Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of Humbug Creek winding through steep, dry ridges in the southern Bradshaw Mountains

Gold mining town

Humbug

A gold camp in a canyon of the southern Bradshaw Mountains whose 1930s buildings outlasted the mine because a caretaker never left. It's private and gated, and the latest word we found says it's closed to visitors.

34°03′17″N 112°19′24″W · 2,461 ft

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

Closed · 2022 notice

Humbug is private land behind a locked gate. Caretakers used to give tours by appointment and held an open house each March, but in August 2022 the Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project posted that Humbug is no longer accessible because of the landowners' restrictions. We found nothing newer. Don't go past the gate without the owners' permission; an old sign there warned that trespassing on a mining property in Arizona is a felony.

Overview

A gold camp the caretakers kept

Humbug sits in the canyon of Humbug Creek at the southern end of the Bradshaw Mountains, in the foothills north of Lake Pleasant. Prospectors who tried the creek in the 1860s found little and called it a humbug, by one account. Another says they mistook its pyrite for gold. Placer gold did turn up in the 1870s, and by 1884 the camp had a store and a gold mill.

Charles Champie arrived in 1882, worked the Llano claim and built stone houses and a smelting furnace before moving two miles downstream to Columbia. Mining went on in fits for decades. Around 1920, by the caretaker's history, Frank Hyde, a New York stockbroker, backed Pat Fogarty's mine and built a family house, miners' quarters, a mess hall and an assay office. In 1932 Hyde's Humbug Gold Mines Inc. took over about 100 claims, and a 50-ton flotation mill started early in 1934, when about 80 men worked there. The ore didn't pay. The caretaker's history says mining stopped in 1934, though Hyde was still hunting tungsten here a decade later.

Humbug never fully emptied. Newt White came to work for Hyde around 1940 and stayed as caretaker until he died in 1997. Later caretaker Dave Burns gave tours by appointment and held open houses each March. In 2006 six buildings still stood. The camp is private, and the latest notice we found, from 2022, says it's closed to visitors.

Timeline

From placer camp to locked gate

USGS Columbia sheet, 1969: about ten buildings beside Humbug Creek, with a well, a water tank and the Pero Bonito and Crescent mines to the east
USGS Columbia sheet, 1969: about ten buildings beside Humbug Creek, with a well, a water tank and the Pero Bonito and Crescent mines to the east · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. Prospectors try Humbug Creek, find little and give it its name, by one account. Another says they mistook its pyrite for gold.
  2. Placer gold turns up along the creek at Humbug and at Columbia, two miles downstream.
  3. Charles Champie and his family arrive and work the Llano claim. He builds two stone houses, a mill site and a smelting furnace, then moves downstream to Columbia.
  4. Humbug has a store and a gold mill.
  5. A post office opens at Columbia. It serves both camps until 1915.
  6. Frank Hyde, a New York stockbroker, puts money into Pat Fogarty's mine, by the caretaker's history. Other sources date Hyde's arrival to 1932. He builds a house for his family, miners' quarters, a mess hall and an assay office.
  7. Humbug Gold Mines Inc. takes over about 100 claims and starts serious development. About 100 people live at the camp.
  8. A 50-ton flotation mill starts up. In February about 80 men work on the property.
  9. The ore doesn't cover the costs, and the caretaker's history says mining stops. Hyde is still prospecting for tungsten here in 1944.
  10. Newt White comes to work for Hyde. He stays on as caretaker after Hyde stops coming in the 1950s.
  11. Hyde's daughter Carolyn forms Humbug Gold, Inc. with White and a Phoenix dentist to explore for gold again.
  12. Ghost-town writer Philip Varney finds one building recently abandoned, with playing cards still on the kitchen table.
  13. Newt White dies. His ashes are buried in the small Humbug cemetery.
  14. Caretaker Dave Burns holds the first Humbug open house. About 50 people come.
  15. Six buildings still stand. One of the three owners wants to restore the camp and open it to visitors; the other two want to look at mining again and keep it fenced.
  16. The seventh annual open house. Caretakers Dave Burns and Theresa Thayer open the gate on the first full weekend each March.
  17. The Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project posts that Humbug is no longer accessible because of the landowners' restrictions.

Open houses to closure

Open houses and a locked gate

Humbug has been fenced private property for a long time. In the mid-2000s a sign at the main gate gave a phone number to arrange a visit, and caretaker Dave Burns showed people around. Burns held the first open house on March 4 and 5, 2006, with a potluck, tours of the camp and a trip to the Pero Bonito mine. About 50 people came. It became a yearly event. The seventh was held in March 2012, when Burns and Theresa Thayer were the caretakers and opened the gate on the first full weekend of the month.

The owners didn't agree on the camp's future. Accounts from 2006 to 2008 say one of the three partners, who inherited a share from Hyde's daughter, wanted to restore the town and open it to visitors. The other two wanted to look into mining again and keep the property fenced.

An August 2022 revision of the research project's Humbug history says the camp is no longer accessible because of the landowners' restrictions.

We couldn't find anything newer about the owners, the caretakers or the gate. Treat the camp as closed unless the owners tell you otherwise.

What's left

Adobe, dry stone and a small cemetery

In 2006 Neal Du Shane of the Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project counted six buildings, strung along the slope above the creek: Hyde's adobe main house, whose leaking roof was letting the walls melt, a three-apartment guesthouse with the foreman's quarters, the assay office, the kitchen and dining hall, and a stable with a corral. Dry-stacked stone walls frame the corral and the patio and garden in front of the Hyde house. Across the creek stand ruins of older homes, among them Charles Champie's, near a kiln. There's also a mill foundation. The cemetery holds six graves, including Pat Fogarty's and Newt White's. We haven't found a description of the buildings newer than that 2006 count.

The historic maps below fill in the picture. The 1903 sheet labels Columbia and the gulches around Gold Hill but not Humbug. The 1969 sheet shows a cluster of about ten buildings beside Humbug Creek, a well, a water tank, a jeep trail and the Pero Bonito and Crescent mines on the ridge to the east. The 1981 sheet names both Humbug and Columbia, with mines scattered around Gold Hill between them.

  • Hyde house (adobe)
  • Guesthouse and foreman's quarters
  • Assay office
  • Kitchen and dining hall
  • Stable and corral
  • Dry-stone walls
  • Champie house ruins and kiln
  • Mill foundation
  • Cemetery
USGS topographic map of Humbug on Humbug Creek, with Cottonwood Creek to the southwest
USGS The National Map, topo. Humbug sits on a bench on the east side of Humbug Creek, with a loop of track around the buildings.
Aerial view of a green creek bed winding through brown desert ridges, with a few roofs and tracks on a bench to the east
Aerial imagery, same area. The green line is Humbug Creek. The few roofs and pale tracks on the bench to its east are the camp.

Historic maps

Humbug 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 Humbug, 1887
Prescott sheet, 1887, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Wickenburg is the closest town with services. From Phoenix, the route runs up I-17 and west on the Carefree Highway. Both follow Castle Hot Springs Road north past Lake Pleasant, then gravel county roads into the hills. The routes below were computed from OpenStreetMap, which stops about a mile west of the townsite. The rest of the way is a private road behind a locked gate.

USGS topographic map from Wickenburg east to Lake Pleasant and the southern Bradshaw Mountains, with the 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 Wickenburg50.2 miabout 2 h 09 min
  1. Head east from downtown Wickenburg on US 60 (Wickenburg Way), which becomes the Wickenburg–Phoenix Highway.9.9 mi
  2. Turn left onto AZ 74, the Carefree Highway.18.8 mi
  3. Turn left onto Castle Hot Springs Road and follow it north past Lake Pleasant. The pavement gives way to gravel.14.7 mi
  4. Turn right onto Champie Road, a rough gravel road.3.9 mi
  5. Turn left onto Cow Creek Road.1.8 mi
  6. Bear right onto a track. The mapped road ends here, about a mile west of the townsite. Beyond is private land.1.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • OpenStreetMap shows Castle Hot Springs Road paved at first and then gravel. It tags Champie Road and Cow Creek Road as rough gravel and compacted dirt.
  • The researchers who visited in the 2000s describe the approach as Castle Hot Springs Road, Cow Creek Road and the road toward Columbia, then a left at a T junction to the locked gate, with about 5 miles of four-wheel-drive road. An undated listing rates the drive 2WD. We haven't driven it.
  • Everything past the gate is private. A sign there in the 2000s warned that the road isn't the way to Crown King or New River and dead-ends past the camp.
  • There are no services at Humbug. Carry water and start with a full tank.
  • Summer heat is severe. Washes can flood after storms, so don't drive into running water.

Photos

Have photos of Humbug?

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

The Sharlot Hall Museum holds historic photographs of the camp.

Visitor reports

Been to Humbug?

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.

Map around ColumbiaGuide

Columbia

34.03, -112.31

Yavapai County, Arizona

A small gold camp on Humbug Creek that had a post office for 21 years and served its neighbor Humbug. Its last buildings came down around 2000, the…

Private · posted (2007)Gold mining
Map around MinnehahaGuide

Minnehaha

34.16, -112.41

Yavapai County, Arizona

A ranch, a post office and a mining camp on the west slope of the Bradshaws, the southernmost of a string of tiny settlements on Minnehaha Flat. A…

Ruins · 2007 surveyGold mining

All 96 gold mining ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Humbug

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Humbug": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains).
  2. Wikipedia, "Humbug, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the name Humburg, the name's source in Humbug Creek (Arizona Place Names), coordinates and elevation (GNIS).
  3. American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, "Humbug" (Neal Du Shane, revised August 2022): Dave Burns's 2001 history, an Arizona Bureau of Mines description of the 1932–34 operation, the Hyde family, the caretakers, the 2006 buildings and cemetery, the open house, the gate sign and the 2022 access notice.
  4. APCRP, "Humbug, Arizona III" (2016 edition): the owners' disagreement over restoring or mining the camp, the 2006 open house.
  5. APCRP, "Columbia, Arizona" (2008): the 1884 store and mill, Columbia's post office serving both camps, the annual March open house.
  6. APCRP, "Humbug, Arizona – 2012" (Bruce Colbert, March 2012): the seventh annual open house, the caretakers, the first-full-weekend schedule.
  7. Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives, "Humbug" (photo record, c. 1968): the pyrite story behind the name, early-1870s placer gold, the stockbroker's 1932 company.
  8. Road surfaces: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; not field-checked. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits

Record5 of 10
  • Coordinates
  • Mining history
  • Building list (2006)
  • Site on USGS topo
  • Historic maps, 1887–1981
  • Current owners
  • Access since 2022
  • Building condition since 2006
  • Road past the mapped end
  • Photos of the townsite
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.