Stoddard is a ghost town near Mayer. Apparently 300 people once lived here and worked in the nearby Binghampton, http://4wheelingarizona.org/binghampton.html
Stoddard and Copper Queen mines. The post office operated from 1882 to 1907 but everybody was gone by 1924.
Today only the stone walls of what used to be the school house remains. There is another foundation closer to the river in the trees and a stone chimney stands on top of the hill to the north. Just above the school a concrete vault is dug into the hillside, I’m guessing it was used for some sort of storage (explosives perhaps).
Stoddard sits above a real pretty creek (lots of water running in it today)(opps, this is the Agua Fria River) and there are a few old massive cottonwood trees close by. One has a sign on it that says this is State Trust Land and you should have a permit to be here. http://www.land.state.az.us/programs/natural/rec_permitFaqs.htm Up above Stoddard a humongous yellow dust pile fills up the whole valley. I expect this is from ore processing from the old mines. There are new boundary markers all over the place so some active mining is still going on in the area. Stoddard is an interesting place to visit even if you might need to get a permit from the state to be here. GPS coordinates are N 34°26.710 and W 112°11.416. I believe the Binghampton mine is up the hill from Stoddard.
Start at the Circle K in Mayer. Directly across the road is Central Avenue which you should take up the hill. Turn left after 1.4 miles. Along the way Central Avenue turns into Copper Rd. Stay on Copper Rd. At 4.3 miles you cross the Agua Fria River. Stoddard is 5 miles from Mayer.
If Arizona ghosts towns interest you I found this website that lists probably every ghost town or old mining town in Arizona. Just the basic information is given but there are links to other web sites to get locations and more. http://www.goby.com/ghost-towns--in--arizona#page=1&filters=&sort=relevance:ASC
Will was here 1/22/12
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