Abandoned 
Overview
A mining camp in a canyon
Copper Creek lies in a steep canyon on the west slope of the Galiuro Mountains, about 10 miles east of Mammoth and the San Pedro River. Prospectors were shipping silver ore from these hills by 1863, and they organized a mining district in 1880. Around 1900 the focus turned to copper.
The town was a Sibley enterprise. Frank J. Sibley organized the Copper Creek Mining Company in 1903, Roy Sibley ran the mines, and Belle Sibley was postmistress when the post office opened in 1906. By about 1910 more than 200 people lived in some 50 buildings, with a stage line, a commissary and a doctor. Up the canyon Roy Sibley built a 20-room stone mansion to impress investors. A dam went up in 1912 to power the mill, and in 1913 a narrow-gauge railroad started carrying ore about two miles from mine to mill. Its Porter locomotive came overland from Winkelman on two wagons lashed together.
The mines never paid much. The Sibley companies went broke by 1914 or 1915, and copper mining stopped a few years later. Arizona Molybdenum brought the camp back in 1933, and for a few years it was one of the country's largest molybdenum producers. By 1942 the mines, the town and the post office had closed. The canyon has been mined on and off ever since. Today Faraday Copper is drilling on a large copper deposit around the old townsite, and reports disagree on whether visitors can still reach the ruins.
Timeline
Silver, copper, molybdenum, and copper again
- Silver ore from the Blue Bird Mine goes to Yuma and on to Swansea, Wales, for smelting.
- Prospectors William N. Miller, Theodore H. Peters and Ely H. McDaniels organize the Copper Creek Mining District.
- Frank J. Sibley organizes the Copper Creek Mining Company in Chicago.
- Ninety men produce 49,000 pounds of copper.
- The post office opens, with Belle Sibley as postmistress. An undated listing and some guides give 1907.
- Roy Sibley's 20-room stone mansion goes up the canyon. A December newspaper lists him as the Prohibition Party's candidate for delegate to Congress.
- More than 200 people and about 50 buildings. The Sibleys leave around this time, by one account.
- A dam is built to power the mill. A narrow-gauge railroad links mine and mill, its locomotive hauled in from Winkelman on wagons.
- The operating companies go bankrupt. Two attempts to reopen the mines fail.
- Copper mining stops. Sources give different years.
- Arizona Molybdenum Corp. takes over the claims. By 1937 it's the country's second-largest molybdenum producer, with 200 miners.
- Molybdenum mining ends and the plant is dismantled, by one account.
- The post office closes. The mines and town are finished.
- A blast of more than 4 million pounds of explosives shatters 5 million tons of ore for acid leaching, which runs until 1981.
- Floods wash out the old road above the dam, according to a local writer.
- Faraday Copper buys the neighboring Mercer Ranch, about 6,000 deeded acres.
- The BLM approves Faraday's exploration plan: up to 67 drill pads on 18 acres of public land.
- The San Carlos Apache Tribe and two conservation groups launch a legal challenge to halt the drilling, citing Mexican spotted owls.
Legend and record
The mansion and the stories around it
The Sibley Mansion is what most people come to see. Accounts describe a three-story house of quarried granite with adobe cross walls, 20 rooms around a central patio, oak floors, two fireplaces and real glass in the windows. It stands above the creek in a grove of big sycamores, about two miles up the canyon from the main mining area. Roy Sibley built it in 1908 to entertain potential investors.
Plenty of stories grew up around him. Sibley is said to have thrown lavish parties for guests from across the country and to have kept a road crew on call for his Stutz Bearcat. A biography of the later mine manager Martin E. Tew says Sibley went to San Quentin for embezzlement in 1910. The local writer who quotes it couldn't confirm the conviction, and neither could we, so treat it as legend.
The party-giver of legend was also, by a December 1908 newspaper's list, the Prohibition Party's candidate for Arizona's delegate to Congress.
The same writer says the town never had a saloon, which fits the prohibitionist better than the playboy. Today's USGS topo still names a side canyon to the west Saloon Canyon. Another claim, that Copper Creek supplied much of America's molybdenum during World War I, doesn't fit the record either. The Arizona Daily Star dates the molybdenum mining to 1933 and later.
After the Sibleys left, Martin E. Tew took over the mines and folded the mansion into his Monte Bonito Ranch. Its furnishings and floors were later stripped, and some of the flooring went into a building near Winkelman. The front wall still stood around 1971 but had fallen by the time of a later visit, possibly when a rotted beam gave way.
What's left
Ruins along two miles of canyon
The newest detailed reports we found are from the 2000s and 2010s. They describe the remains spread along the canyon floor. Near the old mill are concrete and lumber foundations, a concrete dam that once held back about 8 million gallons, and the level grade of the 1913 railroad. At the foot of the post office steps is what's left of the old Copper Creek sign. Iron bridges cross the creek, mine shafts and tailings mark the hillsides, and settling ponds remain from the 1970s leaching operation. Up the canyon stand the stone walls of the mine office and store and, close by, the shell of the Sibley Mansion.
The historic maps below show the camp from both sides of a map-sheet edge, because the townsite sits almost exactly on the line between two USGS quadrangles. The 1938 sheets name the Blue Bird, Glory Hole, Copper Prince, Reliable and Bunker Hill mines. The 1972 sheet marks "Copper Creek (Site)" beside the dam, with the old railroad grade, ruins, tailings and the Childs and Aldwinkle Mine just downstream, and the note "Mammoth 14 mi." The 1986 sheet shows the Pinal–Graham county line a couple of miles east.
- Sibley Mansion shell (1908)
- Stone mine office and store walls
- Post office steps and town sign remnant
- Mill foundations
- Concrete dam (1912)
- Narrow-gauge railroad grade (1913)
- Iron bridges
- Mine shafts and tailings
- 1970s leach ponds
Copper Creek today
A copper project around the ruins
Copper Creek never stopped attracting mining companies. Drilling programs ran from 1959 on, and in 1972 a lessee blasted 5 million tons of ore in place and leached it with dilute sulfuric acid until 1981. Redhawk Copper acquired the property in 2005. It's now a subsidiary of Faraday Copper, a Canadian company that controls about 65 square kilometres here and has drilled in the area since 2022. In March 2023 Faraday bought the neighboring Mercer Ranch, about 6,000 deeded acres, and said the Mercer family would keep running it.
On June 30, 2025, the BLM's Safford Field Office approved Faraday's exploration plan: up to 67 drill pads and their access roads, 18 acres of public land in all. The BLM said four of those acres would widen existing roads that are open to the public for recreation. In April 2026 the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance launched a legal challenge, and Courthouse News reports a suit filed in federal court in Tucson. They say the agencies wrongly concluded that no Mexican spotted owls live in the project area. Expect drill rigs and truck traffic on the road.
Land ownership around the townsite is mixed. The BLM manages most of it. Some belongs to the mining project, and some lies inside a private ranch. A 2004 trip report also notes that the lower road crosses Arizona State Trust land, which needs a recreation permit.
Historic maps
Copper Creek on USGS maps, 1938–1986
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
Mammoth, on AZ 77, is the closest town. From there, Copper Creek Road crosses the San Pedro River and climbs east about 10 miles into the Galiuros. From Tucson, follow Oracle Road and AZ 77 north to Mammoth. Both routes were computed from OpenStreetMap and not driven by us, and the last stretch into the canyon is rough.
Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.
- From Main Street in Mammoth, turn east on East Copper Creek Road. It crosses the San Pedro River.0.9 mi
- Cross South River Road and continue on Copper Creek Road, dirt, east into the Galiuro Mountains and down into the canyon.10.3 mi
- Turn left onto the track to the townsite area. Access beyond this point is unverified.0.1 mi
- From downtown Tucson, take Granada Avenue and Main Avenue north to Oracle Road.1.4 mi
- Follow Oracle Road north. It becomes AZ 77, the Tucson-Globe Highway, which runs as American Avenue for 2 miles. Continue to Mammoth.45 mi
- In Mammoth, turn right on Copper Street, then bear left on Bluebird Avenue, which becomes East Copper Creek Road.1.1 mi
- Turn right onto Copper Creek Road and follow it east into the canyon.10.3 mi
- Turn left onto the track to the townsite area. Access beyond this point is unverified.0.1 mi
Road and safety notes
- Reports on the road vary by year. An American Southwest guide calls the first seven miles generally fine for 2WD cars, with 4WD possibly needed past the creek ford. A 2004 trip report says the road becomes impassable to 2WD vehicles at just over seven miles, with a narrow shelf above the creek. An undated listing calls for 4WD.
- One local writer reports that floods in 2012 washed out the old road above the dam. He parked near the old mill and walked the rest of the way to the mansion, past one unsigned gate, in a report online by July 2013. Another guide says the main ruins are on a private ranch and closed, so don't go past a gate unless you know the land is open.
- Exploration drilling has been approved since June 2025. Expect drill rigs and trucks, and stay clear of drill pads and work areas.
- Land is a mix of BLM, the mining project, a private ranch and State Trust land. Respect gates and posted signs, and get an Arizona State Land Department recreation permit for Trust land.
- Mine shafts are open in the hills around the canyon. Stay out of them and off the tailings, and keep away from the old walls, which are collapsing.
- There are no services past Mammoth. Carry water, and don't drive the canyon when storms are forecast.
Photos
Copper Creek in photos
Visitor reports
Been to Copper Creek?
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 Copper Creek
Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.
Sources
Sources and credits
- ghosttowns.com, "Copper Creek": fact sheet fields (county, roads, legal description, climate, best time, post office dates).
- Wikipedia, "Copper Creek, Arizona" and "Copper Creek mine", retrieved October 2026: buildings, population, post office dates, the 1913 railroad, the Faraday project and Mercer Ranch, coordinates.
- Arizona Daily Star, William Ascarza, "Mine Tales: Copper Creek history": 1863 shipments, the 1880 district, town size, the mansion, Tew, production, molybdenum, the 1972 blast, Redhawk.
- Jeremy Rowe, "Photographic Postcards of Arizona: The Tale of Copper Creek" (2001): the Sibley companies, 1905 output, the 1906 post office, the dam, the railroad and locomotive, bankruptcies, the 1939 end of molybdenum mining.
- AZ Backcountry Adventures, "The Old Mine Ruins of Copper Creek": the mansion's construction and decline, the San Quentin story, the 1908 Prohibition candidacy, the dam, the 2012 flood damage, the unsigned gate (a visit after the 2012 floods; the page is unchanged since the Internet Archive's first copy, July 3, 2013).
- Expedition Portal, "Sibley Mansion" (2004 trip): Copper Creek Road from Mammoth, road condition, State Trust land permit, the mansion and store.
- The American Southwest, "Copper Creek Ghost Town": land ownership, the private ranch closure report (on the page since at least December 2008, per Internet Archive copies), road condition, remains.
- azghosttowns.com, "Copper Creek" (1997): the 1908 mansion date, the World War I molybdenum claim.
- BLM press release, February 27, 2025 and AZPM, July 31, 2025: the exploration plan, the June 30, 2025 approval, roads open for recreation.
- Faraday Copper news release, February 27, 2023: the Mercer Ranch purchase.
- AZ Luminaria / Inside Climate News, April 29, 2026 and Courthouse News: the notice of intent to sue, the lawsuit, drilling since 2022.
- Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.
Photo and map credits
- Mine structures and a steel span in Copper Creek canyon, 2004: Lepley from Tucson, USA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- The Galiuro Mountains across the San Pedro Valley, near San Manuel: Maureen Kirk-Detberner from Arizona, USA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
- Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Klondyke 1938, 1:48,000; Galiuro Mts 1938, 1:48,000; Oak Grove Canyon 1972, 1:24,000; Mammoth 1986, 1:100,000.