Bagdad Arizona Copper Company Town

Bagdad, Arizona, is a remote copper mining town where Freeport-McMoRan, a major mining company, still owns all the housing and commercial buildings, making it one of the last true company towns in the United States. Over the twentieth century, most American company towns disappeared as industries shut down or companies sold homes and businesses to residents, turning those places into ordinary municipalities. Bagdad remained under company control because Freeport-McMoRan kept running the big open-pit copper mine and continued to hold the town’s property as part of its operations.

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