A month back, we headed up to Phoenix and decided to take a detour to Wickenburg.  We had heard there was a pretty cool ghost town. Unfortunately we arrived a little too late (they closed at 2 PM) and without enough cash (no debit / credit access) so we had to continue on to our original errand.  After watching the Vulture Mine episode on Ghost Adventures, we decided it was probably worth another attempt.

We headed up earlier and arrived to find that since airing on Ghost Adventures, the Vulture City Mine tour extended their hours to 3 PM and hiked up their fee from $7 to $10.  Ahhh capitalism. =)

Here are the photos and a little background on the town:

In 1863, Henry Wickenburg founded Vulture City Gold Mine.  Here was his first house (smaller than our bedroom).

Vulture City was one of the most successful gold mines in the US until it was shut down in the 40's.  It went from a town of 5,000 to a ghost town virtually overnight.

Unlike Bisbee, it really is a ghost town.  There aren't any residents, the "care takers" are only there during tourist hours and there isn't any electricity.  Supposedly there's quite a few resident ghosts as well...

Actually, I think this guy might be the town's official resident....

The Glory Hole (which collapsed) was unfortunately off limits.

Spelling wasn't big back then.

The first intact building is off limits.  Probably for a good reason because when we peeked inside, a lot of the floor had given way and looked like it would completely give way any minute.

This assay office is where they checked the purity of the gold.

Do you think that was a Sealy memory foam?

18 unlucky people found themselves hanging on the wrong end of the noose at the Hanging Tree, which was right next to Henry Wickenburg's first house.

There were 2 buildings in which it looked like they had tried to restore the town in the 40's.  Here is one of the buildings:

Close up of some of the items on the shelves:

65% of the things we saw...  we weren't sure what they were.  Like this....  cart?  Trolley?  Horse trough?

Powder kegs.

A miner's missing underwear? I hope that's oil.

School house.

Ghost Adventures left tape in some of the buildings.

Outhouse...

...with toilets side by side. Just a little awkward?

Of course I peeked into the toilets.

This is another one of the buildings that was going to go through restoration/renovation.

A haunted piano with an angry pianist. It's out of commission but supposedly it can be heard playing on its own at night.