Description

Overview of the Baumann Copper Company Mining Camp and office, Agua Fria section of the Bradshaw Range, Yavapai County, Arizona.

The Baumann Copper Company was incorporated in 1901. It held deed to twenty five mining claims (500 acres) in the Agua Fria section of the Bradshaw Range. The claims followed a northwest-southeasterly coursing spur of the Black Hills, at an elevation of about 500 feet above and two miles away from the Agua Fria River. (AZ Daily Journal-Miner, August 3, 1901, pg 1.) The Baumann mines lay within the so-named “Verde Copper Belt” which was fifteen miles east of Prescott and extended from Jerome on the north to Copper Mountain on the south.

When the Company was first incorporated, 600,000 shares were offered to shareholders at $1.00 each. Jules Baumann served as the Company's secretary and general manager. Some of the Company’s mines included the Swiss Girl, the Beebe, the Baby, the Laura, the Hidden Treasure, the Winkelried, the Giant, the Berna, the Tillie, and others. Of benefit to the Baumann mines, the Val Verde smelter was nearby, one and one-half miles distant, and allowed a down-hill haul for the ores obtained from their mines.

An abundance of copper and other precious ores from the combined Bauman Company mines were prevalent. A quote from the Mining Reporter in May 19, 1904, (page 505) describes the amount of mineralization in these words: “They include about all the known copper ores and are of good smelting and concentrating character. The gold and silver values are appreciable, and in many cases, sufficient for paying treatment charges, leaving the copper values net.”