The second ghost town we explore today is Courtland Ghost Town. It was founded in 1909 due to a copper boom in the area. At its height, Courtland had a population of 2,000 and we hope there are a few interesting buildings remaining to explore. We start with a nearby cache that takes us to a few mining shafts already so it looks promising as we continue south towards the main city area.
But first we stop when we scare something from the trail and it takes off flying. Luckily we have the camera ready and capture a rare daytime nighthawk flying away, poor bird. There are also a few flowering prickly pears, quite surprising as it is late in the season.
The dirt road we are driving on, the Ghost Town trail is surprisingly quite empty of other cars and we enjoy this a lot as it means we can explore the sites in peace.
Next we decide to explore the desert a bit on a side road, there seem to be some mining equipment remains further out that we want to explore. On the way we have to stop at a large area that seems to be a metropolis for ants. And of course a magnet for lizards and other ant-eating animals.
The equipment is quite interesting to explore and we spend some time trying to understand what it was used for with little results so on we go.
The main area is private with a shop that can be visited only by private invitation or something like that, it is really not clear either online or on location. So we pass it and stop at the Courtland jail which is public and decide to visit it and explore it from different vantage points.
You can even enter it and see the two jail cells, they are now more like art installations for graffiti than something stopping criminals from getting out. But it must have been quite impressive way back with its thick walls and small windows.
And then we continue through a few more ruins before arriving at the last in the series of ghost towns, Gleeson. Well Gleeson is less of a ghost town, there are people living here, and even the jail is private and can only be seen from outside. So it is a quick visit before continuing to Tombstone our last stop for the trip.
