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Swansea Townsite
Fiscal
Year 2002 Stabilization
Swansea Townsite, located in a very
remote part of Arizona's western desert, is an historic copper
mining "ghost town" that was at its heyday around 1910.
Its fortunes rose and fell with the price of copper, but it finally
succumbed to the Great Depression and was closed for good in 1937.
The following decades of abandonment and neglect took a serious
toll on Swansea's adobe and stone buildings.
The Townsite's remaining structures
and landscape represent the evolution
and development of one of Arizona's early copper mining camps,
spanning the late Territorial and early statehood periods. Swansea
well illustrates the effects of the boom and bust cycles typical
of the mining industry in Arizona and elsewhere in the West. The
history of Swansea reflects a critical transition period in the
western mining industry. It illustrates how the industry responded
to new challenges associated with the need to generate substantial
amounts of capital, deal with a changing labor-management environment,
and create new technologies and processes critical to the development
of the West's abundant but low-grade copper ores.
Swansea's industrial and residential
buildings are rapidly losing structural integrity. This poses
a threat both to the buildings as a physical component of the
historic landscape, and a threat to the public's safety. The west
wall of the brick dust chamber fell in a windstorm in 1993. The
north wall of this building, a prominent landmark, is the only
standing structure representing the industrial complex. Emergency
stabilization of this wall is critically needed. A barrier fence,
compatible with the historic setting, also needs to be constructed
to allow the public to view the dust chamber from a safe distance.
The additional "At Risk" funds we received this year,
totaling $15,000, will help us accomplish this work.
Emergency stabilization of Swansea's
adobe railroad depot and the company residences has been ongoing
since 1997.  The
townsite has been inventoried and mapped, and historic documentation
compiled. Off-highway vehicle barriers, signs, and an information
kiosk have been installed. Day-use campsites are being developed
to channel visitor impacts to specific locations. An adobe stabilization
project at Swansea received a 1999 Arizona Heritage Preservation
Award sponsored by the Governor of Arizona, the Arizona Preservation
Foundation and the State Historic Preservation Office.
The previous work at Swansea was accomplished
with the assistance of volunteers from the Arizona Archaeological
Society and the Arizona Site Steward Program. National Park Service
staff and the State Historic Preservation Office have also assisted
with stabilization efforts. The current need for stabilizing the
north wall of the dust chamber and erecting barriers for public
safety will be contracted to engineering and construction professionals.
However, we anticipate continued interest and participation from
community volunteers in our ongoing efforts to stabilize the buildings
in the Townsite. La Paz County is supportive of our plans to develop
Swansea for public visitation.
The historic and natural resources
found in the Swansea Historic District offer outstanding opportunities
to educate the public about this important component of the State's
history. With improved management, Swansea will be able to provide
the visitor with an all-day experience, exploring the hiking and
interpretive trails, learning about the variety of resources in
the Bill Williams River valley, and using the camping and day-use
recreation facilities that have been developed. Swansea is one
of the few such sites on public lands within close proximity and
with easy accessibility to seasonally high population areas along
the Lower Colorado River. Keeping Swansea open and safe for the
public to visit, with its historic features intact, helps meet
the demands of a growing Arizona heritage tourism market.
Swansea is now getting a new lease
on life sixty years after it was abandoned, largely because of
the increasing public demand for heritage tourism opportunities.
Its remaining historic values are being protected, its safety
hazards are being addressed, it is providing education and recreation
for visitors, it is serving as a focal point for community involvement,
and it is attracting dollars to the local economy. Now that Swansea
is being actively managed as a heritage tourism site, we are more
confident that what remains of this piece of Arizona's past will
continue to be around for years to come.
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