Ghost Towns of Arizona is a nice little book to pick up if you are interested in old western history from the state of the dessert south west. This tomb is in my own personal collection and originally purchased in the 1980s from a book store on Bumble Bee, Arizona.
Arizona’s ghost towns exemplify man’s courage, tenacity, and perhaps even foolishness in his search for wealth. Inevitable by-products of the development of gold, silver, copper, and other mineral deposits in Arizona, some of these communities mushroomed overnight into a hodgepodge of tents and makeshift homes, while others developed over a period of years into tidy, well-planned townsites. Whatever their design, intent, or purpose, when their existence was no longer profitable they slipped into the category of ghost towns.
Photographs included show ghost towns, newspaper advertisements, and portraits of people related to the towns, but a few show mining and other activities of active towns. Photographs in the 1960s taken by the Shermans show abandoned buildings, mining equipment, and cemeteries. These photographs and note cards are not part of a collection stored at the University of Arizona.
Book Summary
| Name | Ghost Towns of Arizona |
| Author | James E. Sherman, Barbara H. Sherman |
| Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press |
| Pages | 220 Pages |
About the Authors
James E. Sherman was a professor of engineering at Pima College in Tucson, Arizona. His wife, Barbara, graduated from the University of Arizona. An interest in travel, camping, and photography led them to collect this material and write two books on ghost towns in Arizona and New Mexico between 1964 and 1974.
