The Phoenix Traveler

In town visiting relatives, or are they visiting with you? Perhaps you’re wondering what you can do with everyone this holiday vacation. If you’ve already seen the lights and finished your shopping, and you still have two more weeks before you can open presents (Or maybe you’re looking for something to do once the unwrapping’s done.), how about a visit south to see a few of Arizona’s ghost towns?

I’m not talking Bisbee or Tombstone. I’m talking about the real ghost towns, the ones where no one, or practically no one, lives anymore. There was once a brochure called “Arizona Ghost Towns” available through some state visitor centers that listed about 30 different historic ghost and mining towns throughout Arizona, but here’s a list of three in Cochise County:

_Fairbank, located in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area south of Benson, just off State Route (SR) 82, was once a mill town and still includes faint evidence from its days as a stagecoach stop and railroad hub for people traveling to Tombstone. Fairbank was the closest stop to Tombstone and once had three railroads passing through. If you go, you’ll see the newly restored schoolhouse (a Bureau of Land Management project) with a museum and gift shop, a few other building remains, and a graveyard.

_Just a few r esidents keep the post office open in Dos Cabezas, a Spanish word meaning two heads. Located on SR 186, 15 miles southeast of Willcox (home of the legendary singing cowboy Rex Allen), it was once an active supply center for the surrounding silver and gold mines and cattle ranches. Today you’ll see only the stage coach station, circa 1885, the post office, and crumbling adobe buildings.

_Indians mined turquoise here at Gleeson, about 15 miles east of Tombstone, long before the Spaniards arrived in the 1500s. The town was named after a miner named John Gleeson who came in the 1880s to prospect. Its rich ground gave us not only turquoise but also copper, lead and zinc. Via an unpaved road, you’ll find ruins of the jail, school, bank, local residences, and a cemetery. Most of the buried names you’ll see are Asian.

TIP: If you go to Gleeson, watch out for abandoned mine shafts. And plan on taking a side trip to nearby Rattlesnake Crafts in Elfrida. You’ll see what appears to be a junk yard, but inside the old trailer, the owners sell items (cowboy hat bands, for example) made out the skin of rattlesnakes they’ve caught. To get there, drive to the south end of town and turn left onto Gleeson Road. After 13 miles, look for the Rattlesnake Crafts sign and turn right onto N. Double U Ranch Road for another two miles. Call before you go: 520-642-9207

You can learn more about the towns and map your route online.

(Photos of ghost towns used with permission by Cochise County Tourism Council.)

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