Exploring the ghost town of the Vulture City Mine near Wickenburg, Arizona:

A month back, we headed up to Phoenix & decided to take a detour to Wickenburg.  We had heard there was a pretty cool ghost town. Unfortunately we arrived a little too late (they closed at 2 PM) & without enough cash (no debit / credit access) so we had to continue on to our original errand.  After watching the Vulture Mine episode on Ghost Adventures, we decided it was probably worth another attempt.

We headed up earlier and arrived to find that since airing on Ghost Adventures, the Vulture City Mine tour extended their hours to 3 PM & hiked up their fee from $7 to $10.  Ahhh capitalism. =)

Here are the photos & a little background on the town:

In 1863, Henry Wickenburg founded Vulture City Gold Mine.  Here was his first house (smaller than our bedroom).

Vulture City was one of the most successful gold mines in the US until it was shut down in the 40′s.  It went from a town of 5,000 to a ghost town virtually overnight.

Unlike Bisbee, it really is a ghost town.  There aren’t any residents, the “care takers” are only there during tourist hours & there isn’t any electricity.  Supposedly there’s quite a few resident ghosts as well…

Actually, I think this guy might be the town’s official resident….

The Glory Hole (which collapsed) was unfortunately off limits.

Uh, spelling wasn’t big back then.

The first intact building is off limits.  Probably for a good reason because when we peeked inside, a lot of the floor had given way & looked like it would completely give way any minute.

The explorers.

This assay office is where they checked the purity of the gold.

Click above to view enlarged panorama.

Do you think that was a Sealy memory foam?

Click above to view enlarged panorama.

18 unlucky people found themselves hanging on the wrong end of the noose at the Hanging Tree, which was right next to Henry Wickenburg’s first house.

There were 2 buildings in which it looked like they had tried to restore the town in the 40′s.  Here is one of the buildings:

Click above to view enlarged panorama.

Click above to view enlarged panorama.

Close up of some of the items on the shelves:

Spraying thing. Not sure what it would be used for…

65% of the things we saw…  we weren’t sure what they were.  Like this….  cart?  Trolley?  Horse trough?

Click above for enlarged panorama.

Click above for enlarged panorama.

Click above for enlarged panorama.

Engine room?

From far away, this jumper looked like it was soaked in blood.

Underwear soaked in oil.  At least, we hope it’s oil…

A peep down into the mine, which was fenced off (I was laying on top of the fence).

The school house was located away from the rest of the mining buildings.

The Ghost Adventures crew must have left this ‘X’ tape from their filming inside the school room.

Outhouse.

2 toilets side by side… must’ve been slightly awkward.

Of course we had to peak inside!

This is the other building mentioned earlier that looked like a renovation started but was interrupted.

The piano that’s supposedly haunted. This piano is totally out of commission. In Ghost Adventures, it supposedly played music on its own….

Ugliest face ever.

Playing the haunted piano while copying one of Ghost Adventures screamer trailers (Zak holding his open mouth up to a bright light bulb).

Just outside this building was an open field and a small playground.

A slide that would give you splinters.

Trying to convince the seesaw wouldn’t break in half if he hopped on.

“Look Gypsy, it’s going to break….”

Compromise