Christmas, Arizona: The Holiday is Over

Directions: Christmas is located on a closed road which is about 7 miles North of Winkelman off of Highway 77. The road to Christmas is well gated, with a permanent wall built across the road.

Christmas is one of the spots you see on a map and wonder what it's like and how it got such an un-Arizonan name. Christmas is another mining ghost town, just like so many others that dot the American Southwest. The area was found in 1878 and claims were staked that later became invalidated because they were on the San Carlos Indian Reservation. It took a few years but the boundaries of the reservation were changed and news of the boundary change was received on Christmas Eve, the new claim was named Christmas. The town of Christmas was established in 1905. After some up and down economics, the town grew to over 1,000 by the 1930s and had a grocery store, hat shop, dairy, school and a church.

The mine changed owners several times throughout it's history, closed and reopened depending on the price of copper. It converted from an underground mine to an open pit mine in the 1960s. The Christmas mine finally closed for good in the 1980s. During it's lengthy existence nearly 55 million tons of copper were mined as well as some gold and silver.

Most of the building have bulldozed and all that remains in most places are the foundations. There are a couple of shacks and some tanks that may be part of a processing plant. The views are great.

I mountain biked my way through the town and up to the mine. It was over a 1,000 feet of climbing on wide but rocky road. I imagine there are other mining roads that have access to the upper workings that you can access with an UHV.

Exploring Copper Butte On a Mountain Bike

Heed This Warning!!

Directions: Copper Butte is located off of Battle Axe Road which is 12 miles South of US 60 on Highway 177. You're going to stay on Battle Axe until you reach a locked gate. Becareful, at about 1.9 miles you'll come to a fork, stay to the right for Copper Butte. The other road takes you to the White Canyon Wilderness, which is pretty cool as well.

Dog Friendly: Nah, wouldn't take my dogs here. No water unless it rains and the pits fill up.

Copper Butte is the location for the Copper Butte Mine (clever name), which is a copper mine, duh. They also mined silica and small amounts of gold and silver. The area was discovered in the early 1900s and was mine until the 1970s by various companies. At one point there was a 400 foot inclined shaft and a 114 foot vertical shaft that led to a 700 foot tunnel. There were also several pits of various sizes. When I went this weekend I found what may have been an inclined shaft with debris pushed up against the opening. I climbed to the top of the debris and could see into the opening. I couldn't tell how deep it was and based on the condition of the opening of the mine I wouldn't go into the mine. If you go don't be fooled by what looks like some interesting adits from a distance both are extremely shallow.

Both of these looked enticing from afar but we're shallow.

The surrounding area is amazing. I had wanted to explore Copper Butte since I went to explore some small canyon's near Battle Axe Butte. The views from Hwy 177 are great and they're even better from Copper Butte. It's rugged and beautiful place but it's the desert. It was cool for August when I arrived but it was still hot as hell. I never would have brought the dogs. I was little worried about myself and I'm pretty used to the heat. There was definitely more to explore but saw most of the main mine workings. I don't know if I'll come back to Copper Butte, if I do it will be in December. I am going to come back to explore the White Canyon Wilderness.

Battle Axe Butte viewed from Copper Butte

I brought my bike because I knew about the locked gate. I've used my bike for exploration before because I lift it over fences. Plus for Reymert and Bellevue it was great because there was a lot of climbing and even though there were times when I had to push it uphill, it more than made up for on the way down. Copper Butte was a practical MTB ride but not a great ride by any means.