Published February 21, 2023, for State 48 A2Z
Two weeks back we talked about the ghost town of Gleeson, Arizona as we started our short trip along southern Arizona’s Ghost Town Trail. This week, we continue our trip up the trail to the ghost town of Courtland, a former copper mining town nestled at the foot of the Dragoon Mountains and only 15 miles from Tombstone.
Courtland’s history starts back shortly after the start of the 20th Century, as four major mining companies, Great Western, Calumet & Arizona, Copper Queen, and Leadville started mining copper ore in the Dragoon Mountains. As was the fashion with most mining camps, hundreds of settlers started to arrive quickly after the mines started operation and a tent city popped up nearly overnight. Shortly afterward both the Mexico & Colorado Railroad (owned by the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad) and the Arizona & Colorado Railroad (owned by Southern Pacific) laid tracks through the new town.
On March 13, 1909, a Post office was established, and the town of Courtland was officially established. The town’s name was given to honor Courtland Young, one of the owners of the Great Western Mining Company. As of the 1910 census numbers, the town of Courtland had 914 residents (keep in mind that mainly only white males were counted back then).
Courtland’s Chamber of Commerce was formed in 1911 with the first item on their agenda being the need to supply the town with water. The wheels turned quickly as the mines were doing well and, within a few months, more than five miles of mains were installed by the newly established Courtland Water & Ice Company. But the prosperity of the mines was short-lived, and residents started leaving the town for “greener” pastures. By the 1920 census, the town’s population was down to 414.
While the mines were rocking (no pun intended) their way through the early 1910s, by 1917, numerous mines ran into limestone about 300 feet down. This would eventually lead to the closure and eventual abandonment of the mines which would spell Courtland’s impending doom.
Before its’ downfall, Courtland was growing and, by the time it was destined for ghost town status, sported businesses such as hotels, a car dealership, movie theater, ice cream parlor, and a horse racing track, in addition to necessary buildings such as houses and a county branch jail. Courtland even had two newspapers, which usually happened in larger towns and cities. The Courtland Arizonan, a weekly publication, operated from 1909 to 1920. I have been unable to find the name of the second newspaper despite reports that there were two. Regretfully, over the decades since, most of the original buildings of Courtland were either demolished by time and the harsh desert elements or they were sold and relocated elsewhere.
Today the only original building remaining is the jail, which was built in 1909 and replaced the old jail which was nothing more than an abandoned mine shaft with a wooden door. The jail was deemed unfit after an incident on June 2, 1909, where a prisoner who was housed in the mine shaft jail attempted an escape by placing his mattress against the wooden door and lighting it on fire. The results were less than expected, and by the time Sheriff John Henry Bright, the only man to have served as Deputy Sheriff for Courtland, brought breakfast to the prisoner, he was unconscious from smoke inhalation and had to be dragged out of the mine shaft.
The new jail was built that same year and was constructed with reinforced concrete and steel with some of the materials used being scrapped railroad rails and ties. The construction cost for the new jail was around $1,000 for two cells measuring 14 x 14 feet each, with a 48-square-foot office centered between the two cells. Each cell also had a sink and a toilet.
The downside of the new jail being so nicely constructed while most residents of Courtland lived in shacks, cabins, or tents, was that many miners felt it was a more comfortable stay in jail than in their tent or shack (kind of like Otis, the town drunk, did in Mayberry). This resulted in constant overcrowding of the jail. To try to deal with the overcrowding, the town’s court provided an option where the prisoners would receive time off their sentences in exchange for working on road construction. The plan backfired though as many prisoners opted to serve their full time in jail instead of taking the work program.
The area of Sulphur Springs Valley, where Courtland is located, was a relatively unruly place in the early 1900s, most notably the several raids involving Mexico’s famed revolutionary Pancho Villa and his men. Despite these nearby raids, the town of Courtland was never attached by Villa and remained relatively peaceful, as old western mining towns went. Despite several murders occurring on the road between Gleeson and Courtland, only one occurred inside town limits.
On January 26, 1913, Jennie Canady Parker, an 18-year-old waitress, shot and killed her boyfriend, Dan Danielson, who ran a saloon in town. It seems that Parker and Danielson got into a heated argument regarding another woman that was in Danielson’s saloon. Danielson pulled his revolver and fired a shot into a liquor cabinet that Parker was standing near and then placed the gun back behind the bar. A few minutes later, Parker retrieved the gun and shot Danielson in the back. Parker was subsequently arrested by Bright, tried, and sentenced to an unspecified amount of time in the state prison in Florence beginning on April 28, 1913. But, in May 1914, she was granted a full pardon from Arizona Governor George W.P. Hunt and Parker walked out a free woman.
Sheriff Bright only had two shootouts during his career as Deputy Sheriff in Courtland, and only one of those occurred inside the town’s limits. The first shootout occurred in 1912 in nearby Gleeson, where Bright’s brother-in-law, Wesley Wooten Cates, was serving as sheriff. Bright was in Gleeson visiting Cate on the morning of September 5th, when a Mexican outlaw named Francisco Chavez assaulted a local resident. Cate and Bright went to arrest Chavez, but Chavez wasn’t too keen at first about cooperating. The outlaw quickly grabbed a rifle and fired at the two Sheriffs. In all, over 30 shots were exchanged before an armed citizen snuck up behind Chavez and got the drop on him, forcing his surrender. No one was injured during the shootout (talk about bad shots).
Bright’s second shootout and the only shootout to happen in Courtland occurred on August 12, 1916, when two outlaws from south of the border broke into a local man’s house, stealing two pistols, boxes of ammunition, and other items. Bright searched the town but was unable to find the outlaws. So, he mounted his horse and rode up to the top of a nearby hill where he could easily oversee the town and surrounding area. The move paid off as Bright spotted the two outlaws walking north towards the town of Pearce. Giving chase, Bright circled around the hill ending up in front of the two men. The Sheriff called out to the two outlaws as he approached asking if they were armed. The response he received back was “Yes, you Gringo bitch, I have a gun!” The outlaws then opened fire on Bright, hitting him in one of his legs before they took cover behind a dirt mound. Bright returned five shots of his own, hitting the outlaws with all five rounds, killing them. Bright continued to serve as Sheriff until 1916 when the county eliminated his position.
Courtland didn’t die as quickly as other mining ghost towns through but, by the 1930s census, the town population was down to 114, 300 fewer than in 1920. Yet the town managed to maintain its post office until September 30, 1942. After 33 years, Courtland was no more.
You can easily visit the area of Courtland today by traveling east on Gleeson Road from just south of Tombstone past the town of Gleeson to the Ghost Town Trail. Head north on Ghost Town Trail about 8 miles to Courtland. While the 1909 jail remains, it has not been maintained and has been run down by vandals. There are many abandoned mine shafts that are not fenced off located near the town, so if you are walking around the area of Courtland, please take it slowly and be very careful not to stumble into one, literally.
That’ll wrap things up for this week. As always, thanks for reading, stay safe, and happy travels. Be sure to like and follow us on social media (links below), share our blog posts, and feel free to give us your feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Peace!
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