Arizona Ghost Towns

And other places you folks have been asking about ...

Updated 13 July 2003 (for Jim), these are places I have gotten specific requests about, or which you have searched the website for. I will try to research these as they come in and provide info, links, and photos. In some cases history is either applicable or interesting and I'll try to oblige there too!

*Butterfly Claim: This one's tricky. I can't find anything starting from blind. No good leads. Someone email me a clue to work with and I'll get you some info!

*Cascabel: On the old Pomerene (Benson) to Redington and San Manuel road, this town is about halfway. Still occupied it is nevertheless a charming stop on the lovely road that parallels the San Pedro River through this farming valley adjacent the Rincon Mountains from Tucson. The town is a merchant center where the local economies of ranching and farming come together. Redington, however, so far as I can tell, has been ghost for at least 25 years.

*Cherry: Just east of Prescott off AZ169, accessible by passenger car, and occupied through most of the 20^th century so a great deal remains, a pleasant visit. It is located on one of the old main roads to Jerome.

*Christmas: Just north of Winkelman on the west side of AZ77. An active mining concern closed to the public, and I suspect the older remains were removed when the operation was dramatically expanded in the early 1980's.

*Concho:

*Contention City: (AKA "Contention") On the east bank of the San Pedro River some 10 miles north and west of Tombstone (T19S, R21E) the site was founded in 1879 as home for a reduction works - mill - for ores from the Contention mine. The site was abandoned only nine years later when the mines in the region reached the depth of the water table and irrecoverably flooded, and need for a local millsite dwindled. At its heyday there were around 200 residents, and all the ususal amenities: saloons, laundries, bankers, hotels, blacksmiths, prostitutes. A railroad running from Mexico to the main line at Benson also served the town. By the time of its collapse there were 3 ore mills operating there.

*Crittenden [Camp]: Alert reader Erik has visited the ruins of this old Army camp as shown on Roskruge's 1893 map of Pima and Santa Cruz counties. Armed with another map from an extensive report on the camp buildings that was done by Assistant Surgeon Semig during the camp's occupation he has confirmed their authenticity. Apparently that map shows the barracks having a distinctive 'C' shape which is still visible in the ruins recently. Judging by the map, he writes, the remaining stone building was probably either the guard house or part of the quartermaster's buildings. Found between Sonoita and Patagonia the site is on private land and the nasty caretakers will be much nicer (and safer) if you don't sneak in around them. Also, Erik points out that there is an excellent article with pictures on both Fort/Camps Crittenden and Buchanan in the Fall 1965 issue of the Smoke Signal ("The Military Posts on Sonoita Creek" by James Serven). And, as with so much of what I write about here, the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson has untold documents to share which can help unravel your mysteries about such sites.

*Dos Cabezas: On paved AZ186 about 15 miles southeast of Wilcox and occupied through most of the 20^th century, as well as presently, a great deal remains, a pleasant visit. The road from Wilcox is built atop the old railroad-grade to Dos Cabezas, which was the ore-shipping center for the area, and looking back west and downward from the townsite this is clear. The town's name comes from the twin peaks it was built at the base of, and literally means "two heads," and has also been called Dos Cabezos. Continuing east on AZ186 and turning to go north through Apache Pass is a very interesting drive when you realize that this was the path of the only east-west road into southern Arizona before the railroad went in (1880) along the present route of I-10 on the north side of the Dos Cabezas Mountains. There are also remains of the old Army fort at Apache Pass just a short hike from the road.

*El Diablo: The devil seems to have had many possessions in Arizona (e.g. Diablo Canyon, Peak, gorge, etc.) but I cannot find any evidence that he himself was ever here.

*Fairbank: A quintessential eastern style wooden two-story railroad station and small community where the short spur to Tombstone met the New Mexico, Arizona, and Sonora Railroad, about 3 miles south of Contention City. Original Post Office was called Wells Fargo Station, established 1883. The rail line was one of several (one 1912 map shows three) parallel rail lines running south from the main line at Benson and south along the San Pedro River into the mining districts of Bisbee and Tombstone. Long abandoned, the tracks were removed in the 1980s, and the remaining town buildings sold shortly thereafter. The main line (east to west railroad) across southern Arizona was completed in 1880, first linking the region to the rest of the country in a practical way. It still runs ... from Lordsburg, New Mexico, to Yuma, Arizona, via many early Arizona railroad towns: Steins, San Simon, Wilcox, Dragoon, Benson, Marsh, Mountain View, Vail, Wilmot, Tucson, Jaynes, Rillito, Red Rock, Picacho, Eloy, Toltec, Casa Grande, Maricopa, Gila Bend, Theba, Stanwix, Mowhak, Wellton, Dome, and many more in between.

*Flagstaff: Early mining in Arizona was highly dependent on logging. Mountain towns such as this had economies based on supplying the mines with lumber for construction of buildings, shafts, and as fuel for steam and smelting. So sought-after in the deserts was this rare commodity that most of Arizona's old-growth forests were removed by this means before 1920. Sky-island is a term applied to a forested mountain completely surrounded by arid land, which the Flagstaff region is not really. The few true sky-islands of south and west, however, were particularly hard-hit by this early logging. See also, Ladybug Saddle, below. Flagstaff was never a ghost town and has done nothing but grow. Originally founded as a stop on the new railroad (1883) it rapidly grew to include surrounding logging and milling communities. Later, its place on the map was secured when the road paralleling the rails was dubbed Route 66 (1925) and marketed as a transcontinental route. Furthermore US89 intersected US66 at this point and as a transportation hub prospered further. See also, Antelope Springs, above.

*Goldfield: One of the many once-remote gold-towns dotting the hills around Oatman. There is still some mining activity there. In the 1920's US66 brought highway civilization right through the middle of this mining district, and Oatman still shows it. Within 10-15 years that treacherous Sitgraves Pass portion of US66 had been bypassed in preference of the southern route through Yucca. On my last visit to the region I found the best haunt the ghost gas station of Cool Springs from the 20's, built of rock, and east of the pass.

*Grand Avenue: OK, whoever did this search was either pulling my string or lives on my alley. No ghost towns here in the colloquial sense, but, if we're talking Phoenix here, one of the best ghosts in Arizona of its type. This is the big-city old-highway part of town. Once motorists westbound had to slow for towns and actually drive through - an option now with the Interstate - and it was not only a break from miles of "nothing" but a chance for fuel, food, people, and more. Brightly lit and friendly by the late '30's, these stretches of humanity were welcome oases to travelers that made it so far by evening. Well into the 70's these were the spots where travelers found civilization at night, with "business routes", but no longer. McD's & etc. by the off-ramp have replaced these strips of light but in some areas the ghosts of the old highway remain to be seen: old truckstops become fire-stations (Tucson SE), gas stations become accountant's offices (Montiel's, Tucson, Stone Ave), but the flavour remains for those intune to the ghosts on a few of these old strips. I think Demming, NM is the best I've seen, historically speaking, since each decade or two the route moved north one block, so the old strip remains more or less intact, one each, 30's, 50's, 60's, current. (more soon)

*Grand Canyon: There was indeed isolated mining on the south rim. The true ghosts of the canyon, however, are Phantom Ranch and Lee's Ferry. Lee was a Morman fugitive, accused in a staged, but executed massacre, who fled Utah to remote Arizona and started a ferry service across the Colorado toward the south of Marble Canyon, at the north of which is where the Glen Canyon dam now stands. He was eventually found by his pursuers, but the route was by then established and continued to be used until replaced in the 1920's by Navajo Bridge on the new US highway 89. Highway buffs should also see this bridge.

*Grasshopper:

*Greaterville: One of a number of small placer sites on the east side of the Santa Rita Mountains (south of Tucson) west of AZ83 off Box Canyon Road. Occupied and worked by small-time miners on and off including very recently, the area is loaded with traces.

*Guthrie: Not two miles due west of Three Way, Arizona, which is on old US666 between Safford and Clifton/Morenci, was an old railroad stop on the Arizona & New Mexico line - later the Southern Pacific. This is an interesting sort of potential ghost town I've not addressed much: in the early days of railroad steam engines required water and fuel as often as every ten miles, so the early rail lines had stations that often, and as engines were made with better and better endurance the stations that had no other purpose such as loading/unloading freight or passengers were abandoned. I have seen and enjoyed these ghosts in New Mexico but have found very few in Arizona, mostly out of not looking for them. Fairbanks was apparently one of Arizona's best, and while the lovely station is gone there are still remains, and occupants. I do not know if Guthrie is ghost or occupied nor whether there is even a trace of the small town named for one of the men who originally sold the land on which the railroad was built (the other man was Duncan, whose namesake's townsite is father south, larger, and occupied today). There was also construction of a new railroad grade north from Guthrie, at one time, which may have affected the site with added strategic importance too.

*Harquhala: Locals call it har-ka-hee-la. Old townsite is being mixed with a current mining operation. Found on Hovatter Road (see below) not many miles north of I-10. The entire area in the valley just north of the townsite is littlered with turn-of-the-century mining stuff.

*Helvetia: On the northwest flank of the Santa Rita Mountains (south of Tucson) east of old Nogales Highway and off Box Canyon Road to the north. Little remains even considering what it was on my earlier trips. There are still a few feet of adobe wall standing, and main street is clear by the trash dumps that are behind were each of the houses were, but all the smelter and works are gone. Discoloured soil and holes up and down the canyon tell the tale for the aware.

*Hooker (Hot Springs): About half way between Wilcox and San Manuel as the crow flies. One of few remaining 19^th century grand ranch houses, this was, almost accidentally, converted into a destination resort early in the 20^th century. Presently owned by Nature Conservancy it is occupied but open to the public. See also the last paragraph of the text "Rare".

*Hovatter Road: Have you ever dreamed of the "rural life"? This is it in the truest and most human sense imaginable. Certainly the namesake of one of the most important roads in southwaest Arizona in the late nineteenth century has its basis in the family name of later settlers along (a few miles west of) its path. The raod's present route is perverted at its southern end, in my opinion, leaving the "main" path and heading west to the KofA. This disposes of the notion that it was the old name for a through route now lost. It originally linked the Harquahala mines with the highway to California near Palomas, Arizona, it seems. On maps (post 1950) it never makes it to Palomas and turns west to the KofA instead. As remaining through raods in the remote southwest deserts go this is certainly one of perhaps four premiers, even still. On a one trip there (1/1/01) Sysiphus and I confirmed that, despite the appearance on maps, the route (still) continues to the Palomas region (current Hyder, Horn) no matter how you view it. The Hovatter homesite itself is indeed strinking and very moving however: the remains of the art that was the "cactus-garden" are still brilliantly lovely in spite of vandalism and weather, and the fact that the actual family home, in later years, seems to have been just some 1940's travel-trailers lashed togeter in a circle. There was a family airstrip there too, though the ignorant **$%#!?!!* who "manage" the modern KOFA Game Range have blocked it off (as though natural flora could ever obliterate the historic landmark (even shown on maps 1945 to 1975) of its own accord). Also the graves of the family's patriarch, Ray, and a daughter who lost her life in a fire there at age 24, Lindsay, are burried at the site. Lindsay's "headstone" is absolutely beautiful. Lindsay's mother's (Barbara) ashes also now adorn their own little piece of the desert. A visit here will bring the ghosts of a devoted family-unit close to your heart. Very healthy 4-WD ONLY (and the "a gallon per person per day - walking" rule applies!!!). In the Little Horm Mountains, access is by Hovatter Road south from I-10.

*Jerome: On old ("alt") US89 between Sedona and Prescott. I will always remember Jerome as viewed from about 20 miles south of Sedona at twilight: I was a child and we were returning to Tucson but the old '53 Plymouth was again misbehaving. We'd stopped by the side of the road to decide whether to go back or go on. The map showed Jerome as merely 15 miles farther up the road, and surely there'd be services there, and so the folks decided to proceed. In the distance ahead was a mountain range towering above the desert, and an odd sight too, for there were the lights of a city visible halfway up the mountain! Us desert dwellers find this strange. As we chugged along the highway and it began to slow and tightly wind it was soon apparent that we were headed straight upward to the lights on the mountain, and that the highway shown on the map as a fairly direct straight line actually went entirely over the mountain.

Occupied continuously, allot remains. Jerome billed itself as a ghost city beginning in the late 1950's using a city-limits population sign with each, less and less impressive number X'd out, and finally "ghost city" hand written in. A tremendous mining town even through the 1940's perched dramatically on the north face of Mingus Mountain it was saved from total decay by becoming a highway town too. US89 was made redundant by I-17 in the 1970's but Jerome, like Bisbee, has had the teeth (wrough of an old highway town) to hang on without an economy. Plan on spending an entire day there. For a couple pix, click here.

*Kansas Settlement: See Light.

*Ladybug Saddle: Whoever of you asked about this one, I don't know, but I am so amazed! So obscure, this was one of my favourite summer haunts when the Piñaleno Mountains (Mount Graham) were truly open to the public. Now the Vatican and the UofA own Arizona's best sky-island and ironically have closed most all the backroads to the public in the name of their old nemesis, the Red Squirrel. The clearing near High Peak (also off-limits to real people) where the observatory buildings are now in concrete was once a meadow so dense, in summer, with ladybugs that your picnic blanket (or bed-cloth) would be entirely covered with the little red bugs within a half hour of setting it out. Such is much of the range once above perhaps 7000 feet. Swift Trail, the old road into the mountains, was originally built to serve the logging community of Columbine which was removing the old-growth forest to fuel most of southeast Arizona's mining concerns in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Also ironically, the beautiful high grass-filled mountainside meadows dotted with flowers and columbine that are found on Mount Graham, many of the unnamed slopes, and the absolutely breathtaking one on High Peak, are not natural but are the result of old clear-cuttings that never again grew trees. Ladybug Saddle is just a wide spot on the road, perhaps originally remarkable, like most mountain saddles, as a benchmark for the first roadbuilders there who named it. It is also the point where, after Swift Trail has wound its way up the east face of the range, turns to the south on its way to continue its balance up the western faces. From Ladybug Saddle one can see a spectacular view of most of southeast Arizona. See also Flagstaff, above.

*Light: Found in the region near the Pat Hills in the northern part of southern Sulfur Springs Valley were a number of homesteaded farms. They were about 20 miles due south of Wilcox and were "dry farms". During the period from 1902 to 1910 a number of families from Kansas settled here, and also some from Texas and California. By the 1950's lettuce was raised here. From reader Steve Huff: "I lived in Sunizona for 20 years, and we had a ranch up Hwy. 181 about 7 miles. The ranch was originally called Rancho Carlotta, but was changed to Sunizona Cattelfarms in the 70's. At the ranch headquarters was the ruins of the town of light. This land was leased from Billy Riggs, and has since been returned from to them." Riggs is a well known family name in the valley. Rather than townsites per se, these farm-communities centered around, and identified with, their general stores. Three such were Light, Kansas Settlement, and Waterlock. John W. Light, a Civil War veteran originally from New York, had a store with a Post Office in it from April 1910 through September 1927. The other stores did not. Most local mail was therefore postmarked in Light. Incidentally the original request for the Post Office name was Lightfield but this was denied by the Postal Service. These stores and associated homes and outbuildings are said to have vanished (Riggs, AHS) and I can find no record of their exact locations. Kansas Settlement Road is current and runs from the old Dos Cabezos railroad-grade south of Wilcox to the east-west portion of old US666. Waterlock is found on Kansas Settlement Road on roadmaps through about 1934, but I have not found maps yet showing either of the other two. Kansas Settlement is believed to have been roughly at the south end of that road and Light about 5 miles east-northeast of there. It should be noted that the east-west portion of US666 may have originally linked Light to the rail line (Wilcox-Bisbee) at Pearce.

*Lutrell: Between Florence and Coolidge before the turn of the century; a farming area.

*Mayer:

*Pinal (City): Just west-south-west of present-day Superior (US60-70), about 2.8 miles, is the present-day W. Boyce Thompson Arboretum (in Picket Post canyon). This was the approximate location of Pinal. Both little, and much, remains, depending on your outlook. Click for a brief history of the mining and development of the area.

*Ruby: West of Peña Blanca Lake near Nogales. Well preserved, for decades by rifle, I don't know for certain its current disposition in terms of access, though have heard that recently the rifle is laid down, and very authentic guided tours are available. Perhaps one of the better reamining sites.

*Stanton: I went to the Rich Hill area (Stanton, Weaver, Octave) some years ago and found, as a traveler, I was quite unwelcome. South of Yarnell on the west side of the Bradshaw range the folks living in and around the old sites are a private bunch, and moreover, years of random visits from pilferers and ghost and treasure-seekers, at all hours, probably haven't improved their attitudes any. To explore this region I advise just reading Ghosts of the Adobe Walls, Nell Murbarger, 1964 by Westernlore: this book predates the rush predicated by the book Ghost Towns of Arizona which so changed the local folks' attitudes here.

*Stockton Ranch: Gene Edmonds, a Tucson teamster in the 1870's, was nicknamed Stockton and when he later settled on a ranch he called it that. The place became a hangout for freighters and outlaws on the roads east of Tombstone. More on this soon.

*Superior:

*Tip Top: One of the Bradshaw sites remaining in Phoenix and Prescott's neaby mountain playground, I found the region more busy on weekends than most state parks, but have not seen the site in over 15 years. Doug Wright of Glendale, Arizona, writes (6/99) "I've sadly watched the rapid destruction of Tip Top over the last 5 years....everytime i go out there there is less and less of the place....sad really, also this year a good friend of ours who openly hosted our weekend get aways [to another nearby townsite] has moved on...after 7 years he has thrown in the towel.....i can only hope the place is secluded enough to elude vandals for a while!!"

*Thomstone: ?

*Tombstone: On old US80 between Benson and Bisbee, Tombstone is now an antiquated but surviving tourist-trap. Like so many others it owes its ultimate survival to having been on a transcontinental highway, in this case from about 1925 to about 1965, permitting building of infrastructures superceding those temporary ones of the mining era that last to this day. Certainly Tombstone was remarkable in its heyday when it had a population envied throughout the territory, and that amid severe Apache depredations, and a cultural level rivaling New York for no apparent reason. Also remarkable is that Tombstone's mines were neither played-out nor failed because of the economics associated with the metals being mined, like most all their contemporaries, but suffered the ultimate irony of the desert: the mines flooded and could never be pumped dry enough to work again. The ghost at Tombstone is the minerals that are still there!! See also nearby Contention City and Fairbank.

*Vulture Mine: When I visited last the site it was accessed by an unmarked dirt road to the south off of US60 about 3 miles west of Wickenburg: now the same turn is well before the end of town and the road is marked as such. Privately owned, plenty of remains, tours given, it does not have the ghost town feel, but its genuine nevertheless. Henry Wickenburg founded the mine, and it was a rich one, but through a series of mishaps died penniless. A notorious stagecoach massacre occoured near the turnoff to Vulture road, and I believe a marker still stands beside (south side) highway 60 to memorialize the spot.

*Washington [Camp]: One of a series of sites in the Patagonia Mountains south of Patagonia. South off AZ82 from the middle of town the road passes numerous sites on its way to the border crossing of Lochiel. Harshaw (occupied parts only remain), Mowery (totally trashed site, once very large), Washington Camp (occupied parts remain) and Duquesne (recently abandoned parts still survive - be quick to visit) are some of the larger sites, and there are many small ones too.

*Waterlock: On Kansas Settlement road in the early 1930's. See Light for details.

*Weaver: See Stanton. Site located east of Yarnell.

Home

Ghost Roads and lots of road-stuff links

Email me