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Killer Urbex. The state of Arizona is a land of extremes: blazing temperatures, vast skies, yawning canyons and unforgiving mountain peaks. Its economic history has followed a similar trajectory, vacillating between the booms and busts of the mining industry.
This has left many abandoned places in Arizona over the generations to explore and discover. Over the course of U. For evidence of the latter category, look no further than the following list of the seven best abandoned places in Arizona. Need a strong camera to photograph abandoned places in Arizona? Find more DSLR options in our comprehensive guide. Interested in venturing outside Arizona? Here are a few guides to surrounding states that will be helpful in your explorations outside of the wonderful abandoned places in Arizona:.
It is important when considering abandoned places in Arizona to know the basics of Arizona trespassing laws. Luckily, we have developed a massive guide to trespassing laws in all 50 states.
For laws that specifically relate to Arizona, please click here. Though the town of Santa Claus was once as lively and jolly as its namesake, today the area is an abandoned ghost town marked by the decaying remains of the Christmas Tree Inn amusement park. The community was founded in by Nina Talbot, a Los Angeles-based real estate agent with a self-deprecating sense of humor. Her vision was to establish a Christmas-inspired resort town and theme park in the bleak desert landscape. In addition to the Christmas Tree Inn park, Talbot also hoped to profit from the sale of the surrounding parcels of land, but after they failed to draw any interest, she passed the entire property to new ownership in Despite its kitschy nature, the Christmas Tree Inn earned endorsements from several notable celebrities.
Famed restaurant critic Duncan Hines—whose name has since been attached to boxed cake mixes and other products—put the town in the spotlight when he published a glowing review of the Inn. Actress Jane Russell hosted a dinner party at the park in , and science fiction author Robert Heinlein was so taken with his meal at the Christmas Tree Inn that he later featured it in one of his short stories. Attendance at the theme park began to drop off in the s, and falling profits led to lack of maintenance throughout the town.
Owner Tony Wilcox tried to find a buyer for the town in but was unable to find anyone willing to pay the asking price. The final business in the tiny town closed in , and today just a handful of time-worn buildings provide enduring evidence that the town of Santa Claus once existed in the middle of the Arizona desert.
As far as abandoned places in Arizona goes, this is one of the most popular and most sought-after. Get More Information. Though their futuristic appearance suggests some exciting purpose for these dilapidated, half-finished structures off I-8 Phoenix and Tucson, the Casa Grande Domes were originally intended as a manufacturing facility for circuit boards.
Construction on the four buildings—one saucer-shaped, the other three resembling inchworms—began in , after tech manufacturer InnerConn Technology announced plans to move its headquarters from California to the acre site in Casa Grande.
A network of underground tunnels used for ventilation and piping connected the buildings. With the four existing buildings partially completed and the foundations laid for another three, construction on the campus came to a screeching halt in late after the company defaulted on a loan and its assets were seized by the bank.
The half-finished structures were left to deteriorate in the harsh sun and wind, causing the concrete to shear off some parts of the domes to reveal the layer of mustard-yellow polyurethane underneath. Inside, the concrete walls are covered in graffiti, and the entire site has been used as a dumping ground for old tires, furniture and other trash. Perhaps without knowing quite what they were in for, a couple purchased the property in and quickly faced a steady stream of demands from the local government to clean up the site.
After one of the domes collapsed in , the city ordered them all to be demolished, but so far the strange structures have managed to escape this seemingly inevitable fate. If you are on the hunt for a great respirator to more safely observe some of these incredible abandoned places in Arizona, we highly recommend the 3M for a full-face option and the North if you would prefer a half-face option.
Find more respirator options in our in-depth guide. This aging eyesore about 45 minutes north of Phoenix opened to the public in , drawing crowds of gamblers and spectators to its convenient location just off recently-completed I For 25 years, sleek canines blazed around the dirt track as expectant bettors waited to see if their picks would cross the finish line first. After the dog track closed in , the facility hosted swap meets for a few years but was finally abandoned altogether in the late s.
The sprawling asphalt parking lot is cracked, rutted and overgrown with weeds. Streaks of rust and water damage stripe the interior walls, and the filthy floors are covered with rotted ceiling tiles, flakes of plaster and other debris. Inside the restrooms, vandals have yanked sinks and other fixtures from the walls, leaving them laying haphazardly on the cracked tile floors. Rows of red stadium seats still line the viewing area around the dusty track, which is now choked with creosote and cactus.
For a few years in the mids, the television series F Troop was sufficiently popular to inspire the construction of Fort Courage, an unofficially-sanctioned replica of the fictional Army outpost featured in the show. In addition to selling F Troop merchandise and displaying authentic props from the film studio, the Fort Courage Trading Post featured a gas station, general store, pancake house, coffee shop and eventually, a Taco Bell restaurant.
Conveniently located off the historic Route 66 east of the Petrified Forest, Fort Courage maintained a profitable operation for nearly four decades after it opened in the early s, drawing crowds of road-tripping tourists in need of a tank of gas, a quick meal or a few Native American souvenir crafts.
When the new Highway 40 replaced Old Route 66 as the preferred path through the region, business at Fort Courage declined precipitously, and it closed for good in While not as historical as it may appear, this still is one of the best abandoned places in Arizona to explore.
Urban exploration of abandoned places in Arizona is no fun if one of your hands is occupied with a flashlight.
Save yourself with a headlamp, one of the most versatile pieces of urbex gear. This mile-high town in the Black Hills of Yavapai County was once a thriving mining community where rich stores of copper, gold and silver ore were discovered in the late 19 th century.
By the early s, its population had swelled to more than 10, After several decades of constant mining activity, the deposits dwindled, and the last mine was shuttered in Most residents moved on to other cities in search of new opportunities, and within several years fewer than souls remained in what had essentially become a ghost town.
Jerome was designated a National Historic Landmark in , and thanks to an organized effort by a few members of the remaining community, the town has mounted a remarkable resurgence in recent years. Around residents now live within the town limits.
A number of its historic buildings and residences have been restored, and new shops and art galleries have opened their doors. However, quite a few of the original structures remain virtually untouched and in varying states of deterioration. Inside, rusted metal lockers, rotting ceiling tiles and glass shards litter the floor, and a precarious staircase leads to the second floor, where most of the ceiling has completely collapsed.
This stalwart of abandoned places in Arizona is perfect for photoshoots, urbex photography , and standard, grungy urban exploration. Just outside the city of Chandler—one of several bedroom communities that form the Phoenix metropolitan area—an airplane graveyard lies hidden in plain sight.
Built in to support U. Once the war ended, the 1,acre facility was rebranded as the Goodyear Air Force Auxiliary Airfield, and its runway was upgraded to fit the new, larger jets that were coming into use. In the s, the airport transitioned into civilian use, changing its name to simply Goodyear Airport and later Memorial Airfield.
New hangars were built on the campus in the late s. By then, the airport was used almost exclusively by Biegert Aviation for its fleet of air tankers. Over the next two decades, the airport saw fewer and fewer takeoffs and landings, eventually becoming a repository for defunct aircraft. By the late s, the airfield was littered with dozens of immobile, rusting planes, many of which were in the midst of being dismantled for parts or scrap. The following year, the property was ceded to the Gila River Indian Community and its name updated to reflect the new ownership.
The tribe cleared all commercial tenants—and most of the retired aircraft—from the property with the hopes of building a casino on the site, but no additional steps toward this development have yet been taken. Today, just a handful of decaying planes and three deteriorating hangars are all that remains of this former military airfield.
Those of you who are looking for one of the best aviation-related abandoned places in Arizona, look no further than the Gila River Memorial Airport. Cameras, headlamps, respirators and more. Urban exploration can be very gear-heavy, especially when exploring abandoned places in Arizona. We recommend both the Osprey Packs Daylite for sling backpacks or the Mardingtop Tactical Backpack for a standard two-strap backpack. Alternatively, check out our comprehensive guide for far more options, tips, and tricks.
This striking three-story structure is located on a triangular wedge of land in the heart of Globe. Made from sand-colored reinforced concrete, the abandoned school was built in and features a rectangular main building with a large round tower at one end.
Despite years of abandonment and neglect, the interior is still in relatively good shape; a peek through the large, wood-framed windows reveals classroom walls covered in long green chalkboards and ceiling fans still hovering over hardwood floors. The gymnasium floor is showing its age, but the basketball hoops mounted on opposite ends of the cavernous room still have intact nets hanging from their rims.
Still, the old school is a remarkable building brimming with potential should the right developer mount an effort to resurrect and preserve it.
Those who are into urban exploration in the Georgia state area, and wanting to explore abandoned places in Arizona, should get comfortable with Arizona trespassing laws. Luckily, in the state of Arizona, the laws are easy to understand and are pretty cut and dry. For these cases, you should familiarize yourself with x. About What Is Urbex? Here are a few guides to surrounding states that will be helpful in your explorations outside of the wonderful abandoned places in Arizona: Our Guide to the 10 Best Abandoned Places in California Our Guide to the 10 Best Abandoned Places in Nevada Most Amazing Abandoned Places in Colorado: Top 7 Choices It is important when considering abandoned places in Arizona to know the basics of Arizona trespassing laws.
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