Abandoned Towns
The false-fronted Cochise Hotel with its long porch, and the general store beside it, under a blue sky

Railroad and road town

Cochise

A Southern Pacific coal-and-water stop that grew to about 3,000 people and shrank to a few dozen. The old railroad hotel, where Big Nose Kate once worked, still stands across from the depot site.

32°06′49″N 109°55′18″W · ≈4,220 ft

Photo: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Few residents · Feb 2021 report

Cochise is a small, lived-in community, and most of its buildings are private homes. The Cochise Hotel's website says it is open by appointment only as a bed and breakfast and museum, but the page is undated (we read its May 2026 archived copy, since the live site failed a security check for us), and the latest dated report, from February 2021, found it run as a bed and breakfast and event venue, with museum tours by appointment. Contact the hotel through its website before you plan around it, and view the rest of the town from the road.

Overview

A water stop that kept its hotel

The Cochise Hotel, 2014
The Cochise Hotel, 2014 · Photo: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Cochise sits on the old Southern Pacific main line about 15 miles by road southwest of Willcox, just west of the Willcox Playa. It began in the 1880s as a stop where steam trains took on coal and water. John Rath, a railroad telegrapher, built a hotel for the train crews directly across the street from the depot, and Legends of America says he also dug the town's well. The dates are muddled. Wikipedia gives 1882 for the hotel, Legends of America places the town's start in the mid-1890s, and a 1988 magazine article quoted on the hotel's website gives 1897.

The hotel was the center of town. It held the Wells Fargo office, the telegraph office, the laundry and, from 1896, the post office. In 1899 Big Nose Kate, Doc Holliday's longtime companion, worked there after Holliday's death. At its peak Cochise had about 3,000 people, and a general store went up next to the hotel in 1913.

Once trains no longer needed coal and water, they stopped calling at Cochise, and the town shrank. About 50 people live in Cochise now. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Visitors in 2013 found it closed and for sale. By 2021 Phillip Gessert, a western historian, was running it as a bed and breakfast and museum by appointment, and the store next door sat empty.

Timeline

From water stop to quiet hamlet

  1. The Southern Pacific builds through, and Cochise starts as a stop where trains take on coal and water.
  2. John Rath, a railroad telegrapher, builds a hotel for train crews across the street from the depot. Wikipedia says 1882; Legends of America dates the town to the mid-1890s, and a 1988 magazine piece gives 1897.
  3. The post office opens in the hotel, which also serves as the Wells Fargo office, telegraph office and laundry.
  4. Big Nose Kate, Mary Katherine Harony Cummings, Doc Holliday's companion, works at the hotel.
  5. The general store next to the hotel is built.
  6. The USGS Willcox map shows Cochise where a second rail line leaves the Southern Pacific main line.
  7. The Cochise Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  8. Visitors find people living in the general store and the hotel closed and for sale.
  9. Legends of America reports Phillip Gessert, a western historian, running the hotel as a bed and breakfast and event venue, with museum tours by appointment. The store sits empty.
  10. About 50 people live in Cochise. Union Pacific trains run through without stopping.

What's left

Hotel, store and a few streets

The church, 2014
The church, 2014 · Photo: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The cemetery, 2014
The cemetery, 2014 · Photo: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Cochise Hotel, an adobe with a false front and a long porch, and the 1913 general store stand side by side facing the tracks, where the depot used to be. A 2014 photo series on Wikimedia Commons also shows a church, a schoolhouse, the post office, a wooden frame house, a small false-front building behind the hotel and the town cemetery. In 2013 visitors described the other old structures as so run down it was hard to tell them from junk piles.

The historic maps below trace the town's shape. The 1922 sheet shows Cochise where a second rail line branches off to the south-southeast. The 1943 and 1958 sheets add US 666, now US 191, and a cemetery about a mile and a half to the south-southeast. By 1985 the town is a small grid of streets east of the tracks, with storage bins to the north.

  • Cochise Hotel (1882 or 1897)
  • General store (1913)
  • Church
  • Schoolhouse
  • Post office
  • Cemetery
  • Frame houses
USGS topographic map of Cochise: a small street grid beside the railroad, with US 191 to the east
USGS The National Map, topo. The town grid sits just east of the railroad.
Aerial view of Cochise: houses and trees in a small grid of streets beside the railroad
Aerial imagery, same area. The railroad runs diagonally at left, with the town's few streets east of it.

Historic maps

Cochise on USGS maps, 1922–1996

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.

USGS topographic map around Cochise, 1922
Willcox sheet, 1922, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Willcox is the closest city, about 25 minutes away. From Tucson, the route runs east on I-10 past Benson. Both leave I-10 for US 191 and turn onto West Rath Avenue in the middle of town. The roads are paved all the way.

USGS topographic map from Willcox southwest along I-10 and US 191 to Cochise, with the route drawn on it

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

From downtown Willcox15.2 miabout 23 min
  1. From downtown Willcox, follow Haskell Avenue and Taylor Road (I-10 Business) to I-10.4.1 mi
  2. Take I-10 west.4.4 mi
  3. Exit onto US 191 and follow it south to Cochise.6.0 mi
  4. Turn right on West Rath Avenue into town.0.5 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • US 191 and the town streets are paved. An undated listing recommends 2WD.
  • The hotel, store and houses are private. Look from the street unless you have an appointment.
  • The Union Pacific line through town is busy. Stay off the tracks.
  • Willcox has the nearest full services.

Photos

Cochise in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Cochise?

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.

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Cochise": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains), the coal-and-water stop, peak population, and a September 2013 visitor update.
  2. Wikipedia, "Cochise, Arizona" and "Cochise Hotel", retrieved October 2026: the railroad origin, population, climate, ZIP code, John Rath, the hotel's uses, the 1896 post office, Big Nose Kate, the 1976 listing.
  3. Legends of America, "Cochise, Dinosaurs in Dragoon, and Texas Canyon" (February 2021): Rath and the well, the mid-1890s date, the 1913 store, the hotel under Phillip Gessert, "a few dozen" residents.
  4. Cochise Hotel, official website (undated; read in the Internet Archive copy of May 14, 2026, because the live site failed a certificate check in October 2026): open by appointment only, address, "double adobe structure", the 1988 Tucson Lifestyle quote.
  5. National Register of Historic Places listing 76000370, via Wikipedia's Cochise County list: the October 22, 1976 date.
  6. USGS topographic maps: Willcox 1:125,000 (1922), Cochise 1:62,500 (1943, 1958) and 1:24,000 (1985, 1996). Township and section: BLM PLSS (CadNSDI). Post office and railroad name: OpenStreetMap, October 2026.
  7. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits