This is a list which includes a photographic gallery, of historic structures, of significance in Globe, Arizona, a mining town. Some are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Globe is located in the heart of Arizona's Tonto National Forest on U.S. Routes 60. Also, pictured is the historic Southern Pacific Railroad Steam Engine #1774 and the North and Broad Street Overpass.
Brief history
Among the first people known to inhabit the area where Globe is situated were the prehistoric Salado people, who established the Besh Ba Gowah Pueblo. No one knows what happened to the Salado and why they disappeared. The San Carlos Apache's and other Native American tribes settled the area that once belonged to the Salado's.
The first Europeans to arrive in the area were the Spanish conquistadors. Captain Don Garcia de Cardenas and his party arrived in Arizona, which at the time was part of "New Mexico", in 1540. In 1582, Antonio de Espejo organized a silver prospecting expedition in the area. They did not have any luck in their venture. The area became part of Mexico when Mexico gained its independence from Spain.
The United States fought against Mexico in what is known as the Mexican–American War. The war ended officially when the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed and forced onto the remnant Mexican government. It specified its major consequence, the Mexican Cession of the northern territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México to the United States.
Two of the men who organized their own gold prospecting parties were Corydon E. Cooley, a physician who once treated a sick Apache and Calvin Jackson, a saloon keeper. Cooley had served as a First Lieutenant in the Second New Mexico Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. On September 26, 1869, he joined forces with Jackson after being attacked by the Apaches several times. They did not find gold, however they did find silver.
The prospecting parties which followed were constantly attacked by the Apaches in the Pinal Mountain area. Therefore, in 1871, the U. S. Army sent General George Crook in an expedition into the area to suppress the Apaches. The complex and bloody expedition became known as the Tonto campaigns. Crook was able to terminate the Apache resistance by 1873. New teams of prospectors began to stake their claims and they organized the Pinal Mining Company.
In 1872, the United States Government established the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The miners asked the Secretary of the Interior, Francis Amasa Walker, to remove part of the region which would become the 'Globe Mining District'. Walker complied with the request and the Mining Act of 1872 was adopted. The act became the official law governing the district. The townsite of 'Globe City' was officially laid out in July 1876. Globe became the seat of Gila County, a new Arizona county, in February 1881.
The price of silver had decreased by 1881, however by the same token the price of copper increased. The Old Dominian Copper Mining Company began to flourish. Copper mining is the most profitable venture in Globe.
The Besh Ba Gowah ruins
About a mile southwest from Globe are the ruins of Besh-Ba-Gowah a Salado masonry pueblo. The Salado were a melting pot of cultures. As visitors and immigrants came through the Salado area, their practices, lifestyles and customs were adopted and adapted based on practicality, applicability and necessity to the Salado peoples. They were farmers who used mud and rocks to construct multistory dwellings, or pueblos in the siltstone hills.
The Besh-Ba-Gowah pueblo consisted of 200-rooms and overlooks Pinal Creek. The Salado occupied this site between AD 1225 and AD 1400. Besh-Ba-Gowah is considered one of the Salado culture "type sites". At least 150 burials were exhumed from the central plaza. Archaeologists have discovered that a social structure including elites with substantial material differences existed by studying the preparation of the deceased and the mortuary offerings buried with the dead.
What became of the Salado people is a mystery. Archaeologists nor Historians know the reason or reasons that the Salado disappeared. The San Carlos Apache's and other Native American tribes later settled these lands. The site is operated by the city as Besh Ba Gowah Archaeological Park and Museum and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 9, 1984, Ref. #84000648.