Exploring Ghost Town

Yesterday, a fellow Dingbat RVer, Carol, and I along with our dogs drove 75 miles to get to the ghost town of Swansea.  The last 30 miles was dirt roads and the last three miles was really bad dirt tracks.  I drive a Chevy Tahoe 4x4 so we made it without difficulty, and the townsite is a great historical area.

BLM information kiosk at Swansea

From 1909, Swansea was a mining town for Copper.  By 1944, the plant was closed for good.  It had been struggling for it's entire life, and the price for copper declined after WWII, and the company was not able to stay open.

Swansea townsite from mountain pass

The townsite is in an isolated site south of the Bill Williams River in AZ, west of Alamo Lake STate Park, and northeast of Parker AZ.  Much of the old mill town is still there in ruins, from worker's cottages ( well preserved concrete) to deep mining shafts (1000 ft deep), management housing (foundations only),

Foundations of old buildings

 and train depot(adobe bricks), foundry, power plants, etc.  The old place has several areas of trash piles(broken glass bottles, rusted cans), and old railroad scales and tracks( for bringing in coal).

Trash area with mostly green glass in huge piles

Campsite at Swansea

The townsite is administered by the BLM and they have built 5 campsites in the townsite, along with 2 vault toilets.
This area is really beautiful, surrounded by low mountains, saguaro cacti, ocotillo cacti, teddybear cholla cacti, and paloverde trees.  One special sight is a natural arch formation.

Natural arch formation at Swansea

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