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ECRWSS Carrier Route PreSorted Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 371 Cave Creek, AZ
Cave Creek Fire PAGE
Margaret Sullivan
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TheFoothillsFocus.com
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This Week
Cave Creek - Carefree Area Edition
BUSINESS ......... 14
FEATURES ........ 15 Holiday gift card specials are aplenty
YOUTH ............. 21 Desert Foothills Library December events
OPINION ................... 10 BUSINESS ................. 14 FEATURES ................ 15 YOUTH ...................... 21 CLASSIFIEDS ............ 22 2
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Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Stamp mill celebrates Arizona’s gold mining history BY SIERRA ALVAREZ Cronkite News
‘No Flea Market’ event set for Pet Supplies Plus
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en steel rods, each weighing 1,000 pounds, pulverize gold-bearing rocks into sand, releasing the precious metal from the ore, which is then further refined with mercury to extract every flake. This is a stamp mill, a 19th century invention that saved miners from extracting precious minerals by hand, which took far more time and effort. The stamping process — recreated at the Cave Creek Museum’s Arizona Gold Mining Experience — was used at the turn of the 20th century across much of Arizona, which has a storied history of mining.
The museum hosts monthly demonstrations of the Golden Reef Stamp Mill & Tramway to show what it was like for miners in the Cave Creek Mining District, where the first claims were made in the 1870s. The demonstrations will continue through May on the second Saturday of each month. Because stamp mills require water and mines typically were on mountaintops without water, miners built tramways to transfer ore in buckets from mines to the stamp mill at a lower elevation. The Golden Reef Stamp Mill was built in 1910 on Continental Mountain northeast of town. It was donated to the museum in 2008, and staff and volunteers toiled five years to restore it. The tramway tower is a
replica of the original, built in 1913, which transferred ore 2,000 feet down the mountain. At the museum, the shortened tramway hauls ore from the crusher up to the stamps. When the donated mill arrived, it was just pieces of metal on the ground and three pieces of wood, said Evelyn Johnson, the Cave Creek Museum’s interim executive director. The mill is the only 10-stamp mill in Arizona that’s still in its original mining district. “There’s all this equipment and all these parts of the old mining experience that we want people to understand what it was like to be a miner, what their life was like,
ties Wishes for Teachers program. “They may not wear capes, but teachers are real-life superheroes. They give tirelessly to their students and Wishes for Teachers is our opportunity to reward them for their efforts,” said Jeff Meshey, president and CEO at Desert Financial. “Desert Financial was founded by teachers. We continue their legacy by returning as the title partner for this year’s Wishes for Teachers, in partnership with Fiesta Bowl Charities. Teach-
ers often pay for school supplies out of their own pockets, so there’s no greater way to express our gratitude than by granting their classroom wishes.” Through a three-day Virtual Draft Day presented by Salt River Project (SRP), 400 teachers from K-12 schools were each given $2,500 to grant a wish in their classrooms. The winners were chosen based on a program in the fall wherein any Arizo-
see MINING page 4
Foothills teachers see their wishes granted BY FOOTHILLS FOCUS STAFF
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lthough Thanksgiving was technically celebrated on Nov. 25 this year, 400 Arizona teachers — including more than 60 in the West Valley — feted it early. During the first days of November, in what has become an annual tradition to honor, support and celebrate Arizona’s teachers, the Fiesta Bowl Organization awarded $1 million to teachers through the Desert Financial Fiesta Bowl Chari-
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see TEACHERS page 5
