James E. and Barbara H. Sherman ghost town photograph collection
Archival photograph box with image looking north east at the Castle Dome mining activities with Castle dome in the background, 1965 (Box 1 Folder 13).
Collection area: Arizona and Southwest
Collection dates: circa 1865-1975 bulk (bulk 1964-1969)
Photographs and related research notes of and about Arizona and New Mexico ghost towns and mining camps gathered between 1964 and 1969. Early photographs were reproduced from Arizona and New Mexico libraries and archives. These images may show ghost towns, newspaper advertisements, and portraits of people related to the towns, but a few show mining and other activities of active towns. Photographs in the 1960s taken by the Shermans show abandoned buildings, mining equipment, and cemeteries.
A smaller category of images were donated by individuals living in nearby areas and these are usually dated from the town’s active days. The individuals who contributed the photographs include Thomas McMichael (b.1,f.45,47), Ralph Morrow (b.2,f.1), Grant Van Tilburg (b.2,f.31), Charles Bronson (b.3,f.3), Jackie Straley Silveris (b.3,f.19, b.6, f.36). John Southwell (b.3,f.25, b.4,f.21, b.6, f.23,38), Joe Young (b.3, f.29), Ruth Hart (b.4, f.11), Frank Berry Jr. (b.5, f.9, b.6, f.31), James Giles (b.5, f.24), Herman Weisner (b.5, f.28), and Glen Dorsett (b.6, f.21,30).
Highlights related to Arizona ghost towns include a schoolhouse with a 48-star flag (Cherry, Ariz.), an adobe schoolhouse ruin with a returning teacher (Duquesne, Ariz.), the Fairbanks, Ariz. railroad station, an ore car and portal of a small mine with its original signage (Golconda, Ariz.), ore teams and a blacksmith shop (Pinal, Ariz.), boarding houses (McCabe and Big Bug, Ariz.), an auto repair shop (Courtland, Ariz.) and the wooden buildings of Sunnyside, Arizona, a religious colony of the Donnellites.
New Mexico highlights include charcoal ovens (Gardiner, Catskill and San Pedro, N.M.), railroad stations (Engle and San Antonio, N.M.), an image of the Swastika Fuel Co. with automobiles (Swastika, N.M.), a school and children (Organ, N.M.), Japanese coal miners (Navajo,N.M.), jail ruins (Hillsboro, N.M.), and underground locomotive (Madrid, N.M.), school children (Johnson Mesa, N.M.), a town's first printing press (Kingston, N.M.), a boy scout first aid group (Dawson, N.M.), a local bullfight (Chloride, N.M.), and photos of main street, a fire, a freight team, a musician’s band, and people with their belongings in the street following the fire (Mogollon, N.M.)
Index cards contain information gathered from business directories and newspapers about the various locations.
James E. Sherman was a professor of engineering at Pima College in Tucson, Arizona. His wife, Barbara, graduated from the University of Arizona. An interest in travel, camping, and photography led them to collect this material and write two books on ghost towns in Arizona and New Mexico between 1964 and 1974.
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