Gleeson, Arizona
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Gleeson, Arizona is a ghost town located in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. The town lies on the eastern slopes of the Dragoon Mountains ten miles west of U.S. Route 191. Founded (Originally a camp named Turquoise after the mineral being mined in the area) in 1900 when John Gleeson registered a new mining claim and opened the Copper Belle Mine. The Gleeson post office, established on October 15, 1900, supported a town of about 500 people engaged primarily in copper mining, including veins of lead, silver and zinc. The Silver Belle, Brother Jonathan, Pejon and The Defiance were some of the other mines that followed in the surrounding areas.
In 1912 a fire consumed 28 buildings and the town was rebuilt.
Copper production boomed to supply demand World War I. The mines played out by the 1930s and eventually the Gleeson post office closed on March 31, 1939. Though several families still live on the site, Gleeson is, by all measures, a ghost town. Visitors can find the ruins of a hospital, a saloon, a jail, the foundation of the village school and evidence of the extensive mining in the surrounding hills near town. The Gleeson cemetery is west of the town on the road to Tombstone, Arizona that lies about 15 miles to the southwest of Gleeson.
[edit] External links
- Ghost Town Gallery with images of Gleeson, AZ. as well as other ghost towns throughout the American west.
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