Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of steep, brushy canyons in the southern Bradshaw Mountains, with a pale creek bed and dirt road running down the middle past the Fort Misery site

Farm and ranch town

Fort Misery

A homestead on Humbug Creek that Al Francis jokingly called Fort Misery. A 1971 book turned it into a cavalry post, which no record supports. Graves across the creek, four of them said to be soldiers', are still unexplained.

34°08′25″N 112°22′00″W · ≈4,350 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

Ruins · 2008 report

Fort Misery stands on a small private tract inside Prescott National Forest. Forest Service land records show it passing to Al Francis in 1919, and we don't know who owns it now or whether visitors are welcome. Fort Misery Road (Forest Road 711) runs past it. The newest first-hand description we found is from January 2008. Stay on the road, and respect fences, posted signs and the graves.

Overview

A joke that stuck

Fort Misery sits on Humbug Creek in the southern Bradshaw Mountains, about five miles southwest of Crown King as the crow flies. It was never a town in the usual sense. Al Francis, who is said to have hauled ore from the Oro Belle mine to Crown King, built a house here and called it Fort Misery for the hard, lonely life it offered. The name stuck, and USGS maps still print it.

Francis had neighbors strung along the creek. William "Kentuck" Bell, a Civil War veteran, lived about half a mile south, and a man known as Burro John lived beyond him. When Bell died in his cabin in June 1910, Francis hauled a headstone in from Crown King, and he and Burro John set it on Bell's grave. People lived at Fort Misery into the 1920s. Francis later died on a ranch near Walnut Grove and is buried in the cemetery there.

In 1919 a 16-acre tract here passed into private hands in Francis's name, and Forest Service records still show it as private land inside Prescott National Forest. Researchers who visited between 2005 and 2008 found the remains of a stone house, traces of the windmill and garden, an outhouse and a scatter of graves across the creek. We haven't found a report since.

Timeline

A homestead on Humbug Creek

Fort Misery on Humbug Creek, with Misery Spring, Kentucks Cabin and Kentucks Grave, USGS Crown King sheet, 1969
Fort Misery on Humbug Creek, with Misery Spring, Kentucks Cabin and Kentucks Grave, USGS Crown King sheet, 1969 · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. The USGS Bradshaw Mountains sheet marks Kentuck's Ranch and Tucker's Ranch on Silver Creek nearby. It shows no Fort Misery.
  2. Al Francis is living on Humbug Creek, in the house he called Fort Misery.
  3. His neighbor William "Kentuck" Bell, a Civil War veteran, dies of Bright's disease in his cabin half a mile south.
  4. Francis hauls Bell's headstone in from Crown King, and he and Burro John set it on Bell's grave.
  5. Federal land records show a 16-acre tract here passing into private hands in Al Francis's name.
  6. People are still living at Fort Misery.
  7. The USGS Crown King sheet names Fort Misery on Humbug Creek, with Burro John's place downstream.
  8. The new Crown King sheet marks the buildings, Misery Spring, Kentucks Cabin and Kentucks Grave.
  9. Tom Barkdull's book Lonesome Walls calls Fort Misery an 1880s cavalry outpost.
  10. The Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project photographs the stone house inside and out.
  11. The same group finds traces of the windmill and garden, an outhouse, graves across the creek and no headstone on Bell's grave. Arizona historian Lloyd Clark tells them there was never a fort.

Legend and record

The fort that wasn't

In 1971 Tom Barkdull's book Lonesome Walls described Fort Misery as a cavalry outpost set up in the 1880s to protect miners at Oro, three miles up Humbug Creek, from raids. He wrote of barracks, a parade ground and a knoll dotted with graves. He also said the War Department could find no record of the fort, though its letters confirmed that the headstones were official military markers.

The record points the other way. Thelma Heatwole quoted Mrs. William Nelson, born in 1906, as saying the house was built by Al Francis, who had helped build the railroad to Crown King, and that it was never a fort. In 2008 Neal Du Shane of the Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project concluded that Barkdull's "barracks" photo actually shows Kentuck Bell's place, half a mile south, and Arizona historian Lloyd Clark told him there was never a military fort here.

The graves are the loose end. In 2008 the APCRP found what may be up to 20 burials across the creek and identified four as soldiers' graves. Who they were hasn't been published.

Bell's own stone named his Civil War unit. It read "Corpl. Wm Bell, Co. E, 35th Kentucky Mtd. Inf." The APCRP also suggests the name may owe something to Misery Spring, a short walk away. We treat the cavalry fort as legend.

Not the Prescott Fort Misery. The name first belonged to a log cabin in Prescott, built in the town's first months and said to have housed Governor John Goodwin's party. That cabin now stands at the Sharlot Hall Museum. The freely licensed photos titled Fort Misery on Wikimedia Commons, including the one on Wikipedia's page for this site, all show the Prescott cabin.

What's left

A stone house, a garden and graves

The house stood beside Humbug Creek near the mouth of Jones Gulch. The APCRP photographed what was left of it in 2005, a stone structure and its interior. In January 2008 the group could still see where the buildings, the windmill and the fenced garden had been, and an outhouse was "on its last legs." The graves lie across the creek in soft, sandy ground. Kentuck Bell's grave is on a hilltop near his old cabin site, half a mile south, and in 2008 it had no headstone. Two more graves, a man and a teenage girl, lie near that cabin. Burro John's place, farther down, is a clearing between the road and the creek.

The historic maps below trace the name. The 1903 sheet shows Kentuck's Ranch and Tucker's Ranch on Silver Creek and nothing called Fort Misery. The 1947 Crown King sheet names it, with Burro John downstream and the Pacific Mine up Silver Creek. The 1969 sheet marks the buildings, Misery Spring, Kentucks Cabin and Kentucks Grave. The 1887 sheet, the oldest, shows only Silver Mountain and empty canyons.

  • Stone house ruins (2005 photo)
  • Windmill site
  • Fenced garden site
  • Outhouse
  • Graves across the creek, possibly up to 20
  • Kentuck Bell's grave, half a mile south
  • Kentuck's cabin site
USGS topographic map of Fort Misery on Humbug Creek, with Misery Spring and Jones Gulch
USGS The National Map, topo. Fort Misery sits where Jones Gulch meets Humbug Creek, with Misery Spring just upstream. Forest Road 711 follows the creek south.
Aerial view of a brushy canyon with a pale creek bed and dirt road running diagonally across it
Aerial imagery, same area. Humbug Creek's pale bed runs from top left to bottom right with the road beside it. A second track climbs away to the southwest.

Historic maps

Fort Misery 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.

USGS topographic map around Fort Misery, 1887
Prescott sheet, 1887, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Our router can't use the forest roads out of Crown King, so both routes below come in from the west. They leave AZ 89 at Kirkland Junction, follow Wagoner Road and Forest Road 362 to Minnehaha, then run east on Oro Belle Road (FR 192) until the router gives out about four miles short. The last step comes from Forest Service road data. We haven't driven any of it, and we found no published description of the Wagoner approach. An undated listing says the easier way in is from Crown King. By Forest Service road data, that means the Senator Highway past Bradshaw City, then Oro Belle Road (FR 192) and Fort Misery Road (FR 711), about 8 miles in all.

USGS topographic map from Prescott south to the Bradshaw Mountains, with the routed approach along AZ 89 and Wagoner Road 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 Prescott54.5 miabout 3 h 04 min
  1. From downtown Prescott, take Montezuma Street south onto White Spar Road (AZ 89), which becomes the Wickenburg-Prescott Highway.22.3 mi
  2. At Kirkland Junction, turn left on West Wagoner Road. It becomes South Walnut Grove Road, then Wagoner Road again.22.6 mi
  3. Continue on Wagoner Road, which becomes Forest Road 362, to Minnehaha.6.6 mi
  4. Bear right, then turn left onto Oro Belle Road (FR 192), unnamed in our router's data. The routed approach stops here.3.0 mi
  5. From Forest Service road data: continue east on FR 192, then turn right on Fort Misery Road (FR 711) and follow Humbug Creek south to the site.4.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The APCRP and an undated listing both say Fort Misery takes four-wheel drive. The Forest Service's motor vehicle map rates Oro Belle Road (FR 192) and Fort Misery Road (FR 711) as maintained for high-clearance vehicles only, open all year.
  • An undated listing warns that the climb up from Lake Pleasant, to the south, is for experienced four-wheelers only.
  • South of Fort Misery the road becomes the Crown King Trail, which comes up from Cow Creek Road. The APCRP called it a true 4x4 road in 2008 and said rains in 2002 and 2003 had made it treacherous.
  • From Crown King, Crown King Road down to I-17 exit 248 is about 28 miles of graded dirt. Crown King's lodging site calls it fine for passenger cars in normal conditions and warns there are no auto services between I-17 and town.
  • The house and graves are on private land. Stay on the road and don't disturb the graves.
  • The Prescott National Forest listed no closure for these roads on October 19, 2026. Check its alerts page before you go, especially after storms.

Photos

Have photos of Fort Misery?

We haven’t added more photographs of Fort Misery yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

The Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project has photographs of the house and graves from visits in 2005 and 2008.

Visitor reports

Been to Fort Misery?

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 Fort Misery

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Fort Misery": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, the approach from Crown King).
  2. Wikipedia, "Fort Misery, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation (GNIS 29118). Its infobox photo shows the Prescott cabin.
  3. Neal Du Shane, Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, "Fort Misery" (2008): Al Francis, the name and Misery Spring, Lloyd Clark on the fort, the Barkdull article and photos, Kentuck Bell's death and headstone, the 2005 and 2008 visits, the graves, Burro John, Francis's burial at Walnut Grove, 4WD directions, and Granger's note on the Prescott cabin.
  4. Drew Desmond, "The Mysterious, Phantom Fort Misery Near Oro," PrescottAZHistory, November 18, 2018: Barkdull's 1971 account, the War Department letters, Heatwole's interview with Mrs. William Nelson.
  5. USDA Forest Service, surface ownership data, October 2026: the 16.04-acre tract in Al Francis's name, disposed under the public land laws, action date December 16, 1919.
  6. USDA Forest Service, Motor Vehicle Use Map data, October 2026: Forest Roads 52, 192 and 711, their maintenance level, season and lengths.
  7. USGS Geographic Names (The National Map): Fort Misery, Misery Spring, Burro John, Minnehaha, Wagoner and Kirkland Junction.
  8. Wikimedia Commons, "Fort Misery Log Cabin" at the Sharlot Hall Museum: the Prescott cabin, for the comparison.
  9. crownking.com, "Directions" (a local lodging business, 2023): Crown King Road surface and services.
  10. Prescott National Forest, alerts, checked October 19, 2026: no closure posted for these roads.
  11. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query (about 4,347 ft) and GNIS (4,354 ft). Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

Record6 of 10
  • Coordinates
  • 1919 land record
  • Kentuck Bell's death and grave
  • Site on USGS topo
  • Historic maps, 1887–1981
  • Forest road classes
  • Current owner
  • Access permission
  • Field report since 2008
  • Photos of the site
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.