Cibola

Cibola is a small community in La Paz County, Arizona, carrying a name borrowed from the legendary city of gold that once fired the imaginations of Spanish explorers. Despite that storied name, the place developed as a modest settlement rather than anything connected to treasure or conquest.

As of the 2010 census Cibola held a recorded population of 250 residents, a figure that actually represented growth from 172 counted a decade earlier. That makes it less a true ghost town in the abandoned-ruins sense and more a quiet, sparsely populated community that retains its census-designated-place status. Visitors should temper expectations accordingly — there are no dramatic remnants of a vanished boomtown here.

For travelers drawn by the evocative name or a curiosity about small desert communities in western Arizona, Cibola offers a glimpse of a place that has quietly persisted rather than spectacularly faded. Photography and scenic driving through the surrounding La Paz County landscape are the most realistic draws.