Located east of Prescott, Bagdad grew to house workers in the nearby copper mine. Legend has it the name was derived from the first miners, who were a father and son team. They hauled the ore out on mule teams in bags. The son mined and filled the bags with ore. When he needed another bag to fill, he would yell, "bag Dad". Hence the name ... Bagdad.
Bagdad History
The Bagdad story is a very unique one. Bagdad was the last modern day,
independent copper mine that started out as a prospect and was developed
without the support of a major company or sister companies into a
respectable-producing copper mine. It maintained its independence for
about 90 years until it merged with Cyprus Mines Corporation in 1973.
Bagdad was also very unique in the areas of research and development.
New to mining was the churn drilling of a low grade disseminated copper ore body in the early
1900's; block caving as a low cost mining system; small roasting plants
for the treatment of concentrates at the mine site; truck designs; and
later, the introduction of some high technology processing of copper
into finished copper products.
Also new was the introduction of profit sharing to the copper mining
industry. There had been company towns before, but none like Bagdad.
There was no union. Rather, the employees were given fringe benefits
freely by the company. This non-union status allowed the employees to
consider themselves a part of the company and they were often referred
to as being family. The struggle to make Bagdad a successful mining
operation was won due to this attitude among the employees.
The approach to the town is by a wide section of road following Bridle
Creek. The clean neat appearance of the town is the first thing first
time visitors notice. Another initial observation about the town is the
Spanish Architecture. Houses were built by the company in 1976 and 1979
as permanent residences to replace older frame houses. All the houses
were red-roofed with white walls and has entrances with arches wherever
possible. The main street with the Shopping Center also carries out the
Spanish theme. The town of Bagdad grew out of the need for housing the
employees of the mine.
At one time the Company operated a store as a nonprofit operation. This
has since been
acquired by the store chain Basha's. Also the Company maintained a
eleven-bed hospital fully staffed with doctors, nurses, a radiologist
and a lab technician. That practice has been replaced by a staff of
Physicians Assistants governed by a doctor from the Prescott area. The
risk of the town becoming a "ghost town" has long since past. Individual
stores and services are now available to the community.
*Information provided by www.Baddad-Az.com
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