Dome, Arizona

Dome, Arizona
—  Ghost town  —
Dome, Arizona Location in the state of Arizona
Coordinates: 32°45′19″N 114°21′44″W / 32.75528°N 114.36222°W / 32.75528; -114.36222Coordinates: 32°45′19″N 114°21′44″W / 32.75528°N 114.36222°W / 32.75528; -114.36222
Country	United States
State	Arizona
County	Yuma
Founded	1858
Abandoned	1940
Elevation[1]	194 ft (59 m)
Population (2011)
- Total	0
Time zone	MST (no DST) (UTC-7)
Post Office opened	December 24, 1858
Post Office closed	July 14, 1863

Dome (O'odham: Hi:lo) is a ghost town located in Yuma County, in southwestern Arizona, United States. Originally Swiveler's Station, 20 miles east of Fort Yuma, on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, a post office was established here in 1858. It was first under the name of Gila City the nearby boomtown 1 1/2 mile west of Dome but the post office closed July 14, 1863, after most of the town was swept away in a flood in early 1862, and then abandoned for the La Paz gold rush along the Colorado River. After the railroad passed by the site and an attempt to do large scale mining of the placers began, a new post office was established as "Dome" in 1892 but soon closed when the attempt failed. Subsequently it opened and closed several times before finally closing in 1940.^[2][3]

Today the site lies along the railroad and a road that follows the old Overland stage route, south of the Wellton-Mohawk canal and Gila River. All that remains on the site is a large adobe building, one small adobe remnant and foundations.^[4] There is a cemetery nearby to the west.

References

1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Dome
2. ^ Eldred D. Wilson, GOLD PLACERS AND PLACERING IN ARIZONA, Bulletin 168, State of Arizona, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology, Geological Survey Branch, A Division of the University of Arizona, Reprinted 1981, p.18
3. ^ James E. Sherman, Barbara H. Sherman, Ghost Towns of Arizona, University of Oklahoma Press, 1969, p.60
4. ^ DOME from ghosttowns.com

External links

• Google Map of Dome, Arizona
• LOWER GILA RIVER WATERSHED
• Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, Internet Presentation, Version 050710, DOME CEMETERY AND GILA CITY - DOME, Yuma County, Arizona, By Kathy and Ed Block, APCRP Historians