Ruby Arizona Ghost Town
Update: As of June 3, 2024, Ruby is permanently closed to the public. After thirty-three years of offering tours and permits, the owners ended all public access. The property is private, gated, monitored by security cameras, and posted with no-trespassing signs. Please do not attempt to visit. What follows is a record of a visit I made while the town was still open, kept here as history rather than as a travel recommendation.
Ruby Ghost Town’s History
In southern Arizona near the Mexico/Arizona border, Ruby is a privately-owned abandoned mine and town once the state’s largest zinc and lead-producing mine. Originally named Montana Camp after the first strike in the Montana vein in the late 1870s, Ruby reached its peak in the 1930s with a population of 1200 people. However, the mine closed down in 1940 and was abandoned by 1941.
Despite its decline, Ruby’s history is still a fascinating one. In the 1920s, a double homicide took place in the town, leading to the largest manhunt in the southwest and the first-ever airplane used in an Arizona manhunt. Visitors could tour several buildings and still-standing structures, including the schoolhouse, general store, and jail. The town also has a lake with a beach made from mining tailings.
Ruby’s story is a testament to the boom and bust cycles that shaped Arizona’s mining history. Its preserved structures and desert setting made it one of the most intact and atmospheric ghost towns in the state during the years it was open to visitors.
Know Before You Go
- Region: Southwest United States
- Location: Ruby, Arizona (Santa Cruz County)
- Status: Privately owned and permanently closed to the public as of June 2024. No permits, tours, or access of any kind are offered.
- Attraction Type: Ghost Town, closed site
Why Ruby Closed
Ruby had been open to visitors since 1994, run for its last thirty-three years by managers Pat and Howard Frederick. Trouble stacked up in the final years. In 2022 a wildfire burned roughly 12,000 acres right to the edge of the townsite. The following October, vandals tore down the front gate and smashed or stole several of the remote cameras used to watch over the property. The owners made the final decision to close in March 2024, announced it that April, and locked the gate for good on June 3. The site is now private property with no public access, monitored and posted against trespassing.
My Visit
A friend was visiting from out of town, and we decided to head out to find Ruby. I had heard about it from several stories and wanted to visit before the temperatures were too hot for the season. Also, it was not too far from Tucson, making it a perfect day trip adventure.
There were two ways in, one a more rustic trail requiring a high clearance four-wheel-drive vehicle. We chose the scenic route, knowing the Jeep would handle the drive without issues. It was a nice drive through forest service and country unpaved dirt roads. Stopping at the caretaker’s accommodation, we paid $15 per person for the day, and then he briefed us on the places we could and should not go. He suggested staying away from several spots near the mine and its tailings for our safety. At the time, some areas had become unstable, and he was concerned about people getting stuck or injured.
The overall size of the place is not large, but because it was a hotter day, we picked several of the locations and drove to them. You could park at the front and walk around had the temperatures been cooler. Several buildings were still standing that you could poke around in, and then there was the beach and pond. Yes, a beach created from the mining tailings that you could spend time on.
Overall it was a neat little place to visit. The organization that owned it worked on it for years, and the upkeep, while limited, let you understand what this mining operation was like and what it would have been like to live and work there.
Photos from my visit.
Ruby is one of the most intact ghost towns in Arizona and one of the more unusual ones. It is privately owned, with permits required and structures still standing. If you want more places like it, there are several other ghost towns and abandoned sites in the Places section, all from visits I have actually made.
Two Guns, Arizona has a darker history and sits right off Route 66, easy to reach and worth the stop. Swansea, Arizona is a remote copper mining town in the desert west of Wickenburg that takes some work to get to. Old Hachita, New Mexico is one of the most degraded and forgotten sites I have visited, deep in the Chihuahuan Desert and worth the drive.
If you want to see everything I have explored so far, the Ghost Towns and Abandoned Places section has the full list.
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