Bring a Ghost Town to Life
Role-Playing

Role-Playing
During a visit to Nogales, you will have the chance to visit many different ghost towns. Ghost towns are towns that were once filled with people but are now completely abandoned. Most of these ghost towns were filled with people during the time of the American West. Especially on Ruby Road near Nogales, you will see a number of these ghost towns.

With this activity, you are going to bring to life your very own ghost town.

Instructions:

Pick a ghost town to visit with your family. Harshaw, Duquesne, and Washington Camp are a few choices. Another option is Ruby, which is not an open-access ghost town, meaning you will have to call and make reservations for a tour (+1 520 744 4471). Whichever ghost town you pick, keep in mind that you can’t enter or disturb the buildings there in any way—all you can do is visit the town and try to imagine what it was like in days gone by, when it was a real town with real people living in it.

When you get to the town and have learned something about it, stroll slowly through it and try hard to imagine what the town was like when it was occupied. Look at each building. What kind of building was it? A bank? A school? A post office? A house? Who lived there? Make up names for the people who lived in the houses and worked in the buildings. Who was the sheriff? Did any outlaws live in the town? If so, where did they live and what were their names? Decide who was friends with whom and which people argued or disagreed with one another. Did Mr. Grimes the postman like his neighbor Mrs. June?

Finally, see if you can come up with a good reason why everybody left the town. What happened to all of the people who lived there? Did they move on to another place? Or are some of them still there, lingering on as ghosts from the town’s past?

Conclusion:

Once you use your imagination to fill the ghost town with people and activity, it comes alive again, and you can almost pretend for a moment that you are living back in the 1800s when the towns were full of life. The main reason people came to towns that are now ghost towns was because they were in search of gold. See if you can learn more about how they panned for gold. Also, Arizona isn’t the only state with ghost towns. See if you can learn more about other ghost towns, where they are located, and why everyone left.

Supplies & Materials

-a vivid imagination


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My Trip

est. visit time: 0.0 hrs

Best Audience

Age: Children (4-8yrs), Pre-teen (9-12yrs)
Duration: 15-30 minutes
Cognitive Level: 1-3 Grade, 4-6 Grade
Activity Level: Low
Attention Span: Low
When to do it: During Your Trip, On Location

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