Air carrier Captain reported 'VFR Only' note on 10-9 Chart for MZJ; a non-towered airport; confused the flight crew. Reporter stated they never observed a rotating beacon and could not activate the runway lights until short final.

Narrative

This was an empty reposition flight ZZZ-MZJ. Flying into MZJ at night presents unique challenges. Specifically no control tower; no instrument approaches; and close proximity to terrain. This was my first time flying into MZJ ever; while the FO had flown in during daytime conditions once before. I clarified questions I had both with the dispatcher and the Chief Pilot before departure. The FO and I thoroughly briefed the threats pre departure and again on the arrival briefing. We choose to fly a straight in approach to Rwy 30 due mainly to our routing; approaching MZJ from the Southeast via that TUS VOR. We didn't want to fly a traffic pattern to Rwy 12 at night because of the proximity of terrain to the East and Northeast. We had a slight tailwind on Rwy 30 but we pulled performance numbers and we had plenty of landing distance available on Rwy 30. We were also confused by the chart on the 10-9 page that says VFR Only." The chart simply depicts a VFR traffic pattern so does the "VFR Only" note just apply to the chart or does it apply to any VFR Traffic pattern flown? If just applicable to the chart why not applicable to any traffic pattern since the chart just depicts a normal traffic pattern? Also; does the "VFR" note apply to VFR weather conditions or VFR flight rules? The chart is very confusing! For all these reasons we decided a straight in approach to Rwy 30 was the best decision. TUS approach was able to descend us to 6;000 feet.; if I remember correctly; 15NM to 20NM to the southeast of MZJ but we couldn't accept the Visual Approach yet because we couldn't see the airport. We couldn't locate a rotating beacon or the runway lights. The FO kept trying to turn the airport lighting on via mic clicks continuously from about 25 miles out. Finally we were pretty sure we saw the airport environment. The lighted apron with parked decommissioned aircraft about 8-10nm out. The FO thought he saw runway lights too. At this time we accepted the visual approach from ATC and I disconnected the autopilot and started a descent; following the snowflake on the PFD. We had loaded the approach into the flight computer - which was the only line selectable approach option. We were also over/near the highway (I10) and near the AVQ airport when I started our descent so I was comfortable with terrain clearance at this point. We soon realized that the runway lighting was still not on and the FO continued to click the mic on CTAF over and over again in addition to making multiple position reports on CTAF. The airport lighting didn't actually come on until about 3NM/1;000 ft AGL. Although we were about to execute a go-around at the time the lights came on; we decided to continue the approach as we were in a safe position to land. The subsequent landing was uneventful. I never saw the airport rotating beacon and it was not NOTAM'd out. However it's possible it was working and we just never saw it."