Before there was Gleeson, there was Turquoise. Native Americans — specifically the Chiricahua Apache — had mined this corner of the Dragoon Mountain foothills for its brilliant blue-green turquoise long before white prospectors arrived. When Euro-American settlers moved in during the 1870s and 1880s, they found the turquoise too and established a mining camp that eventually earned its own post office in 1890. It lasted just four years.

The real story began in 1900. When Irish miner John Gleeson registered a copper claim and opened the Copper Belle Mine, a new town took shape just downhill from the old Turquoise site. The Gleeson post office opened October 15, 1900, and a community of roughly 500 people grew up around the mines — copper primarily, but also lead, silver, and zinc. The town had all the hallmarks of a frontier boomtown: saloons, a general store, a two-story schoolhouse, a post office, a hospital, and a jail.

In 1912 a fire tore through Gleeson and consumed 28 buildings. The town rebuilt. Copper production surged during World War I to meet wartime demand. Then the boom ended — post-war prices collapsed, production slowed, and the mines gradually wound down. The post office closed for the last time on March 31, 1939. By 1940 the mines were finished. Gleeson became a ghost town.

What You'll See Today

The most intact structure on site is the Gleeson Jail, built in 1910 from reinforced concrete — which is exactly why it survived the 1912 fire and a century of desert weather while everything else fell apart. The jail has been restored and now serves as a small museum, open to the public on the first Saturday of each month. Inside you'll find artifacts, memorabilia, and a walking tour map for the rest of the site.

The Bono Store and Saloon still stands nearby, with a mural painted in 1982 inside that depicts the original townsfolk. The ruins of the Gleeson Hospital sit north of the main road — still substantial enough to read as a building, with mine tailings visible on the hills behind it. The school foundation, scattered adobe walls, and rusted mining equipment round out the site. The Gleeson Pioneer Cemetery is located west of town on the road back toward Tombstone.

The Ghost Town Trail

Gleeson sits along the aptly named Ghost Town Trail, a 34-mile drive that connects three former mining towns. A mile past Gleeson, turn north on Ghost Town Trail Road and continue to Courtland — a town that once had 2,000 residents, two newspapers, and a movie theater, and is now almost entirely gone. Continue northwest from Pearce to reconnect with I-10. All three towns make an excellent single-day road trip from Tucson or Phoenix.

More Information

• Gleeson Jail Museum open first Saturday of each month (call ahead to confirm: 520-508-1802 or gleesonarizona.com)

• Road to Gleeson is paved — passenger cars fine

• A few residents still live in the area — be respectful

• Mine shafts in the surrounding hills — stay on roads and visible areas

• Do not remove artifacts — leave everything as found

• Gleeson Cemetery is west of town on Tombstone road — worth a stop

• Pairs well with Courtland and Pearce for a full Ghost Town Trail day trip

• Tombstone is 16 miles west — easy to combine in the same day

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