A Different View of Fairbank

Monday was a fairly busy day here at TTRV, there was a Border Patrol presentation followed by a Q & A session in the clubhouse. The presentation finished around noon, so after some lunch we headed down to Fairbank for an afternoon stroll.

Surprisingly the parking lot was pretty full sometimes when we’ve visited we’ve been the only ones there.

We followed the horse trail before hitting the main trail it took us through mesquite and past an area of sacaton grass

to Willow Wash where we took a left and headed down to the San Pedro river.

A cairn directly across the wash might mark the trail to Contention City. Yes, there really was a place called Contention City and yes it really was the place where convicts were put on the train to go to the notorious Yuma Territorial Prison, although whether or not there actually was a ‘3.10 to Yuma’ I really don’t know. We’ve never tried to find the trail, because we’re usually in shorts and if it is the trail it looks as though it leads through dense, sharp, mesquite.

It’s very pretty down by the river and there is usually some water flowing.

After mooching around for a while we made our way back up Willow Wash and followed the same trail back. On our return journey we stopped to investigate some ruins just off the trail. We’re not sure exactly what they were maybe something to do with transporting the ore to or from the railroad?

Historical artefacts litter the area.


Our next stop was a daylight trip to the cemetery, the last time we were at the cemetery, was on a Halloween ghost walk on the night of a full moon.

It’s a peaceful place, with amazing views, although I don’t suppose the residents care about the views one way or another.

From there we made our way back to Fairbank where restoration work on some of the few remaining buildings is still underway.

Have fun, we are!