This episode contains graphic content that may not be suitable for all ages.

Listener discretion is advised.

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Please do not suffer in silence. North of Phoenix, Arizona are a number of abandoned mining towns, ghost towns, which

were once home to dozens, if not hundreds, or even thousands of people, but have since been

abandoned by the world.

One such town, named Bumblebee, was established in 1863 and named after the nearby Bumblebee Creek, which was itself

named because early travelers to the area described the local indigenous population as being

as thick as bumblebees. Their words, not mine. In the years that followed its formation,

Bumblebee turned into a stagecoach stop for westward travelers,

and the U.S. Calvary, an offshoot of the U.S. Army, would even establish an outpost there.

But as the years passed, stagecoaches fell out of fashion.

And with them, so did Bumblebee, Arizona.

Several attempts were made to turn Bumblebee into a tourist town, but they all seemed to fail.

Yet a century after its initial collapse, the area surrounding Bumblebee would become a scenic

location for outdoor enthusiast, as the region surrounding Phoenix began to thrive.

Bumblebee, roughly an hour north, was a location that many would head to for hiking or stargazing,

or even a place to

take their off-road vehicles out into the desert, far enough away from the cities and

suburbs that surround Phoenix.

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