Gleeson 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 ...

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 Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county ...

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 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, commonly known as the 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 ...

, 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 hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...

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; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) 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 pinkish-orang ...

mining, including veins of

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It 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 periodic tabl ...

. 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. 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 last commercial venture a rattlesnake products store that closed in 2014. 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 A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...

. ''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
/ref>

Geography

Gleeson is located east of

on the southern slopes of the

Dragoon Mountains The Dragoon Mountains is a range of mountains located in Cochise County, Arizona. The range is about long, running on an axis extending south-south east through Willcox. The name originates from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Dragoons who battled the C ...

It is located on the Ghost Town Trail near Courtland and Pearce.

Gallery

File:Gleeson_Jail_in_1910.jpg, The Gleeson Jail 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