Ray

Tucked away in Pinal County, Arizona, Ray is a ghost town whose identity has long been tied to copper mining. The settlement took its name from the Ray mine, an operation launched by the Ray Copper Company in 1882 and reportedly named after the sister of a miner named Bullinger.

Today Ray is largely defined by the vast copper mine that replaced much of the original townsite. Visitors will find little in the way of preserved historic structures — the industrial scale of ongoing mining operations has swallowed most traces of the former community. The setting itself, however, offers a striking visual of large-scale extraction in the Arizona landscape.