Bagdad, Arizona

  I watched a high school football game in Bagdad on Halloween, 2008. There are usually school security guards or security personnel at football games and Bagdad was no different. What was different, however, was seeing a security guard from the mining company on duty at the game. The security guard had a patch that said "Freeport McMoran" on both of his sleeves. There was also a Yavapai County Sheriff's Deputy on duty at the game.
  Life in a company town is more orderly than it is in "regular" towns.  Not only because of the sameness of most of the housing stock, but there is more of an equality in incomes among the residents of the town. Oh, I realize there are different pay scales depending on the position within the company, but there is still a much smaller discrepancy in incomes in a company town than there is in a "regular" town. Most everybody in town knows what the inside of most the houses in town look like because most of the houses are the same. The only houses that are different belong to mining company managers and supervisors. 
  The supermarket in town was once operated by the mining company, but now is operated by Basha's Supermarkets, a Chandler, Arizona based supermarket chain that operates almost exclusively in Arizona except for one store in New Mexico and one store in California. It is still owned by Freeport McMoran, however, and I am sure they get a percentage of the profits. The transition from company store to supermarket chain seems to coincide with the buyout of Cyprus Bagdad Copper Company by Phelps Dodge, which was, in turn, purchased by Freeport McMoran.
The supermarket is part of Copper Plaza Shopping Center. This shopping center used to include Stockmen's Bank, but it closed and there are now, in its place, two credit unions, the Arizona State Credit Union and the Basha's Employees Credit Union. There used to be a one screen movie theater in this shopping center, but it closed in the mid 1990s and is now part video arcade and part video rental store. There are two convenience stores in Bagdad, one closes at approximately 5:00 or 6:00p.m. and the other closes at 10:00 p.m.
There are a few small cafes in town, but they seem to have limited hours. When I watched that football game in Bagdad in 2008, I ate at the deli at Basha's because none of the cafes seemed to be open.
  Just like many small towns across America are dominated by a county courthouse or a City Hall in the middle of town, Bagdad is dominated by the Corporate Offices for Freeport McMoran's Bagdad Mining District.
  Main Street in Bagdad runs east-west through town and, just past the high school, enters the mine. It is a big, open pit copper mine. It runs on a round-the-clock schedule.
  The high school is actually a high school/middle school combination and there is an elementary school on the north side of town.
   Bagdad sits at an elevation of 4,101 feet above sea level. The highway into town makes a steep climb to reach Bagdad. In fact, the junction of Highways 96 and 97, four miles east of town, sits in a saguaro cactus studded landscape while Bagdad, just a short distance away, sits at too high of an elevation for saguaros to grow. The saguaros just east of Bagdad are among the highest elevation saguaros in existence.
  There is a clinic in Bagdad, next to the mine entrance, but it used to be a full fledged, 11 bed  hospital. The pharmacy in the clinic is operated by Fry's Food and Drug, which is another Arizona supermarket chain that is headquatered in Tolleson. Fry's  runs the pharmacy in Bagdad while Basha's runs the supermarket.