Arizona is haunted by ghost towns, if not real ghosts
From Oct. 26, 2013:
Last Sunday, your paper had a very interesting story on Cleator, which was described as a “ghost town” with a population of five. Are there many ghost towns around here?
Lord love you, you’re new around here, aren’t you? Arizona, as my late father might have said, has ghost towns ‘til hell won’t have it.
Figuring out why this is so shouldn’t exactly make your brain hurt.
Much of Arizona’s growth and prosperity was based on our mineral wealth. Prospectors were always coming across rich lodes of gold or silver or copper or whatever. Towns quickly sprang up around such mines to house miners and supply them with equipment, food, drink and female companionship.
Of course, many of these mines were not bottomless pits of wealth. The ore played out, the mines closed and the residents moved along to find new, richer pickings.
Some towns sprang up where the railroads stopped. Canyon Diablo in Coconino County was a violent town created by the railroad stopping for several years while a bridge was built across a canyon. Its history, to put it mildly, was colorful.
Zeniff in Navajo County came and went with the fortunes of a Mormon farming community.
A few towns failed when the forts that supported them were moved or abandoned. That happened to Bonita in
Graham County, which grew around
Fort Grant.
And some such as Alamo Crossing, Aubrey Landing and Castle Dome Landing were inundated when lakes were developed.
Some of these sites have nothing to show for themselves except maybe an adobe wall. Others have some ruined structure. Some, such as Cleator, have a few buildings standing and occupied.
And in case you believe in such matters or are looking for Halloween fun, very few, if any, of these ghost towns are actually thought to be haunted.