Stanton, Arizona

Map to Stanton, Arizona

Stanton sprang to life as part of the 1863 Rich Hill gold strike. An 11-room hotel, the stage stop and dance hall still stand along Antelope Creek between Congress and Yarnell on County Road 109, 50 miles northwest of Phoenix. In 1892, the Prescott newspaper reported that the residents of Stanton, Arizona liked to "drink blood, eat fried rattlesnakes and fight mountain lions".
Originally a stage station, the Hotel Stanton still stands more than a century after its construction. The Saturday Evening Post, which bought the town in the late 1950s, gave the 10-acre site away in a jingle contest. The New York winner of the contest had no idea what to do with a beat-up ghost town and sold it. Stanton is owned today by the Lost Dutchman Mining Association, which runs an RV park there.
Photos copyright © Daniel Ter-Nedden / www.GhostTownGallery.com