James Douglas, Jr.

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James Stuart Douglas, Jr (1867-1949), popularly known as "Rawhide Jimmy", was the son of James Douglas; both men were important figures in Arizona and Sonora mining history. Born in Quebec, Jimmy Douglas grew up in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, where his father managed a copper refinery. At age 17, he moved west to Manitoba. In 1889 he moved to Arizona, working for the mines near Bisbee and Prescott, Arizona. He laid out the townsite of Douglas, Arizona, named for his father. In 1900 he moved to Sonora to manage the copper mine and smelter at Pilares and Nacozari, and directed construction of a railroad from Douglas to Nacozari. While at Pilares, he acquired his nickname by using rawhide to protect the rollers on mining equipment.^[1]

He then moved to Cananea, Sonora, to manage the copper operations there. His tenure was marked by riots and labor problems, which were endemic to the Cananea mines.

The Douglas Mansion in Jerome.

In 1912, Jimmy Douglas returned to central Arizona, where he took an option on the United Verde Extension(UVX) property, a speculative venture to find the downfaulted extension of the great United Verde orebody at Jerome, Arizona. In 1914, with funds near exhaustion, an exploration drift cut bonanza copper ore. The UVX became a spectacularly profitable mine: during 1916 alone, the mine produced $10 million worth of copper, silver and gold, of which $7.4 million was profit.^[2] The UVX paid $55 million in dividends during its life (1915-1938), and made Jimmy Douglas a very wealthy man. His Jerome mansion is open to the public as the Jerome State Historic Park.

Jimmy Douglas's son Lewis W. Douglas (1894-1974) also entered the mining business, and went on to become a US Congressman (1926-33) and Ambassador to England (1947-51). The copper-roofed cottage on the hillside adjacent to the Douglas Mansion was built as a wedding present for Lewis.

Jimmy Douglas retired to Canada, where he died in 1949.