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APACHE JUNCTION – The local Apache Indians once believed that the thunder god lived in the nearby Superstition Mountains where the Lost Dutchman's Mine is reported to be located. Legend has it that Jacob Waltz, a German immigrant found a mine and kept the secret until he died. It has been reported that the ghost of the Dutchman has been seen in the area. The Lost Dutchman State Park is at 6109 N. Apache Trail. 5 miles north of Apache Junction, off of AZ 88 (the old Apache Trail), at the base of the Superstition Mountains.
BENSON – The Singing Wind Bookshop is located in the middle of a cattle ranch just north of Benson. For more than 30 years, owner Winn Bundy has been running the store, which is attached to a ranch house about a half-mile from the road. As you turn onto Singing Wind Road, go through the gate and drive down the rutted dirt lane, past fences, farm equipment, and livestock.
BISBEE – The Copper Queen mine produced more than eight billion pounds of copper from 1877 to 1975. Gold, silver, lead, and zinc were also mined making the Copper Queen one of the richest mines in Arizona. Bisbee is one of Arizona’s most magnificent mining towns.
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u The restored Dot's Diner here in the Shady Dell trailer park is an authentic 1950s diner that was originally located at the corner of Ventura Blvd. and Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Los Angeles. GO THERE
BUMBLE BEE – Bumblebee dates to 1879 and was a noted stagecoach stop on the road to Prescott. With the demise of the stagecoach and the mining in the surrounding area, the site eventually faded away. An attempt to make the town a tourist attraction during the mid 1930s resulted in the construction of the current buildings; several of the buildings still stand and are occupied. The site is on private property and some of the old buildings are occupied. The town is about 55 miles north of Phoenix, just off I-17 at Exit # 248.
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CALABASAS – Calabasas was used by outlaws as a hideout in the 1870s and 1880s. The Boothill Cemetery in front of the home of rancher Pete Kitchen is where he buried the many Indians and outlaws that he killed. Calabasas was once a Papago Indian village, a Mexican garrison, a U.S. Military base, a mining camp, and a farming community before becoming a railroad stop. The Hotel Santa Rita was supposedly the finest hotel between San Francisco and Denver. Unfortunately, Nogales took over as the gateway to Mexico and Calabasas declined into non-existence. Calabasas is located just across the Mexican border near Nogales. Nothing is left of the town today.
CAMP GRANT – 144 Apaches were killed here in their camp just outside Camp Grant on April 30, 1871 by a Tucson American vigilante group who had been concerned about the raiding parties of Apaches who had been terrorizing the countryside from their base at Camp Grant. . All but 8 of the 144 dead were women and children. They were ravished, wounded, and clubbed to death, hacked to pieces or brained by rocks. It was one of the most sadistic slaughters ever seen on the frontier. The Army later buried the dead around the camp. 27 papooses and children who had been taken prisoner, were later sold by the Papagoes in Sonora as slaves. Camp Grant was located on the west side of the San Pedro River, where the Aravaipa Creek meets the San Pedro River, between Mammoth and Winkelman. Arivaipa Canyon hasn't changed much. The location of the Camp Grant post is now occupied by Central Arizona College. The creek waters that flowed past the Apache rancheria during the early 1870s still flows from springs in the Galiuro Mountains.
CAMP VERDE – Montezuma Castle is probably the most spectacular of ancient dwellings in Arizona. It is a 5-story structure built into a white stone cliff about 70 feet from the ground by Sinagua Indians who farmed the surrounding land between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries before abandoning the area. The Castle is located on I, north of Camp Verde between Cherry and Cornville. GO THERE
CANYON DIABLO – In the 1880s, the Canyon Diablo’s saloons, gambling houses and brothels ran 24 hours a day. The town died when a railroad bridge was built over the canyon. It once had a population of 2000. Today, the ruins of the trading post, what is most likely the train depot, the grave of Herman Wolf, and several other stone buildings and foundations can be still be seen here. Canyon Diablo is south of I-40 between Meteor City, and Flagstaff, Arizona. Take the Two Guns Exit (#230). The road to Canyon Diablo is immediately right of the old gas station in Two Guns. GO THERE
CAREFREE – The World’s largest sundial is located here.
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CHARLESTON – Tougher than Tombstone, Charleston was the hideout of outlaws Johnny Ringo, Curley Bill Brocius, Billy the Kid Claibourne, and the Clantons and the McLaury's. During WWII, the U.S. Army used Charleston as a training site for house-to-house combat, during which time they destroyed many of the buildings. Some adobe ruins survived. Now a ghost town, just traces of the town are left. The area is part of the San Pedro Riperian area and no vehicles are allowed off of established roads. The ruins are a long hike from the parking area. Charleston is south of Tombstone, where the Bobocamri River runs into the San Pedro River. There are some remains to be seen of its "sister city," MilIville, on the east side of the San Pedro River. GO THERE
u Lewis Springs, located a mile south of Charleston, was a hangout of many outlaws, including Johnny Ringo, Curly Bill Brocius, the Clantons and the McLaureys. The Clanton ranch was a five miles south of Soldier Hole, and a few miles up the San Pedro River from Charleston, a half mile west of the river.
CHLORIDE – Chloride was founded in 1862 with the discovery of silver ore. During its heyday, there were more than 75 mines in operation, and the population reached 2,000 in 1920. Tiffany of New York owned the largest Turquoise mine in the world here in 1949. Today, there are still a few mines in operation, The year-round population of Chloride is about 150, but peaks during the winter months at closer to 400.
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CLEATOR – Cleator was established in 1864 as a placer gold mining site under the name Turkey Creek Mining District.. James Cleator bought the town about 1915. The town is still owned by the Cleater family. The population in 2006 was 6. Cleator is located about eight miles northwest of Bumblebee. From Phoenix take I-17 (the Black Canyon Freeway) north to the Bumblebee exit. Follow Bumblebee road (FSR 259) for about five miles GO THERE NEXT NEXT
CLIFTON – Indian Chief Geronimo was reportedly born near here in 1829. GO THERE
COCHISE – Cochise, now a ghost town, was created alongside the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1880's. It was primarily a stop for coal and water for trains at the time. At its peak, the town had a population of approximately 3,000 people. Today, only 50 people still live there. GO THERE NEXT
u Kate “Big Nosed” Elder, girlfriend of Doc Holliday, lived and worked here at the Cochise Hotel in 1899.
CONGRESS – Gold was discovered here in 1884. There were two sections to Congress, "Mill town", and "Lower town", the later of which contained the residences and general businesses. Congress even had its own electric light plant. President McKinley visited here in 1900. After the mines closed, the town lived on as a railroad station only to become what today is known as Congress Junction. Many structures are left today including the old cemetery. Old Congress is located two miles from the new Congress on the junction between SR 71 and SR 89 GO THERE NEXT
COURTLAND – Founded in 1909, the ghost town of Courtland, once had a population of 2000, a motion picture theater, ice cream parlor, water mains, two newspapers, and a railroad depot. Tiffany of New York, owned a turquoise mine here in the 1940s. Today, Courtland’s only remains are the old jail, an old store, and many foundations. The site is located south of Willcox. GO THERE NEXT
CROWN KING – Pancho Villa worked here as a wood chopper in the Crown Hill mine before he became a bandit. His favorite hangout was Andersons Saloon. A former gold mining camp, Crown King today is a popular summer retreat, with newer cabins mixed in with the old mining town buildings. Crown King is located south pf Prescott.
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DOUGLAS – Buried here in the Douglas Calvary Cemetery are:
– Pearl Rosa Reed, illegitimate daughter of outlaws Belle Starr and Cole Younger. Pearl died here in Douglas on January 8,1925.
– John Slaughter, lawman. He is in Plot F-082-7.
DUNCAN – U.S. Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O’Conner grew up here.
DUQUESNE – A former mining town, Duquesne once had 1000 residents.. It is reported that George Westinghouse of the Westinghouse Electric company once lived here in Duquesne. The town is on private property. GO THERE
EAGLE CREEK – Outlaw Ike Clanton, was shot and killed here on June 1, 1887 near Eagle Creek in what is now Greenlee County. His grave was found here in 1995 and his remains were reburied in Tombstone. Eagle Creek is located north of Safford.
EHRENBERG – The ghost town of Ehrenberg was located on the Colorado River, which forms the border with California, close to the Interstate 10 highway between Quartzsite and Blythe, California. The town, once home to an Army Fort, is officially listed as a ghost town although the designation may change as the population grows.
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u Mike Goldwater, grandfather of former Senator Barry Goldwater, owned a store here in 1860. When a trailer park was built here in the 1950s, almost all the ruins were leveled. The old cemetery is located two miles north of the present day Ehrenberg. There are reports that some of Barry Goldwater's relatives are buried there.
FAIRBANK – Fairbank once had 100 people and a Wells Fargo office, store, restaurant, meat market, saloon, and a mill. A ghost town, An effort to preserve the remains of Fairbank has been only partially successful. Eight buildings remain at the site, but several are in extremely poor condition. The largest remaining structure, a hotel, collapsed in 2004. To reach Fairbank from Phoenix, take I-10 East past Tucson to SR 90 (Exit 302) and turn South. Follow SR 90 until you reach the junction to SR 82. Turn East on SR 82 and Fairbank will be about ten miles ahead on the left. GO THERE NEXT NEXT
FLAGSTAFF – A meteor crater was created near here about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper. At the time, the area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and camels. It was uninhabited by humans. It is located about 35 miles east of Flagstaff and 25 miles west of Winslow GO THERE
FLORENCE – Cowboy actor Tom Mix was killed in a car crash near here on October 2,1940. A riderless horse monument marks the spot where he died, 17 miles south of town on U. S. 89.
u Eva Dugan was hanged here in 1930 for the murder of Tucson rancher Andrew J. Mathis. When she fell through the trap door of the gallows, the force of the jolt ripped her head off and rolled at the feet of the spectators.
The only woman ever executed in Arizona, Eva, 52, was buried in a Florence cemetery in a beaded, jazz-age silk dress she had made while waiting execution. She paid for her own coffin by selling handkerchiefs she embroidered in her cell.
u A German prisoner of war camp was located here from 1942 to 1945. It once held over 13,000 prisoners. The camp now serves the United States Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) as the Florence Public Health Service Clinic.
u Florence was founded in 1866 and is located about 45 minutes away from the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas. The current residential population of Florence is approximately 6,000. By 2015, it is anticipated that the Town of Florence will be home to an additional 50,000 residents. GO THERE
FORT BOWIE – Fort Bowie was established in 1862 at the former station of the Overland Mail Route at Apache Springs. It was here, that peaceful relations between the U.S. Government and the Apache ended in 1861 when a young Lieutenant George Bascom falsely imprisoned Chiricahua Apache Chief Cochise on charges of kidnapping a white child. GO THERE NEXT NEXT
u The young son of Geronimo is buried here in the old Fort Cemetery.
GALEYVILLE – Outlaw Johnny Ringo was found dead here in Turkey Creek Canyon with a bullet in his head put there by Wyatt Earp in 1882. He is buried on the Barfoot Trail between the Smith Ranch and the Sanders ranch, about 10 miles west of Galeyville. Drive east on Highway 181 for 12 miles to where 181 turns sharply left. Go about 12 miles straight ahead on the gravel West Turkey Creek road to the Sanders Ranch on the left. His grave is a short distance west of the ranch house beside the West Turkey Creek. You must get permission from the Sanders Ranch before entering the property. Galeyville is southeast of Willcox.
u A former mining camp, Galeyville became a ghost town in 1883. Most of the buildings were torn down and moved to nearby Paradise. Gayleyville was a hangout for rustlers and smugglers including Curley Bill Brocius and his gang. . GO THERE
GILA BEND – In February 1973, Burt Reynolds and Sarah Miles were here making the movie The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing. After a night of partying in the Travelodge motel, Miles' business manager, David Whiting was found dead in her room No. 127. Police believed that he was murdered, but the coroner ruled it a suicide.
GLEESON – Gleeson, a former copper mining town, ws founded in 1890. Originally named Turquoise, the town had as many as five hundred people and a hospital. Tiffany of New York once owned a turquoise mine here in 1843. When the mines closed in the 1940s, Gleeson became a ghost town. Though several families still live on the site today, Gleeson is, by all measures, a ghost town. Visitors can find the ruins of a hospital, a saloon, a jail, the foundation of the village school and evidence of the extensive mining in the surrounding hills near town. The Gleeson cemetery is west of the town on the road to Tombstone, about 15 miles to the southwest of Gleeson.
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GLENDALE – Singer Marty Robbins was born near here in 1925,
GLOBE – Tennis champ Helen Hull Jacobs was born here in 1908.
u Indian outlaw the Apache kid was born near here in Wheatfields in 1860.
u Lady bandit Pearl Hart and her husband robbed a stage coach near here of $450 in 1899. Pearl usually dressed as a man.
u Buried here in the the old section of the Globe Cemetery on south Hackney Street are:
– Phin Clanton, outlaw.
– Al Sieber, Indian scout.
GOLD ROAD – Goldroad's post office was established April 15, 1902 and discontinued October 15, 1942. Located near the town of Oatman, over $7,000,000 worth of gold was mined from 1903-1931.
The town once gad a population of 400. The only things left of Gold Road are rock walls and foundations and old mining shafts. The Goldroad Cemetery is located 2 miles down the canyon from the remains of Goldroad. GO THERE NEXT NEXT
GRAND CANYON – GO THERE
GUADALUPE CANYON – In July 1881, Newton “Old Man” Clanton and several of his gang ambushed a group of Mexican cowboys here in the canyon near the Mexican border. They killed 19 of them, a slaughter that was later known as the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre. A few weeks later, Clanton and four of his gang were killed in the same canyon by the Mexicans. He was buried on the spot he died. In 1882, his sons, Ike and Phinn dug up his body and buried him next to Billy Clanton in Tombstone's Boothill Cemetery.
u Guadalupe Canyon is located in the southern Peloncillo Mountains in the far southwest corner of the state along the Arizona and Mexico borders. The canyon is 1.5 miles north of the Mexico border and 2 miles east of the New Mexico/Arizona state line. You reach it from Douglas Arizona or Clanton Canyon. From the summit at Clanton Canyon continue on FR-63 for slightly over 15 miles to the junction with the Guadalupe Canyon turnoff (well marked). Continue east for 9 miles on the Guadalupe Canyon road.
HOLBROOK – The Wigwam Hotel here has been a favorite of travelers since it opened in 1950. The tepees still have the original hand-made hickory log pole furniture in them. GO THERE
u A street named Bucket of Blood is located here.
JEROME – Jerome is Arizona's largest and most famous Ghost Town. It sits high atop Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley. Once a thriving copper mining town, Jerome has survived by becoming a mecca for artists and tourists. To reach Jerome, take I-17 North from Phoenix to Cordes Junction. Then, SR 69 into Prescott. From Prescott, take Alt-89 to Jerome. . GO THERE NEXT
KINGMAN – Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married here on March 18, 1939. They got the marriage license at the town hall, changed clothes in the home of Rev. Kenneth Engel and were married in the rectory of the First Methodist Church. The church is now used by the health department,
u Actress Greta Garbo and director Rouben Mamoulian stayed here in the Beale Hotel in 1933. She had room 12 and he had room 17. GO THERE
LA PAZ – Gold was discovered here in 1862. Mike Goldwater, grandfather of former Senator Barry Goldwater owned a store here in the 1860s. La Paz became a ghost town in 1891, and in 1910, most of the town was wiped out in a flood. Located two miles back from the river, between Parker and Quartzsite, not much is left of the town.
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LAKE HAVASU CITY – In 1962, Robert McCulloch, founder of Lake Havasu City, and Chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation bought the London Bridge for $2,460,000. The bridge was dismantled and shipped here where it was rebuilt brick by brick. Lake Havasu City got its start as an Army Air Corps rest camp during World War II.
LOCHIEL – This mining town once had two smelters, three saloons, five stores, a boarding house, several businesses, and a population of about 400. Pancho Villa would often come across the border to steal cattle, in the area. Now a ghost town, Lochiel is on private property and fenced off , but several buildings, including a church, the old U.S. Customs Station, a one-room school house and teacherage, can all be seen from the road. The movies Monte Walsh, Oklahoma!, and Tom Horn were filmed here. Lochiel is located 24 miles east of Nogales. GO THERE
MESA – Criminal Ernesto Miranda is buried here in the Mesa Cemetery. Accused of kidnap and rape, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he did not understand his right to remain silent when he confessed to the crimes. He was stabbed to death in a bar fight in 1976.
Singer Waylon Jennings is also buried here.
u Former Chicago Cub radio announcer Bert Wilson is buried here in the Mountain View Cemetery.
MESCAL SPRINGS – Curly Bill Brocius was shot and killed by Wyatt Earp here in Mescal Springs in the Whetstone mountains, also known as Iron Springs, in the Whetstone Mountains northwest of Tombstone.
MIAMI – Actor Jack Elam was born here in 1916.
MILLVILLE – The town of Millville was located across the San Pedro River from Charleston. In 1879, when Richard Gird built a large milling plant there. Gird later moved tp California and bought 23,000 acres near Los Angeles and laid out the city of Chino. Today, there are only a few adobe foundations left at the site of Millville 9 miles southwest of Tombstone. GO THERE
MINERAL PARK – The ghost town of Mineral Park began in 1871 and soon had over seven hundred residents, two newspapers, several hotels and a Chinatown. Today, Mineral Park has all but vanished and sits upon private mining property where turquoise and copper are still being mined from the area. The area is scattered with the debris of earlier days, where mill foundations and tattered cabins can still be seen amongst the mine tailings. Mineral Park’s small cemetery is one of the best-preserved in Arizona. It is on mine property, but it can still be seen by asking the current mining operation. Mineral Park is about 14 miles northwest of Kingman on US 93, between Mileposts 58 and 59.
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MOWRY – Originally called Patagonia, Mowry was established in 1858 and at one time had a population of 500. Now a ghost town, Mowry is located north of Nogales, west of Tombstone, near the ghost towns of Harshaw and Duquesne. GO THERE
u The Mowry Company silver mine cemetery here includes the graves of 17 white men, 15 of whom died by violence. Two of the men were killed by Indians who were hanged by their ankles from a tree limb after which a slow burning fire was built underneath them.
NOGALES - Jazz musician/composer Charles Mingus was born here in 1922.
OATMAN – Oatman was founded in 1902. Originally called Vivian, the name was changed to Oatman in 1909. Some say that the name came from Olive Oatman, a young girl who was captured by Indians in 1851. The town once had a population of 10,000, but when the mines closed down in the late 1930's and when the town was bypassed by the new alignment of Route 66 in 1953 it almost became a ghost town. In the 1950s it had a population of 100. Today it is a popular tourist spot where wild burros have the run of the town.
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