Central Arizona Research

Clarkdale was founded in 1912 by copper magnate William Andrews Clark as a company town for the United Verde Copper Company smelter, built along the Verde River to process ore brought down from the mines at Jerome. Unlike neighboring communities that grew as the terrain allowed, Clarkdale was laid out in advance to a single master plan, making it the first planned community in Arizona. Everything was owned by the company and rented rather than sold, and the smelter drove the local economy for nearly four decades until it closed in the early 1950s and much of the population left. Clarkdale incorporated in 1957 and found renewed footing with the opening of a cement plant two years later.