Just after World War I the town/city of Phoenix had a population of about 4,000 souls. The lifeblood of the town was the Phoenix copper mine, owned and operated by Granby Consolidated Mining. The price of copper crashed with the end of the war, forcing a shutdown of the mine. Plans for a cenotaph to honour the fifteen local men who had died in the war were already under way. To pay for it, lumber and steel from the town's hockey arena were sold, raising $1,200, enough to pay for the cenotaph and donate $400 to the Grand Forks Legion, the nearest legion at the time.
DULCE ET DECORUM
EST PRO PATRIA
MORI
TO THE
GLORY OF GOD
THIS
MEMORIAL
WAS ERECTED
IN HONOR OF
PHOENIX MEN
WHO PAID THE
SUPREME SCRIFICE
IN THE
GREAT WAR
1914 – 1918
THE GREAT WAR
1914 - 1918 |
James Cochrane
Joseph Fleming
Elmo R. Geddes
Oscar Gustafson
Sydney Jennings
|
Anton Johnson
James C. Kempston
John Lindsay
Roy A. McDonald
Dudley McMillan
|
Thomas Monahan
John A. Parry
David M. Pittendrigh
James Pitpladdy
Frederick Wilkinson
|
With the closing of the mine, the townspeople drifted away, leaving Phoenix nearly totally deserted when the mine reopened in the 1950s. Previously an underground mine, this time it became an open pit mine, swallowing up what remained of the town. All that is left as a reminder that a town once stood on the mountain is this tall stone cenotaph, a memorial to both the fifteen who did not return, and to the town itself.
If you wish to visit the townsite and the cenotaph, simply head up the mountain east from
Greenwood on Greenwood Street, which becomes Phoenix Road. You'll eventually see the open pit on your right and the cenotaph on the left, beside the road.