Superior, AZ

Superior is an old mining town in northern Pinal County, about 70 miles east of Phoenix and roughly the same distance north of Tucson. The town was founded around the Silver King mine and the later Magma operation, beginning with silver and moving into copper. Superior’s 2020 population was 2,407, and its geography is inseparable from Apache Leap and the mountain country around it.

ATTRBeyond My Ken / CC BY-SA 4.0

Silver King claims began in 1875, then the Magma Mine carried the copper era through much of the twentieth century. The townsite was laid out in 1902 and named for the Lake Superior and Arizona Copper Company; the Magma operation ultimately closed in 1996 after producing copper, zinc, gold, and silver. The old mine story is still part of town life through the Caboose Center, mine-history trail, and Silver King mine and graveyard. The proposed Resolution Copper project keeps the mining future in conversation, while Superior Unified School District and US 60 keep the practical town connections in place. Superior is a place where boom, bust, and a long-running argument over what comes next sit in the same desert frame.