Abandoned 
Overview
A town for a cluster of mines
Constellation grew up in the Wickenburg Mountains about 11 miles northeast of Wickenburg, among a group of gold mines: the Monte Cristo, the Gold Bar, the Black Rock, the Keystone and others. Gold had been found at the Gold Bar, then called the Gold Belt, in 1877, and a road reached it in 1893. The town got a post office in 1901. About 250 people lived there in 1925.
The Monte Cristo was the biggest operation. After C. C. Julian bought it in 1926, a power line came in from Prescott and the mine built a boarding house for 100 men, cottages and a blacksmith shop. It reached 1,150 feet deep with about 22,000 feet of tunnels. The company went into receivership in 1938 or 1939, and the post office closed on January 31, 1939.
Little of the town is left. In 2007 researchers from the American Pioneer and Cemetery Research Project found foundations, a windmill, a stock corral, a dump of broken glass and cans and at least six unmarked graves about a mile up Slim Jim Creek. The Monte Cristo's steel headframe and winch house still stand beside Constellation Road, and the area draws off-road drivers and the occasional museum tour.
Timeline
Gold, a post office and the Monte Cristo
- James Mahoney finds gold at the Gold Belt mine, later the O'Brien and later still the Gold Bar.
- A road from Slim Jim Creek to the O'Brien mine is built for $17,000.
- The Constellation post office opens, with William F. Roberts as postmaster.
- About 250 people live in the town.
- C. C. Julian buys the Monte Cristo Mine.
- A power line comes in from Prescott. The Monte Cristo builds a boarding house for 100 men, cottages and a blacksmith shop, 11 buildings in all.
- The Monte Cristo goes into receivership and is sold.
- The post office closes.
- A fire set by juveniles destroys the Monte Cristo's head shed and three surface buildings.
- A fire at a Wickenburg museum destroys old photographs of the town.
- A company tries to reopen the Monte Cristo and quits that September after pumping the water down to the 800-foot level.
- Test drilling at the Monte Cristo, the last entry in the state mine file.
- Researchers find foundations, a windmill, a corral and unmarked graves about a mile up Slim Jim Creek.
- A Sigler Western Museum tour is scheduled to visit the town of Constellation, the Gold Bar and the Monte Cristo.
Legend and record
Where the town stood, and the stories about it
The location. Most maps put Constellation at the Monte Cristo Mine on today's Constellation Road, and the USGS name database still does. The research project argues that this is wrong. Its historians place the town about a mile up Slim Jim Creek from the road, where the old stage road from the Keystone Mine came north. The late Dana Burden, who had seen old photographs of the town, matched their backgrounds to the same spot. The USGS Congress sheet of 1903, drawn while the town was alive, prints Constellation on Slim Jim Creek about a mile east of the mine, and the 1954 sheet does the same. The research project's historian thinks the mix-up started because the Monte Cristo itself was often called Constellation. There are rumors that the post office moved to the mine, but the project found no record of it.
The name. Arizona Place Names says the town was named for a mine. The same local historian says it was named for the "constellation" of mines around it. We haven't found a record that settles it.
Frank Crampton's memoir Deep Enough says one man, Powhatan J. Wren, owned every business in town.
Powhatan Wren. By Crampton's account, Wren ran the store, saloon, casino, dance hall, stage station and post office, with the help of a Chinese assistant, Ah Yat. Crampton describes him as a small, dapper Southerner who wore a Colt .44 and shot only at tin cans and bottles. This rests on one memoir, and we haven't found a second source.
Before the Monte Cristo. Crampton also says Mexican miners first worked the Monte Cristo for silver and smelted it on the spot, until prospectors took the claims on the grounds that the miners weren't U.S. citizens. We found no other source for this story.
What's left
Foundations up the creek, a headframe by the road
At the townsite, the 2007 survey found tree-shaded foundations along the wash, a windmill and stock pens, and a dump of broken glass and cans. A local rancher told the researchers that boards from the town's saloon are in his ranch house, and that people stripped many of the wooden buildings for lumber during the Depression. Up a road leading north from the windmill they found the rock outlines of six graves, and two more along the creek on the way out. None had a name or headstone.
The Monte Cristo Mine, about a mile west on Constellation Road, has more to see. A steel headframe stands over the main shaft, with a winch house and its machinery to the south, collapsed buildings, cement foundations and wide tailings. The 1969 and 1981 USGS sheets below mark the Monte Cristo Mine but no longer name the town. The 1887 sheet predates it and shows only the Hassayampa and bare hills.
- Foundations along Slim Jim Creek
- Windmill and stock pens
- Glass and can dump
- Unmarked graves
- Monte Cristo headframe and winch house
- Mine foundations and tailings
Historic maps
Constellation 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.
Map & directions
Getting there
Wickenburg is the nearest town. Constellation Road, a dirt road, starts at the edge of town. Our router follows it to Buckhorn Road, part of the old stage route by Gilbert and the Keystone Mine, and stops about 1.1 miles south of the townsite. The research project reached the site the other way in 2007: past the Monte Cristo Mine to where Constellation Road crosses Slim Jim Creek, then about a mile up the creek bed by ATV. We haven't driven either.
Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.
- Turn right onto East Wickenburg Way (US 60).0.2 mi
- Turn left onto El Recreo Drive.0.3 mi
- Continue straight onto Constellation Road, a dirt road, into the Wickenburg Mountains.8.3 mi
- Turn right onto Buckhorn Road. The routed approach ends here, about 1.1 miles south of the townsite.3.4 mi
- From downtown Phoenix, take Central Avenue and Van Buren Street to Grand Avenue and follow it northwest.27 mi
- Continue on US 60 into Wickenburg.26.2 mi
- Turn right onto El Recreo Drive and continue onto Constellation Road.8.6 mi
- Turn right onto Buckhorn Road to the end of the routed approach, about 1.1 miles south of the townsite.3.4 mi
Road and safety notes
- Constellation Road is dirt. An off-road guide recommends high clearance for the drive to the Monte Cristo and says 4WD helps on side roads. The museum's 2026 tour required 4WD. An undated listing rates the road 2WD.
- Slim Jim Creek can be an easy drive or impassable, depending on the last runoff. In 2007 the researchers almost had to leave their ATV and walk.
- The townsite is private land, and the State Trust land north of it is listed as restricted access. The Gold Bar and other mines to the north are private; look at them from Constellation Road.
- At the Monte Cristo the winch house floor is giving way. Stay out of buildings, shafts and adits.
- Summers are hot. Go between fall and spring, and carry water.
Photos
Have photos of Constellation?
We haven’t added more photographs of Constellation yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.
Visitor reports
Been to Constellation?
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.
Gold mining
More gold mining ghost towns
The nearest in Arizona.
GuideOctave
34.14, -112.71Yavapai County, Arizona
The company town of the Octave Mine, which took over Weaver's post office in 1900. The wartime order that closed gold mines in 1942 ended its run…
GuideWeaver
34.16, -112.71Yavapai County, Arizona
The first camp of the 1863 Rich Hill gold strike, named for the guide Pauline Weaver. Its people moved to nearby Octave around 1900, leaving a stone…
Nearby
Other sites near Constellation
Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.
Sources
Sources and credits
- ghosttowns.com, "Constellation": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, founding year).
- Wikipedia, "Constellation, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the Monte Cristo as the town's origin, about 250 residents in 1925, GNIS feature 42812.
- Pat Ryland and Neal Du Shane, "Constellation, Arizona," American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, 2007: the townsite on Slim Jim Creek, post office dates from Arizona Place Names, Frank Crampton's Deep Enough on Powhatan Wren and the Monte Cristo, the Monte Cristo file of the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, the Gold Bar discovery and 1893 road, the 2007 survey and graves.
- AZ Offroad, "Monte Christo Mine": the headframe, winch house and other remains, vehicle advice, private mines to the north.
- Sigler Western Museum, "Desert Adventure Tour – Constellation Road," March 7, 2026: tour stops and the 4WD requirement.
- USGS topographic maps: Congress 1:125,000 (1903) for the townsite, Prescott 1:250,000 (1887, 1954), Morgan Butte 1:24,000 (1969), Bradshaw Mts 1:100,000 (1981). Land status: USGS Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1), checked October 2026.
- Coordinates: one mile up Slim Jim Creek from the Constellation Road crossing, measured on OpenStreetMap, matching the 1903 USGS sheet. GNIS feature 42812 now sits at the Monte Cristo Mine (34.0634, −112.5824). 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 19, 2026.
Photo and map credits
- USGS Congress sheet, 1903: Constellation on Slim Jim Creek, with Black Rock and the Keystone Mine to the south: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
- Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
- Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Prescott 1887, 1:250,000; Congress 1903, 1:125,000; Prescott 1954, 1:250,000; Morgan Butte 1969, 1:24,000; Bradshaw Mts 1981, 1:100,000.