No Sleep til...Brooklyn Basin

Directions: I'm not going to give exact directions. Brooklyn Basin Mine and Ghost Town are several miles off of Bloody Basin Road in the Aqua Fria National Monument. This drive does require a 4wd and it was the first time that I would have been stuck without one. I was able to drive to within 1 mile of the mine but didn't trust the road at that point. I probably could have made it further but the road was severely eroded in places. This area was affected by the Goodwin Fire and the roads will be affected.

Brooklyn Basin was established as a town in 1907. There was a main building that served as boarding house for the miners that worked at the mine as well as several smaller buildings and residences. The walls for the boarding house is still there, as well as a chimney from a house. The chimney was made from rocks from the mine, you can see copper in some of quartz in the rocks. The house was reportedly made from wood and when it was purchased after the mine was abandoned, it was torn down and the lumber used in another nearby town. There are more rusty cans than I've seen at any other site, they're everywhere, in the town and near the mine. I think part of it might be the fire clearing all the brush.

The Brooklyn Basin Mine was a copper, gold and silver mine. There was some belief that it was going to be one of the most productive copper mines in the world, this didn't pan out and the mine was eventually closed. I found two shafts but neither of the them were very deep. I read that the main shaft was 400 feet and the tailings pile makes that seem likely. It's possible that it collapsed or was capped and back filled at some point, although it's still 50 feet deep or so.

In addition to the mine and town, there are remnants of an Native American Pueblo. Pueblos were built from rock and mortar but the only thing left at this point are piles of rock. There are ruins in the area that can be accessed from Bloody Basin Road.