Mingus Mountain Mysteries and Legends

Geronimo's Cabin

Our quest to find the legendary cabin of the reclusive wood cutter led Lloyd and I to hike several miles on three separate occasions on Mingus Mountain. At last we stumbled upon it nestled among the deep pines, remote and secluded. Geronimo's cabin stands preserved, erect and proud as if a tribute to its owner. The last of the old woodcutters, Geronimo, as he was called, but not his real name, built the cabin where he lived until his death in the early 1950s. He hand-cut firewood and transported it to Jerome residents by pack mule in the 1940s when Jerome was a thriving mining community. Hand-hewn timbers form the outer walls as well as the hand hewn door, inside are the remnants of a time gone by. A dirt floor littered with rodent droppings, a broken table in which was his eating area and bed springs where he once slept and on the fireplace ledge, his leather boots still sets. Behind the cabin the remains of the corrals where his mules were kept are still evident. There is no road, nor trails leading to this monument hidden deep in Prescott National Forest.