Cochran - Pinal County

 

Where:  Pinal County outside Florence

 

Travel Conditions:  4WD

 

Operation Dates:  1905 - 1915

 

Description:  Cochran's post office was established January 3, 1905 and discontinued January 15, 1915. Cochran was a mining camp but also served as a stop on the Santa Fe, Prescott, and Phoenix railroad. The town supported about 100 people and had a general merchandise store, boardinghouse, and many other establishments. Today all that remains are the coke ovens across the river. The town was named for John. S. Cochran, the first postmaster.

 

There are five ovens, wonderfully preserved, surviving in an area so remote and so nearly inaccessible that the lack of disturbance is easily understood. The ovens were used to reduce mesquite wood to coke, a hotter burning fuel, for use in smelting gold and silver ore taken from surrounding mines. The beehive-shaped stone coke ovens are each about 25 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height. Each has a ground level entry and a few upper level vents. The mesquite wood, burned slowly in the ovens for days, yielded the coke. The new fuel was then transported directly across the Gila River to the community of Cochran (now a ghost town) and the smelters there.

 

What you will see today:  Coke Ovens and old wood building

 

Comments:  Beautiful drive in the Arizona desert landscape.  Conditions can be extreme during summer months.

 

Minerals Mined:  Produced a hot burning fuel from mesquite wood called coke for the smelter which supported surrounding area mines at the town of Cochran.

 

Acknowledgement:  www.ghosttowns.com