April 17-25, Cottonwood, Jerome, and Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

Although the weather was fine in Prescott, we wanted to move to Thousand Trails Road, a free Forest Service campground just outside Cottonwood, AZ. We'd stayed there 2 years ago and remembered it to be beautiful. Here are some photos from the campsite:

Please click any photo to see it full size

Thousand Trails Road, Cottonwood, AZ

Thousand Trails Road, Cottonwood, AZ

Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

Not that far from Thousand Trails Road is the old mining town of Jerome, Arizona. Built up the side of mountain, it's been artsied up and is now quite a tourist spot. Spectacular views everywhere, with plenty of funky shops, good coffee, and quite a bit of history.

Leah walked around Jerome visiting shops while I drove up to the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town, just a few miles outside town.

Much to my delight, the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town had its share of history, too--only of the rusty, abandoned kind. The photo only captures about 20% of the place; Gold King sprawls all over the side of a mountain.

Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

Here's the owner, Don Robertson, "kissing his own ass", in his words:

Don Robertson, owner of Gold King Mine and Ghost Town

After photographing for an hour or two, I chatted with Don. He told me that he'd begun collecting all the stuff on the site about 30 years ago, moving old buildings he'd found in the outback to his site and refurbishing them to a semblance of their original appearance, both inside and out. He did the same with all the heavy equipment and vehicles--many of which run, and are in daily use, including a Model T truck and a vintage race car, both of which he started up and drove for me. Also onsite is a working sawmill, a chicken farm complete with chickens and eggs, and a collection of buildings representative of an 1850s mining town, including an assay office, a dentist's office, a garage, a general store--even a brothel with a young lady waving from the second floor balcony. Don says she brings in lots of hopeful guys who see her waving as they drive by.

Don says he just kept at the collecting because he loved the engineering challenge of moving and refurbishing old things, and since he's a master mechanic and builder, he's pretty good at it. Now 70 years old, he still collects, rebuilds, races vintage race cars, and shows some of his rebuilt tractors and trucks at vintage truck and tractor shows all over the country. He eventually began charging a nominal fee for admission ($5), so he could make money at what he loves. I asked him how he kept it going for $5 admission fee. He said, "I pay my employees weekly--very weakly."


Like Don, I find a lot of old machinery beautiful:

Don has some interesting opinions on gun control--which he defines as "hitting your target":

                                                                                        Above: Note the sponsor of this poster