Harshaw, Arizona
| Harshaw, Arizona | |
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| Populated Place | |
A sign marking the location of the Harshaw townsite.
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 Harshaw
Harshaw
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| Coordinates: 31°28′2″N 110°42′25″W / 31.46722°N 110.70694°WCoordinates: 31°28′2″N 110°42′25″W / 31.46722°N 110.70694°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Arizona |
| County | Santa Cruz |
| Settled | 1873 |
| Founded | April 29, 1880 |
| Abandoned | 1960s |
| Founded by | David Harshaw |
| Named for | David Harshaw |
| Elevation | 4,872 ft (1,485 m) |
| Population (2009) | |
| • Total | 0 |
| Time zone | MST (no DST) (UTC-7) |
| Post Office opened | April 29, 1880 |
| Post Office closed | March 4, 1903 |
| GNIS ID | 29768 |
Harshaw is a populated place in Santa Cruz County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was settled in the 1870s, in what was then Arizona Territory. Founded as a mining community, Harshaw is named after the cattleman-turned-prospector David Tecumseh Harshaw, who first successfully located silver in the area. At the town's peak near the end of the 19th century, Harshaw's mines were among Arizona's highest producers of ore, with the largest mine, the Hermosa, yielding approximately $365,455 in bullion over a four-month period in 1880.
Throughout its history, the town's population grew and declined in time with the price of silver, as the mines and the mill opened, closed, and changed hands over the years. By the 1960s, the mines had shut down for the final time, and the town, which was made part of the Coronado National Forest in 1953, became a ghost town.
Today, all that remains of Harshaw are a few houses, some building foundations, two small cemeteries, and dilapidated mine shafts. Most of the buildings were torn down by locals or by the Forest Service in the mid to late 1970s.
The earliest known residents of what is now Santa Cruz County were the Apache, Yaqui and Hohokam Indians who settled on the banks of local waterways, including Harshaw Creek, in order to facilitate farming. Spanish explorers and missionaries visited the area beginning in the 16th century, with the Spanish Friar Marcos de Niza, the first European to visit the area. In the late 17th century, Eusebio Kino came to the region to establish Jesuit missions and to map the land for Spain. It was not until 1752, in response to hostilities by the Pima Indians, that Spain established its first formal settlement and military presence in Arizona at Tubac on the Santa Cruz River northwest of the site of Harshaw.
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Wikipedia