Castle Dome City - The Museum

Castle Dome City located near Yuma was a mining town and at its height the town was bigger than Yuma.  The town was started  when the first mine was discovered in 1864 and had stayed in operation until 1979 when the final miner finally had to pull out because of the silver ore that was being mined was more expensive to seperate.  The US Fish & Wildlife came in shortly after that to take back the land but a portion of the city was purchased by the Armstrongs who knew the history and saw the value in saving a big piece of history.  The Castle Dome mines were the longest running mines in the state of Arizona.  The Armstrongs got permission from the government to go through all the mines and collect artifacts from them to build Castle Dome City.  There were over 300 mines that were gone through one by one and some were empty and some were full and looked like the miners had just quit for the day.  They gathered all they could and moved as many buildings as possible to the museum site.  They were able to set up the town using the old buildings and other things to show what a mining town was like in the 1800s.  They did a fantastic job.  When Tim and I were walking around the town it amazed us as to how many items were saved and collected from the mines and how cool the town was.  They had everything in that town; a school, a church, several saloons, stores, a barbershop, blacksmith, tool shop, machine shop, sewing room, some brothels, gambling halls, restaurants, hotel, gas station, and more.  There was even a small mine we were able to go down into to experience what it was like.  I decided while in the mine that I could probably not be a miner.  The museum site and walking tour opened in 1998 and has been a huge tourist attraction since. It costs $10 a person and you have to use cash.  It was well worth that price.  The best time to visit the museum is October through April when it is open 7 days a week from 10:00 to 5:00.  Since it is in the middle of the desert the summer months would be way too hot to walk around the town.  Check back tomorrow for the walking tour of the actual mine sites.