Vulture City Ghost Town

Introduction

Vulture City is a historic mining town in the Bradshaw Mountains of Arizona. It is known for its rich past in gold mining. The town was founded in 1863 when Henry Wickenburg discovered gold. The town's name probably comes from the large population of vultures that roamed the area. At its peak in the early 1900s, Vulture City boasted a population of over 5,000 people, complete with a Wells Fargo post office, saloons, a brothel, and two schoolhouses. Vulture City was the most profitable and productive gold mine in Arizona.

In 1942, all mines not essential to the war effort, including Vulture City, were closed. In 2014, the mining operations restarted. In 1917, the mines and surrounding lands were divided into two pieces under separate ownership. Thirty acres were partitioned from the mine to create Vulture City ghost town. The city has been largely restored and is now operated as a tourist attraction. Vulture Peak Holdings LLC now operates the remainder as an open-pit mine. The mining area is closed to the general public. Two original unrestored schoolhouses are on mining property; if you wish to visit them, you need permission from the mine owners.

When to Go

Vulture City is open from early October through mid-May (Mother's Day). It is closed during the summer. Hours are 9 AM to 4 PM on Thursdays through Sundays. If you are planning a trip to Vulture City and have something specific in mind, call +1 877-425-9229 to ensure no special events that might interfere are being held. After-hours access to Vulture City is possible by advance arrangement at $125 per hour. As of 2025, admission to Vulture City is $15 per adult, $12 for seniors and veterans, and $7 for children ages 7 to 12. Tickets can be purchased in advance at vulturecityghosttown.com.

Special events such as reenacted shootouts and comedy skits are held on alternate Saturdays; see vulturecitysghosttowen.com for dates.

Rattlesnakes are present during the warmer months. They hibernate from mid-November through March, but be careful anyway.

The nearest town to Vulture City with available climate data is Wickenburg, Arizona. Wickenburg is less than twelve miles from Vulture City, and the elevations are comparable. The following graphs of Wickenburg climate are from weatherspark.com.

Photography

Vulture City is an excellent location for landscape and vintage photographers. However, it is not possible to shoot during the golden hour, as Vulture City operates from 9 AM to 4 PM. I suggest concentrating on the interiors of buildings. I was at Vulture City during Wickenburg Gold Rush Days, a busy time of year. Crowds were never a problem in the morning. You can use tripods inside buildings; with the lack of crowds, it is easy to set them up. Vulture City's interiors have been staged but are well done with original period pieces. I especially enjoyed the brothel and the adjacent doctor's office. The Henry Wickenburg House and the Assay House are also photogenic. You must compose carefully to remove distractions such as explanatory and surveillance signs. Alternatively, you can use the Remove or Generative Fill tools in Photoshop.

The two schoolhouses are on Vulture Mine property and are not included in the self-guided tour. If you wish to visit them, you need permission from the mine owners. The schoolhouses have not been renovated.

Just to the left of the Vulture City entrance is a whimsical sculpture entitled "Miners Manor" by Arizona sculptor Ray Villafane. I did not shoot it, but I believe it would be a good Milky Way subject during the fall when the Milky Way is vertical.

You will need an ultra-wide lens, a panorama head with rail, or a shift lens to shoot wide-angle interiors. You can shoot close-ups of furnishings, such as vintage clothing, piano keyboards, and bottles on shelves with a wide or normal lens.

Wide-angle images of interiors will be heavily distorted by perspective. The best way to correct perspective is with a shift lens. A major advantage of a shift lens is that you can see the undistorted image in camera. You can also use the shift feature to create a three-image panorama quickly. The three images stitch perfectly in Lightroom using Photomerge Panorama or Photomerge HDR Panorama. I use a Laowa 15mm Shift lens (14-blade version). The field of view of the final three image panorama is that of a 9.3mm lens in the shifted direction. Of course, the field of view in the unshifted direction is unchanged (15mm). The megapixel increase for this lens is 61%. You can calculate the effective focal lengths for any shift lens using this tool from Cambridge in Color. For the Canon 17mm shift lens, the effective focal length is 10.2 mm; for the Laowa 20 mm shift lens, the effective focal length is 12.4 mm; and for the Nikon 24mm shift lens, the effective focal length is 14.6mm. When using a shift lens to shoot a panorama, you still must correct for distortion in post.

If you shoot using an ultra-wide or panorama head, you must also correct for distortion. I usually correct lines such as door or window frames or where walls join so they are vertical. I partially correct horizontals as well. I start using the Transform tool in Lightroom or the Geometry tool in Photoshop / Camera Raw (top far right). You can also use DXO Viewpoint. You can access DXO Viewpoint from Lightroom by right-clicking on an image and selecting Open in DXO Viewpoint. In Photoshop, choose Filters / DXO Labs / DXO Viewpoint. You can manually correct distortion in post using Photoshop's Edit / Transform / Distort (or Scale, Perspective). Manual correction, together with Generative Fill, gives you the most control. After correction for distortion, your image will have substantially fewer pixels than the original.

I use a panorama head to shoot interiors when time permits, and the subject is so strong I want the best quality possible. When shooting interiors for high-quality stitches, a nodal rail calibrated for your lens is required. Nodal rails are not needed for exteriors unless your subject is close. If you do not use a nodal rail when shooting close-by objects, vertical lines such as where walls join, doorways, or Venetian Blinds may have small gaps.

Google Map showing the various buildings

To view the map in Google Maps please click anywhere on the map above.

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This page was last updated 3/12/2025