Arizona ghost hunter travels: Ghost town of Tumco, California

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Arizona ghost hunter travels: Ghost town of Tumco, California
July 30, 2009
Debe Branning
Examiner.com

The ghost town of Tumco is located in California just 26 miles west of Yuma, Arizona. The abandoned gold mine, once known as Hedges, ran as a mining operation on and off until about 1941. Tumco is an acronym for The Union Mine Company. Tumco was a typical mining town that hosted a church, gambling halls, hospital, school, stores, saloons and the ever popular red light district. Accidents and cave-ins were a constant danger of living in an old western mining camp such as Tumco.
Today all that is left of the town which once boasted a population of 3200 people are a few foundations of buildings, dangerous open mine shafts and a small cemetery of unmarked graves. The mining equipment is long gone, but the huge cyanide vats that separated the gold from the ore still tower on top of a hill.

In April 2002, The Yuma Spirit Hunters and The MVD Ghostchasers teamed up together to present the first ever paranormal conference held in Arizona. Dubbed the Southwest Paranormal Ghost Conference, about 50 people from places like California, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and of course Arizona, traveled to Yuma, AZ for this event.

Our Saturday night “hands on” ghost hunt was to explore the ghost town of Tumco. A caravan of about 20 vehicles headed west out of Yuma led by Don Swain’s old Digger Ghost Van. What a spectacle our group was traveling down the highway! We arrived in the Tumco parking lot just before sunset and signed waiver releases—just incase one of us might fall into one of the mine shafts or the 70 foot drop off.

Our first stop was the cemetery where lonely piles of stone and wooden crosses are the only indication to the dead lying below. From there, smaller groups branched out along the dirt trails that lead around the mining camp. With only flashlights to guide us, we were cautious not to wander off the paths in fear of falling down a deep forgotten mine shaft.

There were a couple of ghostly encounters along the paths of the Tumco that night and remarkably, they all occurred in the same area. It was getting late in the evening and the small groups of ghost town explorers were making their way back to the vehicles in the parking lot. A group of the MVD Ghostchasers—Maddie, Denise, Liz, Nancy and myself—were shuffling down the dirt road when I suddenly felt a ‘sixth’ person in our group off to the left. I saw small rocks and pebbles being kicked up next to me and I actually thought it was another one of the guests trying to pass us on the road. I looked over my shoulder and “whoever” it was had disappeared into the night.

A little later MVD Ghostchaser Mark and frequent workshop participant Lisa McD were walking down the same path. They told us they became aware that someone in a white shirt was following them. The ghost seemed to duck and hide behind the bushes as they went along. This game of hide and seek went on for some time as they walked down the road, and they both claim to have seen the same thing. As the evening’s ghost stories grew, several guests had witnessed something similar along that portion of the deserted road in Tumco.

If you go:

From Interstate 8 exit Ogilby Road and head north about 8 miles. Watch for signs. Bring a flashlight, water, and good hiking shoes. Avoid the ghost town in the hot summer months.

I would like to thank renowned ghost hunter and photographer, Kriss Stephens, for the use of some of her photos from our adventures in Tumco for this story.