Arizona Ghost Towns: Contention City

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Contention City

Contention Mill
Contention City is a ghost town that produced fortunes in silver ore during the 1880s. It is located approximately four miles north of the ghost town, Fairbank, AZ. There’s little or nothing left but scraps of metal, splintered pieces of wood and construction material, yet, for its purpose, it had been a good location for milling ore and mining. It was close to the San Pedro River, so there was water for operations, and water can be scarce where there are mines. 

I also wondered why anyone would name a city, Contention. Well, the name, “Contention City,” came about due to an argument. Nikola Petrovski, the author of “All That Remains of the Once-Booming Town of Contention City, Arizona is Rubble and Dirt” states that Ed Schieffelin and two miners, Jack Friday and Ed Williams, argued over who owned the mine. 

Friday and Williams’s mules had wandered off trailing their reins behind them. After finding the mules gone, Friday and Williams followed their trail and noticed something shining in the dirt. Upon inspection, they discovered it to be silver. I’m sure dreams of riches filled their heads, but they needed to find the mules. So the men continued to follow the trail the mules had made to a Schieffelin mine. Once Schieffelin understood that Williams and Friday had found silver, he wasn’t happy. Now Ed Schieffelin had already made a fortune in mining around the Tombstone area and didn’t want competition. So the two parties headed to court where they agreed to split the mine in two. 

Now that was a contentious agreement!

Amanda, dogs and I found Contention City more directly from Presidio Santa Cruz de Terranate. As the following photographs suggest there is very little left of the old town except for the trash which is not allowed to be touched or moved.


Of interest, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were brought to trial in Contention for their participation in the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," but no trial was held.











Sources:

Petrovski, N. (2023, November 30). All That Remains of the Once-Booming Mining Town of Contention City, Arizona is Rubble and Dirt - Abandoned Spaces. Abandonedspaces. https://www.abandonedspaces.com/towns/contention-city.html 

Wikipedia contributors. (2025, December 23). Contention City, Arizona. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contention_City,_Arizona

Old Lost Mines. (2022, December 11). Old mining town of Contention City [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjBAgmVhc-A

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