Description

Interior workings of the stamp mill at Trapshooter Reilly Mine, Yavapai County, Venezia, Arizona. Handwriting on the photograph says "Trapshooter Reilly Mine Mill Interior, November 14, 1934."

The processing mill for the Venezia areas was built in the early 1930s. One of the successful ventures was the Sharpshooter group of mines located in the Crooks Canyon area. These mines had names such as the “Trapshooter” Reilly Gold Mine, the Crook, the Venezia, the Starlight, and Mount Union mines among many others.

Now a ghost town, Venezia, Arizona was a stage coach station, mining settlement, and gold mining area. It was located in Yavapai County, Arizona, on the old Senator Highway about 16 miles south of Prescott and 1.3 miles north of Palace Station. Geologically, the area featured ridges and canyons with altitudes of 6,200 to 7,400 feet. Much of the surrounding rock was granite.

Venezia served as a mill town for mines in the surrounding area. At its’ zenith, the town boasted a 20 stamp mill, a post office, a store, stage stop, saloon, and more. When the mines played out during the 1930’s, so did the town itself. The Forest Service dynamited and bulldozed the town site in the 1970's, for safety issues, leaving only scattered broken foundations of the mill site, and a few markers and grave sites as evidence of Venezia’s former self.