By Mary Leavitt

(This is the first part of a two-part article on the history of Humboldt, Arizona) 

Iron King, DeSoto, McCabe and Blue Bell are but a few of the mines old timers in Humboldt remember, and the important roll they once played in the Humboldt economy.  Many rich veins of ore were discovered in the mountain ranges of Arizona during the late 1800s. Yavapai County was a hot spot of minerals, particularly in the foothills of the Bradshaw Mountains.

When gold was discovered, many mining towns sprang up following the influx of miners and settlers moving west to follow their dreams of wealth and a better life. Mining towns supplied goods and services to miners and were vital to the mining operations. Many of these towns were deserted following the mine closures and have disintegrated with time. 

Val Verde, later renamed Humboldt, was an exception; it has survived economic depressions and mine closures. It has failed to succumb to the rank of ghost town. Humboldt's fate could have been similar to other mining towns if not for its location on the well-traveled highway between Prescott and Phoenix. 

Ranchers and miners were not the first to occupy the land around Humboldt. In the 1860s, the settlers and miners found pit houses, shafts and other evidence, through excavation of several ruins, that Indians were involved in mining, farming and growing crops on the rich soil from 900 A.D. to 1300 A.D. 

Yavapai County was created in 1864. Records reveal the first homestead was recorded in 1871, which corresponds with the beginning of the boom days of local mining. 

Cecil Fennell acquired land and water rights for the Val Verde Smelter in the 1880s and Val Verde became a company owned town. The functioning community had an established post office from 1899 to 1905. By 1899, the Val Verde Smelter processed ore primarily from the Blue Bell and DeSoto mines and a one and a half mile railroad spur was completed to the smelter by the Prescott and Eastern Railroad. 

Early in 1904, the Bradshaw Mountain Copper Mining and Smelter Company purchased the Val Verde Smelter. Unfortunately, on September 28, 1904, the smelter was destroyed by fire. The smelter was under-insured and funds were not available to rebuild. The Bradshaw Mountain Copper Mining and Smelter Company sold the remaining buildings to the Arizona Smelting Company. The new owner built a new, bigger and better 1,000-ton-per-day smelter, completing it in 1906. 

The mining town was now well established and an official post office was to be located in Val Verde. But now a new name needed to be chosen for the town since Val Verde Smelter no longer was involved. The new name of Humboldt was selected in 1905, the namesake of the German Naturalist, explorer and traveler Baron Friedrich Heinrich Von Humboldt. It is quite unlikely that he ever traveled to this part of Arizona. This marked the beginning of a community that would withstand the test of time. The smelter owners established the Humboldt Improvement Company that handled all phases of living in the company owned town. 

The residents settled into the routine of the mining lifestyle and raising their families. The company offices and the homes of the smelter officials and their families were located on Nob Hill, an elite area above the smelter. 

The large beautiful homes were built with the finest materials available, including a copper roof. To complete the upper-class setting, there were beautifully landscaped and manicured fenced yards, luxury cars and even a riding stable (including the horses) made available for the officials and their families. 

In 1906, the Arctic Ice house was built on Main Street. A luxury commodity, ice was shipped by rail up to the mining towns in the area. Humboldt had two daily trains, which connected it to Prescott and other mining towns around the county. 

The education of the children was a top priority to the community and the large (320 square miles) Humboldt School District # 22 was established in 1906. By 1908, the school population had doubled. There were forty-three students in a one-room school building. A new schoolhouse was built in 1908, which also served as a polling place and was among the first buildings in Humboldt to be served by a local water company. (Later, a determined group of citizens recognized the need for an even larger school, housing grades one through ten, and, in 1926 a three-story, domed school was built. There was pride in every phase of construction of the new school. This school burned to the ground in 1932, probable arson. A postcard picture of the school may be found in the Days Past article dated 9-14-03.) 

A tradition of celebrating Labor Day began in 1907 with the establishment of 'Agua Fria Days.' These hard working miners' observance of this holiday was a well-deserved break from day after day laboring in the mines. Labor Day was a festive occasion in Humboldt. Extra cars were added to the train and special excursion trains brought famous people from across the miles to help celebrate. More than a thousand people were in Humboldt to celebrate the festivities which included a parade, marching bands, burro rides through the streets, horse races, pie eating contests, baseball games, bronco busting and rock drilling contests. The celebration would culminate with a grand ball at the school building. 

By 1916, Humboldt was bustling with activity. the population had swelled to a thousand residents, there were five restaurants, three hotels, boarding houses, three mining companies, several retail stores, a hospital, a railroad depot, a movie theater, churches, ten saloons and, of course, no western town would be complete without a brothel or two. 

Hale and hearty, Humboldt's economy was booming in 1917. The railroad yard was accommodating 559 cars and more than 2,000,000 pounds of pure copper and lead left the smelter each month, mostly from the DeSoto and Blue Bell Mines in the Bradshaw Mountains. It appeared there was no end to the prosperity in Humboldt. 

Suddenly, winds of change began to blow. Humboldt was about to experience an economic metamorphosis. 

(Mary Leavitt lives in Prescott Valley.) 

 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (citn164pc)
Reuse only by permission.
This photograph, c.1890s, of what was then known as Val Verde, later renamed Humboldt.