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04/08/2019

An evening walk with Pippa in Warren, Bisbee, Arizona (US).

The Warren district of Bisbee was named after George Warren (1835-189?), "the Father of the Camp,” according to his noncontemporary gravestone. Warren’s mother passed away when he was still an infant and his father was killed in an Apache raid, after which little George was sold for 20 pounds of sugar to a party of miners.

In 1877, Warren was grubstaked by members of Company C of the Sixth Cavalry to locate mining claims after the discovery of an outcrop of lead-silver mineralisation along Mule Gulch. He was equipped at Fort Bowie and sent on his way, but instead of honouring his commitment, Warren squandered the grubstake in the saloons of Tombstone. In late September, Warren headed to Mule Pass with his friends from Tombstone, where the party staked a number of claims for themselves. One of these stakes later became the rich Queen Copper Mine.

Two years later, Warren got into a wager in Charleston after a drunk discussion on the speed of men versus horses. He bet his friend George W. Atkins he could outrun a man on a horse over a 100 yard distance. If Atkins beat Warren, Atkins was to receive Warren's interest in the Copper Queen; if Warren beat Atkins, Warren was to receive Atkins's horse. The horse soon left Warren in the dust. Warren lost his one-ninth interest in the Queen Copper Mine.

Warren lived much of the remainder of his life as a pauper. In 1881, Atkins asked the Cochise County Court to rule that Warren was insane, after which his interests in three mines were auctioned. After a short adventure in Mexico, where Warren sold himself into peonage for US$40, he lived the rest of his days working odd jobs around saloons in exchange for a drink of whisky. He died penniless around 1894.

Originally buried in a pauper’s grave under a wooden grave marker, the Bisbee Elk's Lodge launched a campaign in 1914 to erect a monument over his grave. Warren’s body was moved to a more prominent location and a large monument was erected.

Around 1905, the town of Bisbee was overcrowded and the hillsides were packed with wooden shacks, accessed through long flights of wooden stairs. Sewage ran freely, the streets were littered with rubbish, the air was heavily polluted by round-the-clock mining activities, and the overall living conditions for the miners and their families were poor.

In May 1905 the C & A Mining Company started planning for a new town further to the south, which was to be a “desirable place” to live for “the best class of employees.” Their plan was part of a national urban reform movement, the “City Beautiful”, which sought to improve moral and civic virtue by means of city planning. This new town of Warren was the first planned community in Arizona intended for the housing of the mining upper class.

The townsite plan for Warren was laid out in a wedge shape against hillsides to promote natural drainage, and was planned around the Vista park, a 2,500 feet long stretch running from north to south, flanked by two boulevards. Arts and Crafts bungalows are found throughout the neighbourhood, and at the southern end of the Vista sits Warren Ballpark, the oldest still-operating ballpark in the U.S.

The town of Warren would not have been a satisfactory residence to it’s namegiver. A hand-penned deed for a small house built in 1909 sets out the particulars of the sale and Warren’s residential building code:

“Witnesseth: This indenture made the fifteenth day of July in the year of our Lord, one thousand, nine hundred and nine, in the townsite of Warren, County of Cochise, Territory of Arizona, in consideration of the sum of seven-hundred and thirty five dollars does hereby grant, sell and convey this property. Furthermore, neither the said premises nor any part thereof shall be used for a resort of gambling nor for the sale of intoxicating liquors, nor for use as a hog pen, slaughter house or the tanning of hides nor for lewd or illicit activities between men and women. Signed Jesse Yoakim, Notary Public.”

Sources:

Briggs, D.F., 2015. History of the Warren (Bisbee) Mining District. Arizona Geological Survey Contributed Report CR-15-b. http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/nid1648/cr-15-b_v1.0.pdf

Pratt, J., 2007. ‘George Warren memorial.’ Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17470348/george-warren

Ring, B. & Ring, A., 2001. Warren, Arizona - The City Beautiful. http://www.ringbrothershistory.com/Convention/ConventionPDF/2001%20Warren.%20Arizona%20-%20The%20City%20Beautiful.pdf

Trimble, M., 2009. ‘George Warren and the State Seal.’ North Valley Magazine 09: 16. http://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/digital/collection/trimble/id/15/