Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the Quijotoa Mountains, with Indian Route 32 running in from the flats on the right to a few small structures in the foothills

Silver mining town

Quijotoa

A silver rush that drew more than a thousand people into the desert west of Tucson in 1883 and was over within two years. Nothing of the town stands, and the site is on tribal land.

32°07′38″N 112°08′18″W · 2,789 ft

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

Tribal land

The townsite is on the Tohono O'odham Nation. Under the Nation's law, amended in June 2026, people who aren't members may travel on state and federal highways but need the Nation's permission, such as a permit from a district office, to go anywhere else. You can see the historical marker from AZ 86. Don't drive to the townsite without permission.

Overview

A bonanza that wasn't

Map of routes to Quijotoa, from the Quijotoa Mining District Guide Book, 1884
Map of routes to Quijotoa, from the Quijotoa Mining District Guide Book, 1884 · Map: Internet Archive Book Images, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Quijotoa takes its name from an O'odham phrase usually given as "carrying basket mountain," for the shape of a peak in the range about 70 miles west of Tucson. O'odham and Mexican miners had dry-washed gold from the gravels here for a century. In 1883 a Scottish prospector, Alexander McKay, found rich silver ore on the summit of the peak he called Ben Nevis, and the rush was on.

San Francisco investors with ties to the Comstock Lode backed the mines, and developers laid out rival townsites, among them Logan City, Brooklyn and New Virginia. The county treated them as one election precinct, and newspapers called the whole camp Quijotoa. By early 1884 it had about 1,500 people, a weekly paper, two hotels, a school, stages from Tucson and a telegraph line.

The ore didn't hold up. The rich find proved to be a small pocket, the grade dropped, and hauling ore by wagon cost $14 a ton. By 1885 people were leaving. Investors put several million dollars into the district and got about half a million back. A fire in June 1889 burned what remained. The land became part of the Papago Reservation in 1916, and today it belongs to the Tohono O'odham Nation. A marker on AZ 86 is all a passing traveler sees.

Timeline

From silver strike to marker

Quijotoa on the 1963 USGS Quijotoa Mts sheet, with mines to the south and Narcho Santos to the north
Quijotoa on the 1963 USGS Quijotoa Mts sheet, with mines to the south and Narcho Santos to the north · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. O'odham and Mexican miners work placer gold along the flanks of the Quijotoa Mountains, by the USGS account.
  2. Reports from Con Quien, the O'odham governor of the villages around Santa Rosa, draw prospectors. Alexander McKay finds a silver outcrop on the summit of the 4,013-foot peak also called Ben Nevis Mountain. By fall, more than two dozen claims are filed.
  3. Developers lay out townsites. County surveyor George Roskruge surveys Logan City, named for partners John T. and William R. Logan.
  4. The Quijotoa post office opens.
  5. Harry E. Brook prints the first issue of The Prospector, a weekly paper.
  6. About 1,500 people, two hotels, several stores and a schoolhouse, by one count. A 70-mile mail stage to Tucson starts in April, and a telegraph line follows.
  7. Candidates for county and territorial office ride the stage out from Tucson to campaign in the camp.
  8. An incline tramway feeds a 20-stamp mill, hauled in from Harshaw, on the east slope of Ben Nevis Mountain. By the end of the year the boom is over and people are leaving.
  9. Most residents of Logan City have moved on.
  10. Fire destroys what is left of the town in about an hour. Nobody rebuilds.
  11. The Papago (now Tohono O'odham) Reservation is set aside. Old mining claims are kept as inholdings, and small-scale mining goes on.
  12. A survey finds a few crumbling buildings, foundations, three steam boilers in brick housings and three cyanide tanks.
  13. The Board on Geographic Names rules on the name Quijotoa, then changes it to Logan the same year.
  14. The post office closes.
  15. The board restores the name Quijotoa.
  16. A photo from April shows the historical marker on AZ 86 still standing. It is the only public sign of the town.

1883–1885

Four townsites and a salted dump

George Roskruge's 1884 map of the bonanza claims, among them the Peer and the Peerless
George Roskruge's 1884 map of the bonanza claims, among them the Peer and the Peerless · Map: Internet Archive Book Images, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

The first assays were spectacular. Ore from the Peer Mine sent to Tucson ran as high as $4,500 a ton, and five tons went to the smelter at Benson. San Francisco capitalists linked to Nevada's Comstock Lode backed the mines, and lots in the new townsites jumped from $250 to $1,000.

Living there was hard. There was no water to speak of, and it sold for 50 to 75 cents a bucket. Logan City and New Virginia had 14 saloons between them. Tucson merchant Louis Zeckendorf hauled in a 20-stamp mill, about 700 tons with its equipment, from Harshaw in the Patagonia Mountains, and an incline tramway carried ore down to it in 1885.

Some of the excitement was manufactured. Twenty tons of select silver ore were planted on the dump of the Thurl Mine to impress buyers.

One camp story gets retold often. McKay's hat is said to have fallen down the mountainside, and when he climbed down 70 feet on a rope to get it he found ore worth $3,600 a ton, which became the Peerless Mine. We haven't seen it in a record from the time, so treat it as legend.

The camp was rowdy at times, but it stayed largely free of the lawlessness of boom towns like Tombstone. Sheriff Robert Paul's attempt to put a deputy there turned into a partisan fight. In October 1884 candidates rode out on the stage and promised the camp a justice of the peace and a constable, and a bill followed. By the time the 1885 session met, the boom was over. Placer mining went on around Quijotoa for decades, and a 1910 report describes a pulverizing machine at work in Horseshoe Basin, the hollow around the old town. A 1916 railroad to Ajo ran from Gila Bend instead of Tucson and never came near the mines.

Site map

Where the town stood

Nothing of the boom town is known to survive. A 1940 description lists crumbling ruins, foundations, three brick-housed steam boilers and three cyanide tanks, and later accounts say the desert has taken the rest. The historical marker on AZ 86, at the turnoff for Indian Route 32, names the original site and its suburbs of Logan City, New Virginia, Brooklyn and Allen City.

USGS maps put Quijotoa at the end of Indian Route 32, in a basin on the east side of the Quijotoa Mountains, a little under 3 miles west of the marker. The 1963 sheet in the historic maps below marks mine symbols on the slope just south of the name, with the O'odham village of Narcho Santos and its cemetery to the north. The 1953 sheet shows Ben Nevis Mountain, 4,013 feet, about 4.5 miles to the south, with more mines on its flanks. Current aerial imagery shows a few small structures at the road's end. We don't know what they are.

  • No standing buildings from the boom
  • Mine workings and prospects on the slopes
  • Historical marker on AZ 86
USGS topographic map of the Quijotoa site at the end of Indian Route 32 in the foothills of the Quijotoa Mountains
USGS The National Map, topo. Indian Route 32 comes in from the east and ends at the Quijotoa label.
Aerial view of a dirt road ending in a loop beside small white-roofed structures among desert ridges
Aerial imagery, same area. The road ends in a loop beside a few small structures; the ridges around it are the eastern Quijotoa Mountains.

Historic maps

Quijotoa on USGS maps, 1953–1990

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 Quijotoa, 1953
Ajo sheet, 1953, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Sells is the closest town. Both routes follow AZ 86 to the historical marker at the Indian Route 32 turnoff. That is as far as you can go without the Nation's permission. The routes were computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

USGS topographic map between Sells and the Quijotoa Mountains with AZ 86 and the routed approach 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 central Sells23.0 miabout 36 min
  1. From central Sells, take Main Road and San Miguel Road (BIA 19) north to AZ 86.1 mi
  2. Turn left on AZ 86, the Tucson–Ajo Highway, and head northwest. The Quijotoa marker is on the left at the Indian Route 32 turnoff.19.1 mi
  3. Indian Route 32 runs west to the townsite. It's tribal land, so continue only with the Nation's permission.2.9 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • AZ 86 is a paved state highway, and anyone may travel it through the Nation. Stay within the highway right-of-way unless you have permission.
  • To go beyond the marker, contact the Tohono O'odham Nation first. Its law lets people who aren't members enter with a permit from a district office.
  • An undated listing rates the road into the site as 4WD. We haven't seen it, and conditions can change after storms.
  • Summer heat here is severe. Travel in the cooler months and carry water.
  • Old mine shafts and prospects dot the slopes. Keep out of them.

Photos

Have photos of Quijotoa?

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

Visitor reports

Been to Quijotoa?

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.

Silver mining

More silver mining ghost towns

The nearest in Arizona.

Cerro ColoradoGuide

Cerro Colorado

31.66, -111.27

Pima County, Arizona

One of the first American silver mines in Arizona, worked from 1857. Its manager was killed here in 1861, and a story of buried silver has hung over…

Ruins · 2012 photosSilver mining
A long red adobe building with wooden windows at Salero, with a smaller adobe house and a mesquite tree beyondGuide

Salero

31.58, -110.86

Santa Cruz County, Arizona

A silver camp at the south end of the Santa Ritas, around a mine older than American Arizona. Its adobe buildings survive on a private ranch that is…

Closed · privateSilver mining

All 69 silver mining ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Quijotoa

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Quijotoa": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates).
  2. Wikipedia, "Quijotoa, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation (GNIS), variant names, the 1941 and 1964 naming decisions.
  3. Arizona Daily Star, William Ascarza, "Mine Tales: Quijotoa boom years short-lived" (July 2015): McKay's discovery, Ben Nevis Mountain, assays, the newspaper, stage and telegraph, the mill from Harshaw, salted dump, prices, saloons, the June 19, 1889 fire, the 1940 remains, the hat story.
  4. Tucson Sentinel, Tom Prezelski, "Quijotoa: The mining town that was" (June 2018): Con Quien, the four townsites, 1884 population and services, law and order, the 1884 campaign trip, the 1916 reservation and 1930 jurisdiction ruling.
  5. University of Arizona Special Collections, "Logan City, Arizona records": founding, the Logan brothers, Roskruge's survey, population and the end of the boom by 1886.
  6. USGS Bulletin 1355, "Placer Gold Deposits of Arizona" (1972): placer mining since 1774, Horseshoe Basin, the old town's location, the 1910 machinery.
  7. Quijotoa Mining District Guide Book (1884), via Internet Archive Book Images on Wikimedia Commons: the map of routes to the camp and George Roskruge's map of the bonanza claims.
  8. The Historical Marker Database, "Quijotoa" (photos 2014 and April 2024): marker text and location on AZ 86 near Indian Route 32.
  9. Tohono O'odham Nation Code, Title 19, Chapter 7 (amended effective June 26, 2026): who may enter the Nation's lands, highway right-of-way, district permits.
  10. Land status: BLM Surface Management Agency map, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits

Record6 of 10
  • Coordinates
  • Post office dates
  • Boom history, 1883–1889
  • Access rules (2026)
  • Marker on AZ 86 (2024 photo)
  • Historic maps, 1953–1990
  • Photos of the townsite
  • What the structures at the site are
  • Road condition on IR 32
  • Field report from the site
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.