Johns-Manville and Manville Trust Papers on J-M's Old Asbestos Mining at Globe, Arizona (1980–1991)

Eight pages of Johns-Manville papers from 1980, and two from the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust in 1991, on J-M's early asbestos mining near Globe, Arizona, where a mobile home park had been built on asbestos mill tailings. On January 22, 1980, J. R. Gooding of J-M's public affairs staff wrote that a Los Angeles Times story had linked J-M to "the asbestos publicity in Arizona" and that "It seems likely that this association will grow"; a telex from the company's records office answered that "J-M MINED AT GLOBE ARIZONA FROM 1915 TO 1921. OUR RECORDS ONLY GO BACK AS FAR AS 1930."

What it shows

N. W. Hendry asked on February 4, 1980, whether the Mountain View Mobile Home Estates was "built on asbestos tailings from the mining and milling operation with which J-M was associated." Barbara Diemer of the legal department answered on February 12 that news clippings placed the park on tailings from the Metate Asbestos Corporation, and that from the mining claim files "J-M probably mined 2,000 acres or more and had a number of mining locations in the general vicinity." A Media Relations log of May 23, 1980, records an NBC News call about a school built on an old asbestos mine where children were said to have asbestosis; J-M's answer was "Probably Globe, Arizona - not J-M operation." In 1991 the Manville Trust's claims staff asked whether J-M had kept selling fiber from Globe in 1950 to 1965, and a Denver law firm sent the trust what it had found on Manville's Chrysotile, Arizona, mine (noted as sold in 1952 to Western Chemical of Los Angeles).

About this copy

Left out are copyrighted newspaper and magazine clippings: wire stories on the Globe mill cleanup (pages 3 and 4), a long newspaper article (pages 6 and 7), the Los Angeles Times story "Land, Air Hold Seeds of Death for 40 Families" (pages 9 and 10), and a "Remember When?" column from Asbestos magazine recalling the J-M mine in Arizona in 1926 (page 15). The New York Times article that Elisabeth Hanlin sent Curtis Linke on February 8, 1980 is not in the file.