Hilltop

Overview

A camp on both sides of a mountain

Hilltop grew up around the Hilltop Mine, high on the northern Chiricahua Mountains about 66 road miles from Willcox. The first recorded claim in the range, the Hidden Treasure, was worked by Jack Dunn in early 1881 and later folded into the Hilltop. Frank and John Hands bought the mine in the 1890s, and it paid well in copper, lead, silver and zinc. In 1913 they sold to the Hilltop Metal Mining Co. for $120,000, which William Ascarza calls the biggest recorded profit in Chiricahua mining up to that time.

The town sat on two sides of Shaw Peak, about 7,700 feet high. In 1917 a tunnel was driven through the peak and a new townsite laid out. Hilltop had bunkhouses, billiard halls, restaurants and managers' quarters, and some ore went down to Paradise to be milled. The mine became the largest in the California district, with three connected levels totaling 20,007 feet of workings.

A post office opened in 1920, and Hilltop counted 100 people in 1930. The mine went quiet soon after, and the post office closed in 1945. Some of the buildings were still standing in 2014, on private land. On the far side of the mountain, concrete structures and tailings mark the entrance to the Kasper Tunnel, where the Shaw Peak Trail now ends. An undated listing describes a few of the buildings as occupied.

Timeline

Sixty-five years of a mountain mine

1. Sep 7, 1878Miners meeting at Leroy's Camp on Silver Creek form the California mining district, covering most of the land south of Apache Pass and north of Texas Canyon.
2. Early 1881Jack Dunn works the Hidden Treasure, the first recorded claim in the Chiricahuas. It later becomes part of the Hilltop Mine.
3. 1890sFrank and John Hands acquire the Hilltop Mine and invest in equipment.
4. 1890 – World War IThick, butterscotch-colored wulfenite crystals come out of a stope in the mine.
5. Early 1900sThe mine, found in the early 1880s, now supports a town.
6. 1913The Hands brothers sell to the Hilltop Metal Mining Co. for $120,000.
7. 1917A tunnel is driven through Shaw Peak and a new townsite laid out.
8. 1920The Hilltop post office opens, on January 26 or June 26 (sources differ).
9. 1930Hilltop reports 100 people. The count falls the next year as the mine goes idle.
10. 1945The post office closes, on June 20 or June 30 (sources differ), and the town is abandoned.
11. 1997A visitor finds foundations, a rock wall and a decaying adobe on private property. The tunnel's northeast end has been blown shut.
12. 2014The Arizona Daily Star reports that some buildings still stand on private land. On the west side, concrete structures and tailings mark the Kasper Tunnel.
13. Oct 30, 2024The Forest Service signs a permit for an existing water line, about 2,500 feet of PVC pipe, that carries water from the Rhem adit, one of the old mine tunnels, to private property. It lists the project in East Whitetail Canyon.

The sources disagree on the post office dates. Ascarza and an undated listing give January 26, 1920 for the opening; Wikipedia gives June 26, and the old Ghost Town Trails site gives both. Ascarza has it closing on June 20, 1945, and the listing on June 30.

What's left

Two sides and a tunnel

Ascarza places the town on two sides of Shaw Peak. The 1958 and 1978 USGS sheets put the townsite itself at the northeast end of the tunnel, on the slope that drains down to East Whitetail Creek. Ascarza wrote in 2014 that some of its buildings still stand, on private land. A visitor in 1997 described foundations, a rock wall and a decaying adobe, and noted that a three-story machine shop was gone. The same visitor reported the tunnel about half a mile long, with its southwest end still there and its northeast end blown shut.

On the west side, the Kasper Tunnel entrance sits in a clearing at the end of Kasper Tunnel Road (Forest Road 4258), reached from Pinery Canyon Road by North Fork Road (FR 356). Ascarza found several concrete structures and heaps of tailings there. The Shaw Peak Trail (#251) ends at the clearing. Chiricahua Trails reported that as of February 2026 the trail north of Jhus Horse Saddle, the stretch to the Hilltop Mine, remained in bad condition. Old workings are dangerous, so look from outside.

The historic maps below show the camp from both sides. The 1917 and 1926 sheets mark the Hilltop Mine just below Hands Pass, with Whitetail Creek to the northeast. The 1958 sheet names Hilltop, a tunnel running southwest to the Hilltop Mine, and a grave down East Whitetail Creek. The 1978 sheet marks “Hilltop (Site)” among the Rhem, Grey, Blacksmith and Kasper tunnels and the Lead Lily Shaft. The 1994 sheet adds Shaw Peak to the south and the Silver Prince Mine to the southwest. The town sits near the north edge of every one of these sheets.

• Buildings on private land (2014)
• Foundations, a rock wall and an adobe (1997)
• Kasper Tunnel entrance
• Concrete structures and tailings on the west side
• Rhem, Grey and Blacksmith tunnels (USGS map)

Historic maps

Hilltop on USGS maps, 1917–1994

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.

19171:125,00019261:62,50019581:62,50019781:24,00019941:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Willcox is the closest city, about 1 hour 42 minutes away. From Tucson, the route follows I-10 east the whole way to the same exit. Both routes head south on Noland Road and west on Hilltop Road, and both stop on a short spur off Hilltop Road about half a mile short of the map point. We haven't driven them, and there is private land in the canyon ahead (Arizona Daily Star, 2014; Forest Service, 2024).

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Have photos of Hilltop?

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

Visitor reports

Been to Hilltop?

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 Hilltop

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

• Galleyville4.6 mi SE · Cochise
• Paradise5.4 mi SE · Cochise
• Fort Bowie14.0 mi NW · Cochise
• Dos Cabezas23.3 mi NW · Cochise
• Fittsburg32.4 mi W · Cochise
• Courtland34.8 mi SW · Cochise
• Gleeson37.1 mi SW · Cochise
• Bisbee38.3 mi W · Cochise

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Hilltop": fact sheet fields (road, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates), including its undated note that a few buildings are occupied.
2. Wikipedia, "Hilltop, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation (GNIS 5831), the June 26, 1920 post office date, the decline to the 1940s.
3. William Ascarza, "Mine Tales: Chiricahua Mountains yielded sought-after wulfenite," Arizona Daily Star, January 13, 2014: the Hidden Treasure claim, the Hands brothers, the 1913 sale, the town on both sides of Shaw Peak, its buildings and the private land, the Kasper Tunnel remains, the 1930 population, post office dates, wulfenite, ore milled at Paradise.
4. William Ascarza, "Mining in Chiricahua Mountains had varied success," Arizona Daily Star, November 22, 2015: the California mining district, its extent and its 1878 founding, Jack Dunn in 1881.
5. Wikipedia, "Chiricahua Mountains", retrieved October 2026: the Hilltop as the largest mine in the California district, three levels totaling 20,007 feet.
6. William M. Mogan, "Hilltop," azghosttowns.com (visit of May 1997): foundations, rock wall and adobe, the lost machine shop, the tunnel's length and blown-shut end, private property, road notes.
7. Ghost Town Trails, "Hilltop" (archived copy, July 31, 2020): the town in the early 1900s, the 1917 tunnel and new townsite, both 1920 post office dates.
8. USDA Forest Service, "Water Transmission Line Permit - Whitetail Ventures LLC Rhem Tunnel" (decision signed October 30, 2024): the permit for an existing water line from the Rhem adit to private property, the project location in East Whitetail Canyon, T16S R30E Sec. 33.
9. Jonathan Patt, "Shaw Peak Trail #251," Chiricahua Trails (updated March 17, 2026): the trail's end at the Kasper Tunnel, the approach by FR 42, FR 356 and FR 4258, trail conditions as of February 2026.
10. Land manager at the map point: BLM Surface Management Agency map, queried October 2026 (Coronado National Forest). Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Chiricahua 1917, 1:125,000; Rucker 1926, 1:62,500; Chiricahua Peak 1958, 1:62,500; Rustler Park 1978, 1:24,000; Chiricahua Peak 1994, 1:100,000.