Doredor Mine: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Coronado National Memorial, National Park Service

Spude, Robert; Mardorf, Carrie

Doredor Mine is located in Montezuma Canyon of the Huachuca Mountains, in the west central portion of Coronado National Memorial. Situated near the U.S./Mexico border in Cochise County, Arizona, the mine represents the movement of the Western mining frontier into the southeast corner of Arizona subsequent to the expansion of mining operations at nearby Tombstone and Bisbee during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The development of Doredor Mine was closely linked to history and individuals of these towns. First claimed in 1878, most development at Doredor Mine occurred during the early twentieth century by the Mitchell Development Company. From 1903 to 1906, the company opened the mining claims using air drills and ventilations systems. A mining camp was constructed with office/assay shop, residences, and a mess hall. At the mine site itself, a shaft and adit were dug using a steam-powered hoist. In 1906, the company disbanded and the mining claims were eventually acquired by the landscape’s namesake, H. Bruce Doredor. Capitalizing on the improvements completed by the Mitchell Development Company, Doredor operated the mine from 1906 through World War I. Afterwards, production ceased with a decline in the minerals market. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, mining activity at Doredor was limited, if not non-existent. The last attempt to work the mine was in 1939, by Bill Clark and Bill Smith. Today, the major visible resources are the mine dump created by opening the claims; the 700’ adit (tunnel), shaft and open cut; and the foundations and remains of buildings, including equipment (steam boiler for the hoist engine and derelict traction engine). The underground workings have become a hazard, and the adit and shaft openings are netted off as part of the abandoned mine lands reclamation program of the 1980s. Low-grade ore samples can be found atop the dump, providing evidence of the galena, azurite, chalcopyrite, and other ores worked. A derelict, partially salvaged traction engine (early tractor) also sits at the mine workings. The bench remains where the compressor shed and black smith shop stood, as does the steam boiler and base for the hoist system. The blacksmith shop was used in sharpening drills and the manufacture of small parts, as well as for general camp needs such as shoeing mules. No ore cars remain on the site, but evidence of the surface tram system connecting mine adit to dump can be traced. South of the mine, remnants of the combined office and assay shop mark the mining camp location. The camp historically included a cluster of wood frame buildings for housing and mess, all of which have been removed although their outlines and former locations are still evident. The company also used two rubble stone buildings, the most prominent structures on the site, which may have been built by the nineteenth century prospectors/first claimants. A later operator added a garage in 1938-9; it was later removed except for the small concrete slab. The foundations and remnants of camp buildings, the derelict machinery, and the mining adit, cut, and dump all support an understanding of the associated story of small scale mining in Arizona, and specifically an isolated operation in the Huachuca Mountains. The resources within the mine site are entirely within the boundaries of Coronado National Memorial and include the claims patented and operated by H. Bruce Doredor of Bisbee, as well as various early twentieth century mining corporations. These resources are eligible for listing on the National Register due to the fact that they illustrate the evolution of the history of mining in Arizona from 1878 to 1939. Sections of the mine have been removed or eroded, yet many of the structures and features remain and the feel of the landscape persists. The isolation of the landscape, a backcountry hike-in site, has helped to preserve its integrity.

Doredor Mine: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Coronado National Memorial, National Park Service

Series