Abandoned Near a city · Phoenix, Arizona
9 Ghost Towns Near Phoenix
Phoenix sits in the middle of Arizona's old mining country, so most of these towns are gold, silver and copper camps. Goldfield and Pinal lie east of the city near the Superstition Mountains and Superior. Vulture City is out past Wickenburg. Most of the rest are north, up I-17 and AZ 89 into the Bradshaw Mountains: Cleator, Crown King, Congress and Walker, with Jerome on its hill above the Verde Valley. American Flag is the outlier, south of Oracle on the far side of the Gila River.
They range from a rebuilt tourist town and a ticketed mining camp to mountain villages people still live in and a townsite you reach on a hiking trail. Every one has a full guide on this site with its history, a map and directions.
Each one is within a three-hour drive of downtown Phoenix, by OSRM's estimate over OpenStreetMap roads. They're listed nearest first.
1.Goldfield
A gold camp founded in 1892 at the foot of the Superstition Mountains, with a post office from 1893 to 1898.
- What's left
- None of the 1890s buildings. The town you walk through is a replica that opened in 1988 and 1989, beside the old mine site.
- Visiting
- A privately run attraction on the Apache Trail (AZ 88), paved all the way. Shops and the train and mine tour run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and each attraction is ticketed separately.
2.Pinal
The mill town of the Silver King mine, on Queen Creek below Picket Post Mountain. Its post office ran from 1878 to 1891, and the town emptied after 1889.
- What's left
- Foundations, melted adobe, mill ruins, tailings and wagon ruts worn into the rock, with the town cemetery nearby.
- Visiting
- The Legends of Superior Trail runs through the townsite, and numbered posts mark the ruins. We haven't confirmed who owns the land under the townsite.
3.Cleator
A stop on the old railroad to Crown King that one man, James Cleator, bought outright in 1915. His family kept it for over a century.
- What's left
- About 20 buildings on 40 acres, including the general store and the bar. Most are lived in.
- Visiting
- The whole town is private and sold in January 2022. The Cleator Bar & Yacht Club is open to visitors; stay on the road and in the bar. Graded dirt from I-17.
4.Vulture City
The camp of the Vulture Mine, the most productive gold mine in Arizona's history, west of Wickenburg. Its post office ran from 1880 to 1897.
- What's left
- The 1884 assay office, the ruins of Henry Wickenburg's house, a headframe, shafts, workshops and the saloon and post office ruins.
- Visiting
- Privately owned, with paid admission. Open Thursday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., from mid-October to mid-May, and closed after heavy rain.
5.Congress
The camp of the Congress Mine, one of territorial Arizona's biggest gold producers. A 1901 map counted 1,200 people. The name moved three miles south to the railroad in 1938.
- What's left
- Tailings dumps, foundations, scattered wood and two cemeteries.
- Visiting
- Federal land records show the townsite and mine as private, with public BLM land around the Pioneer Cemetery. The newest visitor account we found is from 2015. Modern Congress, on AZ 89, is a living community.
6.Walker
The camp that grew from the 1863 gold strike on Lynx Creek, southeast of Prescott. Its post office ran from 1879 to 1940.
- What's left
- A stone charcoal kiln built about 1880, mine dumps and shafts, and placer rock piles along Lynx Creek. Cabins and summer homes fill the valley.
- Visiting
- Walker Road is a public county road and the kiln stands on Prescott National Forest land. The homes, claims and mine workings are private.
7.Crown King
A gold camp in the pines at the top of the Bradshaw Mountains, reached by an old railroad grade. The mines closed in the 1950s.
- What's left
- The saloon, a general store with the post office, a one-room schoolhouse still in use, the cemetery and mine sites. Most buildings are occupied.
- Visiting
- A small lived-in village with a saloon, store and places to eat. The last 28 miles from I-17 are graded dirt, often one lane; snow or monsoon storms can call for 4WD.
8.Jerome
A copper town on Cleopatra Hill that held more than 10,000 people in the 1920s and fewer than 100 after the mines closed.
- What's left
- Most of the historic town: brick business blocks, homes, the Douglas Mansion, the Sliding Jail, headframes and the United Verde open pit.
- Visiting
- An incorporated town of 464 people (2020 census), paved all the way on AZ 89A. Jerome State Historic Park is open daily, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
9.American Flag
A small gold and silver camp of the 1870s and 1880s near Oracle. Its post office ran from 1880 to 1890.
- What's left
- One building: Isaac Lorraine's restored adobe ranch house and post office of about 1877, believed to be the oldest territorial post office building still standing in Arizona, with a barn and corrals.
- Visiting
- The Oracle Historical Society owns the house and opens it by appointment. The Arizona Trail's American Flag Trailhead is next door, with parking.
How we picked them
- We started from every mapped site in our index of 6,591 US ghost town sites and routed to each one from downtown Phoenix, keeping those within 180 minutes.
- We preferred real towns over forts, stage stations and single mines; places you can legally visit or see from a public road; and sites with something left to see. We list at most nine.
- Status means what we could confirm from a recent source. Where we couldn't, the entry says "Not verified". Check before you go, and treat locked gates and posted signs as closed.
Sources
- History, remains, land status and visiting details: our full guide to each town, checked October 19, 2026. Each guide lists its own sources, from the operators' websites to Forest Service and BLM records.
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 20,000 or More, Ranked by July 1, 2025 Population: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-IP-EST2025-ANNRNK), U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Vintage 2025, released May 2026: Phoenix city, Arizona ranks 5 among US cities, with 1,665,481 people on July 1, 2025.
- Drive times and distances: OSRM routing on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), October 2026, from downtown Phoenix (33.4480, -112.0740) to each town's coordinates.
- Town list, counties and record pages: our index of ghosttowns.com state lists and Wikipedia's ghost town categories, October 2026.
- Map: US Census Bureau state and county boundaries via us-atlas (public domain).
Photo credits
- Goldfield: Marine 69-71, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Pinal: Marine 69-71, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Cleator: Nic Lindh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Vulture City: Andwhatsnext, aka Nancy J Price, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Congress: Bradteubner, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Walker: Benjamin Cody, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Crown King: Wiwad, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Jerome: dbking from Washington, DC, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- American Flag: Ammodramus, Wikimedia Commons, CC0