Where in the hell is Helvetia?

Our next ghost tramp took us on the dirt roads in search of Helvetia.  Helvetia is a ghost town located in Pima County, Arizona in the Santa Rita Mountains 30 miles southeast of Tucson.  The town was settled in 1891 after copper was found.  One of the miners essential in creating the mining district was Ben Hefti.  He came from Switzerland and named the town Helvetia, which is the ancient name for Switzerland.  

The town quickly grew and soon there was a small population between 300 to 500 people.  The town had a post office, hotel, 4 saloons, a butcher and even a Chinese laundry.  But soon the copper ran dry and a fire at the site forced the town to slowly die.  By the 1920's few were left and the post office closed it's doors.  

We had researched and knew there was very little left of the town, but we wanted to see it before the desert sands reclaimed it.  We drove for a short while... 

and came upon the Helvetia Cemetery.  

We drove on determined to find the town.  When we reached the only road option to the town, we found a private property sign.  Before us, a very rough and rocky, single wide dirt road.  It did not seen like the best idea to drive onto private property, so we opted out and stopped our search.  I later read that they had "closed" entry into the area.

I have included an older photo of the Helvetia remains I found on the Internet.

Cool fact alert!  Helvetia's old mine site served as the primary "set" in the 1967 movie Hombre starring Paul Newman.

This was the old mine area.  This photo is a movie still from Hombre 1967. 

How it looks now

We enjoyed our search for Helvetia, but were disappointed we did not get to see its remains.  The cemetery was cool and old faded plastic flowers had been placed on every grave site, showing that it is still remembered.