Ghost Town Cleator

Early Wednesday we packed our overnight bags and headed north to visit some Arizona ghost towns. We drove through Phoenix and at Exit 259 we left I-17 and then drove on gravel roads for ten miles to the ghost town of Cleator. We drove down the Bradshaw Mountains into the valley past numerous mine tailings in a very remote area of central Arizona and finally arrived at Cleator. This town started as a mining town in the late 1800s, but in the early 1900s, it also became a stop on Murphy’s Impossible Railroad. It was apparently a very lively town, but it declined in the late 1920s, as the mines closed. Today a few of the old buildings are still standing, and only about five are still inhabited. The Saloon is still open and visited by day trippers and ATV riders from Phoenix and elsewhere, and it is crazily named the Cleator Bar and Yacht Club. This town is worth visiting. The gravel roads are quite good and can easily be driven on by any type of vehicle, the scenery is spectacular traveling to the town and back to I-17, and you don’t have to wear a mask in the town, since we didn’t see a single person in the town.

Ghost Town Humbolt “Val Verde”

After returning to I-17 we continued north and then exited onto Route 69 toward Prescott. After about 40 miles we came to the historic town of Humbolt. This mining town was initially established in the 1860s as Val Verde, but in 1905 the town’s named was changed to Humbolt. The very lucrative Iron King Mine was close to the town, but the Blue Bell and Desoto mines were also nearby, so a smelter was built in the town to process the copper and lead ores from the mines. The town flourished and then declined, and when the mines finally closed in the 1960s the smelter also closed. However, one of the stacks from the smelter that is well over 100 feet tall still stands and can be seen prominently from almost anywhere in the town. It is interesting that the smelter site was designated for cleanup under the EPA’s Superfund program in 2008 and was fenced with barbed wire, but as of today, no further progress has been made. After touring many streets of the town, we drove to Prescott and visited our good friends Bill & Joan. Bill and I worked together for many years with Sunoco in PA, and when he retired, they moved to Prescott, AZ, and live in a beautiful house at the top of a hill with great views of the valley below. We haven’t seen them in several years, although Bill and I communicate regularly by email, so we spent three hours in conversation before leaving and checking into our motel in Prescott.

Ghost Town Cherry

On Thursday morning after a nice breakfast we left Prescott and drove south until we reached Rt. 169, and then drove east for 10 miles until we came to Cherry Creek Road. The next six miles on this paved road was a scenic delight as we ascended a mountain and wound through the hills of the Prescott National Forest at an elevation about a mile high. About a half mile from Cherry the road turned to gravel, and as we entered the town that was established in the 1870s as a mining town, we saw a few houses that still have occupants. However, the town never flourished, because the mine production never was much, so it remains a bedroom community for a few people to escape the heat of Phoenix in the summer. A fire station in the middle of the town is rather ancient and dilapidated with four old fire trucks standing outside, and there is a cemetery behind it that dates back to the 1800s, and most of the people buried there died in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This is definitely another town worth visiting.

Ghost Town Adamsville

We returned to the main road after exploring the town of Cherry and its cemetery, and we drove on I-17 south to Phoenix and then east to Florence. Our next destination was Adamsville. Today this town is connected to Florence on the southwest side, and it is an active community. However, the original Adamsville was one of the first settlements in what is Pinal County today, and it was located about three miles west of where it is today. When you drive to where it originally was on the main road, there is a historical marker that relates how the town was a hangout for rough characters and “life there was one of the cheapest commodities.” The town was located next to the Gila River, but in the late 1800s a series of floods washed away most of Adamsville, which caused its relocation next to Florence. There is a decaying adobe building, which is among the last surviving structures in old Adamsville, and the cemetery is easily accessible and worth visiting. Most of the headstones have dates of death shown in the 1800s.

Thank You for Reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it. Bye!

This story belongs to Jerry Kroninger. Any copying or distribution of this story is not permitted.