Arizona and Utah Railroad/Western Arizona Railroad

Gold, silver, copper, lead and other minerals were discovered in the Cerbat Mountains of northwest Arizona in the 1860s. This early exploration was done by soldiers stationed at Fort Mohave which was located on the Colorado River near the present day location of Bullhead City. The threat of attacks by the Mojaves and Hualapais limited the amount of mineral development in the area. A large influx of miners from Nevada and California in the late 1860s helped reduce fear of attacks and large-scale mine development began. (Schrader 1909). By 1870 the towns of Cerbat, Chloride, and Mineral Park (Cerbat Mtns. Ghost Towns, Cerbat, see also Sherman 1969 and Varney 1998) had been established and hundreds of mines were developed (Malach 1975). Although very little is left of either Cerbat or Mineral Park, they were both at one time the seat of Mohave County.  

Arizona and Utah Railroad/Western Arizona Railroad shown between Kingman and Chloride. Map is from Schrader 1909.

Initially, the ore from the area mines was loaded onto wagons and transported across the Sacramento Valley to the Colorado River. Here it was loaded onto steamers and transported downriver, through the Gulf of California, and up along the coast to San Francisco.  At this point it was loaded onto other ships and transported for processing to mills in Swansea, Wales  in the United Kingdom. To make the entire process more profitable and efficient, local mills were necessary and a railroad was needed to transport the ore and to supply the growing communities that served the mines. Mills were soon built in Mineral Park and Needles, California. The development of these mills made shipping costs a manageable $1.10 to $4.30 per ton, depending on the quality of the ore (Schrader 1909).

The Sacramento Valley Railroad was incorporated in September of 1898.  The plan was to construct a line from Hancock siding (approximately 7 miles west of Kingman on the A.T. & S. F. line) to the small town of White Hills, a distance of 50 miles.  Financial troubles caused the collapse of the Sacramento Valley Railroad.  With financial backing secured and with largely the same principals, the Arizona and Utah Railway was incorporated on April 10, 1899 and was chartered to construct a rail line from McConnico (west of Kingman along the Santa Fe line) to White Hills (Myrick 2010).  This is a distance of roughly 50 miles.  In the end, the line only extended to a point, referred to as the White Hills Extension (Myrick 2010), approximately 3.5 miles to the west of Chloride.  There were apparently plans to eventually extend the line to Bonelli Landing and into Nevada (Malach 1975). 

Construction of the standard-gauge line began on May 15, 1899.  The line was completed on April 25, 1900 with a total mileage of 23.4 miles, had a maximum grade of 2% and with 45 pile and frame trestles totaling 1,555 feet (Malach 1975, Robertson 1986).  A right-of-way map shows 5 stations along the line, not including the stations at McConnico and Chloride. Robertson (1986) shows that there were two locomotives; an 0-8-0 and a 4-6-0.

The Arizona and Utah Railway went into receivership in 1905 and was then incorporated as the Western Arizona Railroad in January of 1906. At this same time it was leased to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe as a non-operating subsidiary.  The approximately 3.5 mile stretch of line that extends to the west of Chloride was also abandoned at this time (Malach 1975, Robertson 1986).  The mines began to play out and people left.  The population of Chloride was 2000 in 1900 but had shrunk to only 500 just 9 years later (Schrader 1909).  The line hung on but operations eventually ceased in 1931 and the line was officially abandoned in 1933.

Here is a map showing the location of the line. It was digitized from aerial photography. It is very evident for much of the route but the section near McConnico looks to be pretty disturbed with newer roads and development.  Due to uncertainty of the route in this area, I decided not to "guess" where the route went so it wasn't digitized.

This next series of photos are screen-captures from Google Earth.  The line can be faintly seen running up through the middle portion of the photo below.  The Sacramento Valley (more often referred to as Golden Valley) was subdivided decades ago.  Much of the land has never been built on but there are a substantial number of developed properties in the valley.  The rail line passes through some of these areas.  

The image below shows the wye that is to the south of Chloride.  The line extending to the west goes directly through what is now known as Grasshopper Junction and continues rougly .25 miles to the northwest.

The line can be seen at the lower left-center of the image but it quickly becomes difficult to trace as it extends north into Chloride.

I've walked and GPS'd roughly two miles of the line.  The line is visible in this picture and was quite easy to follow on the ground.

The line crossed many washes along the route.  The remains of trestle pilings can be seen in the next two photos.

The next few photos show some of the ravines that were crossed.

This small stone trough is located adjacent to the line. There is evidence small structures and a corral here that were constructed of railroad ties. One of the ties had a 1924 date nail in it.

There was another spot adjacent to the line, and maybe one-half mile south of the cattle trough, where there was quite a bit of lumber scattered about.

This small trash dump was found right next to the old grade.  I didn't see any evidence of old structures so I'm not sure why these were here.

This section of the grade has a two-track road on it. The Hualapai Mountains are just barely visible above the Cerbats.

I lived near Kingman as a child from 1970 to 1982. My dad took my brothers and me to dozens of mines in the area served by the Arizona and Utah/Western Arizona Railroad.  I have great memories of exploring Cerbat, Golconda (Golconda), and Mineral Park.  Below are two pictures of Cerbat scanned from the classic 'Ghost Towns of Arizona' by Sherman (1969).  The structures in these pictures are as I remember seeing them.