TOWN of MIAMI ARIZONA

Miami Town Hall 500 Sullivan Street Miami AZ 85539 (928) 473-4403

The Miami Town Hall offers a variety of services to the community.

The Town Council meets at 6:30 PM in the Council Chambers located next to the town hall. The council consists of seven elected members of the community; elections are held every two years. Police Department - 24 hour patrol town police with nine officers and four full time dispatchers. Phone 928-473-2466 or for EMERGENCY 911 Fire Department - The Town of Miami is served by the TRI-CITY FIRE DISTRICT which has a manned station less than 2 miles away from downtown. Miami has the lowest fire rating in Gila county with an ISO 3 rating (1 to 11 rating with 1 being the best) Phone (928) 473-2362 or for EMERGENCY 911 Public Works Department - handles all street, sewer and garbage services as well as maintains public buildings and parks. Phone (928) 473-2221 Senior Citizens- offers congregate meals and homebound meals to our elderly in the area for a donation only, they also have guest speakers, crafts, health screenings and bingo days at the center. Phone (928) 473-4190 Cobre Valley Community Transit - provides transportation to everyone in the community. They will take you to the store, doctor appointments and other errands for a nominal fee of $1.00 for scheduled appointments and $2.00 for same day calls, (these fees are for pick up and return). Our vans are air conditioned and equipped with wheel chair lifts for handicapped and elderly customers. Phone (928) 473-8222 Youth Center - supervised youth center, dances and other activities. Swimming Pool - open to the public during the summer time. Public Parks - with play ground equipment of the kids, BBQ grilles, picnic areas and modern restrooms. Town Hall serves as a pay station for Arizona Public Service (electricity) as a convenience to our citizens.

AREA INFORMATION

Population as of 2000 Town of Miami.....1,945 City of Globe........7,510 (6 miles East of Miami) Gila County........52,420 Arizona..........5,319,895 Climate Miami... National Avg Altitude 3411 1,058 Rainfall (inches annually) 19.3 38.8 Snowfall (inches annually) 1.0 24.4 January avg low temp 33.6 21.6 July avg high temp 96.5 86.4 Days of percipitation annually 40 112 Days mostly sunny annually 293 205 Medical Facilities Cobre Valley Community Hospital (928) 425-3261 Cobre Valley Community Hospital is located on Hospital Drive, which is south of the intersection of highways 60 and 188, off Russell Road (approx. 3 1/2 miles from Miami). The hospital offers 24-hour emergency department with full-service acute care and is licensed for 49 beds. The medical staff consists of 18 full-time physicians and 23 consulting physicians. Miami Area Unified School District The district presently serves 1,189 students, with an average classroom ratio of 14.5 students per teacher. The average is purposely lower for grades K-3, and slightly higher for grades 7-12. Questions about the district, and requests for information, may be directed to the Miami Area Unified School District 40 Office by calling (928) 425-3271, Fax (928) 425-7419, or by writing to: Superintendent of Schools Drawer H Miami AZ 85539 Museums, Art and Entertainment Bullion Plaza Museum and Culture Center..(928) 473-2332 Besh-ba-Gowah Archeological Park.........(928) 425-0320 Gila County Historical Museum............(928) 425-7385 Cobre Valley Center For The Arts.........(928) 425-0884 San Carlos Culture Center................(928) 475-2894 Tonto National Monument..................(928) 467-2241 Globe Theatre............................(928) 425-5581 Recreation Roosevelt Lake...................(928) 467-2238 San Carlos Lake..................(928) 475-2343 Besh-ba-Gowah Archeological Park.(928) 425-0320 Tonto National Monument..........(928) 467-2241 Golf Apache Stronghold Golf Course.........(928) 475-7800 Cobre Valle Country Club Golf Course..(928) 473-2542

HISTORY OF MIAMI ARIZONA

Miami is located in the mountains of south central Arizona, approximately 75 miles east of Phoenix and 110 miles north of Tucson. Humans have occupied the Pinal Creek watershed, in which the present day Miami is located, for hundreds of years. Sometime around 500A.D, Hohokam Indians began visiting the Pinal Creek region on a seasonal basis, passing through the area on trading expeditions or hunting for food and looking for turquoise. Over the next 400 to 600 years, they established permanent settlements along Pinal Creek and began cultivating crops in irrigated fields. From roughly 1200 to 1450 the Salado people occupied the area and Apaches arrived sometime around 1500. In the 1860's the first non-Indians penetrated in the Pinal Creek region with expeditions organized by Anglo settlers and soldiers for the purpose of recovering stolen livestock from Apache raiders or conducting warfare against the Apaches. Silver mining started in the surrounding areas in the 1870's and interest in mining gold and silver was far greater than any other kinds of metal, which included copper. It was not until the early 1880's when the price of silver dropped and the price of copper began to rise did the miners began to take an interest in copper deposits the had previously encountered. Copper ore with content of 5% to over 50% was being mined from copper vain and pockets in area surrounding Globe (7 miles east of Miami) but not in the Miami area. The large deposits in the Miami Wash - Pinto Creek area were a type known as porphyry deposits, a term that refers to bodies of ore in which the recoverable mineral (copper) is disseminated throughout the rock mass rather than concentrated vein or pockets. The porphyry deposit ore typically has only 2% to 3% copper content which was considered unprofitable to mine. Toward the end of the century as the countries as the reserves of higher grade ore (5% or high) dwindled while the demand for copper increased, the copper industry took new interest in porphyry deposits. New processes were developed to recover copper from porphyry ore, which made the very large ore deposits in the Miami region profitable to mine. In 1906, the Miami Copper Company began working the claims in the Miami area and the demand for men to work in the mines increased. Most of the men traveled to work on foot (no public transportation), few miners could afford to keep their horses and these new mines were located 7 miles west of Globe. These factors of the development of new large scale copper mines, and the need to provide miners with convent housing, shopping and places of amusement led to the founding of Miami Arizona. Miami was founded in 1907 when it was first developed by the Miami Land and Improvement Company when they purchased a tract of land on the upper end of Miami Flats (where the down-town present day Miami is located). In 1908 Cleve Van Dyke purchased the tract from the Miami Land and Improvement Company and also began purchasing adjacent tracts of land. It was not until two days after the first train arrived on the newly constructed railroad, 4th of October 1909 did the sale (and renting) of lots begin. At this point, the town was little more than an idea on paper. Only the roughest of streets had been graded, and no utilities of any kind were available. According to the ARIZONA SILVER BELT, 800 people were living in Miami at the beginning of 1910, an impressive number for a town that was only three months old. By the time a federal census taker arrived for the 1910 canvass, there were 1,390 residents in the Miami census precinct. Post Office was established on September 25, 1908 and was moved from the Miami Copper Company's residential camp into the new town site in December 1909. For years the Post Office building was on wheels and it was place on lots for sale. As these lots sold, the post office would be moved to another unsold lot. At times, the post office would be in a new location monthly and sometimes even weekly. The first concrete building erected in Miami was build by J. H. Fitzpatrick at the corner of Keystone Ave and Gibson in the fall of 1909 and is today's oldest building in town. This was a handsome two-story saloon and boarding house that was sometimes called the Mission.

Click on photos for larger view Keystone Ave & Sullivan Street 1910 Keystone Ave & Sullivan Street 1920. Mortor Car Train in Miami 1912 Kiamy's Grocery 1920's Sullivan Street 1920's

Ron Ruble Copyright (c) 2005