by Jim Hinckley
A fast-fading mural is among the last vestiges of a tourism gold mine built on the legend of Two Guns Miller.
The extensive ruins and the solid nature of their construction convey the importance of Two Guns to Route 66 travelers west of Winslow.
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE CAMEL CORPS
ON THE ROAD FROM SELIGMAN to Kingman, vestiges of Route 66 blend seamlessly with those of the territorial era and the period of modern rediscovery. Fittingly, one of the ghost towns on this stretch was born to meet the needs of the Route 66 traveler, and another was a frontier-era mining town that survived by morphing into a roadside oasis for the modern traveler.
The road west from Seligman rolls across the wide Aubrey Valley, past the ruins of Hyde Park (promoted by signs that read “Park Your Hide Tonight at Hyde Park”), past Grand Canyon Caverns with its iconic towering green dinosaur, through the center of the Hualapai Indian Reservation at Peach Springs, past the 1927 Osterman Service Station, and into Truxton.
The town of Truxton is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating to 1950. The nearby springs that provided the name for the town, however, have a cultural history that spans centuries. In 1775, Father Garces met with a clan of Hualapai at the springs. In 1851, Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves camped at these springs during his explorations; likewise with Lieutenant Edward Beale in October 1857.
Lieutenant Beale, famous for his explorations testing the viability of camels for military transport in the desert under orders from Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, named the waters Truxton Springs after his mother, Emily Truxton Beale. The northern Arizona road surveyed by Beale became the path followed by the railroad in the 1880s, then the National Old Trails Highway, and finally Route 66.
Clyde McCune cofounded the town of Truxton. In an interview with Jon Robinson for Route 66: Lives on the Road, McCune describes the town’s origins:
The Department of the Interior had been talking about building a dam across the Colorado River at Bridge Canyon, and the reasonable way to get to that from Highway 66 was the take off there from Truxton.
The road would have gone up to the reservation and then taken what we call the Buck and Doe Road out to the canyon. That’s the reason we set up our business there in 1950.
Route 66 is accessed by taking exit 139 on Interstate 40, Crookton Road, just west of Ashfork.
The recently refurbished Frontier Café and Motel neon sign and mural stand in stark contrast to the dusty, worn remnants of Truxton’s other roadside survivors.
Cowgill’s Market in Truxton captures the essence of classic Route 66 with the ruins of a vintage Ford, a colorful mural, and a shaded place to rest out of the desert sun. Jim Hinckley
The large sign at Cowgill’s Market feed barn leaves little doubt that the main street in Truxton is Route 66. Jim Hinckley
The dam never materialized, but the Truxton Garage opened by McCune and Don Dilts prospered. In fact, it proved so prosperous that Dilts soon opened a service station and restaurant next door.
In rapid succession, other entrepreneurs followed suit. Soon, service stations, motels, restaurants, and garages crowded the shoulder of Route 66 in the wide valley at the head of Crozier Canyon. With the opening of Interstate 40 and the bypass of this section of Route 66 on September 22, 1978, Truxton rapidly began to regress to its pre-1960 origins.
Today, the little town dwarfed by cinematic Western landscapes maintains the slightest of pulses with the Frontier Café and Motel and its refurbished neon, a bar, Cowgill’s Market, and a garage/service station that still meets the needs of Route 66 travelers, area ranchers, and the residents of Peach Springs.
Littering the roadside from Truxton to Hackberry are remnants that reflect more than a century of western Arizona history. The Crozier Canyon Ranch dates to the 1870s, and the tourist cabins that were a part of the 7-V Ranch Resort provide a tangible link to the infancy of Route 66 and an alignment bypassed in 1939.
In Valentine, the towering red brick schoolhouse of the Truxton Canyon Indian Agency is shaded by the flanks of looming buttes and mesas. The structure stands in mute testimony to the dark era when Native American children, removed from their families, were kept at boarding schools and taught to be “white.” Just down the road, the empty garages, service stations, motels, and post office with their darkened neon and glassless windows appear as a movie set in a post-apocalyptic world.
The bypass of Route 66 and the murder of the Valentine postmistress epitomize the decline of a town once famous for its postmark. Jim Hinckley
The Hackberry General Store, with its eclectic collection of roadside Americana that serves as the backdrop for a bevy of vintage vehicles, has become a Route 66 icon.
Hackberry, circa 1916, was a town that from its rocky main street to its false-fronted stores reflected its territorial origins. Mohave Museum of History and Arts
Against this background of forlorn abandonment framed by breathtaking landscapes is the rustic and colorful Hackberry General Store, a Route 66 time capsule transformed into a cornucopia of roadside Americana circa 1960. The town of Hackberry is located on the south side of the tracks along the original Route 66 alignment, the National Old Trails Highway. The general store is authentic, but it dates to the early 1930s, making it a relatively recent addition to the town of Hackberry.
Near the springs shaded by a large hack-berry tree that Lieutenant Beale designated Gardiner Springs on his 1857 expedition, prospectors discovered a rich vein of gold ore in 1871. The rush was on.
By 1874, a five-stamp mill was transforming ore from this and other mines in the surrounding hills into profit, and the town of Hackberry was such a bustling community that the territorial legislature considered designating it the county seat. However, the promising future quickly grew dim, and by 1876, with depletion of the primary ore body and closure of the main mine, the town began a rapid slide into oblivion.
As it turned out, the slide was a very long one. In late 1881, the tracks for the new westbound railroad reached Hackberry, and the springs took on a new importance that again spurred growth of the little town. (Interestingly, signage at the cemetery indicates origins dating to 1884. However, weathered monuments in the graveyard provide stark evidence that the hilltop was used for this purpose much earlier.)
In 1883, the tracks reached the site of Kingman, a town located directly between the mining boom in the Cerbat Mountains and the vast ranching empires in the Hualapai and Sacramento valleys. Hackberry was again eclipsed. The slide resumed, and by 1900, only a few ranching families called Hackberry home.
The next glimmer of hope arrived in the dust of motorists traveling the National Old Trails Highway (Route 66 after 1926) and slightly dimmed with the realignment of the highway to the north side of the tracks in 1936. The bypass of the highway by Interstate 40 in 1978 proved to be the town’s swan song.
Today, on the north side of the tracks, the Hackberry General Store and various ruins stand as a monument to that final chapter. On the south side, the old mission-styled two-room schoolhouse, a tiny post office, an old boardinghouse, the towering water tanks that supplied steam-powered trains, and a picturesque cemetery are often-missed memorials to the first chapter.
The quaint little Hackberry post office, nestled against an old boardinghouse-turned-residence, speaks volumes about how far Hackberry has slid from the boom times of the 1880s. Jim Hinckley
CHASING LOUIS CHEVROLET
FROM KINGMAN, ROUTE 66 follows two distinctive routes to the Colorado River. The first is, arguably, the most scenic section of Route 66 that remains intact. It follows in the tracks of Louis Chevrolet through the Black Mountains, since this was the path of the 1914 Desert Classic “Cactus Derby” race. The second is the 1952 bypass of this mountainous course, now largely erased by Interstate 40.
On the pre-1952 alignment of the highway, which was also the path of the National Old Trails Highway through the Black Mountains, there are two classic Western mining towns. One is a true ghost with a population of
zero. The second is a mere shadow of what it once was, but it is more re-creation than authentic.
Prospectors had wandered these mountains since at least the 1850s and on occasion even found color, but it was the discovery of a major ore body on the west side of Sitgreaves Pass in 1902 that sparked a boom that gave rise to Acme and, a few miles to the west, Oatman.
Within twelve months, the town that rose around Joe Jenerez’s discovery was large enough to warrant a post office, but the narrow, rocky canyons severely restricted growth. Three years later, in 1906, the name changed from Acme to Goldroad, but growth remained almost stagnant.
The following year, the primary mine closed after the high-grade ore bodies were exhausted. Only limited mining operations—and, after 1912, tourism traffic on the National Old Trails Highway—prevented the town from vanishing.
From the summit of Sitgreaves Pass, it is easy to see why growth in Goldroad was severely restricted by the canyons and steep slopes of the Black Mountains. Jim Hinckley
A boom of sorts in 1937 came with improved extraction methods and new ore discoveries. The mines closed again in 1942, reopened in 1946, and closed permanently in 1948. Spurred by a new Arizona tax law, which held property owners liable for taxes on structures regardless of occupancy, led to the razing of almost the entire town.
An interesting Route 66–related footnote pertains to a garage and service station in Goldroad. The station offered towing service, or a driver, for those heading east over the steep grades and sharp curves (the sharpest and steepest found anywhere on that highway) to the summit of Sitgreaves Pass. Jack Rittenhouse notes, “At last inquiry their charge was $3.50, but may be higher.” As perspective, consider that gasoline averaged around twenty cents per gallon.
The sharpest curve found anywhere on Route 66 winds above Goldroad and is seen through the guardrail on that highway’s predecessor, the National Old Trails Highway. Jim Hinckley
A vintage Goldroad postcard shows just how steep the pre-1952 alignment of Route 66 through the Black Mountains was. Joe Sonderman collection
In 1925, the year before the designation of U.S. 66, Goldroad was a mining boomtown about to be transformed by a sea of automotive traffic. Mohave Museum of History and Arts
From the Power House Visitor Center and Route 66 Museum in Kingman, continue west on U.S. 66. Take the left curve behind the Mohave Museum of History & Arts. Cross under Interstate 40 just west of Crazy Fred’s Truck Stop, and at the four-way stop, turn left onto Oatman Road.
The road through the Black Mountains features the sharpest curves and steepest grades found anywhere on Route 66, and as a result, large RVs or trucks with trailers are not recommended. For these vehicles, it is best to use exit 1 on Interstate 40.
Nestled in its scenic, narrow canyon, the site of Goldroad is dominated today by a new mining operation, mine tailings, concrete slabs, and a fascinating section of old road with stone bridges that dates to 1905 and that served as the first alignment of the National Old Trails Highway.
Oatman, a few miles to the west, was also a mining town. Because the town centered on the massive complex of the Vivian Mining Company, the post office opened in 1903 under the name Vivian. In 1909, it changed to Oatman in reference to the rescue of Olive Oatman—a young girl taken captive several years previously and sold into slavery with the Mohave Indians—near the town site in 1857.
In 1910, the discovery of an even richer deposit led to the establishment of the Tom Reed Mine, and within a few months, it was in sight to eclipse the record of three million dollars in gold extracted from the Vivian Mine. With the establishment of the Oatman Mining District, which included the mines at Goldroad, this became the largest gold-producing district in the territory of Arizona.
The spire of the Elephant’s Tooth dominates this skyline of imposing peaks and cliffs in the Black Mountains above Oatman.
Oatman, established in 1902 in the shadow of the distinctive Elephant’s Tooth, was the largest town in western Arizona by the late teens. Mohave Museum of History and Arts
Further fueling growth was the National Old Trails Highway, Route 66 after 1926. Estimates place Oatman’s population during the early 1920s as several thousand. The business district included a theater, a lumber company, general stores, garages, service stations, restaurants, saloons, and hotels—including Oatman Hotel, the oldest and largest adobe structure in Mohave County.
The raucous mining town has had a number of brushes with fame. In 1914, Louis Chevrolet, Barney Oldfield, and other drivers roared through town in the last of the great Desert Classic “Cactus Derby” races.
In 1938, after marrying in Kingman, Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their first night as husband and wife at the Oatman Hotel. During the 1950s and 1960s, numerous movies were filmed here including How the West Was Won, Foxfire, and Edge of Eternity.
Mining is the cornerstone of Oatman, a town that now lives on its association with the legendary highway and the fascination of tourists who come to see the burros roaming free.
The slide to obscurity began in the 1930s, escalated with the 1942 closure of the mines, and culminated with the bypass of Route 66 in 1952. Rittenhouse notes that the Oatman of 1946 was “a mining boom town whose day has passed, although a few mines still operate. US 66 passes through the town’s one main street. Along one side are boarded up stores, plank sidewalks, old sidewalk awnings.”
Oatman today is again a boomtown. This time it is tourism on Route 66, not gold, that keeps the stores open. During such events as the Route 66 Fun Run, held on the first weekend in May, the town becomes a living snapshot from when Route 66 was truly the Main Street of America and the main street of Oatman.
This is a view of Oatman as it was when Clark Gable and Carole Lombard honeymooned here in 1939. Joe Sonderman collection
In Oatman, Route 66 is the main street and was the catalyst that transformed the old town into an icon recognized throughout the world.
ROUTE 66, THE FORGOTTEN CHAPTER
THE LAST GHOST TOWN on Route 66 in western Arizona is on the post-1952 alignment of Route 66, now Interstate 40. While almost nothing remains to indicate the territorial origins of Yucca, you’ll find a wide array of remnants from the Route 66 era.
Ranching, railroading, and providing supplies for remote mines in the surrounding hills formed the foundation of Yucca. Growth proved elusive, but by 1905, the community was large enough to justify the establishment of a post office, and a school soon followed.
Some maps for the National Old Trails Highway dated 1914 indicate that Yucca was on an alternate route for those wishing to bypass the grades and curves of the main road through the Black Mountains. Tying into this alternate route was the primary road from Kingman to Phoenix, a road that crossed the Bill Williams River near Alamo Crossing, a small mill town to the south.
During World War II, the town received an added boost with the establishment of an auxiliary airfield for the massive Kingman Army Airfield training complex. Ford Motor Company transformed this abandoned airfield in 1955 into a test facility, currently operated by Chrysler.
With the realignment of Route 66 in 1952, Yucca briefly boomed. Vestiges from this period include the Honolulu Club (relocated from Oatman), a motel, a garage, café ruins, foundations, and a towering Whiting Brothers sign that looms over a field of weeds and broken concrete.
The recent acquisition of mining claims in the area of the old Boriana Mines south of Yucca by a large mining conglomerate may signal a new boom. This is the largest known deposit of tungsten in the United States.
The 1952 opening of the Black Mountains bypass proved the death knell for Oatman and Goldroad, and the catalyst for the rise of Yucca. Mohave Museum of History and Arts
Forlorn remnants, empty lots shadowed by towering signs, and empty cafés line old Route 66, now a frontage road for Interstate 40, in Yucca. Jim Hinckley
How long before harsh desert wind and vandals erase this vestige of Yucca’s glory days? Jim Hinckley
CALIFORNIA
In the café in Essex, tourists no longer seek respite from the blazing sun, nor do truckers warm their hands around a cup of joe.
The Santa Fe Railway depot in Goffs is a 2008 replica that houses the Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association.
IN THE GOLDEN STATE, the ghost towns of Route 66 appear as forlorn, weathered islands in a sea of harsh, forbidding desert landscapes. Only a thin line of pockmarked asphalt tethers them tenuously to the modern era and keeps them from vanishing unnoticed beneath the desert sands.
Most were never more than rustic, roughhewn places that offered only the most rudimentary of services, but to travelers on the old double six they were literally lifesaving oases. Others were once teeming, modern communities with bright and prosperous futures.
For all of the towns—whether outposts built upon the needs of the motorist or mining and railroad centers that morphed into roadside boomtowns—Route 66 was their lifeblood. They mirrored the highway then, and they mirror it today with dusty, sunbaked streets and empty cafés, garages, and motels.
GOFFS
BYPASSED BY REALIGNMENT in late 1931, Goffs was an early casualty of the societal evolution that led to the demise of Route 66. This bypass proved to be the final blow for the remote community whose foundation was as a transportation hub. In retrospect, Goffs was the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come for countless towns along Route 66.