A Short History of Mohave County

Dramatic, sometimes romantic, and often blood-soaked, the march of history through Mohave County began 384 years ago-16 years before the Mayflower reached the shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In the year 1604, Juan de Oñate, at the time governor of a Spanish colony he had founded in New Mexico, first set foot in what one day would become Mohave County, Arizona. He crossed northern Arizona and followed the Bill Williams River to its mouth on the Colorado, where he turned north to explore that river to the vicinity of present-day Needles. Object of his trek, writes historian Jay J. Wagoner, was to secure a route to the Pacific Ocean so that his New Mexican colony could trade with Peru and China. Wagoner concludes that, like Coronado and Espejo before him, Oñate succeeded only in making the region known to Europeans. His adventure brought to a close the "first period of exploration in Arizona."

One hundred and seventy-two years later, Padre Francisco Garces, called an ideal missionary and a remarkable explorer, traveled much of the Mohave County area and crossed it at the 35th parallel. The year was 1776. The Franciscan's treks were to help prove that a Spanish trade route could be laid out between the West Coast and Santa Fe.

North of the Colorado River that same year, padres Dominguez and Escalante crossed the Arizona Strip country in search of a passage to Monterey in Alta California. Mountain man Jedediah Smith appeared next in the area. In 1826-27, he followed the Virgin River south to its meeting with the Colorado, and two years later, a trapping party led by Ewing Young reconnoi tered near today's Peach Springs. In his band was a young man who in due course would make an indelible mark on history: Christopher "Kit" Carson.

In the 30 years following came the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which brought the area under the flag of the United States; explorations by topographical engineer Lorenzo Sitgreaves; Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale's opening of a wagon road across northern Arizona to the Colorado; and investigation of the Colorado River in the stern-wheeler Explorer by Joseph Ives. Young Ives also led an overland expedition into Grand Canyon country.

By 1858, gold-seekers were trekking the slopes and gullies of the northwest section of the land soon to become the Territory of Arizona. Then in 1859, Fort Mojave was established on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River near Beale's Crossing. Its creation was designed "...to hold the Mo have and other Indians at and in the vicin ity...in subjection and punish them for past outrage, if on investigation punishment is due." The previous year, a large wagon train on Beale's Road had been attacked and the travelers killed by Indians.The new post, first called Camp Colora do by Col. William Hoffman, who selected its location, was renamed Fort Mojave by Maj. Lewis A. Armistead, its first command er. Adjacent to the fort was Mohave City. (A similar inconsistency of spelling per sists today; California place names favor the Mojave rendering.) Traveler Charles Brownlow Stuart of Virginia described Mo have City in 1863 as "a scraggle of wind weathered tents and makeshift brush shel ters" squatting on a barren rocky bluff above the muddy river. The insects were numerous, he reported, especially some called "noseeums," which "bit voraciously and itched like fire."

Returning a year later, however, Stuart was "most pleased to find a real nice little city...there were even a few homes with new trees and gardens started."

Today nothing remains of Mohave City. In 1890 the fort was turned over to the Indian Service for use as a school, which continued operating until 1934. In 1942 the buildings were sold and dismantled for lumber. What was life like at this frontier post in its early days? Capt. Edward Carlson, stationed with his company at Mojave in 1863, reported in the Overland Monthly of May, 1886: "Here a fort was nothing more than a few miserable shanties, built by placing cottonwood logs upright in a trench, then filled in between with pieces of wood and mud, a roof composed of brush, tules, and mud. Openings were left for door and windows, but no door or windows to put in. The floor was also mud, and when it rained or blew, it was more pleasant to go into open air than to stay in the house, for we escaped the mud-bath that came from the roof through the holes. "Our life at the post was rather a hard one. All our supplies came by way of Fort Yuma, from which place they were brought by steamer. The river at certain seasons of the year is very low and a trip from Yuma always takes a long time. One month it was exceptionally rough. Our commissary department, never too plentifully supplied, had run very low; we were waiting for the steamer with more than usual longing, but a long time in vain; for as ill-luck would have it, she ran aground and before finally reaching us, we were reduced to beans, coffee, sugar, and flour and such a flour! The heat developed weevils which multiplied to such numbers that it was hard to know which predominated, flour or weevils. I never believed so many dishes could be made out of beans. We kept strict count [of the number of days] and 93 black marks graced the mess hall before the

steamer Cocopah arrived and brought us much needed relief from our bean diet..... "Speaking of rattlesnakes," wrote Captain Carlson, "when we came to Fort Mojave, there were about as many rattlesnakes as stones. Fort Mojave is considered one of the hottest places on the American continent. We used to sleep in the open air near the bank of the river; before turning in, we would wet the ground thoroughly, then jump into the water for a good bath and dripping wet, as we came out, lie down and go to sleep." In 1863, the Territory of Arizona was created, and in 1864 Mohave County was established as one of the original four counties with the county seat at Mohave City, to the north of the fort. The following year, the Second LegislaMohave County to create Pah-Ute County. Then, in 1866, all of Pah-Ute County west of the Colorado River was granted by Congress to the State of Nevada. The portion left in Arizona was returned to Mohave County in 1871. According to the late Roman Malach, Mohave County historian, the first white women in the county arrived between 1860 and 1870. Most were wives of military personnel stationed at the fort. The first teachers were on the scene, Malach recorded, in 1875: Mollie Mathew in Mineral Park, Clara Hardesty in Cerbat, Hallie Christy in Hackberry. Between 1864 and 1874, the number of settlements in the county grew, thanks mostly to mining activity, river transportation, and farming: Littlefield on the Virgin River; Callville at the head of navigation on the Colorado; Hardy's Landing, later Hardyville, a river port; Aubrey's Landing at the mouth of the Bill Williams River; Chloride; Mineral Park; and Pipe Spring.

A SHORT HISTORY OF MOHAVE COUNTY

A SHORT HISTORY OF MOHAVE COUNTY

News media of the period reported that Cerbat, east of Hardyville, "is now the center of a rich mining district and has a free school, two physicians, and two lawyers." Soon after there was "semiweekly mail from Arizona City [Yuma] up the Colorado via Ehrenberg to Fort Mojave en route to St. George, Utah," and weekly mail from Prescott via Camp Beale Springs, Cerbat, Mineral Park, and Chloride to Hardyville.By 1876, about 2,000 mines had been located and recorded, with silver assays from $1,000 to $10,000 a ton. Mineral Park hosted a population of around 200 people, a five-stamp mill, a private schoolhouse, post office, stores, saloons, and a few private dwellings.

The railroad arrived in Mohave County in 1883, and the town of Kingman was founded. By that time, Mineral Park's population had doubled to 400. In three more years, the county's population reached 1,500, with Kingman claiming 300 souls. Cerbat had a five-stamp gold mill and a five-stamp silver mill pounding ore day and night.

Cowboys soon were herding about 60,000 cattle and goats in the mountains and mesas of Mohave County, and 2,000 acres in the valley of the Big Sandy River were under cultivation.

By 1900, Chloride was a booming town of 2,000, and the Oatman-Goldroad mining district was opening up. In 1903, E.T. Perkins recommended dam sites at Boulder, Black Canyon, Bullhead, and Parker. And in the town of Oatman, "hotels are full and being enlarged. Streets are filled with autos, and 12 and 24-mule teams hauling ore."

The gravel road that took travelers in their horseless carriages from Kingman to the ferry at Needles was called the Needles National Highways Route. It would later achieve fame in story and song as U.S. Route 66.

The 1913 Arizona Tour Book (recently reprinted for the second time by Arizona Highways Books) refers to this 50-mile stretch as "good road, bad only in river bottoms, has heavy grades" at Goldroad, and notes the availability of running water and electric lights at the Hotel Beale in Kingman.

Progress in the county continued unabashedly through the decades of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. Pipe Spring National Monument was established, as were the Kingman Municipal Airport and Grand Canyon National Monument (later incorporated into Grand Canyon National Park). Hoover Dam was built; Willow Beach, on the Colorado River below Black Canyon, opened for business; and the construction of Davis Dam was authorized.

World War II accelerated the pace of change in the county, and in the postwar years, the population continued to grow, thanks in part to returning servicemen. Resorts prospered, dam projects were completed, and the McCulloch Corporation adapted Site Six on the Colorado as a testing area for marine engines, from which start would grow the county's new "royal resort" community, Lake Havasu City.

Much has changed since Oñate first probed this remarkable country, and change undoubtedly will remain the order of the day as a new century approaches. Yet there is something in this history-drenched land that may remain magnificently unaltered: the great desert outback.

U.S. Army Assistant Surgeon F.S. Stirling gave the following report about the country around Fort Mojave in 1870. It could just as well have been written this morning: "Rabbits and quail are found in large numbers...and the river affords fish.... Deer, mountain sheep, and antelope are found in the hills. The mountains, on either side of the river, are barren and destitute of timber.... Few springs of water are found in the adjacent mountains, and the country may be described as a plain broken by arroyos and gulches."

Carlos Elmer, veteran photographer and a contributing editor of Arizona Highways, concluded in one of his several books about his home county: "It is evident that the most exciting part of the Mohave County story lies ahead." We can only agree.

Editor's note: Information for this article was derived from "The Centuries Over Mobave County," compiled by Roanna H. Winsor, Arizona Highways, May, 1962; "Military Posts in Mohave County" and "Early Days in Mohave County," both by Roman Mallach; Arizona's Heritage, by Jay J. Wagoner; and additional research by Eileen Bailey.