Ice Factory
Bisbee, AZ
Photo courtesy Gorb70

As you pass through Bisbee on the road south toward Douglas, take a little detour into Lowell and check out the old Bisbee Improvement Company Ice Plant. The boarded-up brick and concrete building once produced ice for Bisbee’s booming mining population. Before this plant opened, the company made the town’s first artificial ice in a small tank at the Copper Queen Hotel warehouse. 04-06

Ice was serious business in the desert before electric refrigerators came along. It helped families preserve food and played an important role in improving health around the crowded mining camp. The plant stood near the company power facilities that also brought electricity to Bisbee.

UPDATE: The old ice factory remains boarded up along Erie Street in Lowell. Much of the surrounding community disappeared into the Lavender Pit mine during the 1950s, but this little strip survived and now looks like an outdoor museum of old storefronts, industrial buildings, and vintage automobiles. 09-26

S.L. Chavez Cost Grocery (Demolished)
Yuma, AZ
Photo courtesy Bill Herzog

Located off the beaten path on 3rd Street in Yuma is the S.L. Chavez Cost Grocery store. Looks like Mr. Chavez had but one lone gas pump for his Richfield gas. Note the old A-1 neon beer sign skeleton to the right of the building. Many thanks to Bill Herzog for info. 12-06

The weathered storefront had plenty of roadside character. Beside it stood the bare metal frame of an old A-1 Beer neon sign, stripped of its tubing but still hanging around like a skeleton from the store’s better days. Even after the grocery closed, the faded building remained standing for years as a reminder of the neighborhood’s mom-and-pop era.

UPDATE: The long-vacant S.L. Chavez Grocery was demolished in May 2016. The storefront, gas pump, painted lettering, and old beer sign frame have all disappeared from the corner. 09-26

Old Mine
Gleeson, AZ
Photo courtesy Gorb70

These crumbling Gleeson Mine Ruins are what remain from the days when copper kept this little settlement busy. Long before Gleeson appeared on the map, Native Americans worked the surrounding hills for turquoise. Early prospectors called the camp Turquoise before miner John Gleeson opened the Copper Belle Mine and lent the rebuilt town his name in 1900. 02-07

Copper, lead, and silver brought workers into the hills, while a railroad spur connected the mines with the outside world. Gleeson was hit by a major fire in 1912 that destroyed 28 buildings, but the town quickly rebuilt and enjoyed another boom during World War I.

The good times did not last. Falling copper prices and the Great Depression brought most mining activity to an end, the railroad tracks were pulled up in 1932, and the post office closed in 1939. A few small mining operations hung on until the late 1950s.

UPDATE: The photographed mine building has continued to collapse into the desert, along with many of Gleeson’s other industrial ruins. Much of the old mining property remains private, although the restored 1910 Gleeson Jail is open on selected days as a small local history museum. 09-26

Joe Bono Store (Closed)
Gleeson, AZ
Photos courtesy Gorb70

The crumbling Joe Bono Store looks like it stopped serving Gleeson’s miners and ranchers a long time ago. Often mislabeled as the “Joe Bong Market,” the old building actually began as a general merchandise store operated by Barney Bono. When Barney became ill, his brother Joe took over the business. 02-07

The store supplied groceries and other necessities to the surrounding copper camp, but it was more than a place to pick up provisions. A saloon operated here, and the building also hosted community dances during Gleeson’s busier years. Once the mines slowed down, the customers disappeared and the store gradually became another weather-beaten ruin along the Ghost Town Trail.

UPDATE: In 2014, Joe Bono Jr. purchased the old Gleeson townsite to help protect its remaining buildings. He had spent part of his childhood living behind the store without electricity or running water. The Bono Store remains an empty but preserved ruin, while artifacts recovered from the business are displayed across the road inside the restored Gleeson Jail. 09-26

Country Store (Closed)
Cochise, AZ
Photo courtesy Gorb70

Check out the painted mural above the entrance of the old Cochise Country Store. Built in 1913 by the Norton-Morgan Commercial Company, the two-story adobe supplied groceries and dry goods to railroad travelers, ranchers, and local families. 02-07

The store stood across from the Cochise Hotel and close to the Southern Pacific tracks, putting it right in the middle of town. Big Nose Kate, the longtime companion of Doc Holliday, reportedly worked across the street at the hotel during her later years.

UPDATE: The Cochise Country Store is closed and remains vacant, with the old adobe structure showing considerable wear. Its mural and weathered walls still offer a glimpse of the town’s busier railroad days. 09-26

Courtland Hotel (Gone)
Courtland, AZ
Photo courtesy Gorb70

These weathered Courtland Hotel Ruins are about all that remain from one of the lodging houses that once served this Arizona copper camp. Courtland sprang up almost overnight in 1909 and quickly grew to more than 2,000 residents. The town became busy enough to support two hotels, the Courtland Hotel and the Great Western Hotel. 02-07

For a remote mining town, Courtland offered some surprising extras, including an ice cream parlor, movie theater, baseball field, and horse-racing track. Then the copper boom faded, and most residents had moved away by 1921.

UPDATE: The photographed hotel remains have now collapsed into rubble. The old Courtland townsite survives mainly as scattered foundations and ruins along the Ghost Town Trail, much of it located on private property. 09-26

Gleeson Jail
Gleeson, AZ
Photo courtesy Gorb70

The old Gleeson Jail is one of the few buildings still standing in this Arizona ghost town. Before it was built, prisoners were simply chained to a large oak known as the Jail Tree. A wooden lockup came next, but inmates kept escaping through its roof, so Gleeson finally built this reinforced concrete jail in 1910. 02-07

That sturdy construction helped the jail survive the 1912 fire that destroyed much of the town. Its original doors and ironwork were later removed and reused at the county jail in Benson.

UPDATE: The abandoned jail was purchased and restored beginning in 2008, reopening as a small museum in 2009. Replica doors, windows, and the “JAIL 1910” lettering returned the old concrete shell to something close to its original appearance. 09-26

Old School Remains
Gleeson, AZ
Photo courtesy Gorb70

Only the foundation and a few broken pillars remain of the old Gleeson Grammar School. Opened in 1918, the two-story school was built during the copper boom and once held several classrooms for the children of Gleeson’s miners and their families. 02-07

The last classes were held in 1945 as the mines closed and families moved away. Afterward, much of the abandoned building was stripped for materials. Its wooden floors reportedly found a second life during the renovation of the Crystal Palace Saloon in Tombstone.

UPDATE: The school’s large arched entrance survived for several more decades before collapsing during the 1980s. Today, little remains beyond the foundation, scattered rubble, and a pair of lonely masonry pillars. 09-26