Abandoned Towns
Five beehive-shaped stone charcoal ovens in a row on a desert bench above the Gila River

Railroad and road town

Cochran

A railroad stop on the Gila River that had a post office for ten years. Across the river stand five stone charcoal ovens, older than the town. One has lost its top, and who may visit them is unsettled.

33°06′34″N 111°08′59″W · 1,640 ft

Photo: Sonoransteve, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ruins · 2026 video · ovens' access unsettled

A visit video posted in September 2026 shows the charcoal ovens on the north bank of the Gila standing, one of them without its top, and a video filmed in February 2026 shows a crowd of visitors there. Whether you may walk up to them is not settled. In 2016 the owner said the ovens and the 189 acres around them were closed to the public, with no exceptions, and that trespassers would be cited for criminal trespass. Wikipedia and trail guides still call them private. But the BLM's land-status map, checked in October 2026, shows the ovens' parcel as Bureau of Land Management land, where Arizona's 2017 copy of that map shows it private. We found no BLM notice of a purchase or of rules for the site, so check with the BLM before crossing the river, and otherwise view the ovens from the south bank. The same map puts the townsite on Bureau of Reclamation land. The railroad through Cochran is a working line. Stay off the tracks.

Overview

A railroad stop and five ovens

The 1964 USGS North Butte sheet, with Cochran on the railroad beside the Gila
The 1964 USGS North Butte sheet, with Cochran on the railroad beside the Gila · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain

Cochran was a stop on the railroad up the Gila River, about 15 miles east of Florence. The line opened at the end of 1904, and a post office followed in January 1905, named for the first postmaster, John S. Cochran. About 100 people lived here, with a general store and a boardinghouse, and the Copper Butte and Silver Bell companies worked mines nearby. The post office closed in January 1915. A visitor in 2003 found a few concrete foundations and part of a water tank on the south bank. The railroad still runs past.

The landmark is across the river. Five beehive-shaped stone ovens, each about 30 feet tall when whole, stand in a row on the north bank below North Butte. They're older than Cochran. They were built in the late 1800s to burn mesquite into charcoal for smelting ore, and the National Register lists them as the Butte-Cochran Charcoal Ovens, after Cochran and Butte, a camp of the early 1880s nearby. Most people call them the coke ovens. One of the five has lost its top since the 2015 photos on this page were taken.

Who may visit the ovens is unsettled. For years they were private and closed, and guides said to look from across the river. The BLM's land-status map now shows their parcel as BLM land, and videos from 2026 show visitors among them, but we found no word from the BLM itself. The note at the top of this page has the details and dates.

Timeline

Butte, the ovens and Cochran

  1. A mining camp called Butte starts up near North Butte, close to where the ovens stand. It includes the reduction works of the Pinal Consolidated Mining Company.
  2. Five stone ovens go up on the north bank of the river to burn mesquite into charcoal. The National Register nomination doesn't give a year; one guide says about 1880.
  3. Butte has a post office.
  4. The Phoenix and Eastern Railroad builds a line up the Gila from Florence toward Winkelman.
  5. The finished line is leased to the Santa Fe and run by the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway. Cochran becomes a stop on it.
  6. A post office opens, named for the first postmaster, John S. Cochran. One account dates it to 1904.
  7. About 100 people live at Cochran, with a general store and a boardinghouse. The Copper Butte and Silver Bell companies work the mines nearby.
  8. The post office closes.
  9. The ovens are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The nomination warns that a proposed Buttes Dam could put them under 100 feet of water.
  10. The railroad becomes the Copper Basin Railway. ASARCO buys it in 2006, and it still runs through the townsite.
  11. Photos show all five ovens standing.
  12. The owner says the ovens and the 189 acres around them are closed to the public, and that trespassers will be cited.
  13. Arizona's copy of the BLM land-status map, last edited in July 2017, shows the ovens' parcel as private land.
  14. A drone video shows that one of the five ovens has lost its top.
  15. Visit videos posted in March and September show people among the ovens, and one oven still without its top. The BLM's own land-status map, checked in October, shows the ovens' parcel as BLM land. We found no record of a sale.

Butte-Cochran Charcoal Ovens

Five ovens on the Gila

The cement-plastered oven, 2009
The cement-plastered oven, 2009 · Photo: Cygnusloop99, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The National Register nomination, written in 1975, describes five ovens standing in a row three feet apart, each about 22 feet across and 32 feet high. A travel guide measures them at about 25 feet by 30. They're built of coursed rubble, with decomposed granite in place of mortar, and the walls taper from two feet thick at the base to one foot at the top. Each has a doorway six feet high and three feet wide under a stone arch, a large opening near the top at the back, and several vent holes. By 1975 one oven had been plastered with cement and used as a home.

Mesquite was burned slowly inside for days and came out as charcoal for smelting ore. We found no record of who built them or exactly when. The nomination says only the late 19th century, and a ghost-town guide says about 1880, around the time the Butte camp started nearby.

Photos from 2015 show all five domes whole. A drone video posted in March 2021 shows one of them open to the sky, its top fallen in, while the other four still have their domes. Visit videos from February and September 2026 show that oven still broken off, with rubble at its base.

The 1975 nomination warned that the ovens could end up under 100 feet of water if the Buttes Dam were built as part of the Central Arizona Project.

The Florence topo sheet below already marks a "Butte Reservoir Site" in the gap between the buttes. No dam has been built there. The current USGS map shows the river running free past the ovens.

What's left

Foundations, a tank and the tracks

Cochran stood on the south bank, where Cochran Road meets the railroad. A 2003 visitor found several concrete pads marking the center of town and part of a large water tank. Arizona Highways, in 2002, described the road ending at the tracks, with the river a few hundred yards beyond through a thicket of brush and cottonwoods. The ovens are visible across the river and slightly downstream.

The historic maps below follow the place through the century. The Florence sheet is dated 1900 in the USGS catalog, but it shows the railroad and the Cochran station, so it was updated after 1904; it also marks a stone house at the gap between the buttes. The 1958 sheet shows Cochran on the Southern Pacific with the Copper Butte Mine to the northeast. The 1964 North Butte sheet shows a few buildings at the station, jeep trails and a well across the river, and the 1994 sheet labels the railroad tunnel at the buttes.

  • Five charcoal ovens, one without its top (north bank)
  • Concrete foundations (2003)
  • Part of a water tank (2003)
  • Copper Basin Railway tracks
USGS topographic map of Cochran on the south bank of the Gila River, with the railroad and roads
USGS The National Map, topo. Cochran sits beside the railroad on the south bank. Cochran Road comes in from the south, and the map draws a road on across the river to the north, with no bridge.
Aerial view of the Gila River's green riparian band, with the railroad curving along its south side
Aerial imagery, same area. The green band is the river's cottonwood and brush thicket; the railroad curves along its south edge.

Historic maps

Cochran on USGS maps, 1900–1994

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 Cochran, 1900
Florence sheet, 1900, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Florence is the closest town. Both routes run out the Florence-Kelvin Highway. Arizona Highways said in 2002 that its pavement ended after 7 miles; a 2019 report says 16 miles are now paved, to the Cochran Road turnoff. The routes below were computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us. Their last stretch follows unnamed tracks across State Trust, BLM and Bureau of Reclamation land; the road notes describe the shorter approach on Cochran Road that published guides use.

USGS topographic map between Florence and Cochran with the routed approach along the Florence-Kelvin Highway 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 Florence34.1 miabout 2 h 29 min
  1. From downtown Florence, head east on Butte Avenue (AZ 79 Business) and turn right on Pinal Parkway Avenue (AZ 79).2.6 mi
  2. Turn left on the Florence-Kelvin Highway and follow it east. A 2019 report says it's paved for 16 miles, to the Cochran Road turnoff, and broad dirt after that.20.7 mi
  3. Turn left onto unnamed tracks and a power-line road, which the routing follows back northwest across the desert.8.1 mi
  4. Join Cochran Road and follow it north to the railroad at the townsite.2.6 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Arizona Highways (2002) and azghosttowns.com (2003) describe a shorter approach: Cochran Road leaves the Florence-Kelvin Highway about 15 to 16 miles from AZ 79, at a pile of boulders, and runs about 12 to 13 miles north to the river. Our routing joins it only for the last 2.6 miles, and we haven't driven either way.
  • In 2002 Arizona Highways found Cochran Road washboardy and sandy but passable in an ordinary car, and suggested high clearance, especially if rain seems likely. A 2003 visit called it dirt and sand and recommended high-clearance two-wheel drive. We found no newer report on Cochran Road itself.
  • The routed approach crosses State Trust land. Arizona State Parks says you need a recreation permit from the State Land Department to be on State Trust land.
  • The ovens are across the river, and there's no bridge for cars. The current USGS topo draws a road fording the Gila at Cochran; AZOFFROAD.NET says not to cross when the river is flowing. Check with the BLM before going over to the ovens (see the note at the top). The railroad, with its tunnel and bridges, is private property on a working line.
  • Arizona Highways says to expect few other people on the Florence-Kelvin Highway. DesertUSA's writer ran out of water walking to the ovens and back, and told people where he was going before each trip. Carry plenty of water and do the same.

Photos

Cochran in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Cochran?

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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Nearby

Other sites near Cochran

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Cochran": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates).
  2. Wikipedia, "Cochran, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates (GNIS), post office dates, population, the 189-acre private parcel around the ovens where it says visits aren't allowed.
  3. National Register of Historic Places nomination, "Butte-Cochran Charcoal Ovens" (Arizona State Parks Board, 1975): oven dimensions and construction, the Butte camp and post office, Cochran's mines and railroad, the Buttes Dam threat, location.
  4. Wikipedia, NRHP listings in Pinal County: listing date and coordinates of the ovens.
  5. Wikipedia, "Copper Basin Railway", retrieved October 2026: Phoenix and Eastern construction, the 1904 lease, later owners.
  6. azghosttowns.com, "Cochran" (last visited January 2003): townsite remains, the ovens' date, private north bank, directions and road surface.
  7. Arizona Highways, Leo W. Banks, "Back Road Adventure" (February 2002): Florence-Kelvin Highway and Cochran Road conditions, the river beyond the tracks, viewing the ovens from a distance, the 1904 post office date via Philip Varney.
  8. DesertUSA, Gordon Burhop, "Florence Coke Ovens" (undated): oven size, mesquite charcoal, private property, the writer's trips.
  9. Jim Witkowski, "Ray Tailings" (November 3, 2019): 16 miles of the Florence-Kelvin Highway paved to Cochran Road, broad dirt beyond.
  10. Tom Kollenborn, "The Coke Ovens of the Gila River" (February 22, 2016): the owner's closure of the ovens and 189 acres, and trespass citations.
  11. AZOFFROAD.NET, "Coke Ovens Trail" (updated December 29, 2018): not crossing the Gila when it is flowing.
  12. AllTrails, "Florence Coke Ovens OHV Route" (page updated October 21, 2026): its description still calls the ovens private.
  13. NewZona Rides, "Cochran Ghost Town Site AZ | Coke Ovens And New Tires 2021", YouTube, posted March 29, 2021: drone footage showing one oven without its top.
  14. Arizona Sundowner, "Box Canyon, Coke Ovens and Crossing the Gila River", YouTube, posted March 25, 2026 (filmed February 28, 2026, per its description): a crowd of visitors at the ovens and the broken oven.
  15. Desert Villain, "101°… Trails to the Coke Ovens… Gila River Crossing…" (title shortened), YouTube, posted September 18, 2026: the ovens and the broken one, with the riders inside another. Its narration says the BLM bought the land in 2024; we found no record of that.
  16. Arizona State Parks, "Trails on State Trust Land": the permit rule.
  17. BLM Arizona Surface Management Agency map service, queried October 22, 2026: the ovens' 509-acre parcel as BLM land, the townsite on Bureau of Reclamation land, State Trust, BLM and Reclamation land along the routed approach. Arizona State Land Department copy of the same map, parcel last edited July 25, 2017: the same parcel as private land.
  18. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked. Status checked against the sources above on October 22, 2026.

Photo and map credits