The Ghost Town of Mongollon and new friends

This trip was quiet a wonderful find. We rode through this old ghost town just out of curiosity and had quit an adventure. Of course they had a few old buildings with some shops and a museum ,but everything was closed for the season, pretty typical for a ghost town. On our way back to prepare to move on down the road we were approached by a fellow and his wife. These folks were out looking around also so they stopped to talk to us and we found out they were in the fifth wheel next to us back at camp. They were well prepared for an adventure, they had some info on Mongollan (muggy-own) from the ranger station and permission to look around the buildings, cemetary and mine. So we joined them!

Meet Brad and Marilyn from Ontario, Canada. They graciously invited us to join them in there search for the original old town and the gold mine. What we thought was the original town was not it. We climbed into their 4 wheel drive truck and headed up the hill to the cemetary first.

Most of the folks in the cemetary died very young in their 20's, 30's and 40's, some infants and children, and only a few older folks 60's and 70's. The markers were mostly crude iron crosses or wooden crosses or nothing more than a pile of rocks. Most of the dates were early 1900's.

We found the original town next with more than 15 buildings still standing.

This was a hugh mining operation until it closed in early 50's.