Gleeson is a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...

situated in southeastern

Cochise County Cochise County () is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after the Native American chief Cochise. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Bisbee and the most populous city ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, United States. It has an estimated elevation of above sea level. The town was first settled as Turquoise in the 1870s in what was then the

Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona (also known as Arizona Territory) was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state o ...

, then later re-established as Gleeson in 1900.

History

The area was initially settled as a mining camp called

Turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of year ...

after the mineral which had been mined by Native Americans in the area. The Turquoise post office was established on October 22, 1890, and lasted only a few years until September 17, 1894. When local miner John Gleeson registered a copper claim and opened the Copper Belle Mine, the town of Gleeson was created just downhill from the old site of Turquoise. Silver Bill, Pejon and Defiance were some of the other mines that followed in the surrounding areas. The Gleeson post office, established on October 15, 1900, supported a town of about 500 people engaged primarily in

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

mining, including veins of

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

. In 1912, 28 buildings burned to the ground and the town was rebuilt. Copper production boomed to supply demand during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The mines played out by the 1930s and eventually the Gleeson post office closed on March 31, 1939.

Remnants

Though several families still live on the site, Gleeson is, by all measures, a

, with the only commercial venture appearing to be a rattlesnake products store. Visitors can find the ruins of a hospital, a saloon, a cemetery, a jail, the foundation of the village school and evidence of the extensive mining in the surrounding hills near town. The Gleeson cemetery is west of the town on the road to Tombstone. ''The Arizona Republic'' newspaper published an article on the town on January 12, 2014, stating that the jail has been renovated and now is a museum.''Living in ghost towns – Gleeson,'' ''The Arizona Republic'', Sat Jan 11, 2014
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Geography

Gleeson is located east of Tombstone on the southern slopes of the Dragoon Mountains It is located on the Ghost Town Trail near Courtland and Pearce.

Gallery

File:Gleeson_Jail_in_1910.jpg, The

Gleeson Jail The Gleeson Jail is a former jail located in the ghost town of Gleeson, Arizona. It was built in 1910 and restored in 2008. History Early history Gleeson was founded as a mining town in the 1870s and quickly transformed into a usual frontier s ...

upon completion in 1910. File:Gleeson_MainStreet_1917.jpg, Gleeson's Main Street in 1917. File:Gleeson Hospital in 1925.jpg, Gleeson's hospital in 1925.

References

External links