Total Wreck, Arizona

February 21, 2020

Total Wreck’s post office was established August 12, 1881 and discontinued November 1, 1890. Total Wreck was discovered by John L. Dillon in 1879 and named it such because he thought the ledge the mine was on looked like a total wreck.

A 70-ton mill was erected in 1881 and the town grew to 200 residents. There were about fifty houses, three stores, three hotels, four saloons, a butcher shop, and a lumber yard. A man once got into a shooting at Total Wreck and survived because the bullet lodged in a stack of love letters he had in his jacket. He later married the girl who wrote the letters!