How This Whole Thing Started...
The main purpose of Ghost Town Trails Tour is to preserve and share accurate history of four ghost towns located in Cochise County, Arizona. Those four towns are Cochise, Pearce, Courtland, and Gleeson.
It also began when overhearing a tour guide from a jeep tour (charging $75.00 per person) give out such inaccurate information my spine almost snapped from cringing so hard,
Another factor that started all this, was a photo group Cochise County and its Wonders that I belong to on Facebook that features photos taken within Cochise County. We try to have a potluck meet and greet every year. I volunteered to do a Ghost Town Tour for the group, and expected only about 15 people to show up. But the word got out through shared posts, and I had 47 on the first tour in May 2017!
Wow! And people who missed the tour, and some who were on the first tour, wanted to do it again. So the second tour was scheduled for October 2017, with an attendance of 67 people. And after the October tour, they wanted another one! So the tours have now become an April and October event.
The tours in April and October are FREE. I just ask that everyone leave a small donation at each place we visit, as they are privately owned, and all maintenance and upkeep are straight out of pocket. If you want to throw a couple of bucks at your tour guide to cover her gas and printed materials, that is greatly appreciated, too! Are tours limited to twice a year? No. They can be done for smaller groups, for a small fee (covers my gas and printed materials). The only restriction is inclement weather, or right after a heavy rainfall, as the roads get a little too mushy. Oh...and if it's 100 degrees...it ain't happening then, either.
Photographs on this website...I've probably violated every copyright law there is to violate. Current photos were taken from the Ghost Town Trails group page. Historic photos...probably big violations there. Some I found on the internet, some were scanned from books, some were sent to me in e-mails and some I've actually purchased from various archives...it's all a blur. Sometimes, it's better to ask forgiveness than to seek permission....
And...I need to give credit to a few folks here, because without them, none of this could happen, I'll probably leave a few names out. It's not intentional, by any means, so don't feel slighted. Phil Gessert of Cochise Hotel, Anna Nickell of the Pearce Jail, Joe Bono (BIG TIME) of the Gleeson Jail, historians Marti Roe, Glen Snow, and Stan Benjamin.
Currently, work is being done to have Courtland and Gleeson placed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
The links above will take you to each stop on the tour, and give a little bit of history along the way. Be sure to check out the old photographs as well!