Fairbank, Arizona

Fairbank in 1890

File:Fairbank post office in 1902.jpg

Fairbank Post Office in 1902

Fairbank is a ghost town in Cochise County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona.

Founded in the 1880s, the town was named after Chicago investor Nathaniel K. Fairbank, who provided funds to open the silver mines in nearby Tombstone.

During Fairbank's short heyday the town was home to a post office, mills, several rail lines, a school and a hotel. By 1970 almost nothing was left at Fairbank. All roads but the main street were lost under thick scrub growth. The last few residents were evicted when the buildings were declared unsafe.

An effort to preserve the remains of Fairbank has been only partially successful. Eight buildings remain at the site, but several are in extremely poor condition. The largest remaining structure, a hotel, collapsed in 2004.

The remaining structures at Fairbank include:

• A small schoolhouse made of stone. This is one of the most well-preserved buildings in Fairbank, although there is cracking in several places.
• Two wooden houses at the north end of the town and a wooden outhouse.
• An adobe building, site of the hotel. This structure recently collapsed.
• Two buildings attached to the north side of the hotel. These are in immediate danger of collapse.
• A corral, including old fences, south of the highway.
• Ruins of a windmill, south of the highway.
• Various nearly unrecognizable ruins, including two houses hidden in jungle-like growth east of the main buildings, and a structure to the south of the hotel.