Images of some ARIZONA ghosts

Some of the places I've visited that you've just got to see. I grant you there's nothing left compared to just 20 years ago, but there's some interesting stuff that's still not been entirely destroyed:

Millsite with a grand view

Another Millsite with another grand view

Rockland Hotel rear section remains

The view from the kitchen here made you WANT to do the dishes

We just found a "new" ghost town this spring, out in the southwest deserts. There were recent firepits in the townsite that had remnants of the roofing and rafters from this building in them ... sad, but the excitement of the find, for me, helped to balance the emotion:

This was a small "gated" company-town dating from about 1900 to perhaps as late as the early '50s that once had at least six residential-type structures, and a commercial one. It never had a Post Office. Click for a few more photos of this site, and one that's not.

Since the late '50's Jerome has had the true flavour of a Ghost town, though I think they prefer being called a Ghost City. It certainy lacks the sense of desolation that many old western ghosts had, and isn't entirely abandoned either, but it still has the "once was" ambiance. Here are a couple of Jerome pix:

Downtown Jerome, c 1992

And we have our share of covert ghosts too. This is from Elgin when it was near-ghost, before it's wine-growing revival. I have done thousands of photographs of abandoned stuff, and shall try to limit this page to Ghost towns ... as folks imagine them ... and put Gho-stations and motels, and Ghost-roads elsewhere. This is an exception for some reason though:

Shell station at Elgin Junction, c 1979

And of course the mines themselves which led to the construction as well as the abandonment of many of our Arizona Ghosts are interesting too. This tunnel, last used in 1916, even shows serious vandalism (and is about 3/4 filled-in too) despite being very difficult to access. In summer it will reach over 110 degrees here, but where I'm standing taking this following photo I'm in a 68 degree draft - wonderrrrrfullll - there's a vertical shaft that intersects this horizontal hole, and as the air in the vertical shaft cools to the earth's temperature it gets heavier and sinks: this draws in more hot air from outside and cools it as it forces the existing cooled air out the horizontal shaft at the bottom!

MM&M Tunnel Number One, c 1983

And lastly for now, and I know that this isn't really fair at all to include here, but this is a Photo I took from a spire overlooking modern Barcellona within what must be one of the world's greatest Ghosts: Gaudi's unfinished Sagrada Familia in Spain. Off-topic, but I couldn't help myself. Simply breathtaking ........

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