It’s “out with the new, in with the old” at these preserved gold rush landmarks.
These 8 Arizona Ghost Towns Will Transport You to the Wild West

Jerome, Arizona was a bustling copper mining town around the turn of the 20th century. Here in 1890, a team digging a 1270-foot mine shaft to unearth copper came upon a literal gold mine, and established a mining camp named Haynes. When the gold inevitably ran out, the town’s residents abandoned it, and it soon acquired ghost status.

In 1981, husband and wife Don and Terry Robertson rediscovered the town of Haynes, took it over and began opening it to the public. It’s now a tourist destination, where you can see (though not enter) the original mine shaft. Yes, you enter the “town” through the gift shop, but pass through the requisite sea of trinkets and you’ll find a collection of antique trucks, cars, and motorcycles at the “junkyard”. (Don was a lifetime tinkerer and gearhead, and the collection reflects his interests). Other exhibits show off aspects of the old town, like the sawmill and blacksmith shops. Tours are self-guided, but staff are on hand to explain the town’s history and answer questions. Entry costs $10.

This town lies along the Apache Trail, a stagecoach route originally forged by the Apache tribe which passes through Arizona’s Superstition Mountains. As its name suggests, Goldfield was a gold mining town that boomed in the 1890s; intrepid opportunists found gold here as early as the 1880s, but didn’t establish a town immediately due to the ongoing wars between the United States military and the local Apache tribes. 

At its peak, Goldfield had three saloons, a boarding house, a general store, a blacksmith shop, its own brewery and meat market, and a schoolhouse, as well as a local jail. Many of these buildings have been preserved (with large, dramatic signage). The town offers plenty of entertainment for visitors—from gunfight reenactments to panning for gold—but a highlight is their train, which is the state’s only remaining narrow-gauge train. Goldfield also offers a recently-constructed Zipline, museum, mine tours, and reptile exhibits. Entry is free, but individual exhibits cost between $7 and $12 for adults.

Unlike many of Arizona’s other ghost towns, Oatman still has full-time residents—though they are outnumbered by the burro population. These burros, or small donkeys, are descended from animals who worked alongside miners, and freely roam the town. (Don’t worry, they’re friendly.) But there’s more to this town than just donkeys. The Oatman Hotel is one of the most storied buildings in town: while it no longer offers overnight stays, the saloon’s walls and ceiling are covered with one-dollar bills signed and dated by the people who pasted them there. The second floor also houses a museum, which includes the honeymoon suite where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard stayed after their 1939 wedding. Be sure to explore the stretches of Route 66 outside of town, which offer stunning views of the Black Mountains. 

Chloride is the state’s oldest inhabited ghost town; it still boasts about 400 residents. Founded earlier than many of its contemporaries, it became a silver mining town in 1862, and once included 75 mines and up to 5,000 residents. Chloride is pleasantly quiet, despite being home to “The World’s Only All-Female Gun Fighting Troupe” and an Old West-style downtown that can be catnip for tourists in these parts. But its the real hidden gem is the art collection. Leave the “historic” part of town and you’ll find a fascinating junkyard along the side of the road: a tin man, a pair of ostriches, and an otherworldly skeleton riding a motorcycle are just a few of the DIY sculptures on view. Even the houses here are decorated with junk art—like trees made from empty bottles—and the gravestones at the local cemetery wear old telephones like hats.

If you’re feeling extra adventurous, you can also visit the Murals of Chloride, down a rocky unpaved road. In 1966, a prospector named Roy Purcell painted a colorful mural across 2,000 square feet of cliffside granite, which includes a yin yang, a giant red snake spanning multiple rocks, and a fertility goddess.

While not a ghost town per se, this historic prison definitely houses its fair share of ghosts. After a gold rush boom, the town of Yuma incorporated in 1871, and authorized the building of a prison in 1875; many imprisoned men had to build their own cells during its construction. The prison operated for 33 years, until it became overcrowded and its inmates transferred to a new facility in Florence, AZ. 

Since closing, the prison has been used by a variety of groups; a local high school leased a few buildings in the early 20th century and it even inspired the short story and movie, 3:10 to Yuma. These days, it’s open to visitors Thursday to Monday.

This ghost town values restoration over kitsch: the owners of Vulture City have painstakingly restored 15 buildings as faithfully as possible, including the Assay Building, which was once a lab where workers would assay samples and turn them into Doré bars, semi-pure alloys of gold and silver. Artifacts have also been preserved, like the icebox and 17th-century stove in the Cookhouse. The town is open 7 days a week, with guided tours on weekends. 

Like Vulture City, Erie Street has been lovingly preserved, but this time by local volunteers. The stretch of road constitutes most of what’s left of Lowell, AZ, whose residential district was decimated in the mid-1900s to expand the local copper mine. The downtown businesses suffered from a lack of customers, and one by one, closed up shop. Now, Erie Street is a gritty but beautiful replica of 1950s Arizona: antique cars sit motionless across from an old Gulf gas station, with prices listed at $0.22 a gallon (if only!). The windows of Sprouse Reitz Co., a defunct department store, display old appliances and a pile of mannequin parts. And thanks to volunteers at the Lowell Americana Project, this charmingly decrepit stretch of history won’t be reimagined as condos and fast-casual restaurants any time soon.

Miners struck gold here in 1874, which was a thrilling discovery with one catch: in order to extract the gold from sand and gravel, those miners needed water, which was hard to come by in this part of the desert. For years, miners would haul their placer—a mixture of gold, sand, and gravel—to local streams in sacks, but the effort eventually lost its luster. Then, in 1902, Californian mining engineer James Stetson helped found the Santa Rita Water & Mining Company, which used seasonal runoff to provide water to miners. Unfortunately, Stetson died mysteriously in 1905, and the company shut down a year later. By 1912, the camp was abandoned.

Now, the camp is open to visitors, and is a rare ghost town with accommodations: There’s a small 3-room cabin, likely Stetson’s, that visitors can rent through the Forest Service for $75 a night.