After driving nine miles up a narrow, winding road in the rugged Mogollon Mountains, the ghost town of Mogollon emerges from Silver Creek Canyon like an apparition.
Officially established in 1890, the town of Mogollon boomed with rich deposits of gold and silver, as well as timber. People flocked to Mogollon, and by 1915, the town had electricity, water, and telephone lines. Mogollon even had saloons, restaurants, a hospital, a theater, and two red-light districts. At the town’s height there were a few thousand people living there.
Fires and floods have killed residents and all but destroyed Mogollon multiple times throughout its history. Still, the residents rebuilt. Low demand for precious metals during World War II, coupled with another fire, caused all but one of Mogollon’s mines to close. By the 1970s, all mining came to a halt, leaving the remote town empty.
Today, Mogollon has some seasonal residents and small businesses. Visitors can enter the Mogollon Museum and browse artifacts such as old photos and documents, clothing, mining tools, and even a recreated mine shaft in the building’s old root cellar. The town also has a woodworking shop open for visitors. The visitor center in the Old Kelly Store sells local art, jewelry, books, and other merchandise, including the visitor center owner’s original art.
A mile up Fanny Road, North of Mogollon’s Historic District, is Mogollon Cemetery. The trees and plants obscure the graves, and visitors can wind their way around the cemetery like a labyrinth. Many of those interred in the cemetery died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. The road to the cemetery has a view of Mogollon from above, as well as views of other abandoned homes and miner’s shacks.
