Goldfield, The Arizona Ghost Town With Nine Lives
LASZLO ILYES/FlickrGoldfield was established in the 1890s in the shadow of the Superstition Mountains.
When Goldfield, Arizona, was established in the early 1890s, the fields of gold that surrounded it were so endless that some believed it would come to rival the city of Mesa. Alas, Goldfield became a ghost town instead.
At its peak, however, Goldfield had some 4,000 residents and 28 buildings, including three saloons, a boarding house, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a brewery, a meat market, and a schoolhouse, all within the majestic shadow of the nearby Superstition Mountains.
But then, Goldfield’s supply of gold dried up — and its years of bad luck began.
Without the promise of gold, many of Goldfield’s residents abandoned the town. Though it was renamed Youngberg after pioneering businessman and politician George U. Young, and though Goldfield enjoyed a slight renaissance in the 1910s and 1920s, its fortunes soon flagged again. The town’s fate seemed sealed in 1943 when, as Roadside America reports, a fire raced through the town and burned down 60 percent of what remained there.
Jasperdo/FlickrToday, Goldfield has been rebuilt as a tourist attraction.
But about a century after it was founded, Goldfield got a second chance. In 1983, it was purchased by Bob Schoose, who spent years rebuilding the town so that it looked like it did in its 19th-century prime.
Today, visitors to Goldfield ghost town can enjoy simulated gun fights, ghost tours, and trips on a narrow gauge railroad train.
