by Jane St. Clair

Superior, Arizona looks like a movie set from the 1950s. It’s perfect for a science fiction movie in which something terrible has happened! An atomic bomb just went off! Or Godzilla just thumped through town.

Hey, lizard, lizard, lizard.

There’s a town here and all the people have vanished! Nobody’s home!

Nothing ever dies on the desert, not even towns like Superior, Arizona, which is only a half-ghost town. Although parts of Superior are still going, most is boarded up and empty.

Superior Arizona dates back 120 years to the opening of the Magna Copper Mine. It closed in 1994 but you can still see it if you stand on a certain hill.

Today the old Magna Copper Hotel is boarded up and propped up by big concrete blocks, like an old man with two walking sticks.

Shop after shop is for sale. Some have a 50s vibe.

Some are from an earlier time..
.

Some are later.

But they’re all on the same chopping block.

The town got some governmental money for renewal and you can see the spots where it helped. The young people in town painted a mural that shows they love the place.

It is nice to think Superior will come back someday, but meanwhile, it’s like desert plants that can look dead for months and yet they are really alive. What Superior needs is some sugar-daddy movie star to buy it, the way Kim Bassinger once bought an entire town in Georgia. It’s such a nice town! Everybody’s so sweet there! Don’t let it fade away!

Hey, movie star, movie star, movie star.