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Copperopolis
-- A rugged and remote 7 - 8
hour, or longer, tour --
Copperopolis
[Gravesite - Annie Mae White - 1881]
The Copperopolis Tour begins the
same as the
Castle Hot Springs
Tour. Click on the link for more details and, when finished,
click on one of the Copperopolis Tour links to come back here.
[Copperopolis Mine - Copper]
The records of the United States
Post Office and those of the Arizona Mining Museum indicate that the towns of
Kirby/Briggs and Copperopolis were settled in the middle and toward the end of
the 1870's. The mail came to Kirby/Briggs by way of the Arizona Stage
Coach on it's weekly round-trip return from the Castle Hot Springs Resort.
There was never a Post Office in Copperopolis nor did the Stage
Coach go there. Kirby/Briggs was the end of the line and the Stage
turned around and headed back down the mountain the way it came. The
people from Copperopolis went to Kirby/Briggs to get their mail. That is,
when the Post Office was open there. The first Post Office first opened in
1883 in what was then called Kirby. It remained open for just over a year when it was closed. Later, in
1890 it was re-opened for another couple of years. This time the same town
was known as Briggs.
When the Post Office closed permanently the mail was brought from Wickenburg
either by the Stage Coach or by Teamster's wagons used to haul ore out and goods in to
these communities.
The mines at both Kirby/Briggs
and Copperopolis were a low grade copper ore and neither town was able
to sustain a long history of occupation. Our destination on
this tour is the old town site of Copperopolis. It was the larger of the
two communities and boasted a population approaching 500 people in its heyday.
To get to Copperopolis we skirt around the edge of Kirby/Briggs. We can see
where it used to lie in the gulch to our left as we skirt round the
old town-site on the wagon road. But then, we are getting ahead of ourselves so let's back
track to the fork in the road.
After taking the right fork at the
'Y' on the Castle Hot Springs - Morristown road we drop back down into
the Castle Creek. The Copperopolis Tour is the most
rugged and most remote of the tours we offer in this area. There may be
times when your driver might enlist your assistance in lending a hand to help
fill in a small washout in the road. More often than not, if this happens,
it will be as simple as throwing a few stones into a rut or two
and heading on our way again. This is more apt to happen once we leave the creek behind and start the gradual climb upwards toward the Ghost
Towns, especially if there have been recent heavy rains.
Some tight spots and a rebuilt
washout
{Click Picture to Enlarge}
First, though, our road will follow the Castle Creek for some distance. We
will be navigating the creek bed itself and your driver may shift into 4-wheel
low range for better engine torque and vehicle control as he navigates the
twists and turns. Although the road is not maintained there are present
day working ranches and some operating mines along the trail. You will get
a feel for the kind of roads the Stage Coach drivers and Teamsters traveled as
they drove their wagons loaded with
goods to these communities in the olden days... and you will be thankful
you are in a comfortable rubber wheeled vehicle with a nice suspension system
and soft seats.
Eventually, we pass through a place called the 'Dog House' where
remnants from the wreck of an old Ford pickup truck, including the tailgate, may
be seen, if you keep a lookout for them. Eventually our 4-wheel drive trail
leaves the creek bed and begins the relatively low grade climb toward the
Southern end of the Bradshaw Mountain range.
Soon after we leave the creek
bed we come into a series of tall stone pillar spires and
pinnacles making for a great photo opportunity. Your
driver will stop here for a short break if you wish.
The climb is generally not a steep
one, except for a few spots here and there. The Ghost Town site of Kirby/Briggs appears on our GPS screen.
We circumnavigate it as the trail circles
around it to the right. A mile or two further up the trail we will take
the right fork at another 'Y' and ride the short distance to the Copperopolis
site. The left fork leads to a modern day mining operation and other
trails that go deeper into the Castle Creek Wilderness area and to yet more
trails that go up into the Bradshaw Mountains. The gravesite of William
Bradshaw, the man for whom the Bradshaw Mountain range is named, is off in that
direction.
As we enter the town site we first
spot the cemetery on the right. There is only one marked grave. It
is that of an Annie Mae White who died in 1881. A flat rock was originally used for the
headstone. It was appears to have been chiseled with a sharp mining tool which
leaves barely readable data today, especially toward the bottom where weather
has eroded away the information.
Annie Mae was a teenage girl when she died in 1881 soon after the town got its
start. There is no record of how she died. The cemetery was often
uphill from Old West towns and this one is no exception. Your driver will
park nearby where you can walk over to the grave as well as scout around the
upper end of the Ghost Town where you may find remnants of some of the buildings
which were once there.
There is
life in this high desert area around Copperopolis. The skeletal remains of a coyote prove
that to be true. Be assured that AZ Ghost Town Stage fully respects the
desert and the life it supports today. We also have a healthy respect for
your safety. Although we have never seen 'critters' in the area, such as a
rattler, we do permit our drivers to be armed
with a shotgun and a handgun. They are good marksmen and will use their
weapons if your safety requires it.
 Buildings
on this upper end of the town did not have foundations but they simply buried
rocks underground and wrapped heavy wires around them and then around the sill plates
which sat directly on top of the stones. This anchored the home to the ground
during heavy storms. Some stone foundations were 'chinked' with cement
mortar. The floors were dirt inside. At one such
homestead you can see remnants of their structural system including the plumbing
coming up out of the ground. At this home-site old boards, covered with black tar paper, are
tangled in the bushes nearby from when the old weathered house collapsed.
Copperopolis
once had a very
sophisticated system for delivering water to the homes and businesses at the
town. Many places were supplied with water through a system of cisterns
and underground pipes which originated at a higher point toward the West of
Town. There was a series of windmills to pump the water from the ground
into these cisterns. Piping flows from the bottom of the cisterns downward toward
the town. An area rancher who works the area today has replaced the main
holding tank with a larger fiberglass tank. The homestead closest to the
windmill is one of the better preserved ones. We will go up to the
windmill and look at one of the cisterns and its elaborate system used to pipe the water
down to the town.
We will also take a look at the old
homestead closest to the windmill area. This small one room house had a
single entry. The stone foundation has partly fallen in at the door
opening. Laying on top of the foundation are some of the boards used in
the framework. Here, the sill plates were anchored to the stone foundation
with wires much the same as were the houses on the other end of town which had no
foundation. This house more than likely belonged to the man in charge of
the town's water system.
Inside the house the living
area is to the left toward the windmill. A cement platform was built into
the wall which probably served as the work bench for when repairs had to be made
on the windmills and public water system. On the right end of the house
was the cooking and heating alcove built into the stone foundation.
Several of the boards used in framing the house are still there. The home
no doubt had a small table and a primitive set of chairs and a cot for a bed.
From there we will go to what was
by far the largest building in Copperopolis, the old Saloon, which obviously
doubled as the town's Inn. Like most of the other buildings in the
town it also had a dirt floor. It did, however, have glass windows.
Inside the old Saloon it is still possible to find pieces of broken plates and
broken bottles on which meals were served and drinks were poured. As
coincidence would have it the Saloon was the first building the miners came to
on their hike back to town from the mine after their hard days work.
The
cooking shanty for the Saloon and Inn was a separate small building at the end
of the few short steps of the trail
leading from a side door in the Saloon. The black smoke stains are still
visible in the stone foundation of the shanty from the fires used for cooking.
Meals were cooked here in the shanty then taken inside to be served to the
guests. One can envision the kind of cooking setup similar to a fireplace
inside the homes of settlers when looking at the shanty remains.
Another few steps away from the Saloon
are the foundations of several smaller buildings. One of them is larger
and could well have been the private residence of the Saloon/Inn Keeper.
The other smaller ones, given their size and location, were storerooms used to
keep supplies for the Inn and Saloon. Around the perimeter of the building
one can see the scarce remains of rooms which were once rooms for the Inn.
If we are able to navigate the turn
we will drive down the Main Street of the town as it goes downhill toward
Copperopolis Wash, the small creek at the bottom of the hill . If so, we
will turn
around at the bottom and come back up the grade. The town site was built on a sloping
hillside and the old Main Street if quite eroded. If we can not drive it
we can walk down Main Street for a bit and look around.
Our return trip will take us back
down the same trail until we come to the Buckhorn Creek area. We will take
the Buckhorn Creek turnoff and travel the old Teamster's wagon route to Wickenburg. This
route rises more quickly out of the wash and creek bed than does the Castle
Creek route we used for our trip in. This route
will take us past other Ghost Towns in the area. One of these is the Constellation site
which we include on another Ghost Town Tour. The Buckhorn Creek route will
bring us into the Town of Wickenburg. For a brief period of time the
Territorial Capitol was moved from 'Preskit' to Wickenburg. During that
time hangings were common at the 'Hanging Tree'. Surrounding Wickenburg
are several other Ghost Towns and we include some of them on some of our other
tours.
Our driver can stop at one of the modern fast food places if you wish to top off
your tummy before taking the last leg of this tour.
Upon leaving Wickenburg we will
drive past the original Train Depot/Stagecoach Inn at Morristown
which was once the stopping point for the Arizona Stage Line to pick up
travelers heading to Castle Hot Springs and the Ghost Towns of Kirby/Briggs and
Copperopolis. From there we will put our 'stagecoach' into cruise
control and head back into the big city.
Train Depot / Stage Coach Inn -
Morristown
{Click Picture to Enlarge}
Because of the remote location of the Copperopolis Tour we provide a sack lunch meal. There
are no amenities along the way. Our drivers take along an electric cooler,
ice water, bread and luncheon meats for sandwiches plus some limited snack food
for the trip.
Keep in mind that on a tour, such as
this one, our main concern is for the safety and comfort of our guests.
Yes, we may ask you to help fill in a washout or walk a short distance like 100
feet or so. There is always the remote chance of a breakdown or we could
tear more tires than we have spares. Those things do happen. AZ
Ghost Town Stage uses up to date equipment such as modern 4-wheel drive vehicles
and GPS navigation technology. Keep in mind, because of the remote location
of this tour, there are no two-way communications such as cell phones.
There are those back in the city who, in case
of a situation, will can come and get us if we do not contact them in a timely
manner. That may take a little time, even
over night in the rarest of cases. Accordingly, our AZ Ghost Town Stage
tour vehicles carry tool boxes with additional radiator fluid, oil, brake fluid,
belts, hoses and the like along with some tools to make a minor repairs. We also carry a 'chock box' of non-perishable canned
foods and drinking water with enough to last the duration should the need arise.
We respectfully ask that you do
not bring along soda pop (soft drinks), alcohol, any other sugar
sweetened, non-sweetened or diet drinks. All of these tend
to dehydrate the body. Remember, this is the desert and
proper body hydration is key to your health and well being.
You may bring along your own water bottle. Our driver will
encourage you to drink a lot of water, often. We carry
water sufficient for your needs for the duration of the trip.
Also, for your convenience, our
vehicles are equipped with toilet paper and paper bags for you to put your used toilet
paper in. We jokingly call the restroom a 'Public' one but rest easy
because we will always respect your privacy when nature calls. Let your
driver know when the urge arises.
For Tour Pricing, Questions or More
Information
Mailing address:
AZ Ghost Town Stage Line
- 4722 N. 31st Avenue - Phoenix, AZ 85017
tours@YeeHawww.com
PHONE
602 - 373 - 0066
Please leave a
message if we don't answer
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