Mowry

Overview

Silver, lead and Lieutenant Mowry

Mowry is one of the oldest mining camps in Arizona. It grew around a silver-lead mine at the south foot of Mowry Hill in the Patagonia Mountains, about 13 road miles south of Patagonia. Mexican miners worked the outcrop in the early 1850s, and it was relocated in 1858 and worked as the Patagonia mine.

Sylvester Mowry bought it in 1859 or 1860. He was a West Point graduate who had left the Army in 1858 and was lobbying Washington to make Arizona a territory of its own. He renamed the mine, and he and his brother Charles built a mill and smelter. A 1915 USGS report describes twelve adobe smelters and lead-silver bars shipped as far as England. In June 1862, after Union troops retook southern Arizona, the Army arrested Mowry at his mine on charges of aiding the Confederacy. He was released that November, sold the mine in 1864 and died in London in 1871.

The mine outlived him. It changed hands many times, and the Mowry Mines Co. built a 100-ton concentrator and smelter after 1904. In 1907, with 200 or more men at work, it ranked behind only Tombstone among lead producers in southern Arizona. The post office closed in 1913, a lightning fire destroyed the concentrator in 1914, and the village was abandoned in the 1930s. Stone and adobe ruins remain on the hillside, and much of the story told about them is lore.

Timeline

Eighty years of the Mowry mine

1. Early 1850sMexican miners work a silver-lead outcrop at the foot of what is now Mowry Hill.
2. 1858The claim is relocated and worked as the Patagonia mine.
3. 1859–1860Sylvester Mowry buys the mine and renames it. Sources give 1859 or April 1860. He and his brother Charles build a mill and smelter.
4. Jun 13, 1862Union troops arrest Mowry at his mine, accused of treason for selling ammunition to Confederate forces.
5. Nov 8, 1862Mowry is released from Fort Yuma. He finds the mine shut because its operator couldn't pay wages.
6. Nov 1864Mowry sells the mine to San Francisco investors.
7. May 7, 1866A post office opens. It closes and reopens more than once over the next 47 years.
8. Oct 17, 1871Mowry dies in London, aged 38.
9. Early 1870sClaim jumpers work the mine until caving ruins the workings.
10. 1880s–1890sTucson owners relocate and reopen the mine. Steinfelt & Swain spend about $100,000 reopening the old workings in the late 1890s.
11. 1904The Mowry Mines Co. buys the property and installs a 100-ton concentrator and smelter.
12. 1907With 200 or more men at work, Mowry is second only to Tombstone as a lead producer in southern Arizona.
13. 1909The Consolidated Mines, Smelter & Transportation Co. takes over. The USGS photographs the camp.
14. Jul 31, 1913The post office closes for good.
15. Sep 1914Lightning starts a fire that destroys the concentrator.
16. 1930sThe village is abandoned.
17. 1948The USGS map labels the site Mowry Exploration Co., with a few buildings at the road junction.

Legend and record

What the record says about Mowry

Mowry's story has been retold for more than 150 years, and some of it traces back to Mowry's own claims. Here is how the popular version compares with the record.

The Jesuits knew the mine. The 1915 USGS report repeats this, and guidebooks follow it. No document is cited, so treat it as legend. The record starts with Mexican miners working the outcrop in the early 1850s.

He was locked up in Yuma Prison. Mowry was arrested at his mine on June 13, 1862, on General James Carleton's orders. He was accused of treason for selling ammunition to Confederate forces and for writing to Confederate officials. He was held at Fort Yuma, the Army post on the Colorado River, while his case was reviewed. A board of officers released him on November 8, 1862.

The government seized the mine and wrecked it. Wikipedia's account of the case, which cites the historian Constance Wynn Altshuler's 1973 studies, says the mine was put under a receiver and kept running on Mowry's behalf, and that the Army didn't confiscate it at the time. When Mowry got back, it had shut down because the operator couldn't meet the payroll. Mowry later claimed otherwise and spent years seeking compensation, without success. The 1915 USGS report still describes the mine as seized.

It shipped $1.5 million in ore. The 1915 USGS report gives this figure for Mowry's four years of operation. The same report puts the plant's output at $4,500 a month on one page and $4,500 a week on another, and the workforce at 120 men in one place and more than 400 in another. Mowry's statements to investors contradicted each other, too. We treat the total as a claim.

He died in exile in England. He did die in London, but he had spent most of his last years in New York. He went to London in 1871 to see a doctor and died there of Bright's disease that October.

What's left

Ruins on Mowry Hill

Arizona Highways describes a walk of about a quarter mile up a side road from Apache Road (FR 214). Along the way are foundations, crumbling adobe walls and a large slag pile. At the top of the hill stands a large stone building with all four walls up. Legends of America found only low foundations at the townsite on FR 214. It reports adobe walls, the mine and smelter site and a stone powder house up a road to the north, but didn't go because that land is private. An undated listing also names mine openings, some of them partly hidden. Stay well clear of them.

The 1915 USGS report places the mine at the south foot of Mowry Hill, with the camp in the small valley of Mowry Wash below. The historic maps below follow it through the century. The 1905 and 1932 sheets mark The Mowry Mine with a cluster of buildings on the road between Harshaw and Washington Camp. By 1948 the label reads Mowry Exploration Co., with a few buildings at the road junction, and the 1996 sheet shows only the Mowry Mine and a grave beside the road to the south. GNIS has no entry for the town, so our pin sits at the mine as the USGS map draws it.

Some of Mowry ended up in Harshaw. The Finley House there was built with red bricks salvaged from a smokestack at Mowry.

• Stone building, four walls standing
• Adobe walls
• Stone foundations
• Slag pile
• Mine openings, some hidden

Historic maps

Mowry on USGS maps, 1905–1996

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.

19051:125,00019321:62,50019481:24,00019581:24,00019961:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Patagonia is the closest town. The route follows Harshaw Road past Harshaw to Apache Road (FR 214), where Arizona Highways advises parking and walking the last quarter mile. From Tucson, the fastest route runs through Sonoita to Patagonia. The routing below was computed from OpenStreetMap and drives the final side road, which you should walk.

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

Photos

Mowry in photos

Mowry mine and camp, 1909. Smelter at left, mill at rightMowry as J. Ross Browne drew it in 1864Oak woodland near Mowry, 2014The Mowry Mine marker in Patagonia, 2019

Visitor reports

Been to Mowry?

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 Mowry

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

• Harshaw2.7 mi N · Santa Cruz
• Washington Camp3.3 mi S · Santa Cruz
• Duquesne4.1 mi S · Santa Cruz
• La Noria8.0 mi SE · Santa Cruz
• Canelo13.7 mi NE · Santa Cruz
• Salero13.9 mi NW · Santa Cruz
• Fort Buchanan15.9 mi N · Santa Cruz
• Alto16.0 mi NW · Santa Cruz

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Mowry": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates).
2. F. C. Schrader, "Mineral Deposits of the Santa Rita and Patagonia Mountains, Arizona," USGS Bulletin 582 (1915): location, elevation, owners, workforce, production claims, the 1914 fire, and the 1909 photograph.
3. Wikipedia, "Sylvester Mowry", retrieved October 2026, drawing on Constance Wynn Altshuler's 1973 studies in Arizona and the West: purchase, arrest, release, receivership, sale, death, and the village's abandonment.
4. Arizona Highways, "Patagonia Ghost Towns" (scenic drive, read October 2026): route, the walk from Apache Road, remains, vehicle advice. The page carries no date; its photo file is named for the October 2023 issue, and the Internet Archive first captured it on September 22, 2023, with the same Mowry text.
5. Legends of America, "Patagonia Back Road Ghost Towns": townsite on FR 214, private land to the north, Border Patrol notes.
6. azghosttowns.com, "Mowry": population of up to 500; foundations, decaying walls and a waste pile on a February 1999 visit.
7. Wikipedia, "James Finley House": bricks salvaged from Mowry.
8. Coronado National Forest, "Patagonia Mountains and the San Rafael Valley Visitor Guide" (May 2025): road conditions, services, ranger district phone.
9. Patagonia Regional Times (February 7, 2025): Harshaw Road creek crossings.
10. Coordinates: approximate, placed at the Mowry Mine as drawn on the USGS Harshaw 1:24,000 sheet (1996). GNIS lists no populated place named Mowry in Arizona. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Mowry mine and camp, 1909. Smelter at left, mill at right: USGS, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Mowry as J. Ross Browne drew it in 1864: John Ross Browne, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Oak woodland near Mowry, 2014: The Old Pueblo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The Mowry Mine marker in Patagonia, 2019: Marine 69-71, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Nogales 1905, 1:125,000; Lochiel 1932, 1:62,500; Harshaw 1948, 1:24,000; Harshaw 1958, 1:24,000; Harshaw 1996, 1:24,000.