From left to right: Hike leader Chuck, Barry, Robert, Ann, Ralph, Eileen, Sandy, Michael, Susan, and Julie gather near the Haunted Canyon Trail 203 trailhead for a quick group picture before hitting the trail. Glenn is also part of our group and is taking up a position behind the camera lens for this shot. The day is sunny and cool, with clear blue skies and a crisp temperature of 50 degrees. After an endless summer and unusually warm fall, winter has finally arrived in southern Arizona.

Our hike today will cover the west side of Haunted Canyon Trail #203 to Tony’s Cabin, a distance of about eight miles round-trip.

After hiking our way up and down through high desert chaparral country with an eclectic mix of agave, Manzanita, scrub oak, chokeberry, and a few huge sycamore trees now standing ghostly white against the blue skies, we begin to gain some serious elevation once past Grapevine Spring. Roughly two miles and an 1,100-foot climb from the trailhead, we finally reach this 4,900-foot high point on the trail near Government Hill that overlooks the entrance into mysterious and forbidden Haunted Canyon.

I would like to thank Tom Kollenborn, noted author and historian for the Superstition Wilderness, and Rosemary Shearer, Executive Director of the Superstition Area Land Trust, for their help in providing some of the following information on the history of the Tony Ranch area in Haunted Canyon.

Early Superstition Mountain pioneer, William Toney, built this original log cabin (later known as Tony Ranch House) on 78 acres of homesteaded land in the summer of 1913. It was originally furnished with two bunk beds, a board table, several chairs, a wood cook stove, and assorted dishes and utensils, some of which can still be seen today. In 1922 the cabin was enlarged to 12x34 feet to accommodate a third room, but in later years the addition became dangerously dilapidated and was demolished.

Because the Homestead Act also required cultivation of the land, in addition to building a dwelling, over a several-year period Toney planted five acres of wheat, a 600-tree apple orchard, and additional acres of beans, corn, potatoes, and alfalfa for a truck garden. To supplement his income, Toney also raised chickens, turkeys, and cattle on his land. Sufficient irrigation water was an ongoing problem for the ranch since the creek running through the property was normally dry, so Toney had to rely on a small naturally flowing underground spring to irrigate his expanding truck garden.

Relatively new items now cluttering up the cabin’s interior, including numerous water bottles, large water dispensers, a Coleman lantern, colorful sleeping pads, a Folgers coffee can, and a pair of modern reading glasses left on the table, attest to present-day usage of the cabin by hikers and backpackers stopping off for the night. Hopefully, people will continue to respect the cabin and leave it intact and relatively undisturbed. Unfortunately, this has not been the fate for most such wilderness cabins which eventually become vandalized and stripped to the point that they must be demolished in the interest of public safety.

Taking no chances on the future of this site, the Superstition Area Land Trust acquired the old Tony Ranch House and its original 78 acres of homestead land in August, 2008 to preserve and protect it going into the 21st Century. Although its relative isolation in the seldom-visited eastern end of the Superstitions has helped to protect the ranch house and surrounding land, SALT hopes to protect it even further and is working towards National Historic Landmark recognition for the old ranch house so that future generations will continue to enjoy this rare glimpse into Arizona’s colorful pioneering past.