Bumble Bee

Overview

Stage stop, movie-set ghost town, guest ranch

Bumble Bee sits in the valley of Bumble Bee Creek at the eastern foot of the Bradshaw Mountains, about six miles off I-17 at exit 248 and some 55 miles north of Phoenix. It was never a mining town. It began in the 1860s as Snyder's Station, a stage stop on the road between Phoenix and Prescott, and it lived off the traffic to the mining camps up in the Bradshaws. The post office opened in February 1879.

The town took its name from the creek, and there are two stories about that. One says early travelers found the local Native people “as thick as bumblebees.” The other, from a forest ranger's letter kept at the Sharlot Hall Museum, says prospector Tom Saunders and his party found a bumblebee nest full of honey in the creek's cliffs in 1863 and got badly stung. Both are stories, so we label them legend.

Stage traffic faded, and the Black Canyon Highway passed the town by. The townsite moved three times as roads were rerouted. In the 1930s Jeff Martin, who owned the town and its cattle, built the cabins, house and store that still stand. Later owners chased tourists. The best-known try came in 1969, when “Crazy Ed” Chilleen put up a false-front ghost town; it was taken down in the early 2000s. Today Bumble Bee is private land, mostly a working guest ranch.

Timeline

A stage stop and its owners

1. 1863–64Settlers arrive along the creek. W. W. Snyder grazes stock here and later opens a stage stop, Snyder's Station.
2. 1877The Miner reports a new owner fitting out a first-class station on Bumble Bee Flat, and a second owner improving it by December.
3. Feb 3, 1879The Bumble Bee post office opens.
4. About 1881Henry Wickenburg, who found the Vulture Mine, moves here to start the Iconoclast Mine, by one account.
5. 1888The post office is discontinued and reinstated in the same year.
6. 1920–1940The census counts 25 people in 1920 and 20 in 1940.
7. Late 1920sJeff Martin buys Bumble Bee and about a thousand head of cattle, just before the Depression.
8. 1930sWith the townsite moved to its present spot, Martin builds the cabins, house and store that still stand, and tries to draw tourists.
9. 1936The WPA builds the schoolhouse. The Highway Department adds the town well in 1938.
10. 1948 or 1960Charles A. Penn buys the town. His plans for a restoration and a museum never happen. Sources disagree on the year.
11. 1969“Crazy Ed” Chilleen leases the town and puts up a false-front ghost town. One account says 4,000 people came to its opening.
12. 1974George Pope buys Bumble Bee.
13. 1998Bumble Bee Ranch Adventures buys the ranch and runs it as a guest ranch.
14. Early 2000sThe false-front ghost town is taken down.
15. TodayAbout 201 acres of private land: a 180-acre guest ranch, two 10-acre parcels and the schoolhouse lot.

What's left

Five cabins, a saloon and a schoolhouse

Bumble Bee Ranch's own directions describe the town as five cabins, an old saloon and two houses. Most of it dates from Jeff Martin's rebuild in the 1930s. The old store sold groceries, supplies and gas, later ran as a bar, and now serves as a clubhouse for the ranch staff. The schoolhouse, built by the WPA in 1936, also served as a church and a dance hall and is now a private home. The town well, northeast of the townsite, dates from 1938, and foundations of houses built for highway workers lie south of the schoolhouse. The first stage station stood along the creek, among the trees east of today's bridge.

• 1930s store, later a bar (ranch clubhouse)
• Five 1930s cabins
• Two houses
• 1936 WPA schoolhouse (private home)
• 1938 town well
• Foundations of highway workers' houses

The false-front ghost town that drew visitors from the 1970s is gone. Its weathered boards were being stolen and its buildings were falling down when it was cleared in the early 2000s. The ranch now tells visitors plainly that there is no ghost town left to find. A welcome sign photographed beside the road in 2017 put the population at 11 people, 32 horses and 158 cattle.

The historic maps below fill in the picture. The 1903 Bradshaw Mountains sheet shows Bumblebee on Bumblebee Creek where several roads meet, with the Richinbar mine to the east. The 1947 Bumblebee sheet marks a row of buildings, a well and windmills, with the Howard Copper Mine in the hills to the west. By 1969 the buildings line the road beside the creek, and the 1981 sheet adds I-17 a few miles east, with a rest area at Sunset Point.

Historic maps

Bumble Bee on USGS maps, 1887–1981

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18871:250,00019031:125,00019471:62,50019691:24,00019811:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Black Canyon City is the closest town, about 11 miles away. From Phoenix it's a straight run up I-17. Both routes leave the freeway at exit 248 and follow Bumblebee Road, which becomes Crown King Road, for the last six miles. Most of that stretch is dirt.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Bumble Bee in photos

Bumble Bee from the hillside in 2017: a house, campers and cabins, with trees along the creekThe welcome sign on Bumble Bee Road, 2017

Visitor reports

Been to Bumble Bee?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Bumble Bee

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.

• Cleator7.1 mi NW · Yavapai
• Cordes7.1 mi N · Yavapai
• Crown King10.6 mi W · Yavapai
• Bradshaw City11.6 mi W · Yavapai
• Tip Top11.7 mi SW · Yavapai
• Fort Misery12.9 mi W · Yavapai
• Hooper13.9 mi W · Yavapai
• Humbug14.0 mi SW · Yavapai

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Bumble Bee": fact sheet fields (legal description, roads, climate, best time, remains, post office date).
2. Wikipedia, "Bumble Bee, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates (GNIS), 1863 start, 1920 and 1940 census, the 1930s tourist push, Penn in 1960, demolished fake buildings.
3. Legends of America, "Bumble Bee Just Never Made It" (updated October 2026): Snyder's Station, the stage line, not a mining town, three townsite moves, the Black Canyon Highway, private property, exit 248.
4. Bumble Bee Ranch Adventures, "History of Bumble Bee", "About" and "Contact + Directions", as of October 2026: the bee-nest story, 1877 Miner reports, Jeff Martin, the 1936 school and 1938 well, removal of the fake town, the 1998 purchase, land parcels, reservations and season.
5. Bumble Bee Ranch Adventures, home page, "Activities" and "Activity Rates", as of October 2026: reservations, no walk-ins, late arrivals, the summer closure, rides, cattle drives, prices, age and weight limits, lunch and cowboy dinners.
6. Rock Springs Café, official site, as of October 2026: hours.
7. Associated Press via Deseret News, "Don't blink or you'll miss Arizona ghost town" (2002): Martin's purchase, Penn in 1948, Chilleen's 1969 lease, the 1974 sale.
8. azoffroad.net, "Bumble Bee": Henry Wickenburg and the Iconoclast Mine, the 1888 post office break, the 1969 opening crowd.
9. Islands, "Bumble Bee" (April 2026): the schoolhouse as a private home, the fake buildings torn down in the 2000s, the rough road to Crown King.
10. AERC ride flyer, Bumble Bee Ranch (2025): road from exit 248, one mile paved and four unpaved.
11. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; Black Canyon City location from OpenStreetMap. Status checked against the ranch's site and Legends of America on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Bumble Bee from the hillside in 2017: a house, campers and cabins, with trees along the creek: LunchboxLarry, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• The welcome sign on Bumble Bee Road, 2017: Foiltape, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• USGS Bumblebee sheet, 1947: a row of buildings, a well and windmills beside Bumblebee Creek: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Prescott 1887, 1:250,000; Bradshaw Mountains 1903, 1:125,000; Bumblebee 1947, 1:62,500; Bumble Bee 1969, 1:24,000; Bradshaw Mts 1981, 1:100,000.