Contention City (Ghost Town)

Hike: 7 miles o/b
Elevation 3900'-3600'
Trailhead is on In Balance Ranch Road, turning north at MM60 off SR82. Park in trailhead parking lot for Santa Cruz de Terrenate.  The first .7 miles are the same.
Trail is partly an old railroad bed

Contention City, or simply just Contention, is now a ghost town along the San Pedro River, just a little over a mile north of the old presidio.  Calling it a ghost town is perhaps exaggeration, as there is very little left of this site, a mill town that flourished in the early 1880s but which quickly died when mines in Tombstone flooded later that same decade.  Floods have taken away the rest.

I got to the Santa Cruz de Terrenate parking area and began this hike at 1:34.  It's a late start for sure, especially since the sun sets shortly after 5pm now.  All three dogs were in fine form, even Minnie, who was happy to be outside.  It was only 63F and I realized at the start that I had left my Camelbak in the Escape!  At least the dogs would have water once we got to the river.

I tried to keep the mileage in my head:  at .71 miles I reached the first  bridge.  I took a left here, and hiked another half-mile.  At the 1.26 mile I took a right and continued on downhill toward the river on a wide maintenance road.  Cottonwoods are still displaying their yellow leaves.  I could see the old Contention mill in the side of the cliff as I got close to the river, but getting to that cliff was harder than I thought.  At 1.86 miles the road crossed the second railroad bed.  This bed is looser in its tailings and harder to walk on, and continues on to Benson.  Foliage along this last part of the road is thicker and taller and remnants of an old water collection point remains.

I made it to the river in 2.9 miles and an hour.  The dogs were happy to frolic in the water and I rested here.  Crossing the river here was easy.  The river was wide but shallow.  Little did I know that Contention was right here, it's just hard to tell with all the shrubs across the site.  I ended up walking north along the water and cut east through a thicket that I didn't need to go through.  Everything was overgrown with vines, white acacia, oaks and grass.  Fresh tire marks in the river sand indicate recent USBP patrol.  The river is used by Mexicans heading north to I-10.

I was looking for adobe ruins.  My last visit here was almost ten years ago, and even then the ruins were no longer than three feet high.  The site of Contention lies in a flood zone, but I remember the ruins were higher up, so I climbed a hill for better view.  That didn't help much, since so much thick shrubbery is now were the site is.  My memory had failed me.  I had a nice view toward the southwest from the hill I was on.  The cottonwoods still have full yellow fall foliage.

It was now past 3pm.  It would get cool and low on light in two hours.  I didn't have time to find the mill and explore its walls.  I wasn't even sure where exactly it was.  I would have to come back when I have more time to walk around and scrutinize the area.

I walked down a faded mining road back to the lower area, where much broken glass and rusty cans lay on the ground.    It's hard for me to tell how old everything was.  Some of the glass was old-style thick bottoms.  I even came across a pull-top can with Schlitz embossed on it.  Is Schlitz even made still?  We walked past a decomposed vertebrae of what was most likely a young deer.  The dogs sniffed it but walked on.

The dogs found a faint trail that led back to the river, and then I came across a narrow, fenced-in dig area with a sign reminding people that it was illegal to dig or bury items here.  Was this fenced-in area the last of the adobe ruins?  I couldn't see much. The sign faces the river, so how come I didn't see it?  Had I just crossed the river too far north to notice?

The river is pretty here, with high cliffs on the east bank and mature sycamores on the west end.  I rested here under a sycamore for 20 minutes to let the dogs drink before resuming our return hike.  Minnie held up well up to this point, but seven miles for her is quite an accomplishment.  Four miles is her normal limit.  She started slowing down now, wanting to rest in shady areas, but with one hour of sun light left, didn't want to chance it.

I did let the dogs rest for another 15 minutes on the first bench we came across on the trail.  The Bureau of Land Management installed three benches in the first half-mile of this trail.  Steve and I thought that was overkill, but then I realized that perhaps the benches were installed facing the northeast to be able to sit here and watch the sun shine on the Dragoons during sunset.  The red crags of that mountain range are quite striking during the three minutes it takes for the sun to disappear.  I was sitting in what is also known as the Apache highlands, with expansive views all around.

I got to see the sun set over Huachuca city, a town that touts itself as being the "Sunset City" and it got dark fast once I got on SR90 heading south.  Shortly after 6pm I finished off my drive back home with full view of a full moon.  It was Black Friday and I didn't even do any shopping.