Marijuana in Arizona: Cannabis farm becomes Snowflake's biggest employer

SNOWFLAKE, Ariz. - In Arizona, the Symington name is associated with politics, not pot, but that has changed thanks to a massive cannabis company located about three hours north of Phoenix.

The small town of Snowflake has about 6,000 people. It is windy and there is not a lot to do. However, the high elevation, low humidity, and amount of sunlight make it the ideal location for a greenhouse.

J. Fife Symington IV, the son of the former governor, took an unusual path to get to Copperstate Farms.

"This was a tomato greenhouse originally," Symington IV said. "They also grew seedless cucumbers and colored bell peppers here."

After graduating from Harvard, Symington IV went to Mexico to learn about agriculture and become fluent in Spanish. He never thought that growing cannabis would one day become his career.

We asked him, "When you were growing up, did you ever envision, like, this would be your life, like sitting here, you know, growing weed?"

"Not in a million years, not in a million years," Symington IV said.

He bought the greenhouse in 2016. Medical marijuana was already legal.

"One of the first people I talked to, was my father, and I said, ‘hey, dad, I'm really thinking about doing this, and are you okay with that?’" Symington IV said.  "He laughed and he said, ‘you've been farming in greenhouses your whole life. This seems like a natural evolution of, you know, your career path and, it's legal.’"

The first harvest was in 2017. The business has blossomed, and 2024 marks the 3rd year that recreational sales have been legal in Arizona.

"We are the largest cannabis greenhouse, the largest producer of flowers in the state of Arizona, the largest wholesaler in the state of Arizona," Symington IV said.

They also have nine dispensaries under the brand Sol Flower.

In Snowflake, they grow, dry, and hand trim their product.

From seed to sale, it’s about 110 days.

Getting approval for Copperstate Farms was not easy in this Mormon town and Symington IV, who wanted nothing to do with politics, had to become a bit of a politician in order to make the cannabis company a reality.

"Yeah, very much so. In order to make this all work, I needed to get the right zoning from the town of Snowflake," Symington IV said. "And that was almost like a political campaign in and of itself, you know?"

Snowflake town manager Brian Richards said, "it was pretty divisive. A lot of people in the community had a problem with that."

But when the tomato company moved out, the greenhouse was empty and hundreds lost their jobs.

"There’s not a lot of employment opportunities in Navajo County," Richards said. "We’re one of the poorest counties in the United States and so it helped a lot of people."

More than 300 are employed in the small town and another 200 have jobs at the dispensaries.

"We're truly the, the, the only large Arizona company," Symington IV said. "And I think it's fitting that we chose the name Copperstate Farms."

The son of the former governor never envisioned he would be here, but now, he can’t see himself anywhere else.

"I want to keep on doing exactly what I'm doing up here in Snowflake, and produce as much cannabis as I can sell to the Arizona market," Symington IV said. "And then in Phoenix, I want to keep on expanding our retail footprint."