Copper

specimen number:
2102301

location:
Dallas Shaft, Bisbee, Cochise Co., Arizona, USA

description:
Accrued crystallized grouping of native copper. Complete all around and in good condition.

The Dallas Shaft, located in the Warren District of Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona, was a major underground production unit within one of the most famous copper-mining regions in the world. Geologically, the deposit is centered on the Sacramento Hill porphyry stock, where hydrothermal fluids replaced Paleozoic limestones (specifically the Escabrosa and Martin Formations) with massive sulfide bodies and enriched copper-replacement ores. The site was developed for large-scale industrial mining to access deep-seated ore bodies that were not reachable via earlier surface quarrying or shallower shafts. Historically, the Dallas Shaft was sunk in the early 1900s, around 1905, by the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, which later became part of Phelps Dodge Corporation. It served as a primary hoisting and ventilation shaft for decades, reaching depths of several thousand feet to tap into the high-grade copper, gold, and silver veins that defined the district's wealth. Significant mining and quarrying activities at the Dallas continued throughout the mid-20th century, with operations finally winding down in the mid-1970s as the underground reserves were depleted and the district transitioned away from deep-shaft extraction. Today, the Dallas remains a key historical landmark of the Bisbee landscape, representing the era of intense industrial underground development that made Arizona a global leader in copper production.

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