scene of an attempted train robbery of the express car on the Benson–Nogales train by the Burt Alvord gang. Express Messenger and former lawman Jeff Milton, drove off the bandits despite a serious bullet wound sustained to his arm. The robbery was unsuccessful, and gang member "Three Fingered Jack" Dunlop was mortally wounded, later to die in Tombstone after confessing to the attempted robbery. Among the members of the gang who were arrested was the notorious outlaw Bill Downing. In 1901, the Mexican land grant on which the town was situated was purchased by the Boquillas Land and Cattle Company who extended the leases on only the commercial building and several residences into the 1970s. Geography Fairbank is located east of the San Pedro River, just off of Arizona State Route 82 at (31.7231456, -110.1884107). Demographics Shortly after its founding, the 1884 population estimate for Fairbank was roughly 100 people. US Census figures, taken every ten years, show the town's population peaking in 1890 at 478 residents, then shrinking to 171 by 1900, and then increasing again to a high of 269 in 1920 before entering a steady decline which ended with the abandonment of the town in the 1970s. Remnants By the mid-1970s Fairbank was all but deserted. The final remaining residents left when the buildings were deemed unsafe. After that, the post office closed, and the side roads became overgrown and largely impassable. Some years later, in 1986, the former Mexican Land Grant was acquired by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the town was incorporated into the San Pedro Riparian NCA as the "Fairbank Historic Townsite". What remains of the town of Fairbank is now open to the public. The remaining structures include: A commercial building, an adobe structure that used to house the general store, the post office, and the saloon. The structure has been stabilized by the BLM. The Montezuma Hotel which was built in 1889 to the south of the Commercial Building. The hotel was torn down to make way for highway construction, and only portions of its foundation remain. A small wooden house, built in 1885, in a style common in the 1880s. The schoolhouse, built of gypsum block manufactured in nearby Douglas, AZ, was constructed in 1920, and was a functioning school through the 1930s. A larger wooden house, built in 1925. A stable and an outhouse, which were built in