News
Benson smelter
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| When this photo was snapped in 1927, the Benson smelter sat in partial ruin. A few years later, it was obliterated from the landscape. (PHOTO COURTESY/ Fort Huachuca Museum) |
By W. Lane Rogers/FOR THE Arizona Range News
Benson was in its infancy as the railroad shipping point for the Bisbee and Tombstone mines when entrepreneurs Gilmour and Salisbury announced construction of a custom smelter. By the summer of 1882, the smelter was up and running and employed as many as 350 men. Nevertheless, prosperity was short-lived. By October, the smelter had ceased operations. Thus was commenced a long history of on-again, off-again operations, culminated by ultimate failure.
A decade later, following a string of fallow years, local residents were hopeful when the Benson Press announced that "Rogers Brothers...recently purchased the Benson smelting plant at [a] sheriff's sale...." Apparently, the Rogers' had no intention of resuming operations. Within a few months, the property was sold to E.B. Young of San Francisco. Young did nothing and the smelter sat in idleness.
Yet another decade passed when in April, 1903, the Press proclaimed that "Within 90 days the first furnace of the Empire Smelting Company of Benson will be ready to blow in. From then on the people of Benson will hear the workman's whistle...."
The promise was not fulfilled. Just one of five proposed furnaces was blown in. The smelter was outdated and inefficient and business was not sufficient to ensure its future. At the same time, an enormous smelter was constructed at Douglas, and Benson had no hope of competing.
During the 1920s, New York's Guggenheim family made noises about purchasing and rejuvenating the facility. Nothing came of it. Someone did, however, claim the slag dump. Several tons were shipped to El Paso for refining and a respectable profit-perhaps the first made from the smelter-was realized.
The site changed hands many times until acquired by Benson banker A.G. Smith. Then came the Great Depression. In 1934, the property was sold for delinquent taxes. Its purchaser, Adolph Sick, dismantled the smelter and sold much of it as scrap metal.
During the Depression, as countless unemployed Americans rode the rails in search of jobs, the Benson smelter site became a crowded hobo jungle. Despite the chagrin of local residents, an encampment for weary travelers may have been the smelter's most enduring use.
Today, remnants of foundations and bits of slag mark the site.
If you have photographs, ledgers, or other materials that shed light on Cochise County history and would like to share them with our readers, contact W. Lane Rogers at cochisehistory@yahoo.com.
A decade later, following a string of fallow years, local residents were hopeful when the Benson Press announced that "Rogers Brothers...recently purchased the Benson smelting plant at [a] sheriff's sale...." Apparently, the Rogers' had no intention of resuming operations. Within a few months, the property was sold to E.B. Young of San Francisco. Young did nothing and the smelter sat in idleness.
Yet another decade passed when in April, 1903, the Press proclaimed that "Within 90 days the first furnace of the Empire Smelting Company of Benson will be ready to blow in. From then on the people of Benson will hear the workman's whistle...."
The promise was not fulfilled. Just one of five proposed furnaces was blown in. The smelter was outdated and inefficient and business was not sufficient to ensure its future. At the same time, an enormous smelter was constructed at Douglas, and Benson had no hope of competing.
During the 1920s, New York's Guggenheim family made noises about purchasing and rejuvenating the facility. Nothing came of it. Someone did, however, claim the slag dump. Several tons were shipped to El Paso for refining and a respectable profit-perhaps the first made from the smelter-was realized.
The site changed hands many times until acquired by Benson banker A.G. Smith. Then came the Great Depression. In 1934, the property was sold for delinquent taxes. Its purchaser, Adolph Sick, dismantled the smelter and sold much of it as scrap metal.
During the Depression, as countless unemployed Americans rode the rails in search of jobs, the Benson smelter site became a crowded hobo jungle. Despite the chagrin of local residents, an encampment for weary travelers may have been the smelter's most enduring use.
Today, remnants of foundations and bits of slag mark the site.
If you have photographs, ledgers, or other materials that shed light on Cochise County history and would like to share them with our readers, contact W. Lane Rogers at cochisehistory@yahoo.com.
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