The Boston and Arizona Mining company built
a small mill about four miles north of Charleston to process the ore they mined from
Tombstone's Emerald Gulch and the Grodon Mine, located in the Dragoon Mountains in 1881.
In 1882 the post office was established and
almost a hundred people were employed by the mill. This location was also known as
the Boston Mill. The Southern Pacific Railroad ran through the town and there were
interconnecting roads from both Fairbank and Charleston.
When the mines in the area began flooding,
the mill was closed. The post office shut down and the settlement died a quite
death.
The location of the mill was such that a
large rock retaining wall had to built above it to protect it from land slides.
Today the rock retaining wall is still there, along with some of the mill walls that were
built of stone and cement. The remains of the water tank are still to be seen, it supplied
the workers with drinking water since they were down river of the other mills and the
water wasn't safe to drink. The railroad tracks are also still there although the
railroad ties have disintegrated with the passage of time.
This area is well preserved due to being
off of the beaten path and now it's in the hands of the Bureau of Land Management and the
San Pedro Riparian Preserve. This area also has petroglyphs that are dated from 300
A.D to 1450 A.D. left by the Indians, possibly Hohokams.
