What was once home to a large smelter that served several copper mines, the ruins of the Southern Arizona Smelter Company (Sasco) remind us of the dreams that were once forgotten. Sasco set out to build a town set around a large smelter in August of 1906. In February of 1908 the smelter was completed and began to attract settlers. By 1910 Sasco employed 175 men at the smelter and processed 245,000 tons of copper ore.

The town was set to become a premier smelting town in the Southwest; however, in part due to issues with the mining operations in Tombstone, the smelter was temporarily closed in 1911. It was reopened in 1915 by Asarco. The Spanish flu devastated the town of Sasco during the winter of 1918 and 1919, representing most of the town’s cemetery. The smelter was finally shut down in 1921 due to the closure of the Silver Bell Mine. By 1933 most of the buildings were demolished, including the railroad which served the town.

It’s rumored that if you are brave enough to visit the town after sundown, you might just see some ghosts wondering the ruins looking for a sad iron to remove the creases from their tattered clothing.

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