Back Road Adventure

A back-roads writer is a bit like your favorite neighborhood gos-sip: he's a personal confidant if he reveals his favorite secrets, but he's a big blabbermouth if he mentions one of yours. For example, shortly after my article about the ghost town of Swansea (see Arizona Highways, March '91) appeared, I received a letter from a reader in Eloy, Arizona, who said she and her hus-band enjoyed the story and planned to visit Swansea. But, she pleaded, don't tell anyone about their favorite ghost town, Sasco. I replied that, alas, I had already agreed to write about precisely that site. So, with apologies to Mrs. Polmanteer, here's a back-road adventure that's just about perfect. It's not too far from either Tucson or Phoenix; it features marvelous desert vistas; it visits three genuine ghost towns; and your truck can complete the trip in just a few hours.

Leave Interstate 10 at Exit 242, Avra Valley Road (16 miles north of downtown Tucson), and drive west across Avra Valley for 23 miles. You'll notice, in the distance, the huge mine-tailing dumps and ponds of the Silver Bell Mine. After you make a turn to the northwest and climb a final hill, you'll see on your left the beginning of the scant remains of the newer of two towns named Silver Bell.

This Silver Bell was the company town for a copper mine that lasted from 1948 into the '80s, when most of the community waspacked up and carted away: homes from this once-tidy hamlet were relocated throughout the valley below. From the paved road you can view - if you look closely foundations, clothes-lines, the light standards for the baseball field, and the boarded-up Avra-Bell Market.

The mine itself is straight ahead at the southern base of the Silver Bell Mountains. Before the mine entrance, the road veers west and back around to the abandoned town. There you'll encounter a locked gate that crosses the pavement. Turn right at the green sign that says "Red Rock - 25 miles," leave the pavement, and turn west. Be sure to note your mileage because the best part of your trip begins here.

The dirt road first heads south along the western boundary of Silver Bell, where you can get a better view of the townsite. Then you'll begin to skirt the enormous tailings dumps of the Silver Bell Mine while you enjoy the panoramic views of the Aguirre Valley with its abundance of paloverde, ocotillo, and national-monument-quality forests of saguaro.

THREE GHOSTLY RUINS ARE THE CHIEF LURE FOR EXPLORERS OF SASCO AND SILVERBELL

Three and one half miles after you noted your mileage, you'll cross a volcanic-looking slag dump from an old smelter. After 2.3 more miles of rolling desert terrain, a much less hospitable road heads left. Stop here and survey the area.

Across the draw is the site of the original settlement, spelled Silverbell, whose residents worked the copper mines on the northern side of the Silver Bell Mountains from the 1860s well into the 1920s.

A panoramic photo of Silverbell, taken about 1910, shows more than a hundred miner's shacks and a huge mining and milling operation; today, however, little of antiquity remains except for the adits, tailings dumps, and traces of old roads. The mining camp of 3,000 people has simply disappeared.

But if you'd like to see something substantial, drive your truck onto that lesser road to the left and proceed .6 of a mile north. At another junction leave your vehicle and walk 400 feet west along a rather sandy road to the first section of the original Silverbell Cemetery with its several weathered crosses. Only the grave of Mary O'Toole (1867-1930) is identified.

About 250 feet farther down the road stands another small area containing about a dozen graves. One has a "cradle fence," often used to memorialize infants. After visiting the cemetery, re-trace your route back to the main road and turn left.

You are now almost 13 miles from your next, and most rewarding, ghost town. When you drive through the draw thatcontained old Silverbell, climb a short rise and proceed through a man-made cut in a hill. You are now traversing, for a short distance, the roadbed of the old Arizona Southern Railroad, a spur that carried ore from Silverbell to the smelter at your destination, Sasco, and then on to the Southern Pacific's main line at Red Rock.

Back Road Adventure.

You'll soon leave the roadbed, but you'll rejoin it in about 6.5 miles, where a sign tells you that Red Rock is 13 miles ahead. The route from here to Sasco is practically an interstate except for occasional wash crossings (where the railroad had trestles before the tracks were pulled up in 1934).

Sasco is an acronym for the Southern Arizona Smelting Company, which processed the ore from the mines at Silverbell and Picacho Peak beginning in 1907. Operations remained profitable for only a few years, and the post office closed in 1919.

You're nearing Sasco when the road is crossed by a large power line 5.5 miles from where you rejoined the railroad bed. Beyond the power line, a branch of the old railroad leaves your route and goes off to the left. Just east of that in .1 of a mile, a minor dirt road heads south past a small concrete powder house to the adobe foundations of two buildings and an old stone fountain.

The best of Sasco, however, is yet to come. Return to the main road and continue east, where the roadbed roughens somewhat as it cuts through a low hill.

Take the next left into the main smelter site of Sasco. You'll see several heavy-duty remnants, the most obvious of which is the smelter stack base proclaiming "Sasco, '07." Here it's best to park your vehicle and explore the area on foot.

If you canvass it thoroughly, you'll see the extensive foundations of the smelter, huge piles of slag, 19 concrete monoliths, and an old railroad platform that has "Sasco" inscribed in concrete. Farther east stands a two-room bunkerlike structure that says "City Hall," but it looks more like a jail; beyond are the volcanic stone ruins of Sasco's showplace building: the Rockland Hotel.

Return with your vehicle to the main road. But before you end your back-road adventure, show your respect for the Sasco pioneers by making one more stop.

Drive east to the first left turn (La Osa Ranch Road) and continue.6 of a mile toward the ranch where, inside a triangle of roads, you'll find the tiny Sasco Cemetery. There, amidst a few personalized markers, stand several identical concrete crosses, a lasting reminder of the devastating 1918-19 influenza epidemic, which claimed victims in Sasco along with a half-million more Americans across the country.

Now return once again to the Sasco Road and head east for just less than seven miles to Red Rock and I-10. Or, if the thought of reverting to the world of 18 wheelers and motor homes seems too depressing, do what I did on one visit: turn around and retrace your route to the tranquility of Silver Bell.

Biking Trails:

For more information about a mountain-bike trip through the Silverbell and Sasco area, see Bike Tours in Southern Arizona, a softcover book by Philip Varney that details 50 treks through diverse and scenic terrain. The book costs $9.25, plus shipping and handling if we mail it to you. To order, telephone Arizona Highways toll-free at 1 (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area, call 258-1000.

TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

Back-road travel can be hazardous if you are not prepared for the unexpected. Whether traveling in the desert or in the high country, be aware of weather and road conditions and make sure you and your vehicle are in top shape and you have plenty of water. Don't travel alone and let someone at home know where you're going and when you plan to return.