Charleston Maneuver Area and Range Complex 01; Re purposing an Arizona Ghost Town For WW II.

This is the eighth in our series about ghost towns connected to Tombstone Arizona. Although this technically isn't a ghost town in the same sense as the others, The Charleston Maneuver Area and Range complex No. 1, are still abandoned and connected to the old west.

The US military used the ruins of the Charleston Arizona ghost town for military maneuvers during WW II (Charleston Maneuver Area). The military also leased thousands of acres of land from the Little Boquillas Ranch (Range Complex No. 1) for artillery and other training.

East and south of these areas is an active military base. I have included some maps and some links as well as notation within the video to keep you off the restricted areas.

As outlined in the links below, these ranges, as well as the ghost town of Charleston were part of the "Formerly Used Defense Sites" or FUDS program. They were cleared or mostly cleared of munitions, including land mines (see the links below). The sites that we hiked included (Munitions Response Sites) MRS01 (Charleston Maneuver Area and MRS02 through MRS04 (Range Complex Number 1).

If you plan to hike these areas please be aware that even though these areas have been "cleared" of munitions and mines, some might still be there. If you find them, please call the authorities and report them. The signage in the SPRNCA have phone numbers to call.

00:00 Intro
01:20 Charleston Maneuver Area
03:00 Old Mine Adit
04:46 Range Complex No. 1
08:41 Standing Artillery Targets
13:33 Booby Trap and Mine Removal Equipment
19:00 Japanese Pill Box
31:00 Extras

Here are some links; the area is open to hiking, just be cautious of un-exploded munitions etc.

Mine Removal Contract:

https://www.bristol-companies.com/projects/time-critical-removal-action-fort-huachuca-former-practice-landmine-and-booby-trap-training-area/

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality:

https://static.azdeq.gov/sup/fort_huachuca_fs.pdf

Army Corp of Engineers

https://www.spl.usace.army.mil/Missions/Formerly-Used-Defense-Sites/Former-Fort-Huachuca/Former-Fort-Huachuca-Charelston-Maneuver-Area/

Links to the ghost towns etc in the area:

This is a really good site for all things Tombstone, this guy has put the work in:

Tombstone Area Ghost Towns:
https://www.wyattearpexplorers.com/

This is a great site about mining in general:
Western Mining History: https://westernmininghistory.com/

These sites are all about abandoned railroads, really interesting:

Abandoned Rails:
http://www.abandonedrails.com/

Forgotten Railways, Roads & Places:
https://www.frrandp.com/p/the-map.html

These guys do tours, hikes etc to ghost towns on the San Pedro river area:

Friends of the san pedro river: http://sanpedroriver.org/wpfspr/

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