Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum

Last updated

The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, was a museum focused on minerals and mining. Last operated by the Arizona Historical Society, a state government agency, its exhibits included more than 3,000 minerals, rocks, fossils, and artifacts related to the mining industry. [1] The museum closed in May 2011. In April 2017, legislation was passed to reopen the museum under the ownership of the University of Arizona. [2]

Contents

History

The museum was started in 1884 as a temporary exhibit at Arizona's first territorial fair. The exhibit was very popular and was moved into a permanent building on the state fairgrounds in 1919. It was open only during state fairs until 1953, when six Arizona mining companies provided funds for its year-round operation as a formal museum. Both the museum and the offices of its sponsoring agency, the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, were located in a building on the state fairgrounds. In 1991 the museum and the department offices vacated the facility at the fairgrounds, which was by then dilapidated and did not have suitable climate conditions for archival storage of documents, and moved to the museum's current location, the former El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium in Phoenix. [3] That same year the building was renamed the Polly Rosenbaum Building in recognition of the leadership of long-time state legislator Polly Rosenbaum in obtaining the historic building as a home for the museum. [1] [4] [5]

Transfer to Arizona Historical Society and closure

In 2010, the Arizona Historical Society took control of the museum under provisions of a new state law. The Society planned to convert the museum into a history museum to open for the centennial of Arizona statehood (February 14, 2012), to be named the Arizona Centennial Museum. The office of Governor Jan Brewer is credited with developing the concept for the centennial museum, which was proposed to focus on "Arizona's Five C's: cattle, copper, cotton, citrus and climate." Supporters of the museum conversion project estimated that they would need to raise $9 million in private donations to complete the project. [6]

At an August 2010 meeting of the historical society's board of directors, it was reported that the museum transfer had been more complex than anticipated, due in large part to unanticipated liabilities associated with items in the museum collection that were on loan to the mineral museum. Some loaned specimens on display were valued in the "tens of thousands of dollars" range, and the museum is fully liable for any loss or damage to them. [7] It was also reported that the Arizona Centennial Museum renovation would be eligible for $400,000 of Recovery Act funds and had received $1 million in donation pledges, but the Centennial fundraising organization did not yet have 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. [7]

The museum was closed at the beginning of May 2011. The Arizona Historical Society had earlier announced that it would remain open through the end of the school year, but the museum was abruptly closed one month earlier without advance notice to employees or school groups that had planned tours. Parts of the collection were expected to be included in the planned centennial museum, which was to be called the Arizona Experience Museum. [8]

Collection

The mineral collection features displays of minerals from well-known Arizona mineral localities and specimens from Arizona copper mines, including a piece of native copper that is 8 feet (2.4 m) in its longest dimension. [1] Displays on the lapidary arts feature faceted gemstones and cabochons made from Arizona minerals. Mineralogical principles are illustrated by displays on mineral crystal systems, crystal habits, fluorescent minerals, and causes of color. Unusual items in the mineral collection include a 206-pound (93 kg) piece of the Meteor Crater meteorite, fulgurites, a huge quartz geode divided into two halves that weigh 240 pounds (110 kg) each, Moon rocks, and bowls and spheres fabricated from semi-precious stones. [1]

Several large pieces of historic and modern mining equipment are displayed outdoors in front of the museum building. Historic items in the outdoor display include a head frame from a mine in Bisbee, a baby gauge steam railroad locomotive built in 1882 that was used at a Phelps Dodge mine in Morenci, a stamp mill, and two rail cars used in mining. Modern items used in open-pit mining include a 13-foot (4.0 m) diameter truck tire and the 27-cubic-yard (21 m3) bucket from an electric mining shovel used in the copper mine at Ray. [1] [9]

An exhibit room off the main gallery displays a mineral collection, kachina dolls, and other items donated by Rose Mofford, who was governor of Arizona at the time the museum relocated to its current site. [1] [5] As a supporter of the museum, Mofford has been quoted as saying that she would instruct her legal representative to disperse the collection to "the rural museums of Arizona" if the mining and mineral museum ever closes. [5]

Related Research Articles

Globe, Arizona City in Arizona, United States

Globe is a city in Gila County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,532. The city is the county seat of Gila County. Globe was founded c. 1875 as a mining camp. Mining, tourism, government and retirees are most important in the present-day Globe economy.

California State Mining and Mineral Museum museum in California, United States

The California State Mining and Mineral Museum is a museum in the state park system of California, USA, interpreting the state's mineral resources and mining heritage. It is located in Mariposa on the Mariposa County fairgrounds.

Native copper Mineral (as opposed to the chemical element)

Native copper is an uncombined form of copper that occurs as a natural mineral. Copper is one of the few metallic elements to occur in native form, although it most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements. Native copper was an important ore of copper in historic times and was used by pre-historic peoples.

Keweenaw National Historical Park U.S. national park in Michigan

Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2009, it is a partly privatized park made up of two primary units, the Calumet Unit and the Quincy Unit, and 21 cooperating "Heritage Sites" located on federal, state, and privately owned land in and around the Keweenaw Peninsula. The National Park Service owns approximately 1,700 acres (690 ha) in the Calumet and Quincy Units. Units are located in Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties.

William Phipps Blake was an American geologist, mining consultant, and educator. Among his best known contributions include being the first college trained chemist to work full-time for a United States chemical manufacturer (1850), and serving as a geologist with the Pacific Railroad Survey of the Far West (1853–1856), where he observed and detailed a theory on erosion by wind-blown sand on the geologic formations of southern California, one of his many scientific contributions. He started several western mining enterprises that were premature, including a mining magazine in the 1850s and the first school of mines in the Far West in 1864.

Jerome State Historic Park state park

Jerome State Historic Park is a state park of Arizona, US, featuring the Douglas Mansion, built in 1916 by a family of influential mining entrepreneurs in Jerome, Arizona, a mining region in the northeast of the Black Hills, east Yavapai County. A museum is located in the old Douglas Mansion.

Ducktown Basin Museum History museum, heritage center in Tennessee, United States

The Ducktown Basin Museum is a history museum and heritage center in Ducktown, Tennessee that chronicles the history of copper mining activities in the Copper Basin, a geological region in Polk County, Tennessee. The museum is located adjacent to the Burra Burra Mine, which was the most productive mine in the basin.

The Arizona State Fairgrounds is a permanent fairgrounds on McDowell Road, Encanto Village, within the city of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is currently used yearly to host the Arizona State Fair and the Maricopa County Fair, as well as for other events.

Castle Dome Mountains

The Castle Dome Mountains are a mountain range in Yuma County, Arizona, within the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Castle Dome Peak, the high point of the range, is a prominent butte and distinctive landmark. The peak is 3,776 feet (1,151 m) high, and is located at 33°05′04″N114°08′36″W. Castle Dome was named by American soldiers at old Fort Yuma in the 1880s. Early Spanish explorers called the same peak Cabeza de Gigante, "Giant's Head."

Castle Dome Landing, Arizona Ghost town in Arizona, United States

Castle Dome Landing, Arizona is a ghost town in the Castle Dome Mountains of Yuma County in the U.S. state of Arizona. It was first settled as a transport depot and mining camp around 1863 in what was then the Arizona Territory.

Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals United States historic place

The Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals is a non-profit museum in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Located just north of the Sunset Highway on the northern edge of Hillsboro, the earth science museum is in the Portland metropolitan area. Opened in 1997, the museum's collections date to the 1930s with the museum housed in a home built to display the rock and mineral collections of the museum founders. The ranch style home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first of its kind listed in Oregon. In 2015 the museum became a Smithsonian Affiliate museum.

Calumetite halide mineral

Calumetite is a natural rarely occurring mineral. It was discovered in 1963 at the Centennial Mine near Calumet, Michigan, United States. Calumetite was first discovered along with anthonyite. It has a chemical formula of Cu(OH,Cl)2•2(H2O).

Mineral collecting

Mineral collecting is the hobby of systematically collecting, identifying and displaying mineral specimens. Mineral collecting can also be a part of the profession of mineralogy and allied geologic specialties. Individual collectors often specialize, for example collecting examples of the various colors and forms taken by the mineral calcite, calcite from widely scattered locations in a region or the world, or minerals found in pegmatites.

Polly Rosenbaum Building United States historic place

The Polly Rosenbaum Building, formerly the El Zaribah Shrine Auditorium, is a building in Phoenix, Arizona, at the corner of 15th Avenue and Washington Street, that was built in 1921. The 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m2) building formerly housed the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum.

Mineral Park mine Ghost Town in Arizona, United States

The Mineral Park mine is a large open pit copper mine located in the Cerbat Mountains 14 miles northwest of Kingman, Arizona, in the southwestern United States. A 2013 report said that Mineral Park represented one of the largest copper reserves in the United States and in the world, having estimated reserves of 389 million tonnes of ore grading 0.14% copper and 31 million oz of silver.

The Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum Industry museum in Morgantown, West Virginia

The Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum is located in the Mineral Resources Building on the Evansdale campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, and is “dedicated to preserving and promoting the social, cultural, and technological history of West Virginia’s coal and petroleum industries through the collection, preservation, research, and exhibition of historical objects and archival materials.” Originally named the COMER Museum for WVU's College of Mineral and Energy Resources, the Watts Museum was renamed in 2005 at the request of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute (WVCMI).

Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum

The Threlkeld Quarry and Mining Museum is located in Threlkeld three miles (4.8 km) east of Keswick, in the heart of the Lake District in Cumbria. It is suited for families, school classes and enthusiasts. It includes a quarry with a unique collection of historic machinery, such as locomotives and cranes, an underground tour of a realistic mine, a comprehensive geological and mining museum and mineral panning.

MiMa Mineralogy and Mathematics Museum museum

MiMa is a museum of mineralogy and mathematics in Oberwolfach, in the central Black Forest in southern Germany. The museum was opened on 30 January 2010 on the site of the mineral museum after a two-year conversion and expansion phase. It is operated jointly by the municipality of Oberwolfach, the Oberwolfach Society of the Friends of Minerals and Mining and the Mathematics Research Institute, Oberwolfach.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum Archived 2010-12-06 at the Wayback Machine , Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources website, accessed October 30, 2010
  2. ↑ Silber, Clarice, University of Arizona to reopen, run state mining museum, Arizona Daily Star , May 15, 2017
  3. ↑ Arizona Mineral Resource , No. 37, February 2004
  4. ↑ Arizona Mineral & Mining Museum Archived 2010-11-25 at the Wayback Machine , The Mineralogical Record website, accessed October 30, 2010
  5. 1 2 3 Bill Coates, Legendary lawmaker has 2 state buildings named in her honor, Arizona Capitol Times, September 1, 2006
  6. ↑ Kevin Kiley, Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum to undergo renovation, The Arizona Republic , August 11, 2010
  7. 1 2 The Arizona Historical Society Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, August 27, 2010, Flagstaff, Arizona Archived November 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , Arizona Historical Society website, accessed November 11, 2010
  8. ↑ Mary Jo Pitzl (May 3, 2011). "Arizona mining museum abruptly shutters". The Arizona Republic.
  9. ↑ Arizona Mineral Resource No. 33, December 2002, page 4

Coordinates: 33°26′55″N112°05′31″W / 33.44857°N 112.09188°W / 33.44857; -112.09188

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.