Vulture Mine / Vulture City Ghost Town

In 1863 the Prussian-born prospector Henry Wickenburg discovered a rich gold-bearing outcrop in the desert southwest of present-day Wickenburg, Arizona. The strike became the Vulture Mine, which over its working life produced tens of millions of dollars in gold and silver and is often called the most important gold mine in Arizona's history. The nearby town of Wickenburg is named for him.

A company town, Vulture City, grew up around the mine. At its height it supported thousands of residents and included homes, saloons, a post office, boarding houses, a school, an assay and smelting operation, a blacksmith shop, and other works. Frontier justice was meted out at the camp's hanging tree, where local tradition holds that numerous men were executed for crimes such as murder and 'highgrading' (stealing ore). A cemetery on the property holds the graves of miners and townspeople.

Henry Wickenburg's own life ended in hardship. After a Hassayampa River dam burst in 1890 and destroyed his farm, he fell into poverty. He died on May 14, 1905, of a gunshot wound to the head; the death was officially ruled a suicide, though the circumstances were considered suspicious by some at the time. He is buried in the Henry Wickenburg Pioneer Cemetery overlooking the Hassayampa valley.

After the mine's productive years ended, Vulture City was largely abandoned. It has since been preserved and operated as Vulture City Ghost Town, offering daytime self-guided tours of the ruins as well as ticketed evening ghost tours and paranormal experiences.