Vulture Mine, Arizona

A true Ghost Town in all sense of the word. It was real spooky as you walk through and listen to the wind banging doors and metal around. We were the only ones there but it kept us looking over our shoulders.<grin>

Assay Office
The Vulture mine is about 6 miles outside of Wickenburg. It, like many gold mines, were closed in the early 40's because gold wasn't needed for the war effort. It was a viable mine when it was closed. Many of the buildings are still standing in various stages of ruin. You can walk through any building you want. It makes it a very neat ghost town. These are the original furnaces. This is the only building that has some chicken wire to keep you from actually going over to the furnace.

Outside view of Assay Office
This is the outside of the assay office. It is made from the same rock that the gold was extracted from. They say there is $600,000 dollars worth of gold in the walls of the building. I brought a small rock back that you can see the speckles of gold in it.

Mine Shaft
If you follow the tracks down at the 35 degree angle it leads right down into the main shaft. They sometimes run tours down underground but not the day we were there.

Generator
This building contained the generator that was used to power the town and mine. It stands about 16 feet high. At the far end of the building is the machine shop. There is still a lathe, drill press and other machines there. They used electricity to leach out gold and the tanks and rods used are still there in another building.

House
This was the remains of a house. There were some in much better shape we walked though. Some still had things like stoves in them.

Anglia
The remains of an Anglia. My father always called this car an English Ford which it was. It came out at the same time as the Mini. I haven't seen one since I was a kid 35 years ago. When I was growing up this was our family car. Picture 2 adults and 3 kids in it. In fact there was a time when my father took us to the local little league football game and we had about 8 kids in football gear and shoulder pads riding in it to practice. How I don't know but we did it. In fact this blue is the same color car we owned. This car was manufactured until 1967 when the escort took it's place. The engine is still used in some Ford products today although it is now fuel injected.