Abandoned Towns

Town type

Copper mining ghost towns

Camps and company towns built around copper mines and smelters. Most of our copper guides are in Arizona.

30Town guides
3States

Town guides

30 copper mining town guides

Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.

Bisbee seen from the south: houses and buildings spread over the slopes of the Mule MountainsGuide

Bisbee

31.45, -109.93

Cochise County, Arizona

One of the West's great copper camps, with about 9,000 people by 1910 and the county seat since 1929. The mines closed in 1975, and the town lived on…

Living townCopper mining
Jerome's houses and larger buildings spread across the green slope of Cleopatra Hill under a cloudy skyGuide

Jerome

34.75, -112.11

Yavapai County, Arizona

A copper town on Cleopatra Hill that held more than 10,000 people in the 1920s and fewer than 100 after the mines closed. It never emptied…

Living townCopper mining
The red buildings of the Kennecott mill town climbing a slope below snowy peaks, seen across glacial rubbleGuide

Kennecott

61.49, -142.89

Copper River, Alaska

The red mill town of the richest copper mines of their day, emptied when the last train left in November 1938. The National Park Service now owns…

National parkCopper mining
Vintage cars parked along Erie Street in front of brick storefronts with old signsGuide

Lowell

31.43, -109.89

Cochise County, Arizona

A copper town of more than 6,000 people that the Lavender Pit swallowed in the 1950s. One block of Erie Street survives, lined with old storefronts…

Part of BisbeeCopper mining
A two-story house with red trim and a steep roof behind an iron fence in ParadiseGuide

Paradise

31.93, -109.22

Cochise County, Arizona

A mining boomtown of the early 1900s on the east side of the Chiricahuas. It never quite emptied, and a handful of people still live among the old…

Few residentsCopper mining
RayGuide

Ray

33.18, -111.00

Pinal County, Arizona

A copper company town of about 5,000 people at its peak. When the mine went open-pit, the company moved everyone to Kearny, and the town disappeared…

Active mineCopper mining
ChristmasGuide

Christmas

33.06, -110.74

Gila County, Arizona

A copper company town in the Dripping Springs Mountains, staked on Christmas morning 1902 and famous for its holiday postmark. The open pit swallowed…

ClosedCopper mining
Gleeson's restored 1910 concrete jail, with its date and JAIL sign, behind a fence of posts and wagon wheelsGuide

Gleeson

31.73, -109.83

Cochise County, Arizona

A copper town built on an old turquoise camp, burned in 1912 and emptied in the 1930s. Its concrete jail has been restored, and a few people still…

Ruins · private land · 2026 reportCopper mining
A long row of re-roofed adobe worker cottages at Swansea below rocky desert peaksGuide

Swansea

34.17, -113.85

La Paz County, Arizona

A copper smelting town that boomed in 1909, went broke twice and emptied by 1937. Its adobe ruins are on public land at the end of a long gravel road.

Open · BLMCopper mining
A fenced adobe ruin at Helvetia with the rocky crest of the Santa Rita Mountains behind itGuide

Helvetia

31.86, -110.79

Pima County, Arizona

A Swiss-named copper camp on the west slope of the Santa Ritas. A few walls, slag and a cemetery remain, and the townsite now lies inside the…

Ruins · fenced · 2026 reportCopper mining
Roofless walls of dark volcanic stone at the Hotel Rockland ruins in Sasco, under a blue skyGuide

Sasco

32.53, -111.44

Pinal County, Arizona

A company town built around a copper smelter in 1907 and empty by the early 1920s. The stone walls of its hotel, a concrete jail and the smelter…

Ruins · 2026 reportCopper mining
Broken stone walls at the Courtland townsite among prickly pear and mesquite, with hills behindGuide

Courtland

31.77, -109.81

Cochise County, Arizona

A copper boomtown that grew to about 2,000 people in a few years and was largely empty by 1921. A concrete jail, foundations and mine workings remain.

Private ruins · 2026 reportCopper mining
All 30 guides by state, A to Z

Alaska 1

Arizona 27

Michigan 2

Other town types