Dos Cabezas means "two heads" in Spanish — named for the twin-peaked mountains that loom over this small community at the base of the Dos Cabezas Mountains in Cochise County. From the 1870s onward the town served miners and ranchers working the surrounding ranges. Unlike many Arizona ghost towns that died completely, Dos Cabezas maintains a faint pulse — a handful of hardy souls still living among historic structures, old adobe buildings with sagging rooflines standing alongside slightly less ancient dwellings.

The cemetery on the hillside is the most accessible and historically significant remnant of the community that once thrived here.

The Cemetery

The Dos Cabezas Pioneer Cemetery holds approximately 180 burials according to the Historic Property Inventory form filed by the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office. It is the final resting place of pioneers, miners, ranchers, and their families — people who came to southeastern Arizona in the territorial era and stayed. Some never had a choice about leaving.

Many of the graves are unmarked. A plaque at the site acknowledges the unmarked burials — those whose names are known from death certificates and historical records but whose grave locations within the cemetery are not. The oldest confirmed infant burial dates to 1885. Walking the site you find that pattern repeated across the grounds — small graves, family clusters, names that connect to the ranching and mining families of this corner of Cochise County.

A list of burials including the known unmarked graves is maintained at the USGenWeb Archives and at http://doscabezascemetery.com  — a resource worth reviewing before visiting if you're researching a specific family name.

Our Visit — May 4, 2026

We stopped here on the drive home from the Chiricahua Mountains — a quick browse on the way out that turned into a longer stay than planned. Many unmarked graves. The plaque for the unknown burials drew us in — the oldest listed was an infant from 1885. Walking through it you watch your step carefully. The grass is tall and the ground is full of holes. There is a particular kind of quiet in a frontier cemetery that you don't find anywhere else — the weight of how hard and short life was for many of the people buried here is present in the landscape itself.

Watch your step near the dry grass and be aware of the ground conditions — the holes throughout the site suggest active rodent burrows beneath the surface. Rattlesnake awareness is appropriate, especially in warmer months.

Dos Cabezas — The Ghost Town

Worth a slow drive through the ghost town itself before or after the cemetery. Old adobe structures line the road — some standing, some collapsed, a few apparently still occupied. The twin peaks of the Dos Cabezas Mountains rise above it all. The whole setting is quietly atmospheric in a way that most developed ghost town sites are not — because nobody has turned this one into a tourist attraction. It's just there, slowly returning to the desert.

More Information

• Tall grass and rodent burrows throughout — watch your step carefully

• Rattlesnake awareness required in warmer months — wear boots

• Do not disturb grave markers or remove anything

• Burial records: http://doscabezascemetery.com  and http://arizonagenealogy.com/cochise/dos-cabezas-cemetery.htm

• USGenWeb Archives maintain a list of known burials including unmarked graves

• The ghost town of Dos Cabezas is worth a slow drive through before or after the cemetery

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