Ruby

Rank in Arizona: #169of 727 ranked
Overall score: Score 47.6 out of 100medium confidence
Category: Historic Site

Ruby is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, near the base of Montana Peak in the Pajarita Wilderness, roughly 25 miles west of Rio Rico and 7 miles north of the Mexican border. It was founded in 1877 as a mining camp under the name Montana Camp. Several events of note took place in and around the town: the Bear Valley raid of April 1886, the Battle of Bear Valley in January 1918, and the Ruby Murders, committed between 1920 and 1922.

Where it is

Ruby is a historic site near Tubac, in Santa Cruz County. It is one of the historic sites in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Ruby, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Mentioned in

Arizona's 27 ghost towns publish no visitor count, and 22 of them are still read about — Not one abandoned settlement in this database records an official visitor figure, yet together they drew 136,163 Wikipedia reads in 2024.

Sources

Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.

Nearby attractions

13 miles away
Tumacácori National Historical Park
A park of three units in the Santa Cruz valley protecting the ruins of three Spanish mission communities.
National Historic Site
15 miles away
Tubac Center for the Arts
Tubac Center for the Arts, in Tubac, Arizona, is run by a local artists' cooperative that organises art exhibits and workshops.
Museum
15 miles away
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park
The first park in the Arizona state system, preserving the ruins of the Presidio San Ignacio de Tubac.
State Historic Park
15 miles away
Calabasas
A ghost town within Rio Rico, a suburb of Nogales in Santa Cruz County, whose name is Spanish for 'pumpkins'.
Historic Site
16 miles away
Calabazas Mission
A Spanish mission, also known as Calabasas, in the Sonoran Desert near present-day Tumacácori, Arizona.
Historic Site
17 miles away
Sonoita Creek State Natural Area
Nearly 10,000 acres of riparian and upland habitat below Patagonia Lake, an Important Bird Area with 106 recorded bird species.
State Natural Area