Dome () is a
ghost town
A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
located in
Yuma County, in southwestern
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
, United States. It is located in the Dome Valley south of the
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...
. Originally Swiveler's Station, east of
Fort Yuma on the
Butterfield Overland Mail
Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...
route, a post office was established here in 1858. It was first under the name of
Gila City, the nearby boomtown west of Swiveler's, but the post office closed July 14, 1863, after most of the town was swept away in the
Great Flood of 1862, and then abandoned for the La Paz gold rush along the
Colorado River
The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...
. After the railroad passed by the site and an attempt at large scale mining of the
placers began, a new post office was established as Dome in 1892 but soon closed when the attempt failed. Subsequently it opened and closed several times before finally closing in 1940.
Today the site lies along the
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...
's
Sunset Route and a road that follows the old Overland stage route, south of the Wellton-Mohawk canal and
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...
. All that remains on the site is a large adobe building, one small adobe remnant and foundations.
Dome from ghosttowns.com
/ref> There is a cemetery nearby to the west.
References
External links
Google Map of Dome, Arizona
Lower Gila River Watershed
* ttp://www.azghosttowns.com/towns/dome.html Dome– Ghost Town of the Month at azghosttowns.com
{{Butterfield3
Ghost towns in Arizona
Butterfield Overland Mail in New Mexico Territory
Former populated places in Yuma County, Arizona
Stagecoach stops in the United States