Historic find in Bisbee courthouse

from KVOA

A woman who works at the Cochise County Courthouse stumbled upon original
documents that may reveal history pertaining to the Bisbee Deportations of
1917.

Fran Ranaccelli says she found a box full of the documents in the evidence
room of the county courthouse, "As I looked it said 1917, I.W.W. and I
just froze."

The box contains documents including witness affidavits, and subpoenas of
the court case that followed the round up of more than 1200 miners in
Bisbee after they went on a strike citing improper working conditions.

The miners who were members of the International Workers of the World were
rounded up and put on a train and then transported to Columbus, New Mexico
where they were abandoned on July 12, 1917. Two days later U.S. troops
rescued the men.

UA Vice Provost and Historian Dr. Juan Garcia says finding these documents
may offer a painful insight into Arizona history during World War I.

"Nativism and hysteria generated by war can lead people to do things that
they normally wouldn't do," Garcia said.

The documents are the first original items from the Bisbee Deportation to
be found at the Cochise County courthouse.

Superior Court Clerk Denise Lundin says the documents will become archived.

"We're finding history and we're looking at a document signed by a person
who's long dead, who really tells us a story through those documents,"
Lundin says.

University of Arizone web archive on Bisbee deportations