Ghost Town

About 50 miles east of Phoenix is an old ghost town that has been turned into a tourist attraction.  It's called Goldfield which is the same name it had when it was a booming gold mining town back in 1890.

Back in those days, it was large enough to have 3 saloons, 1 boarding house, a general store, blacksmith, brewery, meat market and school house.

When the gold vein faulted, the town started to die.  There was a slight resurgence between 1910 and 1926 but soon after that, everyone had left.

Today, most of the buildings have been reconstructed and serve different purposes.  The Bordello to the right is a gift shop, the saloon in the top photo is a restaurant serving steaks and burgers and the jail is just for show.

I was there on a Sunday and I saw lots of people coming out of the church so I thought they might have services but, I couldn't find anything like that on the web site.  However, the church does have an organ and pulpit so it's set to go.

There is even a gallery with art from local artists available. If you see those rugged Superstition Mountains behind the gallery, you can see there is a lot of subject matter for artists to work with in this area.  Goldfield Ghost Town is a fun place to visit and if you live somewhere in the Phoenix area, it's a nice weekend day trip.  You can even tour the gold mine or pan for gold.