Gateway Copper Corridor Winter 2024 E-edition

Apache Leap Mining
Festival celebrates a slice
of Superior’s history
The 35th Annual
Apache Leap Mining
Festival takes
place March 8-10, 2024,
in the historic mining town
of Superior, Arizona. This
event is a chance to celebrate
the town’s rich mining history,
with a focus on the past,
present and future of mining
in the area. Named after the
red escarpment on the east
side of town, this event is a
favorite among locals and
visitors from across the state.
One of the most popular
events at the festival is the
mining competition. The
mining competition includes
jack leg drilling, mucking,
Courtesy photo/Debbie Torres
The festival’s mining competition is a contest of brawn,
skill and strategy.
sawing and spiking. It is a
competition of brawn, skill
and strategy. While the spiking,
sawing and jack leg
drilling are individual competitions,
mucking is a team
sport. Participants are timed
to see how quickly they can
fill an ore cart, move to one
end of the course and back,
and dump it. Spectators will
get a glimpse of the work by
miners past and present that
is often unseen, and will gain
a new appreciation for the
miners who work to bring
critical minerals to the surface.
This year’s competition
will take place on Saturday,
March 9, following the chihuahua
races.
The Mining Festival includes
historical presentations
on the town’s mining
past, along with booths from
local mines educating the
public on their projects and
the importance of mining
and mineral extraction.
Mining may be the focus
of this celebration, but there
is something for everyone at
the 2024 Apache Leap Mining
Festival, including a carnival,
live entertainment all
weekend long, a beer garden,
speakers, chihuahua races, a
petting zoo on Sunday and of
course a wide variety of food
and retail vendors.
For more information and
a schedule of events, visit:
https://apacheleapminingfestival.com/.
MUSEUM from page 21
and other traditional goods.
“Baskets are getting very hard to get
ahold of now because they’re very expensive
– only a few people can make
them. People need them in ceremonies,”
Cassadore said.
In the meantime, the museum has
been running a language preservation
program in an effort to prevent the
Apache language from going extinct.
“I think my generation is probably
the last generation that speaks fluent
Apache. We’re at a point where it’s getting
very serious that we are losing it,”
Cassadore said. “Even though we try to
preserve the language, I don’t think it
will be in the form that I speak, because
when you see people who don’t speak
the language and who are learning,
they really speak not wholly Apache.
It sounds kind of different. It’s not pronounced
the same way.”
Another museum initiative is the
Apache Clan Project, which endeavors
to take people back to visit their original
clan homelands.
“If you’re Apache, you should have a
clan name, so we have a project where
we took people back to their clan homelands,”
Cassadore said. “From that,
I think people can relearn what their
clans were and where they’re from.”
The museum is also reviving the
Apache Games – 15 games and athletic
endeavors that Apache Elders say were
played in the past, including a traditional
stick game and running competitions.
“We had some Elders advising us on
the games, and they told us that they’re
only played during the wintertime,”
Cassadore said.
“The Apache Elders say that the
animals used to talk at one time to us
but because they got disgusted with us,
they didn’t want to talk to us anymore.
So that’s why they say that in respect
for the animals who are out during the
summertime but are in their caves or hibernating
in the wintertime, that’s why
they won’t hear us, and so that’s why
they say they have them in the wintertime.”
As for the museum’s displays, Cassadore
said he hopes they teach visitors
that the Apache are still here and that
each tribe is different, with their own
language, their own ceremonies and
their own ways of praying.
“I’d like to see people who come here
to learn that we still have our way of life
and that it’s a life that is full of respect
and that we try to honor other people
and respect other people’s way of life
and their religion,” Cassadore said.
“We are a tribe that is trying to develop
themselves so that we bring our
people along with us, but at the same
time we do it with respect to the spiritual
things – the Earth, the water, the air,
even the celestial beings up there.”
22 Gateway to the Copper Corridor Winter 2024