Chloride, Arizona is known as the “Jewel of the Cerbats.” I had no idea what that meant – the crown jewel of all things bats didn’t seem like a place anyone would want to visit.
I researched the potential dangers of hanging out with bats, especially upside down. Salmonellosis is one of the diseases that I believe will make humans allergic to eating salmon. There’s Yersiniosis disease, which will all too often make humans say “Your sister is a sissy”, and finally, Batasuarus disease, which can make humans look rather large and extinct.
Of course, I may have embellished these results, but this should not be taken lightly if you are bitten by an unwanted bat.
According to Deserae, the local source for historical knowledge about the small town of Chloride, which appears to operate both the mine shaft market and the Arizona Visitors Center, the name comes from minerals found in the nearby Cerbat Mountains.
This range stretches approximately 23 miles and is home to many of Arizona’s most productive silver mines of the past.
“Millions of dollars have been taken out of mines here in and around Chloride,” Deserae said. “We are the only true living ghost town with over three hundred permanent residents and some of these mines are still producing ore today.”
I have learned in my travels, and some readers will tell me I am wrong, that a ghost town usually has no one around except ghosts, and no federal post office. Chloride actually has one of the oldest post offices in the state of Arizona. It opened in 1873, closed for a while, then reopened in 1893. It’s still in business today, and yes, I checked.
Sure enough, there is a poster with a handsome guy who looks a lot like me hanging on the left wall. ‘Wanted for impersonating a travel writer. Reward $0, it’s not worth it.‘Now it’s a post office.
Silver Chloride, which gives its name to the town, has a long and confusing history. Long because it goes back to the ancient Egyptians and confusing because I have no idea what smart chemists are writing about. Let’s just say that so much silver was found in the nearby hills that many people became rich and created a town where nothing existed before.
History, like where I left my car keys, can be mysterious, so today’s story of the discovery of silver in chloride falls into the same realm.
In 1860, six miners found silver in the Cerbat Mountains and began digging. That’s what the miners did, but the local natives didn’t like it. So much so that four of the miners were killed and two of them fled west to seek help from the U.S. military.
Deserare marked on the map where two of the miners killed by local Native Americans are buried just southeast of the Chloride Cemetery.
I visited the fenced rest area…
