Arizona's Mining Attractions

Fascinated by underground activities? You’ll hit pay dirt in Arizona, home to the most famous gold mine that might never have existed and host to the world’s largest gem and mineral show.

By Edie Jarolim

This quick zip through the state’s mining highlights includes everything from Old West towns that rose and fell by their mineral wealth to today’s thriving museums and exhibitions.

Mining in Southern Arizona

The legacy of the silver vein that established one of the world’s most notorious western towns lies mainly in the town’s name: Prospector Ed Schieffelin was warned that venturing into Apache territory would earn him only his Tombstone.

Prosperous for far longer was nearby Bisbee, offering tours of the Copper Queen Mine with the miners who once worked there, vistas into the gaping Lavender mine pit and the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate. Many mine executives bedded down at the Gadsden Hotel in nearby Douglas, which smelted the ore from Bisbee’s mines.

In Tucson, the University of Arizona Mineral Museum is among the top in the country, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum features excellent earth science exhibits.

Ajo, a trim mining company town near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the southwest, has two small museums and one large open pit mine overlook.

But mining is far from being history in “The Copper State.” At Asarco’s Mission mine, just south of Tucson, visitors can learn about the industry and see modern copper strip-mining in action.

Nearly a million visitors descend on tiny Quartzsite, just east of the California border, for the Pow Wow - Gem & Mineral Show in late January. And that’s just a prelude to events in Tucson, where the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show and dozens of smaller shows around town draw national and international throngs during the first two weeks of February, outdoing every other gathering of its kind.

Mining in Central Arizona

Northwest of Phoenix, Wickenburg once hosted the Arizona Territory’s richest gold mine. Now you can visit Robson’s Arizona Mining World, which re-creates an old mining camp, or take a self-guided tour of the abandoned Vulture Mine.

Drive the winding mountain roads from Wickenburg up to Jerome, where sights include Jerome State Historic Park, a former mine owner’s mansion, the Jerome Historical Society and Mine Museum and the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town. In nearby Clarkdale, the Verde Canyon Railroad runs along tracks once used to haul minerals from Jerome.

Mining-related attractions along the spectacular Apache Trail east of Phoenix include the rare ore specimens at Superstition Mountain Museum, re-created Goldfield Ghost Town and the Lost Dutchman State Park, named for the world-renowned gold mine that prospectors are still trying to find.

Institutions devoted to rocks include the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in Phoenix, the state’s best resource for things subterranean, and the Robert S. Dietz Museum of Geology on the Arizona State University Campus in nearby Tempe.

Mining in Northern & Western Arizona

In the northwest, off old Route 66 near Oatman (an abandoned boomtown popular for its resident burros), the Gold Road Mine offers underground tours and gold panning. The Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff highlights the geology, fossils and minerals of the Colorado Plateau.

Going?

Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum
Phone: (800) 446-4259 or (602) 771-1600
www.admmr.state.az.us/General/museum.html

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Phone: (520) 883-1380
www.desertmuseum.org

Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum 
Phone: (520) 432.7071
www.bisbeemuseum.org

Copper Queen Mine Tours
Phone: (866) 432-2071 or (520) 432-2071
www.queenminetour.com

Gadsden Hotel 
Phone: (520) 364-4481
www.hotelgadsden.com

Gold King Mine and Ghost Town
Phone: (928) 634-0053
www.goldkingmineghosttown.com

Goldfield Ghost Town
Phone: (480) 983-0333
www.goldfieldghosttown.com

Jerome Historical Society and Mine Museum
Phone: (928) 634-1066
www.jeromehistoricalsociety.com

Jerome State Historic Park
Phone: (928) 634-5381
azstateparks.com/Parks/JERO/index.html

Lost Dutchman State Park
Phone: (480) 982-4485
azstateparks.com/Parks/LODU

Museum of Northern Arizona
Phone: (928) 774-5213
www.musnaz.org

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Phone: (520) 387-6849
www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm

Oatman Chamber of Commerce
Phone: (928) 768-6222
www.oatmangoldroad.com

Quartzsite Business Chamber of Commerce
Phone: (928) 927-9321
www.quartzsitebusinesschamber.com

Quartzsite Improvement Association/Pow Wow – Gem & Mineral Show
Phone: (928) 927-6325
www.qiaaz.org

Robert S. Dietz Museum of Geology
Phone: (480) 965-7065
www.asu.edu/museums/ns/dietz.htm

Robson’s Arizona Mining World
Phone: (928) 415-0983
www.robsonsminingworld.com

Superstition Mountain Museum
Phone: (480) 983-4888
www.superstitionmountainmuseum.org

Tucson Gem & Mineral Show
Phone: (520) 322-5773
www.tgms.org

The University of Arizona Mineral Museum
Phone: (520) 621-4227
www.uamineralmuseum.org

Verde Canyon Railroad
Phone: (800) 320-0718
www.verdecanyonrr.com