Talk:Castle Dome Landing, Arizona

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Place name?[edit]

Thanks for the nice expansion into a separate article for the ghost town & musuem.

I'm pretty sure that this place has always been known as "Castle Dome" or "Castle Dome City". Castle Dome Landing was the steamboat landing & supply point on the Colorado River, nearby -- which is now submerged beneath the Imperial Dam reservoir -- see Castle Dome for cite. So I think we need to retitle the article, and make clear that these are two separate places, with redirects. Best, Pete Tillman (talk) 00:41, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Happy to expand the article. It's an interesting place, and I'm glad I had the chance to learn more about it.

Regarding the names, I'm not sure that they were/are two separate places (though I'm also not sure that they aren't). The sources I found say that this is one location that was named Castle Dome first, then Castle Dome Landing after the "port" was built. Both the USGS GNIS reference and the Sherman book cited in the article seem to state that it was the same place with different names. Now, the first thing I've learned writing articles about ghost towns is that even some of the most basic facts are sometimes in question, and the answers can differ across reliable sources.

The cite I see in the Castle Dome Mountains article that refers to Castle Dome Landing is the Ghosttowns.com entry for that location (let me know if I'm missing something). While I have used that site as a reference in the past, I also know that the entries are written by people who have visited the sites recently (relatively speaking). So while the information on remnants and recent developments are often quite useful, the historical blurbs are never really referenced, and I find them less reliable. So when something on that site is contradicted elsewhere, I tend to go with the contradicting information, in most cases. In this case, just looking at the sources, I tend to trust the USGS GNIS site and the Sherman book more than I trust Ghosttowns.com.

For ease of reference, the GNIS site, which has only one entry for the location under the name Castle Dome Landing, says:

Originally called Pitoti for the weed found only in that area. A post office existed 1875-76 as Castle Dome. A post office was reestablished in 1878 as Castle Dome Landing. It was closed in 1884 as mining activity diminished

My impression, for what it's worth, is that the town of Castle Dome was established higher up in the mountains, but a port was created at the base of the mountains on the banks of the river. So it's possible that the town "migrated" down slope a bit when it changed names, but it seems like it was more-or-less the same location. One of the reasons I came to this conclusion is that the USGS GNIS site would normally have separate "populated place" entries if these were two different towns. Instead, they have one, which notes the name change. The Sherman source is similar in that it has a chapter for Castle Dome Landing in which it notes that the post office was first established as Castle Dome, then later re-established as Castle Dome Landing.

As I said, this is merely my impression based on reading the sources. Is that similar to your impression? Or is your understanding significantly different? One way or another, we'll work out the best way to tackle this, I'm sure. --Transity ^{(talk • contribs)} 01:20, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The present museum was established on patented claims that comprise the old Castle Dome lead mine, and (I'm pretty sure) the former mining camp also known as Castle Dome. The museum, btw, is a VERY cool place, a true labor of love, well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

Here's the mine site at Acme: http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=33.04292,-114.17507

And here's the site of CDL (just south of present-day Fisher Landing): http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=32.9650409,-114.4635592&z=15

As you can see, the landing is about 15 miles west of the mine, so they're definitely separate places. In those days, the miners had to live within walking distance of the mine, so the camps were always right next to the mines.

The refs, unfortunately, are hopelessly confused. The one that might have it right is Philip Varney's Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Camps. Unfortunately, my copy is in AZ, and I'm in NM until November.

Actually, in this case, the Ghosttowns.com pages got it right, too, though I agree they're not always right.

So we're stuck at present between my interpretation (aka "Original Research") or the flawed cites at hand. Ah well, no great harm, I suppose. Cheers, Pete Tillman (talk) 02:43, 7 September 2009 (UTC), Consulting Geologist, Arizona and New Mexico (USA) -- I've worked in the area, tho not in this district[reply]

It sounds like they setup the mining camp, then ended up moving 15 miles to the river when the port opened up, leaving the remains of the original town behind...? If that's the case, I could see this as one article or two, but I agree that it should be addressed either way.

I don't have the Varney book. Let me do some more digging and see if I can locate a source that addresses this. I want to make sure we get this as right as we can. I'll do some poking around, and if you find anything we can use, let me know.

I haven't been out that way in a few years, but if I get back there, I'll have this place on my list of ghost towns to visit. Thanks! --Transity ^{(talk • contribs)} 03:56, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it does appear that CDL had a longer existence (PO for sure), and that CD never amounted to much. Probably, each individual mine (beyond walking distance) had its own camp -- see, forex, http://www.flickr.com/photos/limeyellowfellow/ for the Big Eye mine & camp, c. 3 mi E of CD mine. My (weak) preference would be for 2 articles, but we could also do it with redirects.

My local (NM) library doesn't have the AZ Varney -- maybe yours does? Cool book, nice guy. I agree, no hurry, better to get it right. Cheers, Pete Tillman (talk) 20:26, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I found a few book excerpts on Google Books that I want to check out. If none of them pan out, I'll try to run out to the library later this week to see if they have the Varney book. I'll let you know what I find, and when we see what we have, we can figure out if we have enough to create a separate article on CD (frankly, I hope we do, but if sources on CD are as sparse as they seem to be, we may have to handle with redirects or else be stuck with a perma-stub). Stay tuned. --Transity ^{(talk • contribs)} 01:25, 8 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(undent)Bear with me for a bit. Some of the other sources I found seem to corroborate the location of the mines as 17 miles from the river (and hence from CDL). I've also got coordinates of the Mine (GNIS) and coordinates of the Mining Museum, and they are the same coordinates, as well as being different from the CDL coordinates, and in line with the 17 miles from the river refs. I'm still trying to put together what I have from about 4-5 new sources, and I don't know that I'll know what I have until I do the writing. Also, trying not to cross the line into synthesis, so please keep me honest on that front once you see what I add.

In addition, I think I can get a hold of the Varney book by the end of the week. Between these other sources and that book, I'm guessing we'll have about the clearest picture we're ever going to get.

I will modify this article with what I have, and we'll see where we end up. The two towns are certainly tied together, so I don't think we'd ever want to pull all mention of CD out of the CDL article, but if we have enough to create a stand-alone article for CD at that point, then I'm all for it. Let's see where the sources lead.... --Transity ^{(talk • contribs)} 19:33, 8 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Should have the Varney book by Friday. I added what I found in some other sources, and will see what Varney has to say. Stay tuned. --Transity ^{(talk • contribs)} 21:49, 9 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wow. I'm impressed with your diligence. Hopefully Varney will be worth the wait. Best regards, Pete Tillman (talk) 22:47, 9 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Got the Varney book today. The good news is that it does indeed look like a good book. Some good history of each region and their ghost towns, as well as text on each town, coordinates, and a bunch of good historical photos and great recent photos. The bad news is that there is only a very short blurb about Castle Dome Landing, and nothing at all about Castle Dome. The section is literally two sentences long. It can be used as an additional source for a few of the statements in the article, but it has no new information to impart. So, barring any new sources I haven't found yet, the article is about as expanded as I can make it.

What do you think? Is there enough here for a separate article on Castle Dome? --Transity ^{(talk • contribs)} 02:34, 11 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, a stub, anyway. Maybe just keep it as a redirect to CD Mtns? -- which is what we have at present, though I see that little article could use some attention.

Thanks for all your efforts on this! Cheers, Pete Tillman (talk) 16:42, 30 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Castle Dome, Arizona[edit]

Is Castle Dome, Arizona at the Ghost Town, and is Castle Dome Landing, on the river proper?...(From the HOT..SonoranDesert, ArizonaUSA)....(is the GeoDate on the Landing, the coordinates on the Colorado River?)....Mmcannis (talk) 01:56, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The List of ghost towns in Arizona seem to verify the localites.------Mmcannis (talk) 01:58, 28 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here's the scoop, after much research (some of which is chronicled in the comments above). Castle Dome Landing was the port settlement, which is now underwater. Castle Dome was the original mining camp, which is the location of the current museum. There was talk of creating two separate articles (one for each settlement), but there was so little information between the two of them that no one has gotten enough to expand yet. Right now, this article discusses both settlements which is imperfect. With more good sources, I would personally love to help expand this into two proper articles. -- Transity^{(talk • contribs)} 01:36, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]