Ash Creek’s Hidden Legacy: Touring the Abandoned Mines of Chrysotile

Being part of Arizona’s “Copper Triangle,” most people only think of copper when they think of mining in Gila County. But there was another mineral that was heavily mined here—the notoriously white, fibrous mineral known as chrysotile, the most commonly used form of asbestos. 

Before major health concerns, there was a time when asbestos was sought after globally, desired for its material properties. It is chemically resistant, doesn’t conduct electricity, insulates well, and can withstand extreme temperatures. It has been used heavily in the construction of buildings and ships, with use increasing from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s.

Thirty-three miles northeast of Globe, nestled in a canyon among trees, waterfalls and pristine pools of water, lies the abandoned city of Chrysotile, a city that was established to support one of the largest chrysotile mining operations in the state. The city is surrounded by the Tonto National Forest and split by Ash Creek, which eventually flows into the Salt River. It is only accessible by one Forest Service road off Highway 60 before the highway descends into the Salt River Canyon and White Mountain Apache Reservation.

More than 160 asbestos mines operated in Central Arizona between 1913 and the early 1980s, with the state’s greatest asbestos deposits located in this Salt River region of Gila County. The region is said to have produced a minimum of 75,000 tons of asbestos before the closure of the last asbestos mines in Arizona, after scientific studies began to show a connection between asbestos fibers and lung damage.

Since its abrupt closure in 1945, the city of Chrysotile has been, for the most part, untouched. Isolated by surrounding forest, the area has since been owned privately by a handful of owners who mostly just wanted to keep Chrysotile a secret and be left alone, explains the city’s current majority owner Andrew Colburn. 

“It was shut down in 1945, and it’s been locked away from the world for 80 years,” he says. “Almost no one alive has been able to come in and actually see what’s here.”

Colburn, who is also co-owner of Arizona Off-Road Adventures, a family business offering guided off-road tours, has a different plan in mind. 

“I think it’s one of the most beautiful places, if not the most beautiful place, I’ve ever been,” he says. “It is on par with any of the natural wonders that we have in Arizona… and I really want to share it with other people.” 

Colburn owns the majority of Chrysotile. He purchased a small ten-acre parcel in the abandoned city in 2020, and fell in love with the area enough that last November, he purchased the majority of Chrysotile from the former owner. 

Around that same time, he and his fellow Arizona Off-Road Adventure guides began offering the off-road tour “Lost City of Chrysotile,” a three-hour guided tour providing adventurous spirits a chance to see the abandoned city, mine operations, and surrounding region known as Ash Creek Canyon.

Chrysotile’s underground mining operations began in 1914. The city produced as much as 450 tons of chrysotile a month, Colburn says, and during its boom years, the mined chrysotile was sold as a concrete additive for the production of the Hoover Dam, and was sold to the federal government during World War II for ship building and wire insulation, up until the mines’ closure in 1945.

“There is a newspaper article that says in 1943, gross receipts for the mine was $83 million,” Colburn notes. “That’s a lot of money today, but especially a lot of money back then.”

H.W. Johns B Manville Corporation, which came to own the operation, employed more than 150 miners in Chrysotile during its operation. The city itself had as many as 250 people, including as many as 30 students in its school, according to Colburn. 

“The city that was here played a pivotal part in building Gila County, and it also contributed a lot to the development of Globe,” he shares.

“When [the city] was shut down… the residents were given two hours notice to leave, so many of the belongings and artifacts that were here were just set down and are still here, so you can actually see many of the things that the people living here actually used,” he adds. “It is truly a time capsule of Gila County and the early 1900s.”

The tour starts with a five-mile descent down the dirt road into Ash Creek Canyon. Once in Chrysotile, the tour includes stops at the miners’ orchard and farm, and old abandoned buildings of the city, like the managers’ houses, the company store, power house, jailhouse, post office, and motel.

Supposedly, the city used to have even more buildings, but when the mine was shut down, John Manville, the mine owner, had an auction and sold off most of the large equipment. Afterward, they demolished the majority of the wooden structures. 

“I was told the reason why they did that is because they wanted to minimize the property value to decrease their property taxes,” Colburn says. “The only buildings they left standing were the stone ones because they were the best.” 

The stone buildings were built by stonemasons who worked on the Roosevelt Dam before coming to Chrysotile. 

Throughout the tour, patrons will be taken to the top of El Dorado Mine—the largest of the city’s three name-mines—to see mine entrances and tailing piles. The mine itself is actually inside a mountain. On his own explorations, Colburn found a train inside. 

“It’s supposed to be the largest [mine] of its type in North America,” Colburn says. 

The city’s other two name-mines are the El Dorado North and Victory Mines. Victory Mine was primarily mined during World War II and contributed heavily to the war effort. 

Chrysotile has numerous tunnels running through it, as the mines are all underground. 

“You can actually see water pouring out of ceilings in certain parts of the mines,” Colburn says. “It is truly extraordinary.”

The company primarily used the underground mining technique known as the “room and pillar” method to mine the chrysotile. The miners would hollow out large cavities or “rooms” underground where they separated the chrysotile from rock using hand hammers, leaving “pillars” or columns of material in place to support the structure of the room. When the miners finished mining a room, they would backfill it with the rock they had extracted the ore from. 

“They started at the bottom, they mined their access tunnels that they had their trains in, and then they started mining vertically,” Colburn explains. “Every so often they would start mining a vertical shaft. Once they encountered a chrysotile vein, then they would go ahead and follow that vein and extract the mineral.” 

After the chrysotile was mined and brought to the surface, it was transported to Globe where it was processed and then sold into the market. Initially, the transport involved just horses and mules. 

“I was told it was a two-day trip,” Colburn says. “We’re only about 30, 35 miles north of Globe. It took them two days on horseback to haul it all down to Globe.” 

Chrysotile’s production was a major factor in the development of Highway 60; it was primarily built to provide road access for transporting material from Chrysotile to Globe. The highway shortened the trip between Chrysotile and Globe in mileage significantly.

As tour-goers explore the lost city and marvel at its abandoned mines and structures, they are equally astonished by the untouched beauty of Ash Creek Canyon as they take in the sights of its waterfalls, swimming holes, and monumental canyons, Colburn observes.

“The plant life up here is extraordinary as well, because essentially it’s been left undisturbed for almost 100 years,” he adds. 

As a forgotten city, there isn’t much written history about Chrysotile. Yet, Colburn has managed to collect information about the mine from former owners of the area, and the relatives of those who worked the mines. 

“We spent a lot of time up here, and it took many years to locate a lot of these things, and kind of compile the history to even understand what we found and what we were looking at,” he recalls. “It was actually pretty difficult…a lot of it is oral. Some of it is from previous owners. There are still a few children of the miners who are still alive, so we’ve heard some stories from some of them.”

“One of the nice things is that when we talk to people, if their family has any type of connection to Chrysotile… a lot of people like sharing their family history here, and a lot of it has come from them,” he adds. 

The number one source of information was the son of a man by the name of Frank Knuckey. Frank worked for the Johns-Manville corporation at Chrysotile from 1920 until the closure of Chrysotile in 1945 as the superintendent and mine manager. His son, former Globe local Gene Knuckey, later published a short book in 2007, “Chrysotile Arizona – 1914 to 1945.”

The book includes old photos from when the mining operations in Chrysotile were active, along with a bit of history and anecdotes about everyday life in Chrysotile. 

Gene passed away in January of this year at age 80, leaving his stories of Chrysotile behind only in his writing. 

So far, roughly 200 hundred people have taken the tour since Arizona Off-Road Adventure began offering it last fall. The tour of the Lost City of Chrysotile has received nothing but widespread praise for both its immense beauty and the fascinating history it provides. 

As one tour-goer writes, “You’ll see towering cliffs, expansive vistas, and plants left undisturbed for 79 years. If you’re lucky, you’ll see wildlife who have never known the presence of humans. Have your camera ready and enjoy an adventure you’ll never forget, and few will ever know.”

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The Lost City of Chrysotile Tour is available during this year’s Old Dominion Days which takes place April 24-27. A portion of tour proceeds will be donated to Gila County Historical Museum. Colburn will offer a slide show presentation for those who can’t take the off-road tour. 

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT: olddominiondays.eventbrite.com

Ash Creek Canyon & Chrysotile Mine Slideshow Presentation: Thursday, April 24 9-10:30 AM Bullion Plaza Cultural Center and Museum (includes coffee/donuts) $15

Lost City of Chrysotile Tour by Arizona Off-Road Adventures: Tours Offered Thursday, April 25 through Sunday April 27 from 1-4 PM $150 Meet at Hwy 77 and Mile Marker 183

Gene Knuckey’s book Chrysotile Arizona: 1914 to 1945 is available for purchase at the Gila County Historical Museum in Globe.