Benson, Arizona, Railroad Crossroads of the Borderlands

Benson sits at the confluence of the San Pedro River valley and the Southern Pacific rail line, and that crossing is why it exists. When the Southern Pacific pushed through Arizona Territory in eighteen eighty, Benson became the junction point where passengers and freight transferred to a stage line running south to Tombstone, Bisbee, and the booming silver mines of Cochise County. The town was named for Judge William Benson of California, a railroad business associate.

At its peak in the eighteen eighties, stages departed daily carrying ore samples, gamblers, and a few US Marshals. Today Benson is the gateway to Kartchner Caverns State Park, a living cave system discovered in nineteen seventy-four by two spelunkers who kept the location secret for fourteen years before quietly alerting Arizona State Parks.