Be sure to stop at the Arizona Copper Art Museum in Clarkdale if you’re heading up to explore the old ghost town of Jerome – not far from Sedona, Arizona. It’s a treasure trove of history and art blended through the brilliance of copper.
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Exploring the Arizona Copper Art Museum
We were just driving through – or so I thought – on our way up to Jerome from our campsite at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. It was a rainy day, the first full day for our girl and her guy on their flying trip down from the Yukon, Canada to visit us – not an auspicious beginning.
When Ally suggested we stop and check out the Arizona Copper Museum, I was momentarily skeptical. A whole museum dedication to copper art? The guys opted for coffees and a stroll around town. Wisely, I kept my thoughts to myself and stepped into the old Clarkdale high school building with a somewhat open mind.
Birth of a Museum
It all started back in 1958. That’s when a couple from Minnesota, John & Patricia Meinke, discovered a few copper molds in an antique museum. They were hooked. Pat opened a small antique shop and the Meinke’s continued building their copper collection.
Eventually copper became king. In order to pursue their passion, the antique shop was closed and the couple started touring throughout the United States selling copperware at antique shows. In 1978, the Meinke’s son, Drake, joined the business adding his own collection of copper pieces.
Around 2000, the family started thinking of a copper museum. They wanted to share their collections. But they needed to find the right location. Where was the best place in the U.S. for a museum of copper art?
Copper producing states made the list. It wasn’t long before Arizona (nicknamed the Copper State) jumped to the forefront. Now to find the perfect town in Arizona – one where a copper connection and tourism made sense.
Enter Clarkdale.
A Booming Copper Town
In 1883, mining began in Jerome. William A. Clark – bought the United Verde Copper Company (UVCC) in 1888. In due time his company turned Jerome into the “Billion Dollar Copper Camp.”
The town of Clarkdale – located just a short distance downhill from Jerome – was founded in 1912. Owned by the UVCC, Clarkdale was purpose-built for the copper industry. A copper smelter was completed here in 1915. The population of Arizona’s first company town boomed.
In 1927, voters approved a $100,000 bonding for the construction of a new high school. UVCC paid off the bond and directed it to be built in a Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style to match other buildings in heart of Clarkdale.
Open on March 2nd, 1928, Clarkdale school had everything a student could ever want. A gymnasium, bowling alley, tennis courts, performing arts theater, and swimming pool were located across the street from the new school. Finally, the wood shop, kitchen, sewing room were located behind the school.
All in all, it was a picture-perfect school in a perfectly planned company town.
Clarkdale Copper Numbers
- 2,200 = °F at which ore is smelted
- 2 billion = pounds of copper smelted in Clarkdale during 38 years of operation
- 100,000 = profit per day from 1915-1925
- 5,525 = population of Clarkdale in 1930
- 17,000 = pounds of slag the metal ladle (aka slag pot) could hold at the Clarkdale smelter
- 430 = feet in height of brick smelter stack
The Clark Family
Senator William A. Clark, Sr. passed away in 1925. Control of the United Verde Copper Company – as well as countless other interests – went to his sons Charles Walker Clark and William Clark, Jr. Charles stayed in Clarkdale, overseeing local operations. In 1927, he had a family mansion built overlooking the company’s golf course.
The Spanish Colonial Revival mansion – with 7 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms – was designed by Fitzhugh and Byron – the same architects who designed the Clark Memorial Clubhouse and Clarkdale High School. William Clark III moved into the mansion with his family in 1928.
Life was good for the Clarks – until the 1930s hit.
Not only was Clark III killed in an airplane crash in 1932, by 1934 Charles Walker Clark was dead from pneumonia and William Clark, Jr. had passed of a heart attack.
In 1935, the remaining female heirs sold the UVCC – including smelter, mine, land, the entire town of Clarkdale, and the family mansion to Phelps Dodge Corp.
The Jerome mine and Clarkdale smelter both closed in 1953.
Enjoy stories of people in the past? Check the tale of one unsung archaeologist named Irene Vickrey.
Future for a Ghost Town’s High School
When the mines closed, the town quickly began to suffer. The last graduating class from Clarkdale High School was in 1960. The school building was eventually sold – and re-sold – and the property sat vacant for the next 60-plus years.
The entire town was down after the mine and smelter closures, but not out. In 1998, the entire Clarkdale townsite, which included almost 400 buildings, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. As a result, Clarkdale became one of the largest historic districts in the U.S as almost all its homes and buildings maintained their historic integrity.
In 2002, the Meinke’s found the ideal building in the model town in the perfect state for the home of the Copper Art Museum. The former Clarkdale High School building would continue to be a pillar of knowledge connected to a copper core.
It was purchased. Desperately needed restoration work took front and center stage.
A museum was waiting in the wings.
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Checking out the displays in Clarkdale’s Copper Art Museum
Walking through the wooden doors into the building, we paid our entrance fees and headed right into the first of multiple rooms showcasing the Meinke’s copper collection as well as historic memorabilia relating to the Clark’s, the town, and the school.
The first thing we see are the stone surrounds and fireplace manel from the Clark mansion. Saved during demolition of building after a fire in 2010, the Town of Clarkdale loaned the pieces to the Arizona Copper Art Museum – connecting past to present, copper king to copper museum.
A copper metal roof and suspended copper butterflies hang above priceless copper art pieces.
Impressive… but this is just the beginning.
Room after Room of Arizona Copper Art Museum Treasures
It’s not just art.
In order to set the stage, displays include information about indigenous people and their use of copper, arrival of Spanish explorers, and early prospectors in the 1860s and 70s.
We follow the copper footsteps in the floor as they change from footprints to boots to dress shoes.
There is a room dedicated to trench art created from spent artillery shells during WWI and WWII; displays of copper in our bodies, copper colours, and copper as embellishment; a room filled with copper as art and architecture; copper in the kitchen; nautical use of copper; copper in firefighting equipment; copper in the bathroom; warmers and heaters made of copper; copper vessels; and copper used in vineyards and for harvests.
The depth of this collection boggles the mind.
While I might have entered as a skeptic, I walked outside feeling amazed.
We found the guys sitting on a bench outside.
“We looked in the windows. What’s that room with all the artillery shells?” they asked.
Even they couldn’t resist the pull of this uniquely placed and grounded in the past museum.
When You Go
The Arizona Copper Art Museum is located at 849 Main Street in Clarkdale, Arizona. It’s open 7 days a week – except Christmas and New Year’s Day – from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Thanksgiving Day).
Tickets start at $9.75/adult, $8.75/seniors 60+, and $8.75/veterans and students. For more information visit their website.
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