Sunflower

Overview

Quicksilver on Sycamore Creek

Sunflower began as a ranch on Sycamore Creek, on the west side of the Mazatzal Mountains below Mount Ord. In October 1911 E. H. Bowman of Phoenix was prospecting for gold nearby when he found cinnabar, the red ore of mercury. The camp, the mining company and the mining district that followed all took the ranch's name.

The Sunflower Cinnabar Mining Co. bought Bowman's claims in 1913 and built a 10-retort furnace that September. When a USGS geologist visited in 1914, the camp was about 70 miles from Phoenix by road and trail, and the company had shipped two flasks of quicksilver. The mine was not abandoned until the 1980s. Wikipedia credits the Sunflower, Pine Mountain and Rattlesnake mines with about 95 percent of all the mercury ever produced in Arizona.

Sunflower also became a Forest Service outpost. Rangers were posted here by about 1915, and in the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps built the ranger station that is now on the National Register. A post office ran for a few years in the 1940s. Today Sunflower is a stop on the divided Beeline Highway between Phoenix and Payson, where passages 21 and 22 of the Arizona Trail meet.

Timeline

Ranch, mines and a ranger station

1. 1907The USGS Roosevelt sheet shows Sunflower Ranch on Sycamore Creek below Mount Ord, with Moore's Ranch to the north and a road up the creek past the ranch.
2. Oct 1911E. H. Bowman of Phoenix, prospecting for gold, finds cinnabar, the ore of mercury, and stakes six claims.
3. Feb 1913The Sunflower Cinnabar Mining Co. is organized and buys Bowman's claims for $10,000.
4. Sep 1913The company finishes a 10-retort furnace at Sunflower camp, on the west fork of Sycamore Creek.
5. Oct 1914USGS geologist F. L. Ransome visits. Two flasks of quicksilver have been shipped and about three more are on hand.
6. About 1915Visitors to Tonto National Forest are told they can find rangers at Sunflower.
7. 1933–1935Civilian Conservation Corps crews camp at Sunflower Ranch and build the Sunflower Ranger Station. Sources give 1933 and 1935.
8. 1943–1949A Sunflower post office runs for a few years. Sources date its opening to 1943 or 1945.
9. 1970The remnants of Tropical Storm Norma flood Sycamore Creek. A bridge between Sunflower and Payson washes out, killing a highway patrolman.
10. 1980sThe Sunflower mine is abandoned. By about 1987 the Sunflower store has burned down.
11. 1993The ranger station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
12. 2006–2009Visitors find much of the mercury plant still standing, though vandals have pushed an old truck over the edge.
13. 2012The Sunflower Fire burns 18,000 acres. It was started by an incendiary shotgun shell fired on a bachelor-party camping trip.
14. By 2018An off-road guide reports that the area was closed for a time after the fire while the road was repaired and most structures were removed from the mill site. A large tumbling tube remains.
15. May 2026A posted video shows two side-by-sides on Forest Road 25A reaching the old processing site, where a long tube can still be seen.

1911 onward

Quicksilver in the Mazatzals

F. L. Ransome of the U.S. Geological Survey spent about ten days in the district in October and November 1914, and his report is the best early record. The mercury belt ran about six miles across the Mazatzal Range. Sunflower camp, where most of the work on the west slope was done, stood at about 4,350 feet on the west fork of Sycamore Creek.

Getting there was hard. The road from Phoenix crossed the desert to Fort McDowell, forded the Verde River and ran up the mostly dry bed of Sycamore Creek. It ended at the forks of the creek, about four miles north of the Sunflower ranch, and the last three miles were by trail. In October 1914 much of the road was impassable for heavy wagons, and hauling freight from Phoenix or Mesa cost $40 to $50 a ton. Firewood for the furnace cost $4 a cord.

The company simply retorted the ore as it came out of the ground, and lime from the rock itself did the chemistry. Ransome saw that a good deal of quicksilver was being lost to these crude methods, and he warned that the long wagon haul to Phoenix, Mesa or Globe would weigh on any plan to work the deposits for long.

"More efficient modes of treatment will have to be employed if the deposits are to be worked profitably for any length of time." F. L. Ransome, 1915

The mine outlasted the camp by decades. After it was abandoned in the 1980s, the old refining equipment still stood above Sycamore Creek, and in 1997 the Arizona Republic recommended the trails here for "a look at the harshness of mining life." Video shown at the Viper Militia's trial had the group practicing with explosives here, and the militia reportedly blew up a bridge over the creek's west fork.

Visitors in December 2006 found the ruins of the processing plant "still remarkably well-preserved," and in September 2009 a visitor found much of the complex intact, though vandals had pushed an old truck over the edge. The 2012 Sunflower Fire burned the area. An off-road guide last updated in December 2018 says the area was then closed for a time while the road was repaired and most structures were removed from the mill site, leaving a large tumbling tube. In a video posted in May 2026, two side-by-sides reach the old processing site on Forest Road 25A, and a long tube and other remains can still be seen there.

What's here

A ranger station and a creek crossing

Sunflower today is a frontage road off AZ 87, a few buildings and the green line of Sycamore Creek. To the north, a handful of private roads serve homes near what the 1964 map calls Diamond Ranch. The Sunflower Ranger Station, about two miles north, is a Craftsman bungalow built by the CCC. Its National Register listing counts six buildings and a corral, with the residence and office and the barn, garage and shop as the two historic ones. It is a Forest Service administrative site, and we couldn't confirm public access.

The historic maps below show the place change. The 1907 and 1912 sheets show Sunflower Ranch, Moore's Ranch to the north, Crabtree Butte to the south and a road running up the creek past the ranch. The 1954 sheet marks the Sunflower Work Center, a ranch and the site of old Fort Reno to the east. By 1964 Sunflower is a few buildings beside the highway with a campground on the creek, and in 1994 a gaging station and the Little Daisy Mine sit nearby.

• Sunflower Ranger Station (1930s, National Register)
• Sycamore Creek crossing
• Arizona Trail junction
• Mine processing site up the west fork of Sycamore Creek (remains seen in a May 2026 video)
• Private homes (Diamond Ranch)

Historic maps

Sunflower on USGS maps, 1907–1994

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.

19071:125,00019121:125,00019541:250,00019641:24,00019941:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Fountain Hills is the closest town with services, about 42 minutes away. From Phoenix, the route runs out the Red Mountain Freeway to the Beeline Highway. Both follow paved AZ 87 to the Sunflower frontage road.

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

Photos

Sunflower in photos

The Sunflower Ranger Station, built by the CCCA contributing building at the station, looking south-southeastLooking north-northwest to the stationThe ranger station grounds, 2016

Visitor reports

Been to Sunflower?

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 Sunflower

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

• Tortilla Flat23.8 mi S · Maricopa
• Goldfield28.0 mi S · Pinal
• Youngberg28.0 mi S · Pinal
• Wranglers Roost Stagecoach Stop37.3 mi W · Maricopa
• Pioneer Living History Museum39.0 mi W · Maricopa
• Silver King Mine42.9 mi SE · Pinal
• Silver King42.9 mi SE · Pinal
• Pinal44.7 mi SE · Pinal

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Sunflower": fact sheet fields (township and range, climate, best time, post office dates).
2. Wikipedia, "Sunflower, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation (GNIS), the 95 percent figure, rangers by 1915, the CCC camp, the post office and Diamond Ranch, the 1970 flood, the store fire, the Viper Militia, the 1997 Arizona Republic quote, the 2012 fire.
3. Wikipedia, "Sunflower Ranger Station", retrieved October 2026: the 1935 construction date, buildings and 1993 National Register listing.
4. F. L. Ransome, "Quicksilver Deposits of the Mazatzal Range, Arizona," USGS Bulletin 620-F (1915): the 1911 discovery, the company, the furnace, the camp, the road and freight costs.
5. Arizona Trail Association, passages 21 and 22, undated, checked October 2026: the Sunflower trail junction and the Forest Road 22 vehicle closure. The FR 22 wording is the same in Internet Archive copies back to April 2021.
6. Tonto National Forest, "Alerts", checked October 22, 2026: no closure order listed for Sunflower, FR 22 or FR 25A.
7. Desert Lavender, "The Sunflower Mines", trip of December 26–27, 2006: the processing plant ruins "still remarkably well-preserved," the overturned truck.
8. soaztim, "Sunflower Mine (full loop)", September 19, 2009: much of the processing complex intact despite vandalism; the truck pushed over the edge.
9. AZOFFROAD.NET, "Sunflower Mine Trail", page last updated December 29, 2018: the closure and repairs after the 2012 fire, most mill structures removed, the tumbling tube, the FR 25A route and its sign.
10. Desert Villain, "Is the Sunflower Mine loop trail really an 8 out of 10?🤔Can a stock UTV/SxS survive it?😱In 4 hours?🫣", YouTube, posted May 22, 2026: the drive up FR 25A, the winching, and the tube and other remains at the processing site (from its captions and frames).
11. USGS historical topographic maps, Roosevelt (1907, 1912), Mesa (1954), Boulder Mountain (1964), Theodore Roosevelt Lake (1994).
12. Legal description: BLM PLSS survey grid. Land status: BLM surface management map. Roads and AZ 87's surface: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The Sunflower Ranger Station, built by the CCC: Matthew.kowal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A contributing building at the station, looking south-southeast: Matthew.kowal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Looking north-northwest to the station: Matthew.kowal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The ranger station grounds, 2016: Matthew.kowal, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The 1912 Roosevelt sheet, with Sunflower Ranch and the wagon road up Sycamore Creek: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Roosevelt 1907, 1:125,000; Roosevelt 1912, 1:125,000; Mesa 1954, 1:250,000; Boulder Mtn 1964, 1:24,000; Theodore Roosevelt Lake 1994, 1:100,000.