02-04-2025
Arizona is full of ghost towns with fascinating histories. Do you know these 7?
Arizona has been a destination for thousands of hopeful settlers over the years. At one point, many of them were miners looking to find gold in the mineral-rich Sonoran desert mountains.
But, just as the gold supply eventually vanished, so too did the residents of Arizona's ghost towns. Well, most of them, anyway.
While the majority of the state's abandoned towns are actually abandoned, some are as lively as ever. Take Jerome, for example, which has transformed into a tourist hotspot known for its windy road and ghostly reputation over the decades.
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If you ever find yourself on a Southwest ghost town tour, Oatman is an essential stop. Located 28 miles southeast of Laughlin, Nevada, in the Black Mountains of Mohave County, the vibrant town isn't just a roadside attraction — it's the destination. It wasn't always this way, though.
Oatman started as a mining camp after prospectors struck gold in the area in the early 1900s. In its heyday, from the start of the century to the 1940s, Oatman and the nearby town of Gold Road were Arizona's largest gold producers. The town had a hotel (which, by the way, is rumored to be haunted), a post office, its own newspaper, millions of dollars in gold and, at its peak, 10,000 residents.
During World War II, the government needed other metal types for the war effort, so the miners were taken to other areas and the Oatman mines closed. Once Route 66 was changed in 1953 to make traveling south of the mountain passes easier, Oatman was reduced to ghost town status.
When Route 66 came alive again in the late 1980s, so did Oatman. Today, the main street is lined with shops and restaurants. Wild burros wander the streets and actors recreate western shootouts. Oatman hosts an annual "Sidewalk Egg Fry," which is exactly what it sounds like, as well as a "Burro Biscuit Toss" where participants attempt to toss donkey poop the farthest.
Santa Claus is one of the most unique ghost towns because, as the name might suggest, Christmas was celebrated year-round there. Sadly, though, all of the residents — and their holiday cheer — have long since disappeared.
The abandoned town is located about 20 minutes northwest of Kingman on the U.S. 93 between Kingman and Boulder City.
In 1936, Ninon and Edward Talbot, who operated Kit Carson Guest House along Route 66 in Kingman, purchased 80 acres of land near the Hoover Dam. The following year, the Holly Jolly Rest Stop was born. Santa Claus was comprised of a restaurant, the Talbots' house, two miniature buildings for kids and a Texaco service station, each adorned in festive decorations.
Santa Claus' main draw was its popular roadside attraction, the Christmas Tree Inn. The Talbots served gourmet, holiday-themed feasts all year.
From the 1950s onward, the town was tossed between owners. In 1990, the state erased Santa Claus from the official Arizona map. The Christmas Tree Inn closed two years later after it became a shadow of the fine-dining establishment it once was.
Alamo Crossing is located in Mohave County and was settled in the late 1890s. It was once the only town in the area and served as a camp for mining prospectors in the Artillery Mountains range. It never expanded the way other Arizona ghost towns once had, housing only a mill, post office, several stores and a population of 25 in its heyday.
The town was inconsistently abandoned throughout the 20th century. Alamo Crossing's claim to fame, however, happened in 1968, when it was intentionally flooded to create Alamo Lake. That's right, the town is currently submerged at the bottom of a lake.
The remains of Alamo Crossing are still intact underwater. The town road still exists, leading into the water.
If you know anything about the Church of Latter-day Saints, you might not be surprised to learn that Brigham City was founded by a member of the church.
Brigham City was but a blip in Arizona history, as it was established in 1876 and abandoned by 1881. The town housed 20 Mormon families and 15 unmarried men from Salt Lake City. They settled the area and built homes inside protective walls measuring 200 feet long and 7 feet high. Only one of the communities' buildings and portions of a wall remain today.
Flash flooding washed away the dams and irrigation systems, leading to crop failures and the eventual abandonment of the town. Brigham City was one of four Little Colorado River colonies in Navajo County. The town was annexed into the city of Winslow and is now a historic site.
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Located in eastern Mohave County, Nothing offers exactly that: nothing. The ghost town is west of Bagdad at milepost 148 ½ on U.S. 93 between Wickenburg and Kingman.
The settlement, now with a population of zero, was established in 1977 by Richard "Buddy" Kenworthy. At its height, there was a gas station, garage and store, and four people living in Nothing.
Kenworthy abandoned the settlement in 2005, and the gas station began to collapse in 2008. Later that year, a hopeful, 49-year-old pizza chef named Mike Jensen bought the town and then opened a restaurant in 2009.
Nothing would be abandoned again just two years later in 2011.
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Castle Dome City sits in the Castle Dome Mountains of Yuma County. It was first settled in 1863 as a transport depot and mining camp. As the area grew, a post office was established in 1875, but would only operate for one year.
A nearby landing on the banks of the Colorado River became a shipping point for ore on its way to California in the late 19th century. Even though the mining camp in Castle Dome would decline, Castle Dome Landing thrived. For six years, the landing served as the first stop for steamboats traveling up the river from Yuma.
Castle Dome Landing peaked at a population of 3,000 people and almost became Yuma County's namesake. It housed a posted office, hotel, saloon, general store and smelting facilities.
The area became a significant source of lead during the World Wars, but mining would later decline as demand decreased. By 1978, the mines were shut down and the last of the residents departed.
The remains of Castle Dome Landing are now submerged beneath the Imperial Dam reservoir in Martinez Lake. In 1994, Castle Dome Mine Museum was built upon what was previously the city of Castle Dome.
A freak accident that killed a mining engineer transformed Kentucky Camp into what it is today: a scenic canyon with mesquite trees, oak trees, tall grasses and cactuses. Located along the Arizona Trail in Pima County near Sonoita, Kentucky Camp used to be a mining camp, as so many ghost towns were.
Gold was discovered on the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains in 1874. The area became the Greaterville mining district, one of the richest placer deposits in southern Arizona. Placer deposits contain a mixture of gold, sand and gravel.
Because working in the area was quite the task (miners needed to haul sacks of dirt to the few running streams in the vicinity so they could wash and separate the minerals), many gave up and moved on at the turn of the 19th century.
In 1902, a California mining engineer named James Stetson was able to keep the mine operating by channeling seasonal runoff from the mountain streams into a reservoir. The reservoir held enough water to last ten months.
With investors by his side, Stetson formed the Santa Rita Water and Mining Company. The buildings at Kentucky Camp served as the offices and residences for mine employees from 1902 through 1906, but tragedy struck the town.
One day before meeting with stockholders in 1905, Stetson was killed in a fall from a window at the Santa Rita Hotel in Tucson. Kentucky Camp was abandoned in 1912 despite efforts to keep the operation afloat.
Throughout the years, Kentucky Camp would become a cattle ranch and a mining site once again. The United States Forest Service acquired the town in 1989 through a land exchange. Since then, Kentucky Camp has been part of the Coronado National Forest and cared for by the federal agency.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: These 7 uniquely Arizona ghost towns in Arizona
