So, today, Tom took his folks, and myself to a ghost town 69 miles from our house. He has ridden his quads in the area on different occasions and thought it would be a fun outing for us today. The history of this little ghost town is interesting. I say interesting, because it's 26 miles off the main road on a bumpy, dusty, mostly dirt road. Swansea is 30 miles NE of Parker, AZ. It was once a flourishing copper mining town with approximately 500 people. Prospectors began working the area in 1862 and not much came of it until 1886 when 3 miners struck a silver-lead ore. Soon the silver ran out leaving just copper. Until the AZ/CA Railroad came through it soon became a thriving town with copper being mined. The population was at 500 by 1909...the town included saloons, a general store, post office, a moving picture house, railroad depot, dairy milking house, hospital and school. The mine fell victim to the Great Depression and a declining copper market and never boomed again. The last milling was reported in 1944.The top picture is of the worker's cottages, next is some of the remains of the town, next is one of the mines...see the deep hole, the last picture shows some of the rock and you can see a very green hue which is the copper in the rock.
1 comment:
I think it's so cool you guys got to do this! It's so eerie to think that it's been reduced to nothing pretty much... Must have been a fun adventure to explore upclose!=)
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