— The Latter-day Saints temple looms over the landscape, its smooth granite exterior bright in the high desert sun.
Though only some 6,000 people live in Snowflake, the temple draws more than six times that number, from as far away as New Mexico.
Officially, the cannabis company is called Copperstate Farms. It is partly owned by Fife Symington IV, the son of a former governor of Arizona, and it bills itself as the largest wholesaler of cannabis in the state.
In 2015, Symington heard that the greenhouse owner at the time, NatureSweet, was having a tough time with its local tomato-growing operation and had opted to leave Snowflake.
Symington’s background helped.
I went to the Chamber of Commerce lunches and to Rotary breakfasts.” He promised to hire at least 130 people and pay them a starting wage of $15 an hour.
He knew that the consumer demand for marijuana was there.
Some townspeople were not impressed by the base pay of $15 an hour that Copperstate Farms promised, but at the time Arizona’s minimum wage was practically half of that.
The farm now employs 365 people from the Snowflake area.
“Driving percentage growth in my prior job would be growing by 5% or 7%,” Talwar said.
Impressed by Symington and by the growth of his business, Johnson has changed his mind about the presence of Copperstate Farms in Snowflake.
Daliah Flake, whose great-great-great-grandfather was one of the town’s founders, volunteers at the Stinson Pioneer Museum in Snowflake.
Her boss, Sarah Brimhall, president of the Snowflake Heritage Foundation, popped in for a few minutes.
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