Harshaw, Arizona | |
|---|---|
 A sign marking the location of the Harshaw townsite. | |
  Harshaw Location in the state of Arizona  Harshaw Harshaw (the United States) | |
| Coordinates: 31°28′2″N 110°42′25″W / 31.46722°N 110.70694°W[1] | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Arizona |
| County | Santa Cruz |
| Settled | 1873 |
| Founded | April 29, 1880 |
| Abandoned | 1960s |
| Founded by | David Harshaw[2] |
| Named for | David Harshaw[2] |
| Elevation | 4,872 ft (1,485 m) |
| Population (2009) | |
| • Total | 0 |
| Time zone | UTC-7 (MST (no DST)) |
| Post Office opened | April 29, 1880 |
| Post Office closed | March 4, 1903 |
| GNIS ID | 29768 |
Harshaw is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was settled in the 1870s, in what was then Arizona Territory. Founded as a mining community, Harshaw is named after the cattleman-turned-prospector David Tecumseh Harshaw, who first successfully located silver in the area.[2] At the town's peak near the end of the 19th century, Harshaw's mines were among Arizona's highest producers of ore, with the largest mine, the Hermosa, yielding approximately $365,455 in bullion over a four-month period in 1880.[3][4]
Throughout its history, the town's population grew and declined in time with the price of silver, as the mines and the mill opened, closed, and changed hands over the years. By the 1960s, the mines had shut down for the final time, and the town, which was made part of the Coronado National Forest in 1953, became a ghost town.[2][3][5][6]
Today, all that remains of Harshaw are a few houses, some building foundations, two small cemeteries, and dilapidated mine shafts. Most of the buildings were torn down by locals or by the Forest Service in the mid to late 1970s.[3][7][8]
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Harshaw
- ^ a b c d Sherman, James E.; Barbara H. Sherman (1969). "Harshaw". Ghost Towns of Arizona (First ed.). University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 76–77. ISBN 0-8061-0843-6.
- ^ a b c Varney, Philip (2005). "Santa Cruz Ghosts". In Stieve, Robert (ed.). Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps: A Travel Guide to History (10th ed.). Phoenix: Arizona Highways Books. pp. 109–110. ISBN 1-932082-46-8.
- ^ Gleed, Charles Sumner (1882). From river to sea: a tourists' and miners' guide from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean via Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Rand, McNaly. pp. 143–151. Retrieved September 28, 2009.
- ^ Davis, Richard C. (September 29, 2005). National Forests of the United States (PDF). The Forest History Society. p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 28, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
- ^ "Town Is a Squatter in National Forest". Fredericksburg, VA: Free-Lance Star. July 24, 1963. p. 12. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
- ^ United States Geological Survey Circular 1103-A: Harshaw Townsite and Cemetery. United States Geological Survey. 1994. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- ^ Massey, Peter; Wilson, Jeanne (2006). "Along the Trail". Backcountry Adventures Arizona: The Ultimate Guide to the Arizona Backcountry for Anyone With a Sport Utility Vehicle. Adler Publishing Co. pp. 40, 506. ISBN 1-930193-28-9. Retrieved September 8, 2009.