Goldfield Ghost Town
About 40 miles east of Phoenix is the Goldfield Ghost Town. It is a tourist attraction after it was purchased by investors Bob and Lou Ann Schoose in 1984. The couple was looking for a spot to build a mine tour. At the time only a few of the original structures were left. They push for the land to be commercially zoned thinking it would be great to lease out some of the buildings. So instead of just a mine touring location it turned out to be the ghost town it is today. They had a lot of help from friends, family and entrepreneurs that share their vision. Some of the business owner put up their own money to build out the structures you see today. The Schooses bought the building back through rent credits.
There have been a few independent films show at Goldfield Ghost Town. It’s been featured in a history channel series. However, you would think it would be used more for film and TV. Considering Old Tucson has been used in hundreds of movies. Then again this location was built as a tourist attraction not a movie set. Every building is be used as some type of business or exhibit. Still I has a lot of potential.
What can you find?
You can walk down Main Street of a 1890’s Western mining town. There are lots of shops, antique stores, craft shops, Indian jewelry, artists work paintings, even mud pottery. you can explore the the historic buildings which include the Goldfield museum and Lu Lu’s Bordello a brothel. Girls or floozies give a guided tour into the history of the women of the 1800s their various roles in the western territories they lived in. You can witness shoot outs performed by the famous Goldfield gunfighters. It you are going to shoot a Western that might consider casting the gunfighters and floozies. The Mammoth Steakhouse and Saloon looks ass authentic as they get except for the credit card terminal. On the West end of the property sits a church. It is on the small end but it actually hold services and hosts weddings.
Overall this would make a great location to shoot a music video, short TV series or a short film. It might not be ideal for a full on motion picture since that might interrupt the regular business.
For filming inquires:
Goldfield Ghost Town
4650 N Mammoth Mine Rd
Apache Junction, AZ 85119
(480) 983-0333
Website
History
The area was once part of the Superstition Mountain. A day in the 1880s four men looking for the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine stumbled across gold. However, because of the Apache wars the area was not mined until 1892. It was then rename to Goldfield. the town was booming reaching a population of 4000. Bigger then Phoenix at the time. It ran out of gold 5 years later and slowly died.
In 1910 George Young brought it back to life using new mining techniques. A mill and Cyanide plant where open up. The town was renamed Youngberg. That lasted until about 1926 and the town was deserted again. in the 1940s the US military was conducting some war games near by. A brushfire was accidentally started and about 60% of the town was burned down. It remained abandon until the Schooses came along.