold
Rush in 1849. Travelers were under constant treat from brigands
and Apache raiders until the suppression of the Apache and the arrival
of the railroad made travel much less dangerous and inconvenient.
The first organized semipublic transportation in southern Arizona
appears to have been the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Line, established
in 1857. The following year the route was acquired by the Butterfield
Overland Mail Company, which established a system of twenty-six
stage stations along the trail across southern Arizona. As the population
of the territory increased, so did the need for secondary routes
that linked developing communities. In some cases, these links spurred
the development of local stage and mail routes. One such route linked
Tombstone with Tucson. These mail and stage companies were eventually
eclipsed by the development of the telegraph and the subsequent
arrival of the railroad.
The construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad across southern
Arizona in the late 1870s was a watershed event for the region.
The line essentially followed the stage trail across the region,
linking Tucson and its surrounding region with the shipping ports
of the west coast and ultimately the eastern states. For the first
time, it was feasible to ship perishable goods: for example, archaeologists
find marine oyster shell in the middens of Tucson households dating
to the 1880s. The railroad also had a tremendous impact on the mining
industry throughout southern Arizona. The transportation of large
quantities of ore from mines to smelters became more economical.
Indeed, after the establishment of a main line across the region,
there was an explosion in construction of smaller lines that serviced
specific mines and mining districts.
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| Railroads
in Southern Arizona during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
(from Whittlesey et. al. 1994). »Enlarge |
One such line was the Arizona Southern Railroad, constructed in
1904 to link mines in the Silver
Bell District with a smelter at the town of Sasco, and then
to the main line down the Santa Cruz valley between Maricopa and
Tucson. Despite brief periods of interruption, this line continued
in service until 1933. Other spurs linked Nogales (Southern Pacific
1920) and the Tombstone-Bisbee Districts (Arizona and Southeastern
1888–1889 / El Paso and Southwestern 1901). By the time Arizona
achieved statehood in 1912, nearly 1700 miles of railroad track
had been built throughout the state.
The demand for cotton, copper, and beef during the period immediately
before and during World War I provided a boon to the local economy. Nearly
40 percent of the copper mined in the U.S. came from Arizona mines. With
the demand for wiring, copper shell casings, and other necessities, the
price for copper nearly doubled between 1914 and 1916. Cotton provided
another source of financial wealth during these years. By 1919 there were
82,000 acres under cotton cultivation, with cotton selling for $406 a
bale—up from $233 a bale. The boom went bust the next year. In 1920
the total acreage in Arizona and California leaped to a total of around
243,000, with the expectation of expansion and higher profits. But the
military suddenly canceled many of its contracts, and Egyptian cotton,
which had been under embargo during the war years, flooded the market.
The price of Arizona “King Cotton” plummeted from an anticipated
$1.50/pound to around $0.28/pound, which bankrupted many farmers and contributed
to a financial crisis in the general economy. Banks became insolvent and
many struggling corporations were bought by larger commercial entities.
The impact on migrant laborers was equally devastating, with growers who
could not meet their payrolls suddenly dumping thousands of workers. This
stretched the resources of the fledgling state and led to a crackdown
on immigration—both legal and illegal—and the forced repatriation
of many individuals who were already residents. It took a number of years
for the economy of Arizona, and the nation, to recover from the post-War
depression.
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