Douglas Smelter

The Douglas Smelter is no longer there, however a bunch of the out buildings and the warehouse are.  The property is closed to the public, so do not go sneaking around, it is also located right on the border with Mexico, so sometimes you will see Border Patrol driving around the site.  I got permission to shoot these photos, but it was still an iffy thing to do, to get to the main building is like trying to navigate a maze, and I would definitely recommend a high clearance vehicle because only one road in is maintained in any way, and it is always gated off.

Phelps Dodge is the one that owned and ran the smelter for many years, and at one point anything in this state that was shipped thru Phelps Doge went thru the warehouse, which seems like a big hassle considering there are mines all over the state and having to send all of it to a little border town in the corner is just a bit ridiculous. 

These are the admin buildings at the Smelter back in the late 60's or early 70's.

Another view of the Admin Buildings, these buildings still stand today, just without the pretty landscaping.

This was the managers house, I do not remember whether it is still there or not.

The Smelter, it is no longer there, though you can still tell where it once stood because of the pilings around it.

The powerhouse.

Watertank

The warehouse

Inside the warehouse.

Safety info within the warehouse.

This is where the trains would pull into the warehouse.

You can see where things have been filled in or patched all throughout the building.

Pilings left over from the smelter.

The Border fence.

Inside one of the admin buildings, you can tell the era the buildings were built by the decorating.

The entire back part of the building was once home to cubicles and secretaries.

Paul Family Mansion??? Douglas AZ

Ok, this is the Paul Family Mansion, at least I am pretty certain it is.  The family has not lived here for many years, however it was used for meetings and such for the lime plant that is located right across the street.  The lime plant closed down approximately 6 months before I went and took these pictures, but with the way the house is still furnished, it was a very surreal experience. 

Our first view inside.

This is the view from the huge greenhouse type window.

There was once a lot of water around this house.

The bedrooms were set up strange, they each had there own entrance from the outside, more like a hotel or inn, however I could not tell if there were bathrooms, anywhere, and they did not connect to the main house.

The house is on a huge lot, and there are a ton of out buildings, this is a courtyard between the back of the tiki room, a pantry/laundry room of the kitchen, the garage and storage/utilities areas.

Opposite side of the Tiki room.

A storage/utility area.

This outbuilding has a twin, they ran across the back of the lot.

From the end of the back outbuilding to the far side of the lot.  The driveway wrapped around that side to come in at the rear of the house.

The Carport.

They filled in the pool.

The only way upstairs.

A View into Mexico from the balcony.

The balcony, there were two or three rooms that were accessed from here.

A close-up of the tiki bar.

With the way this building was set up, it was confusing.  There is also supposed to be access to a cave from the Paul Family Mansion, and I saw no way that could have been from this building.  I would love to learn more about this building, because I question whether I have the right building for what I was looking for, but either way this was worth the trip to see.