Forging the Copper Collar: Arizona's Labor-Management War of 1901–1921

Bisbee, Arizona...July 12, 1917...6:30 a.m. Just after dawn, 2000 armed vigilantes took to the streets of this remote Arizona mining town to round up members and sympathizers of the radical Industrial Workers of the World. Before the morning was over, nearly 1200 alleged wobblies had been herded onto waiting boxcars. By day's end, they had been hauled off to Mexico. While the Bisbee Deportation was the most notorious of many vigilante actions of its day, it was more than the climax of a labor-management war--it was the point at which Arizona donned the copper collar.