Clemenceau is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

of the city of Cottonwood in

Yavapai County Yavapai County ( ) is a county near the center of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 236,209, making it the fourth-most populous county in Arizona. The county seat is Prescott. Yavapai County comprises the Pr ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, United States. It was built as a

company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...

in 1917 to serve the new

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zin ...

for James Douglas, Jr.'s United Verde Extension Mine (UVX) in

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

. The town was originally named Verde after the mine, but it was changed to Clemenceau in 1920 in honor of the French premier in World War I,

Georges Clemenceau Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who was Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A physician turned journalist, he played a central role in the poli ...

, a personal friend of Douglas. Clemenceau would later leave a vase designed by the French potter

Ernest Chaplet Ernest Chaplet (1835 in Sèvres – 1909 in Choisy-le-Roi) was a French designer, sculptor and ceramist. He was a key figure in the French art pottery movement, and his works are held in international public collections such as the Musée d'Orsay ...

to the town in return.

History

Originally named Verde, the town was renamed Clemenceau in 1920, both to honor

and to avoid possible confusion with nearby Camp Verde. Though now a part of the city of Cottonwood, Verde as it was known had its own post office and station on the Clarkdale branch of the

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at variou ...

. "Actual construction of Verde, the United Verde Extension's smelter town in the valley, will probably be under way by January 1," the Jerome ''News'' reported on November 9, 1917. "The company will not begin work on its proposed Hogback town, at the east edge of Jerome, before summer at the earliest, and probably not then. So stated General Manager George Kingdon today in a general discussion of the U. V. Extension building plans." The smelter town had homes for workers, a school, bank, and a clubhouse, and its population varied between 1,000 and 5,000. To deliver

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...

to the smelter from Jerome, Douglas built the Arizona-Extension Railway, a two-branch

shortline railroad A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that operates over a relatively short distance relative to larger, national railroad networks. The term is used primarily in the United States and Canada. In the former, railroads are ...

. The western branch ran between Clemenceau and the eastern portal of the Josephine Tunnel, which connected to the UVX Mine. The eastern branch ran between Clemenceau and Clarkdale. On July 16, 1918, Verde was the scene of a violent confrontation when a handful of Mexican laborers collided with area lawmen attempting to enforce the War Department's so called "work or fight order" during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Former Yavapai County Sheriff James R. Lowry, then serving as a deputy sheriff at the smelter, was shot and killed during the incident. His assailant was later killed during an exchange of gunfire with an off-duty peace officer near Camp Verde. The Clemenceau smelter closed in 1937. Most residents then left the area. When Cottonwood was incorporated in 1960, Clemenceau and the Clemenceau Airport were included in its boundaries. With the exception of the school, the bank/post office and the smelter

slag The general term slag may be a by-product or co-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and recycled metals depending on the type of material being produced. Slag is mainly a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Broadly, it can be c ...

pile, little remains of the original town of Clemenceau. A largely invisible remnant is the Clemenceau Water Company, which still serves the area of the old town of Clemenceau. The town of Cottonwood bought the company in 2004, but it still operates as a separate entity, as of 2006.

Clemenceau Heritage Museum

The Clemenceau Heritage Museum occupies most of the old Clemenceau School, which operated from 1924 through 1986. The 1918 Clemenceau Bank and Post Office building is also part of the museum. The museum has displays on mining, ranching, and farming in the

Verde Valley The Verde Valley (; ) is a valley in central Arizona in the United States. The Verde River runs through it. The Verde River is one of Arizona's last free-flowing river systems. It provides crucial habitat for fish and wildlife, fresh water fo ...

, and preserves archives and artifacts from the area. An elaborate working model-railroad display depicts the nine railroads that once operated in the region.

Douglas and Clemenceau

James Douglas, Jr., bought an apartment in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

for his friend,

, in 1926, for his retirement home. This building later became the

Musée Clemenceau The Musée Clemenceau () is a house museum located in the 16th arrondissement at 8, rue Benjamin Franklin, Paris, France. It is open in the afternoons of Tuesday through Saturday, except in August; an admission fee is charged. The closest métro s ...

Notable residents and visitors

Jack Frye William John Frye (March 18, 1904 – February 3, 1959) was an American aviation pioneer in the airline industry. He founded Standard Air Lines which eventually took him into a merger with Trans World Airlines (TWA). He is credited for turning ...

's personal airplane, a

TWA The Twa, often referred to as Batwa or Mutwa (singular), are indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, recognized as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. Historically and academically, the term � ...

Lockheed Model 10 Electra The Lockheed Model 10 Electra is an American twin-engined, all-metal monoplane airliner developed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, which was produced primarily in the 1930s to compete with the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-2. The type gained ...

with tail number NC18137, was frequently based at the Clemenceau Airport. Frye had a vacation ranch near

Sedona Sedona ( ) is a city that straddles the county line between Coconino and Yavapai counties in the northern Verde Valley region of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census, its population was 10,031. The city is within the Coconino Nati ...

, now

Red Rock State Park Red Rock State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a red sandstone canyon outside the city of Sedona. The main mission of this day-use park is the preservation of the riparian habitat along Oak Creek. Red Rock State Park ...

References

External links

Official Clemenceau Heritage Museum website

Archives at Clemenceau Heritage Museum

– ghosttowns.com {{authority control Company towns in Arizona Georges Clemenceau Clemenceau Heritage Museum Museums in Yavapai County, Arizona Mining museums in the United States Mining in Arizona Neighborhoods in Arizona Populated places in Yavapai County, Arizona Populated places established in 1917