Ghost Towns, Pearce, Arizona

Pearce Mining Ghost Town
Drove through the town of Pearce on the way to the interstate and found maybe a dozen people still living there. There were plenty of ruins to explore but with all the spying eyes watching my every step, I decided to move on. It reminded me of the hills have eyes.

History
Pearce is a mining ghost town named for Cornishman James Pearce, miner and cattleman, who discovered gold nearby at what became the Commonwealth Mine in 1894. The Pearce Post Office was established on March 6, 1896. The railroad station opened in 1903. By 1919, Pearce had a population of 1,500. The town declined in the 1930s, and became almost a ghost town in the late 1940s, when the mine closed for the last time.

The Commonwealth Mine became one of Arizona's major silver producers. Over 1,000,000 tons of ore were produced from 1895 to 1942. There are about 20 miles of underground workings. The mine produced about $8 million worth of silver and $2.5 million in gold at a time when silver was priced around 50 cents an ounce, and gold was $20 an ounce.

Date: 11.05.2011
Temp: 62°
Elevation: 4,400 ft
DMS (degrees, minutes, secondes)* Latitude: 31.90535
Longitude: -109.82138