Goldfield: Where Ghosts and Gold Still Shine

Everyone says that Arizona’s heat is dry and that’s why it’s easier to bear… after living there for 3 years, it’s unbearable heat even though it’s dry! In the picture below, both the skull and I were dying of thirst!

The place is called Goldfield Ghost Town.

During the 1890s, Goldfield had three saloons, a boarding house, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a brewery, a meat market, and a school. Just as the town was about to overtake Mesa (a town adjacent to Phoenix), the vein dried up, the ore grade dropped, and the town experienced a slow and painful decline. After multiple unsuccessful attempts to revive the mines, the town was revived between 1910 and 1926. After more than 115 years, tourists from all over the world still flock to this gold mining town on the iconic Apache Trail to experience the excitement and grandeur of Arizona’s Wild West. At any time during your visit you can come across representations of the “wild” west, and it seems like you are part of one of Clint Eastwood’s films. I say you are part of it, because the “gunshots” and the challenges happen all around you. You are walking down the street and suddenly someone grabs you as a shield to hide from the other cowboy who is shooting at him! You have to think that “anything can happen to you.”

I wanted to visit the toilet, not out of curiosity, but out of necessity, but at the entrance door there was a sign warning that if you saw a snake you should tell one of the workers! It was at that moment that I decided to forcefully forget about my need and continued (as best I could) my visit through the town.

It’s a beautiful little town, with a church, a jail, a saloon, and the only ones missing, but who seem like they’ll arrive on horseback at any moment, are the ones from the series Bonanza (does anyone remember?)

You can stay and camp, you have to go closer to the “Superstition Mountains” (pictured above). We only went for the day and I think that between the care you have to take with the snakes, the actors and you being in the middle of a performance, the scorpions (there are scorpions all over Arizona!) and the unbearable heat… we returned home early.

After going from one place to another, I lost my husband!!!! It seemed the most logical thing to go to the jail and wait outside… but nothing… I also went to a small church but could not find him! Some other tourists taking pictures…

A little while later, I found him sitting in the shade hugging a girl!

Photo as proof right here, below: