American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
Internet Presentation
Version 121508
The
Ghost Town of Helvetia is located in the northwest corner of Arizona's Santa
Rita Mountains, south of Tucson.
Copper
was discovered in this region before 1862. The first three productive claims
had been consolidated, in the 1890’s, to the Helvetia Copper Company, a company
based out of New Jersey. In 1911 the price of copper declined and the mines
closed, although they reopen during WWI briefly.
Map by: Neal Du Shane
Buildings
and business’s that inhabited Helvetia included saloons, post office and a smelter,
are today marked only by piles of adobe silently melting back to Mother Nature.
There
are scattered rotting timbers protruding here and there to mark a structure in history.
Most of the miners were transient by nature (Ten Day Tramps, working from one
pay day to the next, then leaving) and called a tent
home, little remains of the bustling southern Arizona mining community that at
one time may have boasted a population that peaked at approximately 300
residents.
Years
of exposure to the elements and Sonora Desert's scorching sun, monsoons, apathy
and voracious termites at the Helvetia Cemetery qualifies it as an Arizona
Pioneer Cemetery.
Photo Courtesy: Kathy Block
A
single rusted strand of bailing wire is all that held the makeshift wooden
cross together. Weather-beaten tilt in the Pioneer Century at Helvetia, this posture
gives the cross an almost knowing posture as it keeps vigilances over
Helvetia's Pioneer Cemetery. This historic cross may last 100 years more if it
is respected by visitors and untouched by roaming cattle and wild life.
The deteriorating cross no longer has legible text. Lettering that gave
information on the person has long ago vanished.
The interred in the grave will remain a mystery until expert APCRP Research
Coordinators are able to visit this project and determine the person’s identity
along with Birth and Death dates.
The
cemetery's paramount marker in respect to preservation is a beautiful small
marble headstone, a baby who died in 1907.
In the centuries past, little energy was expended on burials. Family members
and mourners cared, but the concrete-hard soil, made this a supreme effort to
scratch out a living, made gravesites a simple affair. Most of the deaths were
hardscrabble indigent miners with little in their pockets in respect to wealth.
The interred, will probably forever be unknown like the residents and tireless
souls who once called the ghost town of Helvetia, Arizona, home, working the
mines and business’s in the area.
The
easiest way to reach the cemetery is to take I-19 South from Tucson, toward
Green Valley. Turn east on Sahuarita road. Turn South
on Santa Rita Road. Once off Sahuarita road you'll
soon be on dirt, though the road is easily passable in virtually any vehicle
depending on the weather and monsoons. Inquire locally as to the condition of
the road before heading out.
From
Sierra Vista you can save some time by taking State Route 83 North from Sonoita and turn West on Sahuarita.
Turn south on Santa Rita Road, and follow the signs.
The cemetery is just off the road, on the left, (West side) as you're heading
toward the ghost town of Helvetia.
The Helvetia Pioneer Cemetery has the historical personality widespread in Arizona,
for the most part often overlooked.
It's time you drop in on this relatively undiscovered historic Ghost Town in
southern Arizona. Pay your respects and police the cemetery to help preserve
it.
Search
out and discover a Pioneer Cemetery. Adopt an abandoned derelict Pioneer
Cemetery to maintain and restore it, you'll be pleasantly pleased you did.
Respect personal property –
ask before you enter.
Pioneer Cemeteries are museums
of our heritage.
MAINTAIN – PRESERVE – PROTECT
HISTORY.
American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
Internet Presentation
Version 121508
WebMaster: Neal Du Shane
Copyright © 2008 Neal Du Shane
All rights reserved. Information contained
within this website may be used
for personal family history purposes, but not for financial profit.
All contents of this website are willed to the American Pioneer &
Cemetery Research Project (APCRP).