An Arizona Ghost Town

In Arizona, as elsewhere in the Southwest in the 1800s, towns sprang up overnight when miners struck gold (or silver, or copper). When the mines were "played out," the townspeople disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Only their buildings remained, "ghosts" for modern visitors to explore.

Every ghost town is different. Some were active only a few years, others lasted nearly a century. Some are represented today by a single ruin, others have dozens of well-preserved buildings. Arizona's most famous ghost town is Tombstone.

This town was founded by a man named Ed Schieffelin. When he said he was going to mine in Apache Indian country, people told him that he was a fool, that all he'd find there would be his own tombstone. Instead, Schieffelin found silver. Remembering what people had said, he named the town he started Tombstone.

In the 1880s, Tombstone was known for its lawlessness. After the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral, President Grover Cleveland threatened to send in the army.

People thought Tombstone would become a major town. Since Tombstone was in the desert, a company built a huge pipeline to supply the town with water. No sooner was this pipeline built than Tombstone's silver mines struck water. There was so much water that pumps couldn't keep up with it. The mines had to close. Tombstone became a ghost town.

Randee Falk: Spotlight on the USA; Oxford University Press, 1993, page 114