Abandoned Towns
The frame house known as the Westinghouse house at Duquesne, with a sagging porch on a stone foundation among oaks

Copper mining town · Other mining and oil town

Duquesne

The company town of the Duquesne Mining & Reduction Co., backed by George Westinghouse. Its frame houses and adobe ruins stand on private land along a rough forest road, three miles from the Mexican border.

31°22′15″N 110°41′07″W · ≈5,300 ft

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

Private land

Duquesne's buildings stand on private land, an inholding inside the Coronado National Forest (BLM and Forest Service land records, checked October 19, 2026). The townsite is posted against trespassing and isn't open to visitors. Forest Road 128 loops through it, and the Forest Service's 2025 visitor map still shows that road. Stay on it and look or photograph from there.

Overview

A Pittsburgh company town in the Patagonias

Washington Camp and the Duquesne reduction plant in Washington Gulch, 1909
Washington Camp and the Duquesne reduction plant in Washington Gulch, 1909 · Photo: USGS, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Duquesne sits at about 5,300 feet on the east slope of the Patagonia Mountains, three miles north of the Mexican border. Prospectors knew the ground by the 1860s, but Apache raids kept them from staying long. The silver near the surface gave way at depth to stubborn ores of copper, lead and zinc, and work stalled until outside money arrived.

That turned out to be the Duquesne Mining & Reduction Co. of Pittsburgh, funded by George Westinghouse, the inventor and founder of Westinghouse Electric. About 1889 it bought the Bonanza Mine and many of the surrounding claims. In 1890 it laid out Duquesne as its headquarters and moved the post office here from Washington Camp, a mile northwest, where it built its reduction plant. When the USGS surveyed the camp before World War I, the company held 80 claims on 1,600 acres, and the survey called the property the Westinghouse mines. Each camp grew to about 1,000 people around the turn of the century. The busiest years came between 1912 and 1918.

The post office closed in 1920. By then falling prices and poorer ore were slowing the mines, and only a few dozen people stayed. The townsite is privately owned. It was offered for sale in 2003 as five structures on 40 acres, and a 2006 guide found lots for sale and several residents. A large frame house known as the Westinghouse house, a boarding house, adobe ruins and the Bonanza Mine buildings still stand along Forest Road 128.

Timeline

Claims, a company and a tram

  1. The ore body of the San Antonio mine, at the south end of the later camp, is found. Apache raids hold back work for years.
  2. The Empire and San Antonio claims are patented, the oldest in the camp.
  3. A post office opens at Washington Camp, a mile northwest.
  4. Thomas Shane and N. H. Chapin locate the Bonanza Mine, just north of the future townsite.
  5. The Duquesne Mining & Reduction Co. of Pittsburgh buys the Bonanza. George Westinghouse money is behind the company.
  6. The Washington Camp post office moves to Duquesne, the company's new headquarters town.
  7. The company ships 200 carloads of Bonanza ore to a leased furnace in El Paso.
  8. Work resumes and the Bonanza shaft goes down to the 635-foot level.
  9. The camp peaks. Washington alone has more than 1,000 people.
  10. The company buys the Holland, Belmont and Pride of the West mines and strings an aerial tram from the Bonanza to the mill at Washington.
  11. The main production years. Late in 1912 the mines are shipping a carload of ore a day.
  12. The post office closes.
  13. Falling prices and poorer ore slow the mines. A few dozen people stay on.
  14. Brief mining revivals, then exploration by the Simplot and Rosario companies.
  15. The townsite is for sale: five structures on 40 acres for $132,000.
  16. Federal land records list the townsite as a private inholding in the Coronado National Forest.

Legend and record

Did Westinghouse live here?

Inside the Westinghouse house, through the kitchen window
Inside the Westinghouse house, through the kitchen window · Photo: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The best-known story about Duquesne is that George Westinghouse lived in the big frame house, and that it had hot and cold running water. Wikipedia describes it as his house. Arizona Highways went further in 2003 and called it a three-bedroom, two-fireplace home he built in 1889. Other writers are more careful. The Arizona Daily Star's mining columnist says only that it is said he lived here, and an undated listing calls it an unconfirmed rumor.

The record supports his money, not his residence. The USGS report of 1915 calls the property the Duquesne or Westinghouse mines and names a Pittsburgh company as owner. Several sources say his investment founded the company in 1889. We found no document placing Westinghouse at Duquesne in person, so treat the house's name as a local tradition. The USGS report adds a wrinkle of its own: it says the company bought its first claims, the Pluto and Illinois, in the early 1880s, years before 1889.

Locals once said that when you stepped on Duquesne's tail, it was Washington that barked. The headquarters sat at Duquesne, but the mill and the general store were a mile away at Washington.

The numbers. Production figures don't line up either. A 2006 local guide and Wikipedia give more than 450,000 tons of zinc, lead and copper ore from 1912 to 1918. The Star's column puts the Duquesne mine at $4 million from 1899 to 1925. The USGS, writing in 1915, counted only 2,200 tons of ore and concentrate sold since 1899, with 15,000 tons more waiting on the Bonanza dump. The big wartime years came after its survey, which may explain part of the gap.

What's left

Frame houses and adobe walls on FR 128

The boarding house
The boarding house · Photo: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The adobe commercial building
The adobe commercial building · Photo: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The old town center lies along FR 128, a narrow loop that leaves Duquesne Road about 0.7 mile south of the Harshaw Road junction and rejoins it farther on. A 2006 guide found the loop heavily posted with No Trespassing and Private Property signs, with ruins, mine adits and shafts on both sides. A Forest Service sign marks the town. The large frame house known as the Westinghouse house stands in disrepair. Nearby are a smaller frame house, a boarding house said to have also served as a brothel, and two adobe ruins on the main road, one of them thought to be the assay office. The Bonanza Mine just north of town keeps a large adobe building and an ore chute. There is an old cemetery. The schoolhouse that stood between Duquesne and Washington Camp is gone.

The 1905 sheet below shows Duquesne and Washington side by side in Washington Gulch, and the 1932 sheet adds the Holland and Belmont mines to the west. The 1948 sheet shows the town's buildings along the road, and the 2004 sheet names the Bonanza, Duquesne, Holland, Belmont, Empire, Texas and Dudley mines around the townsite.

  • Westinghouse house (large frame house)
  • Small frame house
  • Boarding house
  • Adobe commercial building
  • Assay office ruin (probable)
  • Bonanza Mine adobe building and ore chute
  • Cemetery
  • Mine adits, shafts and dumps
Current USGS topographic map of Duquesne with Forest Roads 61 and 128 and the national forest boundary
USGS The National Map, topo. FR 128 loops through the townsite below FR 61. Green lines mark national forest boundaries; the townsite is private land inside the forest.
Aerial view of Duquesne: dirt roads winding through oak and juniper hills with a few roofs
Aerial imagery, same area. Dirt roads wind through oak and juniper. A few roofs show near the top of the frame.

Historic maps

Duquesne on USGS maps, 1905–2004

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 Duquesne, 1905
Nogales sheet, 1905, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Patagonia is the nearest town. The route climbs Harshaw Road past Harshaw and Washington Camp, then takes Duquesne Road and the FR 128 loop into town. From Tucson the routed approach goes through Nogales and over the mountains on Duquesne Road. Both end on dirt forest roads.

USGS topographic map from Patagonia south through the Patagonia Mountains to Duquesne, with both routes 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 Patagonia18.2 miabout 45 min
  1. From downtown Patagonia, follow Naugle Avenue (AZ 82) and turn left on McKeown Avenue.0.4 mi
  2. McKeown Avenue becomes Harshaw Avenue on the way out of town.1.1 mi
  3. Continue on Harshaw Road (FR 58) up the Harshaw Creek valley.4.8 mi
  4. Keep right where Harshaw Road continues as FR 49, past Harshaw and the Mowry turnoff to Washington Camp.10.4 mi
  5. Continue straight onto Duquesne Road (FR 61).0.7 mi
  6. Turn right on the Duquesne Loop (FR 128) into the townsite.0.7 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The Coronado National Forest describes its loop over FR 58, FR 49 and FR 61 as part paved and part dirt, and recommends high clearance. AZOffroad.net calls FR 128 the more difficult road, and a 2006 guide describes it as narrow.
  • The townsite is private and posted. Stay on FR 128 and photograph from the road. Don't enter buildings, mine openings or fenced ground.
  • Expect mining traffic on Harshaw Road between Patagonia and South32's Hermosa mine site.
  • This is border country. The Forest Service warns that smuggling and illegal crossings are common here; stay aware and report anything suspicious to Border Patrol at 800-232-5378. Legends of America's writers were stopped by Border Patrol on this road.
  • There are no services. Fuel up and carry water before you leave Patagonia or Nogales.

Photos

Duquesne in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Duquesne?

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 Duquesne

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Duquesne": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates) and the Westinghouse residence called an unconfirmed rumor.
  2. Wikipedia, "Duquesne, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the 1890 founding and post office move, 1912–1918 production, the Westinghouse house and other remains, private ownership and public roads.
  3. Frank C. Schrader, Mineral Deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains, Arizona, USGS Bulletin 582 (1915), pp. 321–324: the Westinghouse mines name, claims and acreage, early discoveries, the Bonanza sale, the El Paso shipments, shaft depth, acquisitions, the tram, population about 1901, production to 1913.
  4. Arizona Daily Star, William Ascarza, "Mine Tales: Patagonia Mountains held more than 80 mining claims" (undated): Westinghouse investment, the house story, district population, $4 million figure, the 1920s decline and later exploration, both camps closed to visitors.
  5. Arizona Highways archive, Leo W. Banks, "Patagonia to Sonoita" (2003): the townsite for sale, the house described as built by Westinghouse in 1889, buildings visible from the road.
  6. Arizona Highways archive, Sam Negri, "Ghost Trail to Lochiel" (undated): about 1,000 residents at each camp, the local saying about Duquesne and Washington.
  7. Legends of America, "Patagonia Back Road Ghost Towns": FR 128 loop, posted land, public forest road, photographing from the road, Border Patrol.
  8. John and Bette Bosma, "Southwest Arizona Ghost Towns" (Green Valley hiking club, April 2006): FR 128 mileages and signs, private Westinghouse estate, lots for sale and residents, 1912–1918 production.
  9. AZOffroad.net, "Washington Camp / Duquesne": FR 128 as the more difficult road, private property signs.
  10. Coronado National Forest, "Patagonia Mountains and San Rafael Valley" visitor guide (map dated March 2025): FR 128 on the map, road advice, mining traffic, border safety, no amenities, nearest water in Patagonia, fuel advice, limited cell service, the 45-mile scenic loop.
  11. Land status: BLM Surface Management Agency data (private) and Forest Service basic ownership data (non-Forest Service land inside the Coronado National Forest), both queried October 19, 2026.
  12. USDA Forest Service, "Harshaw Road #58, 49, 61 and HWY 82 Scenic Drive" (updated April 15, 2026): no restrooms, no drinking water, no fees.
  13. Coronado National Forest, "Border Barrier Construction Closure", Order 03-05-00-26-011 (September 28, 2026): closure strips along the border, their widths, where Area 2 begins at Lochiel, and the dates, in effect until January 20, 2029.
  14. Coronado National Forest, "Drones / Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)": recreational use only, FAA rules, 400-foot ceiling, daylight and line of sight, no flights near wildlife, campgrounds, picnic areas, trailheads or visitor centers, none in wilderness.
  15. 36 CFR 261.9: the ban on removing or damaging historic and archaeological resources on national forest land.
  16. Gathering Grounds, official site: McKeown Avenue address, coffee, sandwiches and soups, as of October 2026.
  17. Coordinates: USGS Geographic Names Information System, populated place "Duquesne" (feature ID 28680). 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