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History · Sunsites

Half of Sunsites’ homes were built after 1976

Most of Sunsites was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Below: 2 old photos and papers and maps from 1926 on.

0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: PhillipC at Flickr · CC BY 2.0

What stands out about Sunsites’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Sunsites’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sunsites’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewEA Smith behind the wheel circa 1900: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Sunsites came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Sunsites.

Read it all →

Pearce is a mining ghost town named for Cornishman James Pearce, miner and cattleman, who discovered gold nearby at what became the Commonwealth Mine in 1894. The Pearce Post Office was established on March 6, 1896. The railroad station opened in 1903. By 1919, Pearce had a population of 1,500. The town declined in the 1930s and became almost a ghost town in the late 1940s when the mine closed for the last time.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Sunsites, 1896 to 1989

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1896Post officeThe Pearce post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1900In the archiveEA Smith behind the wheel circa 1900
  5. 1926On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1989In the archiveArizona, varios 1989 17
By decade

Sunsites, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s1 item
EA Smith behind the wheel circa 19001900EA Smith behind the wheel circa 1900
1910s–1970snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1980s1 item
Arizona, varios 1989 171989Arizona, varios 1989 17
1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today7 recent
Historic Pearce Townsite2023Historic Pearce TownsiteHistoric Pearce Jail2023Historic Pearce JailHistoric Pearce Jail Sign2023Historic Pearce Jail SignPearce-z82019Pearce-z8Pearce-Wooden bridge over Middle March Creek-19002019Pearce-Wooden bridge over Middle March Creek-1900Pearce-B-Ghost Town Trail (2)2019Pearce-B-Ghost Town Trail (2)Pearce-A-Welcome sign2019Pearce-A-Welcome sign
On the map

Sunsites on the map, 1926 to 1996

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sunsites. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Sunsites on the 1926 USGS mapSunsites on the 1958 USGS mapSunsites on the 1985 USGS mapSunsites on the 1996 USGS map1926Courtland sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Sunsites.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

EA Smith behind the wheel circa 1900
Retake this viewEA Smith behind the wheel circa 1900, 1900

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Sunsites’ page.

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

Famous people close to Sunsites

Nobody well known was born in Sunsites itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Rex AllenAmerican film actor, singer and songwriter · b. 1920
S
Stuart GilmoreAmerican film editor and film director · b. 1909
L
Lilly McElroyAmerican photographer and artist · b. 1980
Ed FerraraAmerican professional wrestler · b. 1966
P
Peggy JuddAmerican politician · b. 1962
T
Terri ProudAmerican politician · b. 1962

Questions about Sunsites’ history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (9), Wikidata (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.