Fairbank, Arizona

Fairbank, Arizona Ghost town
Ghost town
Remains of outhouses built in the 1940s
Country	United States
State	Arizona
County	Cochise
Founded	May 16, 1883
Abandoned	1970s
Elevation	3,858 ft (1,176 m)
Population  (2009)
• Total	0
Time zone	UTC-7 (MST (no DST))
Post Office opened	May 16, 1883
Post Office closed	1970s

Fairbank is a ghost town in Cochise County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona, near the San Pedro River. First settled in 1881, Fairbank, the closest rail stop to nearby Tombstone, was an important location in developing Arizona. The town was named for Chicago investor Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank who partially financed the railroad, and was the founder of the Grand Central Mining Company, which had an interest in the silver mines in Tombstone. Today Fairbank is located within the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (NCA).

History

Originally the location of a Native American village known as Santa Cruz in the 1700s, the area was later settled around the time the railroad came through in 1881, and developed futher when the local railroad station was built in 1882. It was originally known as Junction City, then Kendall, then Fairbanks, and was formally founded as Fairbank on May 16, 1883 on the same day that the local Post Office opened.

Fairbank in 1890

Due to its proximity to Tombstone, and the fact that it boasted the nearest railroad station to what was one of the largest cities in the western United States, Fairbank acted as a way point between Tombstone and the rest of the country, bringing supplies into the bustling town, and also acting as the departure point for the ore pulled from Tombstone's silver mines on its way to the mills in Contention City and Charleston. Fairbank was also home to a stage coach station on the Butterfield Overland Mail line which opened in 1885. At its height in the mid-1880s, the town housed approximately 100 residents, and boasted a steam quartz mill, a general store, a butcher shop, a restaurant, a saloon, a Wells Fargo office, the railroad depot, and a stage coach station.

When the Tombstone mines closed after flooding in 1886, Fairbank's prominence declined as the nearby mills shutdown, and the rail depot it offered became largely unnecessary. Subsequent droughts drove away area farmers and ranchers, further isolating the town. In September 1890, the San Pedro River overflowed its banks, flooding Fairbank and causing significant property damage.

On February 15, 1900, Fairbank was the scene of an attempted train robbery of the express car on the Benson-Nogales train by the Burt Alvord gang. Express Messenger and former lawman Jeff Milton, drove off the bandits despite a serious bullet wound sustained to his arm. The robbery was unsuccessful, and gang member "Three Fingered Jack" Dunlop was mortally wounded, later to die in Tombstone after confessing to the attempted robbery.

In 1901, the Mexican land grant on which the town was situated was purchased by the Boquillas Land and Cattle Company who extended the leases on only the commercial building and several residences into the 1970s.

Remnants

By the 1970s Fairbank was all but deserted. The final remaining residents left when the buildings were deemed unsafe. After that, the post office closed, and the side roads became overgrown and largely impassable. Some years later, in 1986, the former Mexican Land Grant was acquired by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the town was incorporated into the San Pedro Riparian NCA. What remains of the town of Fairbank is now open to the public. The remaining structures include:

• A commercial building, an adobe structure that used to house the general store, the post office, and the saloon. The structure has been stabilized by the BLM.
• The Montezuma Hotel which was built in 1889 to the south of the Commercial Building. The hotel was torn down to make way for highway construction, and only portions of its foundation remain.
• A small wooden house, built in 1885, in a style common in the 1880s.
• The schoolhouse, built of gypsum block manufactured in nearby Douglas, AZ, was constructed in 1920, and was a functioning school through the 1930's.
• A larger wooden house, built in 1925.
• A stable and outhouses, which were built in the early 1940's as part of a Works Progress Administration project based in Fairbank.

In March 2007, the BLM restoration of the schoolhouse was completed, and the structure was opened to the public as a museum and information center for Fairbank.

Geography

Fairbank is located east of the San Pedro River, just off of Arizona State Route 82 at 31°43′23″N 110°11′18″W (31.7231456, -110.1884107).

See also

• American Old West
• Arizona Territory
• History of Arizona
• List of ghost towns in Arizona