Troy

Overview

Copper on the crest

Troy grew up around 1900 near the crest of the Dripping Spring Mountains, about seven miles northeast of Kelvin on the Gila River. The Florence to Globe stage and wagon road ran through the camp. Two well-funded companies worked the hills around it. The Manhattan Copper Company, based in New York, had two properties east of camp. The Troy Copper Company had four to the west, including the Buckeye and Alice mines. One manager, C.H. Cutting, ran them all.

Getting the copper out was the problem. In 1901 the ore went 75 miles by wagon to the railroad at Casa Grande, and most of what the wagons hauled was waste rock. The companies built a smelter beside the Buckeye Mine, and it poured its first bullion in June 1902. It stopped a month later, when hoistmen at the Alice Mine struck for eight-hour shifts, and after that it ran only now and then, short of coke and short of ore. A long shutdown began in January 1905.

The post office, opened in August 1901, closed in September 1910. By 1916, a report for ASARCO found, the mines had all but disappeared. Wikipedia records two other names for the place, Skinner Village and Skinnerville, and says the name Troy was made official in 1965. A ranch is marked just north of the old camp on the 1964 USGS sheet. BLM's agency map classifies the old camp point as BLM and the ranch area as Private or Unknown; it does not establish ownership or a public right of way.

Timeline

A camp built on two companies

1. About 1900A mining camp grows up near the crest of the Dripping Spring Mountains, about 7 miles northeast of Kelvin, on the Florence to Globe stage and wagon road.
2. 1901The New York-based Manhattan Copper Company works two sites east of camp, and the Troy Copper Company four to the west, among them the Buckeye and Alice mines. C.H. Cutting manages both.
3. Aug 5, 1901The Troy post office opens.
4. 1901The mines report 500 tons of ore shipped and 120,000 pounds of copper recovered. The raw ore goes 75 miles by wagon to the railroad at Casa Grande.
5. Feb 27, 1902The Arizona Silver Belt gives a full page to the Troy and Manhattan companies, their six active mines and the camp.
6. Jun 1902A smelter beside the Buckeye Mine pours its first copper bullion.
7. Jul 1902The smelter shuts down after hoistmen at the Alice Mine strike for 8-hour shifts.
8. 1902–1903The two companies merge as the Troy Manhattan Copper Company.
9. 1903The smelter reopens in January, stops, and runs again in the fall before closing once more.
10. Jan 1905A long shutdown begins. The smelter may never have run again.
11. 1910The USGS Ray sheet maps Troy with the Manhattan, Buckeye and Alice mines. The post office closes on September 15.
12. 1914The Arizona Backcountry Adventures account records a trial shipment from the Rattler Mine to Hayden, followed by no sustained production. Later attempts to reopen the Alice Tunnel also produce no ore, by that account.
13. 1916A report for ASARCO by A.H. Means finds the Troy mines all but gone.
14. 1964The USGS Hot Tamale Peak sheet shows Troy Ranch just north of the old camp.
15. 1965The Board on Geographic Names makes the name Troy official.
16. 2016A hiker revisits the smelter site and finds coke piles, retaining walls, firebrick and metal parts.

The smelter

A smelter that ran in fits

Most of what is known about the Troy smelter comes from newspapers of the time, gathered by the hiker and researcher behind Arizona Backcountry Adventures, who warns that their accuracy is unknown. The Arizona Silver Belt of February 27, 1902, announced the purchase of smelter equipment. Ten cars of coke were stockpiled at Troy, the machinery reached Casa Grande in April, and by the middle of June the furnace was producing copper bullion. Some reports called it a 60-ton furnace, others 30 tons.

It closed in July 1902, a month after the first blast, when the hoistmen at the Alice Mine struck to work 8-hour shifts instead of 10. The Arizona Daily Silver Belt reported it running again on January 15, 1903. It shut down again and reopened in September 1903, and the Florence Blade reported a fourth shipment of bullion passing through Florence in October before another shutdown. Lack of fuel was the usual explanation. A report to stockholders in September 1905 described a closure that had lasted since January, and in 1906 the company agreed to ship 100 tons of ore a day to the smelter at Humboldt instead. The source isn't sure that contract was ever filled.

"The smelters did not run regularly because lacking an adequate ore supply." The Mines Register, 1908, as quoted by Arizona Backcountry Adventures

A narrow-gauge railroad down to Kelvin was announced in 1903. The same source cites David Myrick's Railroads of Arizona for the fact that it was never built, and warns that some modern histories of Troy include it by mistake.

What's left

Coke piles and a ranch

An undated listing notes "a few buildings" at Troy and says the site is privately owned by a ranch. The newest detailed account is from the Arizona Backcountry Adventures author, who visited the smelter site southwest of camp in 2007 and again in 2016. The author found little of the plant left. A pair of saguaros stood where the ore trestle had been, and parts of its retaining walls were visible. Piles of coke, the fuel the smelter had often lacked, were still there after more than a century. Firebrick, bolted metal panels, flux piles and copper ore fragments lay around the site. The Buckeye shaft, open in 2007, had a cover made from the floor and frame of a mobile home by 2016, with water pipes running down it. The author thought it probably supplies water for the ranch.

He reached the site on foot, over Tiger Mountain in 2007 and up the old stage road through Kane Spring Canyon in 2016. He puts that second walk at about 10 miles round trip.

The historic maps below show the camp in its prime and after. The 1910 Ray sheet marks Troy with a cluster of buildings and a benchmark at 3,644 feet. The Manhattan Mine lies east, the Buckeye Mine to the southwest and the Alice Mine farther southwest by Hackberry Gulch. Troy Mountain rises to the northwest. A branch road climbs to the camp from the main road to the northeast, near Griffith Ranch, and Cane Spring sits in the canyon to the south. The 1964 Hot Tamale Peak sheet shows Troy Ranch just north of the old benchmark, with jeep trails, the Buckeye Mine and the Rattler Mine. The 1986 sheet no longer names Troy. The townsite is near the USMM 1 survey mark in the middle, between the Buckeye, Alice and Rattler mines.

• Smelter site with coke piles, retaining walls and firebrick (2016)
• Buckeye Mine shaft, covered (2016)
• "A few buildings" (undated)
• Troy Ranch marked north of the camp on the 1964 sheet

Historic maps

Troy on USGS maps, 1910–1986

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.

19101:62,50019641:24,00019861:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Kearny is the closest town, but the road goes the long way around the mountains, through the Gila valley and up AZ 77. From Phoenix the route runs through Globe. Both calculated routes end on East Dripping Springs Road and North Troy Ranch Road. These are road connections suggested by the router, not confirmed visitor routes. We haven't driven them and couldn't confirm permission to use the ranch road. Obtain permission before entering restricted land.

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

Photos

Have photos of Troy?

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

Visitor reports

Been to Troy?

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 Troy

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

• Sonora5.8 mi W · Pinal
• Ray6.3 mi NW · Pinal
• Christmas10.7 mi SE · Gila
• Bellevue13.3 mi N · Gila
• Cochran14.7 mi W · Pinal
• Pinal16.7 mi NW · Pinal
• Pinal City16.7 mi NW · Pinal
• Silver King16.9 mi NW · Pinal

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Troy": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, private ranch, post office dates).
2. Wikipedia, "Troy, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: Skinner Village and Skinnerville, the 1965 naming decision, coordinates and elevation (GNIS 25341).
3. Arizona Backcountry Adventures, "The Troy Smelter Site", from visits in 2007 and 2016: the camp's founding and location, the two companies, the 1901 production, the smelter's history from period newspapers, the 1916 Means report, the narrow-gauge railroad, and the smelter site and Buckeye shaft as found.
4. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection catalogue, queried October 20, 2026, and the map crops inspected: Ray 1910 (1:62,500), Hot Tamale Peak 1964 (1:24,000) and Globe 1986 (1:100,000). The camp, mines, benchmarks and Troy Ranch are described only where visible.
5. BLM, Surface Management Agency layer, point queries October 20, 2026: BLM at the GNIS point and Buckeye Mine area; PVT ("Private or Unknown") at the ranch area to the north. The service does not establish ownership boundaries or public access.
6. OpenStreetMap road data, read October 20, 2026: East Dripping Springs Road way 16828858 (edited July 18, 2024), North Troy Ranch Road ways 16818752 and 1020144142 (January 11, 2022). These are map tags, not recent field reports. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Troy on the 1910 USGS Ray sheet, with the Manhattan Mine to the east and the Buckeye and Alice mines to the southwest: 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): Ray 1910, 1:62,500; Hot Tamale Peak 1964, 1:24,000; Globe 1986, 1:100,000.