As per Bosley Crowther's contemporary review: ¨It seems that the current identification of a high-class Western film is that it tangle Yankees and Confederates in some sort of a feud on the western frontier. It also provides opportunity for Abraham Lincoln to be quoted at least once and for a final conciliation between the partisans of the Blue and the Gray. In these respects "Copper Canyon" qualifies as a high-class Western. In it there is a bitter feud between ex-Yankee villains who control a copper smelter and ex-Confederate mine owners who are not permitted to smelt their ore. Also, at one point, the hero-a former Confederate colonel who plays a Lone Ranger role-solemnly quotes Mr. Lincoln on binding up the wounds. And the hatchet is buried in the end. But beyond these identifications-plus Technicolor, Ray Milland and Hedy Lamarr-there is little to distinguish "Copper Canyon" from any run-of-mine frontier-feudin' film. The hero is conventional, the villain is mean and the plotting is pedestrian.¨