United Verde Copper Company Smelter

When smelting copper on Jerome's steep hillside grew impossible, William Clark moved the work to the valley floor and built a modern smelter here between 1912 and 1915, founding the company town of Clarkdale around it. The first furnace was blown in on May 26, 1915, its four-hundred-foot stack pouring sulfurous smoke over the Verde. At its 1929 peak, hundreds of workers pushed nearly two million tons of ore a year through the plant. Phelps Dodge bought it in 1935 and shut the furnaces in 1950; little remains but the memory of the men who worked them.

What the plaque says

The United Verde Copper Company's Clarkdale smelter was built through the vision of William A. Clark, owner of the United Verde Mine in Jerome. The smelter was constructed between 1912 and 1915 to replace the outdated Jerome smelter. On May 26, 1915 the first furnace was blown in, belching sulfur-laden smoke from a 400-foot steel stack. In 1922 a Cottrell plant with a new 430-foot brick stack was added. In the peak year of 1929, hundreds of workers handled 1.75 million tons of ore, producing 12 million pounds of copper bullion monthly. Phelps Dodge purchased the plant in 1935, and the furnaces shut down in 1950.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tuzigoot — 1.7 mi
  A hilltop Sinagua pueblo over the Verde, dug out of the ground in the Depression
• Jerome — 3.6 mi
  The billion-dollar copper camp clinging to Cleopatra Hill — now the largest ghost town in America
• Montezuma Castle — 17 mi
  A five-story Sinagua cliff dwelling, misnamed for an emperor who was never here
• Sedona — 18 mi
  Red-rock skyline, Little Hollywood, and the town Sedona Schnebly gave her name to

More markers nearby

• Clark Memorial Clubhouse — steps away
• People of the Verde — 1.8 mi
• Jerome, Arizona — 3.2 mi
• The Audrey Shaft and UVX Operations — 3.4 mi