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Gillett, Arizona

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Gillett, Arizona
CountryUnited States
StateArizona
CountyYavapai
Founded1878
Abandoned1880
Elevation1,834 ft (559 m)
Population
 (2009)
 • Total0
Time zoneUTC-7 (MST (no DST))
Post Office openedOctober 15, 1878
Post Office closedAugust 11, 1887

Gillett, Arizona, is a ghost town, a stagecoach station, and then a settlement formed around an ore mill serving the Tip Top Mine, on the Agua Fria River in Yavapai County in what was then Arizona Territory.[1] It was named for the mining developer of the Tip Top Mine, spelled incorrectly as Gillette on U. S. Topographic Maps and elsewhere.[2]: 104  [1]

Gillett was founded by the superintendent of the Tip Top Mine, where he located the mill to process the ore from Tip Top, 9 miles away.[3] Its post office opened October 15 1878.[2]: 104  At its height in 1878 Gillett, had 6 streets and aside from its mill and post office, a bank, assay office, hotel, real estate office, livery stable, lumberyard, meat market, truck farm, dairy, warehouse, 2 blacksmiths, 2 stagecoach stations, 4 stores and 9 saloons or gambling houses.

After the mill was closed in 1880, and moved to Tip Top in 1884, the town was soon abandoned. It remained with a store and a stagecoach station in 1880 with a population of two.[3] Its post office had postmasters appointed up to October 1883, but it was discontinued in August of 1887.[2]: 104  The stage station remained until 1912, then was abandoned. [3]

The Burfind Hotel was the largest structure in Gillett and ruins of it and a neglected cemetery remain.[3]

Reference

  1. ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Gillette
  2. ^ a b c John and Lillian Theobald, Arizona Territory Post Offices & Postmasters, The Arizona Historical Foundation, Phoenix, 1961
  3. ^ a b c d Gillett, Arizona, Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project from apcrp.org website accessed February 28, 2015]