Ruby 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 ...

in Santa Cruz 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 was founded as a mining town in Bear Valley, originally named Montana Camp, so named because the miners were mining at the foot of Montana Peak.

History

Mining started ''circa'' 1877. The Montana Mine produced gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper. At its peak in the mid-1930s, Ruby had a population of about 1,200. On April 11, 1912 the mining camp's general store owner Julius Andrews established the post office. Andrews named the post office "Ruby", after his wife, Lille B. Ruby Andrews, and the mining camp soon became known as Ruby. The post office was discontinued on May 31, 1941. Between 1920 and 1922, the town of Ruby and the surroundings were the scene of three double homicides known as the Ruby Murders, which led to the largest manhunt in the history of the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

, which included the first airplane ever used in an Arizona manhunt. The most prosperous period for Ruby was in the late 1920s and 1930s, when the Eagle-Picher Mining Company operated the mine and upgraded the camp. From 1934 to 1937, the Montana mine was the leading

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 ...

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 ...

producer in Arizona. In 1936, it was third in

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. ...

production. The mine closed in 1940, and by the end of 1941 Ruby was abandoned.Philip Varney, 1994, ''Arizona ghost towns and mining camps''. Arizona Highways books, Ruby is one of the two best-preserved mining ghost towns in Arizona, along with the Vulture Mine near Wickenburg. Ruby's attractions today include approximately 25 buildings under roof, including the jail and houses, the school, the playground, mine machinery, buildings and mine workings. Ruby is entirely on private property and there is no public access to the site. Ruby is currently located on private property. Public tours were offered for 30 years until being closed to the public on June 3, 2024.

References

External links

Historic Ghost Town of Ruby, AZ

Mining and Murder in Ruby, Arizona

at GhostTowns.com

– Ghost Town of the Month at azghosttowns.com {{authority control Ghost towns in Arizona Mining communities in Arizona Populated places in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Tourist attractions in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links