Tom Childs

Tom Childs, whom the Papago knew as "Muta" ("Woodpecker's nest inside of a Saguaro"), was born in Yuma, Arizona, United States, on June 10 1870.

Father

His father was born in 1832 in Mississippi. When his father was a small boy he came west with a Mormon family. They finally settled on Lytle Creek near present San Bernardino, California. When his father was 18 years old he joined a party heading for Sonora. After following the "Camino del Diablo" to Sonoita, Sonora, on the U.S.-Mexican border, the party went on to the Cubabi mines where they split up. In the years that followed, his father did everything from running a sawmill in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson, Arizona, to digging for silver at the famous Planchas de Plata below Nogales, Sonora.

Early life

In 1875, Tom's family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, to start school. After his mother died, they moved to Ajo, Arizona. His father had wandered by there in 1850 while looking for the copper deposits that Mexicans in Sonora had told him about. They went down there to get a start in the cattle business but neither ever got far away from mining.

They located the first mines at Ajo, Arizona in 1887. At first they were in partnership with the Shotwell-Calado Company, but their money soon gave out. After another try with the St. Louis Copper Company they decided to handle it by themselves. In 1912, they sold out their holdings to the Calumet and Arizona Company. Later this firm became a part of the Phelps Dodge Corporation.

During this time Tom began to take an interest in his Papago neighbors and later ended up marrying one of them. He went into politics and became a territorial legislator and later a legislator for the newly-formed state of Arizona.