Courtland and Pearce Ghost Tramping!

Courtland is a ghost town in Cochise County, Arizona that was founded in 1909 due to a copper boom.  It was named after Courtland Young, part owner of the Great Western Mining Company and established by his brother, W. J.

Courtland was among the more sophisticated boom towns east of Tombstone.  It had 2 newspapers and over 2000 inhabitants.  They had water mains, phones, a movie theater, restaurants, an automobile dealership, an ice cream parlor, pool halls, horse races and baseball games.  By 1910 there was a school. But, as the mines dried up the town slowly died and finally closed it's post office in 1942.

During the early years, Pancho Villa crossed the border from Mexico to raid the area and fight with local bands of desperadoes.  The entire valley suffered from these raids and skirmishes until 1915 when General "Black Jack" Pershing drove Pancho Villa's troops back to Mexico. 

Now, little remains of this town, but it is an interesting adventure if you don't mind dusty trails and rough roads.

Our Courtland Ghost Tramp brought us on the Ghost Trail, which included Gleeson, Coutland and Pearce.
We drove the dusty dirt road and came upon old homestead ruins scattered on both sides of the road and then found the Courtland Jail! The Courtland Jail was built in June of 1909.  The jail was made of reinforced concrete and steel.  Which is why it is still standing.  Some of the material used in the construction of the jail was scrap, such as rail road ties and rails.  It had two cells, 14 x 14, and a connected office in the center, 6 x 8.  Each cell had a sink and toilet.  Unfortunately, graffiti now covers the old jail.  However, if you can manage to look beyond that and enter the old jail, you will see the iron running through the concrete and the little toilet areas.  Worth looking inside.

"What! no magazine to read?!"

Courtland gets a ghost rating!

Back on the trail, we headed to the historic, slightly preserved, township of Pearce.  Pearce was a mining town named after Cornishman James Pearce, a miner and cattleman who discovered gold nearby what became the Commonwealth Mine in 1894.  The Pearce Post Office was established in 1896 and is still in operation.  By 1919, Pearce had a population of 1,500 inhabitants.  By the 1940's the town almost became a ghost town when the mine was closed for good.  The Commonwealth Mine was one of Arizona's major silver producers, producing about $ 8 million worth of silver and $ 2.5 million in gold.

Pearce is the home of two properties on the National Register of Historic Places.  The Old Pearce General Store opened in 1896.  

Turn back time and explore the "Ghost Town Trail."  It is worth the drive and the dust to get a glimpse into Arizona's early history.  Don't forget to bring plenty of water and have a full tank of gas!