Stanton

Overview

Gold on Rich Hill, trouble at Antelope Station

Stanton sits in the valley of Antelope Creek at the west foot of Rich Hill, about 20 miles north of Wickenburg. In May 1863 a party guided by the mountain man Pauline Weaver found placer gold on the hill, and a stagecoach stop called Antelope Station grew up on the road below. Weaver reportedly claimed that a single acre there yielded nearly $500,000 in gold. Two other camps of the rush, Weaver and Octave, lie within three miles to the southeast.

In the early 1870s Charles P. Stanton took over the place. He was postmaster when the post office opened in 1875, and the town took his name. The next decade brought a run of killings, and Stanton himself was shot dead in his store in 1886. By the 1890s the town had a general store, a stamp mill, a hotel and a boarding house. The gold gave out, and the post office closed in 1905.

The empty town changed hands several times. In the late 1950s the Saturday Evening Post bought it and gave it away as a contest prize, and in the late 1960s hippies moved in and burned some of the wooden buildings for firewood. The Lost Dutchman's Mining Association (LDMA), a prospecting club, bought Stanton in 1976 and has restored what survived. It runs the town as a members-only camp from October to May.

Timeline

From Antelope Station to prospectors' camp

1. May 1863A prospecting party guided by Pauline Weaver finds placer gold on Rich Hill.
2. 1860sAntelope Station, a stagecoach stop, grows up at the west foot of the hill.
3. Early 1870sCharles P. Stanton, an Irish immigrant, arrives and takes control of much of the camp.
4. Mar 5, 1875The post office opens with Stanton as postmaster, and the camp takes his name.
5. Aug 9, 1877William Partridge shoots George “Yaqui” Wilson, who owns the stage stop. Partridge gets life in Yuma Territorial Prison and is pardoned in 1880.
6. 1879Wilson's successor at the stage stop, John Timmerman, is murdered. The case is never solved.
7. Aug 1886The Barney Martin family leaves for Phoenix with $4,000 in gold and never arrives. Stanton is arrested and released.
8. 1886Stanton is shot dead in his own store. Wikipedia dates his death to 1877; the Sharlot Hall Museum accounts say 1886.
9. 1890sThe town has a general store, a stamp mill, a hotel and a boarding house.
10. Jun 15, 1905The post office closes as the gold gives out.
11. Late 1950sThe Saturday Evening Post buys the ten-acre town and gives it away in a jingle contest.
12. Late 1960sHippies move into the empty town and burn wooden buildings for firewood.
13. 1976The Lost Dutchman's Mining Association buys Stanton. The club's own timeline says early 1980s.
14. TodayA members-only RV and prospecting camp, open October to May.

Legend and record

Charles Stanton, in the record and in the stories

Charles P. Stanton reached Antelope Station in the early 1870s and made himself postmaster, deputy sheriff and justice of the peace. Most of what's told about the town comes from the killings around him.

The best-known story says Stanton tricked his neighbor William Partridge into killing George “Yaqui” Wilson, the owner of the stage stop, in a quarrel over pigs in August 1877. Partridge admitted the shooting, was convicted of second-degree murder and went to Yuma Territorial Prison until Governor John C. Frémont pardoned him in January 1880. Historian Parker Anderson read the court record for the Sharlot Hall Museum and found little to support Stanton's part in it. We treat that part as legend.

The record does show Stanton in trouble. He was arrested in March 1879 for stealing a gold specimen, and he was cleared of that and of the murder of Wilson's successor, John Timmerman, with the help of witnesses he allegedly bribed. In August 1886 the Barney Martin family set out for Phoenix with $4,000 in gold and never arrived. Stanton was arrested and released for lack of evidence. Later that year he was shot dead in his own store. One account names a gunman called Lucero, angry over an insult to his sister; another says three men did it. Nobody was prosecuted, and Stanton was never convicted of a crime.

An 1892 Prescott newspaper, as quoted by photographer Jim Witkowski, described Stanton's residents as people who “drink blood, eat fried rattlesnakes and fight mountain lions.”

What's left

A restored camp behind a gate

Many of Stanton's buildings are in good shape, partly because the town was closed to the public for decades, and the LDMA has repaired them since 1976. The old stage stop is the camp office. In 2009 the Hotel Stanton held a small library, a kitchenette and a game room, and the old saloon and dance hall served as a recreation hall. The club has also restored Charles Stanton's store and the pioneer cemeteries, and the jail still stands. One 2018 visitor counted only three houses left from the old town. Around them are 132 full-hookup RV sites and 65 dry sites on the club's 120 acres, with a museum of mining artifacts.

• Stage stop (camp office)
• Hotel Stanton
• Charles Stanton's store
• Saloon and dance hall (recreation hall)
• Jail
• Three old houses
• Pioneer cemeteries
• Mining museum (LDMA)

The 1887 Prescott sheet in the historic maps below marks Stanton on Antelope Creek. The 1903 Congress sheet shows it on the road at the west foot of Rich Hill, with Weaver and Octave a short way southeast along Weaver Creek and the Planet Saturn Mine to the northwest. By 1969 the Yarnell sheet shows a handful of buildings along the road, a jeep trail climbing Rich Hill and the Leviathan Mine to the west. The 1981 sheet scatters mine symbols across Rich Hill and adds the Blue Bucket and Beehive mines.

Historic maps

Stanton 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.

18871:250,00019031:125,00019691:24,00019811:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

We route from Wickenburg, about 25 road miles south, and from Phoenix. Both routes run up US 93 and AZ 89 toward Congress, then follow unpaved Stanton Road for the last six and a half miles. The camp is private and open to members only, so check with LDMA before you make the drive.

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

Photos

Stanton and Rich Hill in photos

Charles P. Stanton outside his home and store, before 1886Weaver, the neighboring camp, with Rich Hill behind, 1888A stone ruin at Weaver, at the foot of Rich Hill, 2009

Visitor reports

Been to Stanton?

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.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Stanton

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

• Stanton0.0 mi N · Gila
• Weaver1.5 mi SE · Yavapai
• Octave1.9 mi SE · Yavapai
• Yarnell4.0 mi N · Yavapai
• Congress Mine7.4 mi W · Yavapai
• Congress7.4 mi W · Yavapai
• Placerita8.6 mi NE · Yavapai
• Congress Junction8.9 mi W · Yavapai

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Stanton": fact sheet fields (legal description, roads, climate, best time, remains, post office dates, population).
2. Wikipedia, "Stanton, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, the Rich Hill strike and Weaver's claim, the Saturday Evening Post giveaway, the 1960s squatters, the 1976 purchase, restored buildings, jail and cemeteries.
3. Wikipedia, "Weaver, Arizona" and "Octave, Arizona": the May 1863 strike and the neighboring camps' locations.
4. Sharlot Hall Museum, Parker Anderson, "The Antelope Station Murder of George H. ‘Yaqui’ Wilson" (2011): the 1875 post office, the 1877 killing, trial, pardon, Timmerman, the 1886 death, the stage stop today.
5. Sharlot Hall Museum, Eric Jacobsen, "Innocent Am I: Charles P. Stanton" (2019): Stanton's offices, the 1879 arrest, the Martin family, Lucero.
6. Sharlot Hall Museum, Darla Anderson, "Memories of Old Congress and Rich Hill, Part 2" (2009): buildings kept by decades of closure, the hotel and saloon today.
7. LDMA, "Stanton, Arizona" (the camp's official page) and FAQ, as of October 2026: members-only access, open houses, October–May season, acreage, sites, museum, address, phone.
8. Jim Witkowski, "Stanton: The Outlaw Ghost Town Under Yavapai Skies" (2018): the 1892 newspaper quote, three surviving houses, visits by signed release at the time.
9. Road surface: OpenStreetMap tags for Stanton Road. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against LDMA's site on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Charles P. Stanton outside his home and store, before 1886: Unknown, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Weaver, the neighboring camp, with Rich Hill behind, 1888: Unknown, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• A stone ruin at Weaver, at the foot of Rich Hill, 2009: Plazak, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• USGS Congress sheet, 1903: Stanton on the road at the west foot of Rich Hill, with Weaver and Octave to the southeast: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Hero aerial, area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Prescott 1887, 1:250,000; Congress 1903, 1:125,000; Yarnell 1969, 1:24,000; Bradshaw Mts 1981, 1:100,000.