Note! You must have
AdobeReader to view this file

*Mayer
is situated where, in
1882, Joe Mayer built a
store that also had
overnight accommodations
for travelers. It was so
successful that he added
a stage station and
saloon. Mayer's store
was the handiest place
around. Cattlemen would
lodge there while laying
out $3,000 or $4,000 for
reprovisioning.
As mines opened at
Stoddard, Copper
Mountain, and Poland,
the town expanded. It
received a post office
in 1884, and two years
later Joe Mayer
constructed the
two-story Mayer Hotel.
The Prescott and Eastern
Railroad arrived in
1898, further
solidifying the
community's importance
as a center of commerce.
Joe Mayer was a natural
entrepreneur. A 1902
issue of the Prescott
Journal-Miner reports
that Mayer, in
partner-ship with E.S.
Rogers, planned to
market toothpicks made
from cactus thorns as
"Indian Souvenir
Toothpicks."
The newspaper had
received a sample lot
and was duly impressed.
The most obvious
landmark in Mayer is the
lone smokestack, 120
feet high, of the Great
Western Smelter. Built
in 1916, it was planned
as part of a complex
that would raise the
daily capacity of the
smelter from 200 to 700
tons.
Today,
Meyer remains a sleepy
little community and the
home of Grand Canyon
Harley Davidson.
*All
text source about Mayer
extracted from "Arizona
Ghost Towns and Mining
Camps" by Philip Varney,
Arizona Highways Books