Globe Trotting

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Geo: 33.3958, -110.789

This was a spur of the moment deal. The carpet cleaners were here at the house and we needed to go someplace while the place dried.

Where to go? Someplace close and interesting---someplace we hadn't seen yet...

Always a sucker for scenic roads, we took off east to Globe. While not what you'd call picturesque itself, the road there goes through the beautiful Queen Creek canyon.

Bob says it's 80 miles of driving for 2 miles of scenery let's-don't-ever-come-here-again, and that's one way---but we learned something.

Globe is the center of the copper world--so they say (the #1 producer for Arizona, anyway).

After we left the canyon we came to a string of decrepit mining towns put together from garage sale left-overs.

The towns were pretty yukky but the mines were Impressive---capitol I. You could fit whole countries in those holes.

I googled copper prices and came upon this interesting article from Tennessee about copper thievery. Remember when there was a rash of copper wire being swiped from electrical contractors and any one else that used wire?

Well, 25 states responded by enacting legislation aimed at stopping that:

"I was told by a local scrap yard operator, when Tennessee's new metals theft legislation became law and they were required to obtain ID and mail checks to verified addresses... It became obvious who had obtained their scrap under "questionable" circumstances. Several loads of questionable materials left the yard immediately upon the identification request. The recycler immediately called the local authorities with vehicle and materials information. They even were offered materials at "discount" prices if they would pay cash (which is against the new law). This was supposedly reported to the authorities as well."

Good job Tennessee.

But the story of mining's leavings is a sad one. Montana knows well what happens when open pit mining companies rape the land, export the cash and turn their backs on the toxic mess they leave behind.

Arizona laid off 3,000 mine workers in the last two years, then re-hired about a fourth of them this year as copper prices climbed again.

It's a rough life being a miner.

Oh wow, don't get me started. Shawn's gonna cream me.

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Photos

Queen Creek Canyon
West of Globe the highway passes through this narrow cut in the rock before entering a tunnel to the desert.