Ghost Towns of Arizona

Arizona's ghost towns exemplify man's courage, tenacity, and perhaps even foolishness in his search for wealth. Inevitable by-products of the development of gold, silver, copper, and other mineral deposits in Arizona, some of these communities mushroomed overnight into a hodgepodge of tents and makeshift homes, while others developed over a period of years into tidy, well-planned townsites. Whatever their design, intent, or purpose, when their existence was no longer profitable they slipped into the category of ghost towns.

The search for Arizona ghost towns may take the traveler all the way from Paradise to Vulture City. Many are the tales he will hear of the bad old days and the good old times in such places as Goldfield, Goldflat, Goldroad, and Gold Basin, or Tombstone, Tiger, Tip Top, and Total Wreck. The Shermans' brief lively sketches distill the history of more than 130 of the one-time mining, milling, and Colorado River towns in the state. County, location, and post-office dates are given for each town, along with brief histories and a wealth of photographs and maps.

Finding ghost towns, the authors discovered, often involves searching for obscure sites in relatively inaccessible locations. In some places the old roads have disappeared altogether and old landmarks have vanished. Trails are often indistinct and sometimes entirely unmarked. Thus, foreseeing the inadequacy of modern highway maps for locating the ghost towns, the Shermans have included many specially drawn maps; and accurate township, range, and section co-ordinates place the towns at their correct locations. Using this information, today's "explorer" can locate the sites from standard base maps.

A valuable and inspiring guide to the vacationer, this volume will delight the armchair adventurer as well. "This book is to be read for fun," say the authors. Technical information is kept to a minimum, and while facts and dates are given, space is allotted, also, to local tales and legends about the settlements. The Shermans have visited almost all of the places described.

"This is a book that can be opened almost anywhere to catch the eye and make reading a pleasure. It is a historical record of no little importance." Navajo Times

"The reader can visit all of the ghost towns in the picture-filled pages of this excellent book." Arizona Star

"A first rate reference work. The prose is good, the selection of photographs is good, and the maps by Don Percious are models of the art." American West