The next time you are bothered by daylight savings — maybe during that short window when the sun comes up a little later, or the longer one when it doesn’t set until after nine — you can blame William Boyce Thompson. The Magnate was instrumental in the short-lived implementation of daylight savings time during WWI, […]
Buck Thompson Grew Mountain View into the Largest Funeral Operation in the West
This blogger recently caught up with Brewer “Buck” Thompson (born 1931), patriarch of the J.R. Thompson (1873-1927) side of the family, for a series of short interviews. In the family tradition, Buck, at 13, left for Exeter, where his father and grandfather also received their education. He later attended Stanford and spent two years in […]
Hot News Flash: Rare Picket Post Interior Photos Rediscovered
For years, I’ve been wondering where they might have gone. You know, the pictures that I covertly took of the interiors of Picket Post, William Boyce Thompson’s Castle on the Rocks, when it was opened to visitors for a heartbeat in 2011. Curators of course that no pictures be taken of the interiors, but I […]
Magma Mine, Following in Thompson Tradition, Built Homes for Miners in Superior
The mining business was so good for the Thompson Family’s Magma Mining Company in the early 1920s that there weren’t enough homes to go around in Superior, Arizona. So, the company took matters into its own hands. “Due to the increased size of our operations and the construction of the smelter, it has been necessary […]
Ginormous Morenci Mine Absorbed Important Family History Markers
Freeport McMoRan’s 80-square mile Morenci mine, the largest copper mine in North America, has laid waste to two important family historical markets: the Shannon Mine in Metcalf that made William Boyce Thompson a millionaire and the family home where Julius Kruttschnitt entertained family guests after the birth of his first daughter, Meanie. The recent discovery, […]
The Unexciting Truth About William Boyce Thompson’s Picket Post Mansion
After his stroke, a personal assistant rolled an invalid William Boyce Thompson in a bathtub on wheels to the window so that he could watch the sunrise over Apache Leap from his beloved Picket Post mansion. The heartwarming story is one of several compelling urban legends told to visitors of the Magnate’s Castle on the […]