Central Arizona Ghost Town Tour

September 26, 1999

(Trip Report by Todd Zuercher)

Many Arizona newcomers, when they hear the word "ghost town" conjure up images of old towns with rickety wooden buildings, tumbledown saloons, and perhaps even a ghost or two that still haunts the sites where whiskey once flowed and the sounds of six guns pierced the air.

More seasoned Arizona residents know this is unfortunately, pure fantasy in the Arizona of the 1990s. What buildings remained at most Arizona towns disappeared long ago and today one usually looks for foundations and perhaps a mine shaft to show where a boom town once existed.
Eleven trucks of Arizona Classic Bronco members assembled in the Burger King parking lot on Peoria Ave.on Sunday, September 26th, to tour some of these remains in the central Arizona region of Yavapai County near the town of Mayer.

Winston "Brownie" Brown had other obligations so he came for the meeting only and David Moerman unwittingly left the group early and ended up with some wild tales of his own from his day's adventures.

The remaining nine(including a Jeep Wrangler) traveled north on Interstate 17 to the Bloody Basin exit where we turned west on a dirt road. The trip north was uneventful and filled with CB chatter about Mike LaChance's new 170 six which purred like a kitten on the climb up to Sunset Point.

Our first stop was at the historic stage stop of Cordes, which has several old buildings, but really isn't a ghost town, per se. There are several residences there, including the historic Cordes family home, a large hay barn(leftover from stage days), and a vacant store and gas station.

This was once a bustling crossroads known as Antelope Station. The Cordes family moved here in the late 1800s and ran the stage stop, and later gas station, until the 1940s. The town was bypassed when the interstate was built and it has served as a quiet reminder of Arizona's past ever since.

From Cordes, we journeyed northwest through the town of Mayer, where several members gassed up their trucks. We headed north out of Mayer on a dirt road that eventually led to the old townsite of Stoddard. It was on this road that our intrepid trip leader made the first of several wrong turns and led the group on about a 3 mile detour.

Nobody seemed to mind, however, and after getting back on the right road and conquering a vastly overrated mudhole, we all arrived at the remains of a stone structure that signaled our arrival at Stoddard.

This roofless stone building is all that remains today of a town that served as headquarters for the nearby Binghampton copper mining operation.
The town was named for Isaac Stoddard and at one time boasted a laundry, auto repair business, school, numerous saloons, and homes for several hundred residents. The place dried up in the 1920s as the price of copper fell.

Back to Mayer we traveled before heading west and then north again to the Iron King mining operation west of Humboldt.

The Iron King was once a large employer in this region of Arizona prior to its closing in 1968. We thought about stopping here for lunch until a local survey crew told us the place was private property. Chemical guru Mike McCarthy wasn't too fond of us eating at a potentially hazardous mine dump anyway. So we continued on down the road a mile or two until we found a nice spot to stop and eat.

The clear skies, sunshine, and comfortable temperatures made for a pleasant dining experience. Years ago, my parents and I easily found the McCabe cemetery in this area on one of our frequent forays into the local mountains. Fifteen years later, I have not been able to find this cemetery. So the planned third location in the tour was bypassed.

 

At Right: Mike McCarthy and son

Mike McCarthy's newly rebuilt ride. Among other things it has a wild coil-over shock setup that protrudes through cutouts in the hood.

Back on Highway 69, we turned south again until we came to the Poland Junction turnoff and headed west back into the Bradshaws. The trip leader once again made one wrong turn on the way up the railroad grade that once served the mining community of Poland.

Poland once housed 800 miners, but today sees only summer residents whose cabins line Big Bug Creek in a community known as Breezy Pines. We parked our vehicles under the pine trees at the entrance to the Poland-Walker tunnel.

School children once traveled this tunnel on their way to school in Walker-1.5 miles away through the earth. High rock retaining walls from the mill and the tunnel are all that remain today at the site of Poland.

 

Looking into the mouth of the flooded tunnel. Doug Schulz's dog had swum in and all wondered if it would come out.

The high desert chapparal had given way to pine trees as we entered Poland and we continued to climb to higher elevations as the trail wound up to Big Bug Mesa and Five Points. This area, ravaged by flames in the 1972 Battle Fire, today is a lush paradise showing scant evidence of the carnage wrought here twenty seven years ago. The sign at Five Points said our road dead-ended in a mile, but thankfully this was one trail the trip leader knew well. In spite of the fact that we met several vehicles whose drivers said it didn't go through, the caravan passed through some beautifully remote areas before emerging on Senator Highway just south of the Orofino Mine.

We continued south on Senator Highway for about ten miles before we came to the intersection of the road that goes back to Mayer and the one that heads on to Crown King. Goodwin was once a small mining town, but no evidence of it remains today with the exception of one low rock wall. We had our final rendezvous here as the day wound down and here we decided to split the group. Three of us headed back to Mayer while the rest of the gang headed down the road to Crown King in search of food and drink.

 

 

The skies were black as we headed back into Phoenix but we ended up missing most of the downpour as our steeds rolled back into the Valley.

I heard the crew that went to Crown King missed dinner time in the old mining town but filled their stomachs at Rock Springs instead. We'll see you all at the Jamboree and Charaleau Gap!

- Todd Z.