ARIZONA TRAILS MOHAVE COUNTY

Train pulling into Kingman Station about 1909

First train in Chloride

THE ARRIVAL OF THE RAILROAD BRINGS COUNTY SEAT TO KINGMAN

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was very pleased with Lewis Kingman and his survey of the new railroad tack to the Colorado River.

On Jan. 1, 1882, he was appointed chief engineer, a position he held until the track was 45 miles from the river.

As his survey was completed and he was assured the track construction team was under excellent supervision,  he felt free to consider another offer he had received. At this point, April 1, 1883, he resigned to accept a position with the Mexican Central Railroad in Chihuahua, Mexico, an extension of a line that had been built north to south down though New Mexico.

During his leadership in Mohave County, a tent city had been set up and utilized for a temporary camp for the railroad workers on the present town site of downtown Kingman.

Pictures of these tents and the site are at the Mohave Museum of History and Arts. Chinese entrepreneurs operated the boarding house and laundry facilities.

An archaeology study was made of another tent camp, which was located a few miles away. The boarding house location was determined from the scattering of old knives, forks and spoons, and old wooden water barrel hoops. Also found were coins, and equipment repair tools with bits of metal. Holes made by tent stakes were still visible.

After the arrival of the first rail cars, people began to move into the new tent town, “Middleton Siding,” and soon more permanent structures were being planned.

In the October 1882 issue of Alta Arizona (an early newspaper located in Mineral Park), an article refers to the “sampling works at Middleton, hereafter named Kingman.”
(The miners could now bring their ore to Kingman to the sampling works.)

The first train came through on March 28, 1883.

The cattlemen and sheep men who had began arriving in the early 1870s now had a way to move their animals and wool products to expanded markets. The cattlemen continued to provide the military with beef for the Indians on the reservations and those confined at Beale's Springs, in addition to the local population.

Farming on the Big Sandy had provided to a large extent fruits and vegetables to the county. Now because of the rapidly expanding population, it was not such a problem to obtain essential commodities, hardware, building tools, etc., in a much shorter time period.

There is one story that has been related about a Mr. Conrad Shenfield, an entrepreneur of sorts. He was a subcontractor for the laying of the tracks, and as such had obtained land along the railroad at various points. It was reported he established and sold lots in Kingman before clear title of land was obtained.

It appeared that some fast paper shuffling occurred and Mr. Shenfield had been operating unlawfully The town site location was United States land, not railroad property.

He must have straightened that out, however, as he continued to divide the land into city blocks and cleared both those and the adjoining streets before putting them up for sale. The two streets alongside the tracks were named North Front Street (now called Andy Devine Avenue) and South Front Street (now called Topeka Street).

On Nov. 5, 1882, a young man named Anson Smith, 22, launched the Mohave County Miner in Mineral Park, at the time the seat of Mohave County,

He began in the newspaper business at a very early age with his family, and later held positions in various town throughout the United States. Newsprint for the newspaper. in those early years, was kept on hand for several months in advance, but once the supply was exhausted before a delayed order arrived. Editor Smith made a trip to Prescott on horseback to obtain enough paper to get the edition out on time.

The arrival of the railroad had its effect on Mineral Park. Suddenly it had a rival as Kingman was established on the railroad just 16 miles south of the county seat In 1887, the county seat was moved to Kingman and the Miner soon followed. Anson Smith had found his home. He married a year to the day after launching his newspaper, raised 10 children and became a leading participate in the county activities until, his death in 1935.

When Kingman won the election for county seat there were a number of individuals in Mineral Park and elsewhere that wanted a recount.

As a result, Mineral Park officials would not release the records, so during one dark night a group of men from Kingman went through the window of Mineral Park’s town hall and took  the county records. Even with seven lawyers in Mineral Park to help clear up this confusion, it was to no avail. Most residents were too busy working in the mines and their businesses, and had no time to volunteer or assist in obtaining a recount

Building the town did not come easy Two disastrous fires occurred within a 10 year period. The first was on June 23, 1888, when 21 buildings were consumed in the four block area  with Fourth Street as the center, and Front (Andy Devine Avenue) and Beale Streets the cross streets.

Then, again on May 21, 1898, a fire that started at the water tank by the railroad tacks was thought to be extinguished, but high winds had carried the flames to a lumber yard and on across Front Street where 26 buildings were lost in the same area as the previous fire in 1888.

The exception was, the tenants in 1898 had fire insurance, and most received the finals to rebuild.


Return To The Main Mohave County Page