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Big plans are in the works for Miami’s historic 155-step Keystone Stairs, as the first phase of extensive renovation plans takes shape. It is a project intended to draw more visitors to the area and illuminate the town’s mining history.
The initial phase of the Historic Keystone Stairs Project will include remodeling walkways and concrete steps from the foot of the stairs to their second section, and adding retaining walls next to the stairs, said Miami Town Manager Alexis Rivera.
A contractor was chosen for the first phase on January 27. The Miami Town Council voted unanimously to award the bid to Accelerated Construction and enter a construction agreement.
Rivera said work would start within 10 days of Council approval and was anticipated to take 40 to 60 days to finish, weather permitting. Safety, he added, would be “one of the critical, important elements,” along with preservation of the stairs. Retaining walls will be critical to avoid erosion when it rains.
Another project goal is to replace missing handrails along the stairs.
“I think over the years they just kind of weathered,” said Evelyn Vargas, the town’s economic development director and a member of the non-profit organization Hearts of Miami Engaged (HOME), which conceived the project.
“We would like to get the rails the same if we could, but we’re also going to have to be ADA compliant, so we’ll probably have to put a second rail maybe 18 inches high to protect smaller children who are walking up the stairs,” she added.
The Town received a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) of approximately $200,000 in 2022 to fund the design, engineering, and construction of this initial phase. Rivera said more funding would be needed to continue the restoration to the top of the stairs – and that is where HOME will come in.
But first, a bit of history:
The original concept for the Keystone Stairs goes back to around 1910. The Daily Arizona Silver Belt reported on Jan. 15, 1910 that a survey for a “step road” in Miami would occur within the next two days. The projected stairway would follow an existing trail that started next to the Gila Valley Bank building on Gibson Street.
“There was a trail there back in the day that workers would use to get up to the mines,” said Miami Town Councilmember Jose “Angel” Medina Sr. “There were many, many mines here.”
The stairs were still just a proposal in March 1915, when three men came to the Town Council for financial assistance. A fourth man, H.Ogle Tunis, presented tentative plans for the stairs (during the same Council meeting, Tunis was appointed Town Engineer). Land was to be donated by the Miami Townsite Company.
Work on the stairs began in mid-April 1915, with Town Engineer Tunis in charge and an estimated cost of $900. Half the money was donated by citizens, half by the Town of Miami. The Silver Belt reported the steps were five feet wide with iron pipe handrails – and would be illuminated with lights donated by the Miami Electric Company.
“The walk will be finished in about ten days and will be a great convenience to the residents of Miami Hill in their trips to and from the business sestion [sic] of the town,” said the Silver Belt.
Today, the Town of Miami is looking to revive the stairs for different purposes.
“I think a lot of different people along the years had the idea to renovate the Keystone Stairs because they’re such a great part of Miami mining history,” Vargas said. “When HOME was looking at it, our idea was to put a story along the stairs as part of the fundraising, so we wanted to put silhouettes of miners, and benches, and make storyboards that told stories of miners of the old times.”
HOME’s fundraising ideas also include placing small mining equipment along the stairs, dedicating individual steps to relatives who worked in Miami’s mines, and, eventually, sponsored lookout decks. Vargas said some donations for those decks had already come in. There is also hope to eventually bring light back to the stairs so they can be used at night.
For now, HOME plans to work side by side with Accelerated Construction on the first phase.
Steps in good condition will not be modified,Vargas said, stating that there are a few areas where they will have to be re-poured, but the original sand finish will be restored. The renovation will also probably include removal of the stairs’ current red and white paint.
“We want to keep them pretty much to as original as we can because we want people to experience what the miners experienced,” he added.
The project is very challenging, Rivera said, due not only to fundraising but also geography and access.
“It’s a very expensive project, very difficult for delivery [of concrete] because of the high elevation and the narrow area,” he said. “At the same time, we as a town need to fix the roads. It’s necessary in order to have a very approachable way to use the stairs.”
To that end, Rivera said the Town is pursuing different grants for street repair.
“There are a lot of little details that need to be put in place to finalize this project,” he added.
More than 100 years later, it is hopefully only a matter of time before the Keystone Stairs are brought back to life.
David Sowders, who now lives in Globe, has been in southern Arizona since childhood and grew up in Tucson. David earned an associate of applied sciences degree from Eastern Arizona College. He has 10-plus years of experience as a newspaper reporter and editor in Safford and Globe, and his articles have won several Arizona Newspapers Association awards. Writing, hiking and discovering new places around Southern Arizona are some of his greatest joys.
