Helvetia was once home to miners and shopkeepers.
Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson, the ghost town was likely established soon after ore was discovered in the area in the early 1880s, and mining was thriving in the town sometime before the Civil War.
In 1909, the town was producing 60 tons of copper ore daily.
Horse-drawn wagons shipped the ore from the mine to the Southern Pacific Railroad siding in Vail.
Copper mining ended there in 1911 when prices fell and it became unprofitable.
The old gray buildings of Helvetia, a ghost town for many years, were demolished in the late 1960s.
