Fairbank - Cochise County

 

County: Cochise County

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Dates:  1881 -  1987 when it became part of BLM and open for self guided tours

 

Noted Aspects of Town:  The town began with the construction of the railroad and became an important depot due to its proximity to Tombstone.  Wikipedia states an attempted train robbery was made at Fairbank on February 15, 1900.  "On February 15, 1900, Fairbank was the scene of an attempted train robbery of the express car on the Benson-Nogales train by the Burt Alvord gang. Express Messenger and former lawman Jeff Milton, drove off the bandits despite a serious bullet wound sustained to his arm. The robbery was unsuccessful, and gang member "Three Fingered Jack" Dunlop was mortally wounded, later to die in Tombstone after confessing to the attempted robbery. Among the members of the gang who were arrested was the notorious outlaw Bill Downing."

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History:  This location was originally called Junction City, then Kendall and finally Fairbank named after N. K. Fairbank who was from Chicago and helped finance the railroad.  The name Fairbank  was established on May 16, 1883.  This was the same day the post office opened in Fairbank and John Descart was named the Postmaster.  The post office eventually closed in 1973.

 

Due to its proximity to Tombstone the depot was a key location for supplies to the area and transportation of ore to the mills in Contention City and Charleston.  The depot also supported the local ranchers with shipping cattle.

 

Fairbank was a junction point where the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad from Tucson to Douglas and the New Mexico and Arizona Line from Benson to Nogales crossed.

 

The town was also a stage coach stop along the Butterfield Overland Mail line which opened in 1885.  There were about 100 residence during the peak time of Fairbank in the mid 1880's.  The town had a steam quartz mill, a general store, butcher shop, restaurant, a saloon, a Wells Fargo Office, the railroad depot, and a stage stop.  The Wells Fargo station was established in Fairbank in 1885.

 

During Fairbanks peak there were five saloons, a jail, a hotel, three restaurants, a meet market, two stage lines, a general store, a grocery store, and steam driven quartz mill.  About 100 people lived in Fairbank during that time.

 

The decline of Fairbanks came with the closing of the mines in Tombstone due to flooding in 1886.  The nearby mills shutdown and the train depot became unnecessary without the surrounding businesses and mines.

 

There was a revival of the train depot in 1889 when Fairbank again became an important leg in the transit of copper mined at the Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee.  In September of 1890 the flooding of the San Pedro River caused extensive damage to the town and saw the population further declining.

 

Long before the establishment of Fairbank this location was an old Indian village called "Santa Cruz"

 

People:  Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank; Jeff Davis Milton 

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Mines Supporting Town:  Tough Nut, Copper Queen and other mines in the Tombstone and Bisbee area.

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What you will see today:  Today the area is open for the public to enjoy. Take a self-guided tour around what was once a thriving boom-town of the wild west!  As of 1987 town was incorporated by the Bureau of Land Management in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.  Most of the old buildings are gone.

 

Acknowledgement: <https://www.blm.gov/visit/fairbank-historic-townsite> ;  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairbank,_Arizona; Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures by Ben Traywick; Ghost Towns of the Southwest by Jim Hinckley