FAIRBANK, Cochise Co

FAIRBANK

Cochise Co., ARIZONA

The remains of the town of Fairbank are tucked into the greenery in the wide but shallow San Pedro River Valley, on the east bank of the same river. The town is north of and directly alongside State Highway (SH) 82, 5.9 miles west of SH 80, at a point four miles north of Tombstone. Now owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fairbank is part of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

The largest and most photogenic of the seven remaining buildings is a large adobe structure that once housed the town’s general store, post office and saloon. It still has a covered gas pump island in front of the store. Other buildings include a reddish gypsum block schoolhouse which serves as the town site visitor center, two wooden cabins, a stable and a pair of stout buildings. At one time the main part of town was along the railroad to the south.

BLM caretakers are on site during daylight hours, and metal detecting is prohibited. At the time of our first visit in July 1997, the old store building had been recently reroofed to aid in stabilization of the structure. Bob, the BLM caretaker, told me that plans were afoot to restore the building, but that depended on government funding. At that time it has only been stabilized. In July 2010, I again stopped by the town site and noted that the building is no longer accessible, having been fenced off and posted. One of the walls is propped up to keep it from collapsing. The building has not been restored and the visitor center has been shifted to the school house. An onsite plaque shares a little of the town’s story.

Fairbank began in 1881 after the New Mexico and Arizona (NM&A) Railroad ran its tracks up the east side of the San Pedro River. A large two-story wooden station was established, and a small town developed. Ten miles to the east, Tombstone was a booming city of 15,000 people, and the station at Fairbank became busy with Tombstone trade. In 1904 a spur line ran to the larger city, which nearly ended the reason for Fairbank’s existence.

In 1883 the post office was established, and was named after a Chicago financier named N.K. Fairbank, one of the NM&A Railroad’s backers. The store building, which housed the post office opened May 16, 1883, and remained open until the early 1970s. The Montezuma Hotel was erected in 1889, and was located about where the highway passes just south of the general store building. The railroad depot was located to the west of the town site. At this time, a large lumber mill, railroad section workers houses, and a cemetery were also active, along with enough businesses to support the 478 people claimed by the 1890 census. Other population estimates claim only 100 people lived here.

The school was built in 1920, and operated until the 1930s. The large house adjacent to it was built in 1925 to house the schoolteacher. Around 1940 or so, the WPA used Fairbank as a base of operation, and they built the stable across from the teacher’s house as well as two smaller outbuildings. Four of the remaining buildings are visible in this photo, which includes the school & cabins.