August 25, 2007, 20:25
Larry BuchanBeautiful pocket watch charm, the owner must have worked on the El Paso and South Western Railroad, which began as a 36-mile line from the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee Arizona to a connection with the Santa Fe row Road at Fairbank, Arizona and the 1880s. The Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company was a subsidiary of Phelps Dodge Corp. and its goal was to build a railroad to transport copper anodes from its smelter at Bisbee to a refinery in El Paso.
At the turn of the century there was a great demand for copper, due to the increasing use of electricity, and the railroad was completed to El Paso. The Phelps Dodge Corp. formed the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Company on June 25, 1901. At its peak the railroad consisted of 1200 miles of road, after World War I, the price of copper decline, Phelps Dodge Corp. decided to concentrate on copper production and sold the El Paso and Southwestern to the Southern Pacific for $64 million. The ICC approved and the Southern Pacific took over operations November 1, 1924.
The elk on the other side would indicate he was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States of America (BPOE), whose first Lodge is located in New York, and opened on March 12, 1871.
August 25, 2007, 23:04
Gene PianoHi Larry, great info on the listing. Regards Geno
