Ghost Towns

There are a lot of ghost towns in the southwestern United States. Many of those towns were once thriving mining communities that were abandoned when the mining material (copper, ore, gold) went dry.

My older son is working on a report over winter break about ghost towns. For a true being-there experience (all right, maybe it wasn’t exactly true with all the commercialism), we went to historic Goldfield, Arizona to give him a taste of life in the 1800s and what a ghost town looks like up close and personal.

 I had to take a picture of this since my YA novel, Superstitions, features the legend of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. Has absolutely nothing to do with his report.

Doc Holiday's dress coat, which was actually acquired from Tombstone, AZ. He seemed to be a smallish man. 

The beautiful Superstition Mountains. On a side note, I've been rock climbing out there. I still haven't found the Lost Dutchman Mine, though. Maybe because it's not 100 feet above the ground. 

A mining town wouldn't be a mining town without a bordello, right? Looks like someone is trying to drum up some business on the stairs. 

After visiting the bordello, it's important to go to church (which is basically next door). 

I also took some pictures of the boys (and the boys eating ice cream), but my older son has given me the kid version of a cease and desist order when it comes to posting pictures of him on my blogs. 

All in all (aside from my laryngitis and slight lethargy), it was a productive day with beautiful weather. 

Have you been to any ghost towns? If so, which ones?