The story
The hills at Gleeson were mined for turquoise long before statehood — Tiffany's sourced stone nearby — but the town proper grew on copper from 1900, with a peak around 500 residents, a hospital, and a school whose ruins still crown the rise.
Copper prices closed the mines by the late 1930s and the post office followed in 1958. Volunteers restored the 1910 jail into a small museum (open the first Saturday most months), and the school, hospital walls, and cemetery make Gleeson the best stop on Cochise County's 'Ghost Town Trail.'
What remains today
Restored jail-museum, school and hospital ruins, store walls, and cemetery, scattered along the Gleeson Road grid.
Questions from the field
- When is the Gleeson jail open?
- Typically the first Saturday of each month (winter especially), staffed by the volunteer restorers — the rest of the town's ruins are viewable from the road anytime.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Gleeson — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Gleeson's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Sources consulted
- — Cochise County records — Gleeson district
- — Gleeson Jail restoration project
- — Arizona Bureau of Mines — Courtland-Gleeson copper