Arizona’s abandoned mining towns are packed with eerie beauty, Wild West history, and the kind of quiet that stays with you.

While prospecting along the Hassayampa River in October 1863, Henry Wickenburg and several associates discovered a gold-bearing quartz outcrop 500 feet long, 400 feet wide and 100 feet tall.

WICKENBURG - Dave Rodgers often journeys from his home in Surprise to explore remnants of the Vulture Mine: a tree where those who stole gold were hanged, machinery that crushed ore to remove gold, ...