Copper 101 with Bob Bigando

Local historian, author and museum director for the Gila Historical Museum, Bob Bigando will be the featured speaker for Bullion Plaza’s Second Friday Lecture Series in October.

His talk, titled Copper 101, will trace the early mining history of Globe-Miami from the time the Woolsey Expedition first discovered copper in the region to 1915 when the International Smelter and Refining Company commissioned the new smelter.

Bigando, who is the author of "Globe, Arizona: The Life and Times of a Western Mining Town" first published in 1984, will draw on his remarkable range of sources used in the book and his museum work including the Arizona Silver Belt’s microfilm collection, archives at the Arizona State Historical Society and Sharlot Hall Museum, records from both the Maricopa and Gila County Recorders, and photographs pulled from the unsorted collection of the Clara T. Woody Museum. His work has become a cornerstone for anyone wanting to understand Globe-Miami’s mining and cultural heritage.

The lecture will include a look at historic records and rare photo collections as Bigando introduces his audience to the copper ores, geology, and mining practices that shaped the community’s foundation.

The lecture is free and open to the public.