I recently had the privilege of exploring this genuine ghost town in the Coronado National Forest. It is 500 miles NW of Tucson and 4 miles North of the Mexican border, therefore you will come in contact With many border patrol vehicles pretty much everywhere!
The town sits on three hundred acres and has two lakes, Which are the Ruby and the “Sovako” Lakes.and a total of 46 buildings , some are gone and some are slowly dissipating. Now, I must say this ghost town was quite astonishing and we had a fun time exploring it.
At the turn of the century, mountain men, ranchers and prospectors hit a vein in this region and discovered what was called “Oro blanco” white gold. Thus, bringing miners into Ruby, they worked effortlessly, around the clock. These people had to survive very hard times, as poisonous snakes and scorpions lived there as well. Ruby was considered the largest mining town in which was called the Montana camp”
It wasn’t until a company named the Eagle picher lead company bought the patent, that full scale mining happened and the dams were being built. A 17 mile pipeline from the Santa Cruz river across the mountains to Ruby. From 1934-1940, the mine produced over $10,000,000 in lead, zinc, and copper with not as much of gold and silver being extracted. Around 1300 people lived in Ruby. The mercantile opened in the 1880’s and the post office opened in 1910.
This ghost town is awesome, and I recommend you checking it out sometime! I hope you liked this article and that you subscribe to this site!!!!! Thanks and god bless you!
You can now camp out at Ruby for a small fee! Please like this site and follow our travels and explorations!
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