Goldroad and the Oatman Mining District

Goldroad and the Oatman Mining District

©Joshua S. Edwards

Cornerstone Environmental Consulting, LLC

November 2015

One of Arizona's most fascinating ghost towns, Goldroad is located along the zig-zags of Historic Route 66 in the mountains between Sitgreaves Pass and Oatman (Figures 1 and 2). This route was initially a well-traveled trail frequented by Native Americans for thousands of years. The locale has been witness to numerous notable individuals including Francisco Garcés, Antoine Leroux, Lorenzo Sitgreaves, Joseph Christmas Ives, Edward "Ned" Beale, and Mohave Chief Iretaba.

Early travelers along the National Old Trails Highway passed through the town of Goldroad, and the road eventually was designated as Route 66, giving way to an influx of "Dust Bowlers" during the Great Depression, then military transports during World War II. The prosperity of Goldroad, like many other mining towns, was tied to a volatile bust and boom cycle, and its population waxed and waned in tune with the tides of precious metal values, labor prices, and advances in mining technology. Since its initial development, the Gold Road Mine has been in operation on and off for over a century, and between 1903-1931 there was over $7,000,000 worth of gold mined from the claims. In fact, the Gold Road claims contain the second-richest group of gold mines in the history of Arizona (Keane and Rogge 1992).

Since its early beginnings, the town's development was controlled by mining companies in a way that has been described in popular publications and the companies' records alike as a "company town." The townsite of Goldroad followed a typical developmental cycle found in the American West where a rich mineral deposit located and initially developed by a small-scale, locally funded effort, would later be sold to large outside groups with greater access to capital markets and engineering expertise, allowing the expansion of extraction, processing, and transportation infrastructure. The mine developed from a claim belonging to Jose Jerez and Henry Lovin, attained international investment, and eventually became a major industrial complex controlled by the United States Smelting and Refining Company (U.S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Co. [USS&RC]; Morris 1993:606).

Figure 1. Historical photo of Goldroad. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 2. 1910 photo a teamster. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Early Exploration of the Area

In the summer of 1776, Father Francisco Garcés of the Yuma mission journeyed to Hopi, travelling up the Colorado River to the vicinity of present-day Needles. Here, Garcés crossed the Colorado and headed east to Hackberry Spring, Peach Springs and Havasupai Canyon. He then continued on to Oraibi where he was initially ignored, and eventually expelled and forced to retrace his steps back to Yuma (Coues in Garcés 1900:420 n.5, 422; Walker and Bufkin 1986:13). Garcés likely went through Sitegreaves Pass near Goldroad when travelling between Needles and Hackberry Spring.

Formal military exploration and survey of the region began after the United States acquired much of the Southwest from Mexico in the Mexican War (1846). In 1851, Lorenzo Sitgreaves conducted a survey guided by Antoine Leroux. They travelled west from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and on November 8 passed through or very near where Goldroad would later develop, following a well-worn Native American footpath marked with petroglyphs through a pass in the Black Mountains that now bears Sitgreaves' name (Sitgreaves 1853). In 1853 and 1854, Santa Fe trader Francois Xavier Aubrey made trips to and from California through the region, although likely to the south of Goldroad (Bieber 1938). From July of 1853 to March of 1854, Amiel Weeks Whipple followed Aubrey's route along the Bill Williams River as he surveyed a railroad route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Los Angeles, California (Whipple 1856).

From 1857 to 1859, Edward Fitzgerald Beale made two round trips across northern Arizona surveying the route for a wagon road (Beale 1858, 1860; Stacy 1970; Thompson 1983). While Beale's first expedition followed the Aubrey-Whipple route to the south along the Bill Williams River, his later trips, and the road he constructed, followed the Sitgreaves route through the Black Mountains through what would become Goldroad. In 1859, the road construction party, accompanied by the trial run of military camels, travelled through Sitgreaves Pass between April 29 and May 1, camping at Cool Springs on the east side of the mountains (Beale 1860:48-49). Later post-Civil War railroad surveys would avoid the steep grades of Sitgreaves Pass by going around the southern end of the Black Mountains following Sacramento Wash (Palmer 1869), and the Atlantic & Pacific Railway was built following that route in July and August of 1883 (Myrick 1998:59-60).

After the Civil War, renewed military protection encouraged American prospectors to begin mining small placer gold deposits. In 1867 and 1868, William Jackson Palmer conducted surveys along the 32nd and 35th parallels to evaluate these routes for the Kansas Pacific Railway from Sheridan, Kansas, to the Pacific Ocean at either San Diego or San Francisco (Palmer 1869). In the years after the Civil War, the federal government launched a concerted effort to survey the American West through four government expeditions, led by John Wesley Powell, Ferdinand V. Hayden, Clarence King, and George M. Wheeler (Wheeler 1872:86; Bartlett 1962; Simonis 2001).

The Oatman Mining District

Gold and silver have had a tremendous impact on the development of Arizona, bringing some of the first Euroamericans to the state. Although early Spanish and Mexican mining efforts proved to be largely unsuccessful, the Arizona Territory's population doubled between 1860-1864, with a total of 4,700 miners (constituting one-fifth of male workers in the territory) by 1880, and 18,000 by 1909 (Karpiscak and Wright 1991). Silver production dominated the territory's economy from after the Civil War to 1893, but copper came to be the most important ore after 1888. When Arizona became a state in 1912, there were 445 active mines (51 of which were placer gold operations), 72 concentrating facilities, and 11 smelters (Keane and Rogge 1992; Greeley 1987). Copper continued to dominate mining in Arizona, and between 1900 and 1940; 70% of the state's silver and 40-50% of the gold were produced as byproducts during the smelting of copper ores (Nash 1987; Wilson et al. 1967; Keane and Rogge 1992).

The Oatman Mining District is a gold mining area located on the western slopes of the southern portion of the Black Mountains, about 9 miles East of Hardyville, which is on the Colorado River. The district was established in 1863 and ranges between 2,000 to 3,200 feet in altitude (Hamilton 1881; Figures 3 and 4). The district has had many names throughout the years, most notably the San Francisco District and the Union Pass District, but also a few more obscure names including the Katherine District, the Gold Road District, the Vivian District, and the Boundary Cone District (Mindat 2014).

Figure 3. Historical photo of the Oatman Mining District showing locations of various claims. From Arrowhead Magazine ca. 1916.

Figure 4. 1921 map of the Main Ore Zone, Central Oatman Mining District. Courtesy of Sharlot Hall Museum.

Historically, the Oatman Mining District is Arizona's third largest gold producer (Almquist 1988). A gold-bearing ore shoot was discovered in a prominent quartz vein outcrop in the early 1860s. Shortly after this discovery, other gold-bearing veins were located nearby to the east and southeast, but nearly 40 years passed before the major gold mines of the Oatman District were opened for production. Unfortunately, little reliable information is available concerning activities in the Oatman District during the 1870s, 80s, and early 90s. Work continued on the veins in the vicinity of Silver Creek during that time, but interest waned as prospectors migrated to areas of greater promise (Lausen 1931). It is possible that the discovery of rich silver and gold ore deposits in the Cerbat Range in the early 1870s drew the attention of prospectors away from the Silver Creek area.

In the early 1900s, work began at the Tom Reed, United Eastern, and Gold Road Mines, which were the three greatest gold mines in Arizona (Keane and Rogge 1992), and were by far the most productive in the district (Ransome 1923; Almquist 1988). Between 1870 and 1980, the Oatman District produced more than one million ounces of silver and nearly two million ounces of gold (Keane and Rogge 1992). Oatman's boom was influenced by the Tom Reed and Gold Road Mines, but the town's population swelled from about 30 in 1916 to 5,000 in 1917 and 10,000 by 1924 primarily due to the development of the United Eastern Mine.

Early twentieth-century mining camps were hot, dusty, mixing pots of transient humanity, but residents often describe them with great sentimentality (Yount 1994). Many of the people lived in tents, but there were jobs with decent wages and there was a sense of safety and security (Goudy 1987). Most structures at Goldroad were constructed primarily of canvas, although some had tin roofs, even double layered tin for insulating against the heat (Yount 1994). Upper class houses, occupied by foremen and administrators, were more elaborate, often constructed with stone walls and linoleum floors. Some even had pianos, flower beds, grape arbors, and libraries.

Around 1916, the Mohave-Oatman Water Company constructed a water and sewage system in the Oatman District for a cost of between $250,000 and $300,000 (Rickard 1916). Water was pumped from wells on the east bank of the Colorado River through a 20 in pipe to an intermediate reservoir of 2,500,000 gal. The line covered 9.5 miles up a height of 1762 feet. From there, the water traveled in an 8 in pipe through various townsites to its main reservoir at Oatman, also of 2,500,000 gallons, a distance of 3 mi up another 625 feet (Rickard 1916). A 4 in lateral was then constructed from the intermediate reservoir to Black Range townsite, a distance of 4 mi, and another to the Times townsite, a distance of 2 mi, which was supplied by gravity. The pumping plant delivered 800 gallons per minute to the intermediate reservoir and then pumped again to Oatman, with a total lift for the two pumping stations of 2400 ft. The water main ran through Oatman, Oatman City, Marona, Carter, Ryan Addition, Old Trails, and South Oatman, all adjoining townsites along the Old Trails Highway (Rickard 1916).

Ore production peaked in 1920 and then sharply declined in 1924 as gold ore grades decreased, reducing the profitability of extraction given gold prices at the time. Mining activity stagnated in the late 1920s but was revived in 1933 when the gold price increased to $35 per ounce, and ceased in 1942 (Ransome 1923; Lausen 1931; Durning and Buchanan 1984). Production in the district as of 1980 was 1,966,000 ounces of gold (Keith et al. 1983:38-39).

Goldroad

Goldroad is an abandoned mining camp related to activities of gold extraction and support of the mining industry in the Oatman Mining District (Figure 5). Goldroad was a company town designed to house miners, support personnel, supervisors, and their families, creating a corporate operation center for the multiple gold mines in the area. There are also a series of associated trails that were used throughout the historic period, from the mid-1850s and spanning the many mining boom cycles, that connected the mining claim system. Travelers with wagons, and later, motorized vehicles, could travel along these routes and access transition points for people and supplies along the Beale Wagon Road, and from area mining claims, to the claims and facilities at Goldroad, Oatman, and Vivian (Morris 1993).

Gold was first discovered in the area that was to become the Gold Road Mine in 1863 or 1864 when Captain John Moss was led to the location of an outcropping of lode gold by Iretaba, chief of the Mohave tribe (Lausen 1931; Keane and Rogge 1992). When silver was found in abundance in the Cerbat Mountains, however, Moss abandoned his diggings at the Moss Vein and headed north to the Chloride area.

The place of Moss's discovery was left relatively untouched by mining for almost 40 years, and was not infused with life by miners and their families until after Jose Jerez (Trimble 1986), a.k.a. Joe Jeneres (Schrader 1909; Mindat 2014), a Mexican who was grubstaked for $16.00 (or $13.00; Schrader 1909) by his partner and store owner (and Mohave County Sherriff from 1900-1904, and Chairman of the Mohave County Board of Supervisors) Henry Lovin (Figure 6; Barnes 1988). Jerez rediscovered gold in the spring of 1900 at the Gold Road Lode, Billy Bryan Lode, and Line Road Lode claims (Ransome 1923; Morris 1993; Stein 1993).

Figure 5. 1903 photo of Goldroad from Arizona Highways Magazine. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 6. Feeney and Henry Lovin with bags, Fannie Lovin Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Legend has it that while camped in the Black Mountains along the Beale Wagon Road, Jerez was looking for his lost burros when he came across a ledge of gold-bearing quartz. Jerez returned to do assessment work and dug a 15-foot deep shaft to begin operations. A sample taken from the outcrop, later to be termed the Gold Road Vein (Lausen 1931), assayed at $40 per ton, and soon returned $425 per ton (Stein 1993). The announcement of this discovery led to an influx of prospectors and many more claims were located. Less than five months after the claims were staked, with only minor development, Jerez and Lovin bonded the property to a California group for monthly payments totaling $25,000 each (Schrader 1909). Jerez is said to have drunk away his wealth gained from the sale of the mine in the Goldroad Saloon (later to be called the Gold Road Club; Figures 7-9), which was owned by Lovin. Soon after the sale of the mine, Lovin returned to Goldroad and opened a general store (Figure 10) and freight company in 1902 and a 45-room hotel in 1905 (Stein 1993). Jerez ultimately ended his life by swallowing Rat-Be-Gone poison (Varney 1994).

Figure 7. Photos of a drink token from Henry Lovin's Gold Road Club. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 8. 1915 photo of the Gold Road Club from the Cofer Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 9. Historical photo of the Gold Road Club. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 10. 1910 photo of the interior of Lovin and Withers' store at Goldroad (Mr. Robertson, grocer, on left; James Guinn, deputy sheriff, second from right). Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

The California group quickly sold their rights to Joseph Burkhardt (Schrader 1909; or Burkard, Stein 1993), who briefly and intensively worked the claim with I.W. Hawkins as General Manager, sinking two shafts to a depth of 100 feet on the Gold Road and Billy Bryan claims by 1901. Around this time, "A small settlement sprang up near the mine, consisting of a boarding house (which doubled as a public structure), tents, and tent-cabins" that became known as Acme (Figures 11 and 12; Stein 1993:1). Significant quantities of ore were recovered from each claim and they had plans to continue the Gold Road shaft to a depth of 300 or 400 feet. A horse whim was installed in March of 1901 at the Gold Road mine, but the whim was quickly replaced with a gasoline hoist as the depth of the shaft increased. Burros were initially used to pull ore cars, but they were eventually replaced with electric motors (Yount 1994).

Figure 11. 1910 photo of the Gold Road Stage Office and Livery Stable from the Elizabeth Hand Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 12. Historical photo of a boarding house at Goldroad from the Evelyn Cody Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Burkhardt's group purchased the Climax, Tip Top, and Silver Dollar claims in 1901, and the claims to the northwest of the Gold Road Vein (the Eclipse and Tom Tit claims) eventually became the West Gold Road Mining Company (Stein 1993). Burkhardt and his partners then sold the six claims in December of 1901 to a group headed by O.P. Posey, Bailey, and Clarence K. McCormick, for $275,000 (Schrader 1909; Stein 1993). It is believed that the Burkhardt group sold the claims because they were unable to attract sufficient large-scale capital necessary to construct an on-site processing facility (Morris 1993:200).

Posey's group capitalized the property with funds from a French syndicate that paid around $500,000 for 25% of the stock and built an on-site mill (Figure 13). By March of 1902 they employed 100 men working the mine and building a millsite under the direction of Superintendent Stevens (Stein 1993). A new ore body was then discovered measuring 15 feet wide with an average yield of $18 per ton.

Figure 13. Historical photo of the Gold Road mill. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

The Acme camp quickly became a boom town, and the mine was rumored to be hiring all who sought jobs there (Stein 1993), with as many as 200 men working and living in the San Francisco Mining District. A post office opened on April 15, 1902, with John R. Livingston as the first postmaster (Stein 1993). The mine is listed as "Gold Roads" on its original papers, but the "s" was eventually dropped, and the mine and vein are now known as Gold Road. The town was initially known as Acme when the post office opened in 1902 (Bradley 1993; Trimble 1986:299; Morris 1993), and Gold Road’s post office was officially opened by Postmaster E.A. Shaw in 1906 (Barnes 1988; Figure 14).

Water rights were secured to the Little Meadows springs on the east side of Sitgreaves Pass in 1902 and laborers laid pipes that brought water to the mine, mill, and settlement. This enabled processing of ore by the cyanide process (Figure 15), which began in the fall of 1902 (Stein 1993). Ore was stockpiled until the following summer when the plant was fully operative, able to handle around 150 tons of ore per day. The company leased several of its claims to small operators to increase the supply of ore to the mill.

Figure 14. 1949 photo of the Gold Road post office from the Lann Grantham Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 15. 1903 photo of the cyanide tanks from the Metcalf Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

By early 1903, Gold Road's work force had expanded to 300 employees, making it the largest operation employed in the area to date (Figures 16 and 17). Around the same time, the Gold Road Mining Company expanded its holdings along the Gold Road Vein to include the "railroad" group, which was partially owned by Henry Lovin (Stein 1993). The West Gold Road Mining Company continued to operate the adjacent Eclipse Claim, and was the only local competition.

In September of 1903, the Gold Road Mining Company, calling itself the Gold Road Mining and Exploration Company, applied to patent its claims, including the Gold Road, Line Road, Billy Bryan, Climax, Tip Top, Silver Dollar, Gold Dollar, Gold Dollar Extension, Houghton, Gambler, Hobbie, Gold Road Mill Site, Line Road Mill Site, and Billy Bryan Mill Site claims (Stein 1993). And by April of 1904 the monthly output of the Gold Road mill was $70,000 in gold bullion.

Period tax assessment records indicate that a commercial district had developed at Acme, but the mining companies did not plat the settlement into a formal townsite. Parcels were created in irregularly oriented lots that were rented or leased to companies or individuals (Stein 1993). Jennie Bauters was a significant exception, as the West Gold Road Mining Company deeded her a small parcel on the north end of the Eclipse Claim, making her the only person outside of the two established mining companies to own real estate on the Gold Road Vein.

"Belgian" Jennie Bauters (Figure 18) was Jerome's most famous and loved madam, successful businesswoman, and renowned proprietor of Jennie's Place (Sturgeon 2007). She owned a hotel, restaurant, bar, and a brothel in Jerome, and moved to Acme in 1903 or 1904. Her gambling suitor Clement C. Leigh followed her and posed as her husband when it suited him. Ms. Bauters established a core area of Acme that became known as the Bad Lands (Stein 1993). The neighborhood became the focus of housing for laborers, while management personnel lived upslope on terraces near the mine office (Figures 19 and 20). The Bad Lands gained dubious notoriety in the fall of 1905 when two murders occurred there within ten days.

Figure 16. 1904 photo of Goldroad. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 17. 1903 photo of the first house built at Goldroad. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 18. Historical photo of Jennie’s Place in Jerome (Ms. Bauters is recorded as being the woman on the far left but is commonly thought to be the woman in the center due to the black businesswoman’s uniform of the time).

Figure 19. Company house atop a hill. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 20. Historical photo of Goldroad houses on upslope terraces. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

After a time, Ms. Bauters came to feel that Leigh was a threat. In September of 1905 Leigh came to Jennie's place in Goldroad with a gun in his hand and the intent of obtaining money he needed to settle a bad debt. With a fierce anger he demanded that she hand over the cash. When an argument ensued, Jennie tried to flee the building, but Leigh chased her firing several shots. Jennie was wounded and lying in the street paralyzed as Leigh walked up to her and fired a fatal shot to her head (Arizona Republic, September 7, 1905). Leigh then attempted to commit suicide by firing into his own chest. The bullet reportedly entered his lung, but he failed to die and was carted off to jail.

That same year a grammar school was built above the mill and the Gold Road Mining Company built a hospital between the Gold Road shaft and the mill (Figures 21 and 22). 1905 also marked a milestone in Golroad's history when the second largest gold bar ever produced in the Arizona Territory was created. Weighing more than 243 pounds, it was valued at over $50,000 (Stein 1993). Although gold bars worth $30,000 were shipped from the Gold Road mine regularly during the fall of 1905, the 243-pound bar was the largest to come from Gold Road. The close of

Figure 21. Historical photo of Goldroad School by Ed Edwards. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 22. 1928 Goldroad School, Glenn Johnson Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

1905 saw the introduction of a state-of-the-art grinding process that increased the recovery of gold significantly. Around the same time, Henry Lovin and James Carter obtained a lease for the waste water that was released from the Gold Road mine and mill (Stein 1993). They were able to use the water to recover a small amount of gold with little effort by pumping it over zinc boxes.

The mine functioned systematically under ownership by the Posey syndicate, with a mill in operation from 1905 to 1907. During that time the mine employed 180 men, with 75 to 80 of them working underground in three eight-hour shifts. Miners were paid $3.50 per day, and machine operators received $4.00 per day, with a company payroll of about $16,000 per month (Schrader 1909:154).

By the summer of 1907, milling operations reached 800 feet deep at the Gold Road shaft and 400 feet at the Billy Bryan shaft. Six Huntington processors, with a maximum capacity of around 200 tons of ore per day, were used to process the increasing amount of material (Stein 1993). The ore was mainly extracted from a matrix of greenish quartz and was yielding approximately $10 per ton, which cost around $2.50 to $3.00 per ton to process.

F.C. Schrader (1909) of the U.S. Geological Survey visited the mining district in 1907, prepared an assessment of its geology, productivity, and potential of the district, and reported that numerous mining companies were operating in the area. By 1907 Gold Road Mining & Explorations Company (GRMEC) owned the property, which included twelve or more claims that covered nearly the entire length of the Gold Road vein (Figure 23). Lausen (1931:18) reports that the "Gold Road Company" excavated two shafts to depths of 100 feet and recovered gold ore from both shafts. Gold Road Mine peaked in 1905 and 1906, and it is said to have yielded over $2,000,000 (period values) worth of gold ore up to 1907.

High-grade ore started to play out by 1907 and the mine was temporarily closed. The Huntington mills were replaced with a 40-stamp mill in 1908-1909, and the machinery was converted from gasoline to electricity (Stein 1993). The new mill cost a pretty penny, around $200,000, but it was capable of processing 300 to 500 tons of ore per day. Completion of the electric plant in the summer of 1909 provided the mill with an economical source of power, and in September of 1910, two Chilean milling machines were installed in addition to more compressors (Stein 1993).

Figure 23. 1907 photo of Goldroad by F.C. Schrader (1909: Plate IX).

The second decade of the twentieth century saw a population at Goldroad of 273 total residents, with "205 males, 34 females, and 34 children, including 132 heads of households" (Stein 1993:5). The Needles Smelting and Refining Company (Bradley 1993; a.k.a., United States Smelting and Refining Company [USS&RC]; Stein 1993) purchased the mine in 1911 and reopened operations, making it the largest mining deal transacted to date in the Arizona Territory. The deal included all patented claims and improvements, including all lands owned and occupied by the town's residents and business owners, with the exception of properties owned by the West Gold Road Mining Company and the Bauters inholding. The West Gold Road Mining Company was inactive by this time, as it had never found large amounts of gold-bearing ore at the west end of the Gold Road vein and had failed to aggressively develop its holdings (Stein 1993).

Under ownership by the USS&RC, Gold Road employed 200 men and produced a monthly yield of $70,000 by the early winter of 1912. The company laid off 140 workers in 1913 when it temporarily closed the mill for an overhaul but was soon back in operation and once again breaking production records (Stein 1993). "The first run of the remodeled mill produced a bar of bullion reported to be the cleanest of any ever produced in the San Francisco Mining District" (Stein 1993:6).

The Gold Ore Mine, approximately half a mile north of the Gold Road Mine, started using the Gold Road mill to process its ore near the end of 1913. The Gold Ore Mine produced ore that was valued at $11.50 per ton, which equated to approximately $3.00 per ton of pure profit (Stein 1993). By 1916 the mill was processing around 1,000 tons of ore from the Gold Ore Mine, and the Gold Road Mine shafts reached 1,000 feet deep with tailing drifts of over 4,000 feet long. Goldroad reached its peak around 1915 with 300 to 400 buildings housing workers (Bradley 1993) and a population of 400 (Winter 1991) to 700 residents (Morris 1993).

A general slowdown in mining activities forced the 300-ton cyanide mill at Gold Road to close in July of 1916, and it did not resume operations until 1917 when the mill was leased to the Gold Ore Mine (Stein 1993). After discovering a 4-foot-wide gold vein, that was 400 feet long and 400 feet deep, the Gold Ore company constructed a tramway to connect its mine with the mill.

The Gold Road Mining Company (still owned by the USS&RC) announced the discovery of a large gold vein under the Railroad claim in the winter of 1918. Rumors quickly circulated that the company was building up capital reserves and planning to resume milling operations (Stein 1993). The company purchased a rock crusher plant, restocked the mill with cyanide, and prepared a site for the plant near the Billy Bryan shaft. However, all operations ceased in July of 1918 for reasons that remain unclear. Stein (1993:6) posits that the "decision may have stemmed from continuing labor disputes, unionization, and worker demands for higher wages." This caused most of the resident to leave Goldroad and nearly all of the businesses to close, although the Gold Ore Mining Company continued to use the mill on a small scale.

Several historic geology reports exist for the area (Schrader 1909; Bancroft 1915; Ransome 1923; Lausen 1931; Gardner 1936; Wilson et al. 1967; Durning and Buchanan 1984; DeWitt et al. 1986; Almquist 1988; Harris 1998). The Gold Road Vein is over 6,560 × 97 × 698 feet and occupies a fault zone in latite in Tertiary volcanic rocks. Workings included 4 shafts (notably, the #1 shaft and the Line Road tunnel) with a combined length of 18,395 feet and a depth of 900 feet (Wilson et al. 1967). Output was $6,654,050 in gold from 1904 to 1915 (period values; Lausen 1931).

The USS&RC continued limited operation of the Gold Road Mine until 1919, when they leased it to another operator (Ransome 1923; Lausen 1931; Adams-Ockrassa 2010). Census records from 1920 indicate a severe decline in Goldroad's population, with only 12 heads of households listed (Stein 1993). Gold Road Mine was operated under this lease until 1922, and intermittently until 1937. In 1922, USS&RC bought a new mill, rehabilitated the mine and started developing underground gold reserves. Between 1922 and 1924, the USS&RC leased some of its underground workings and sold many of its buildings, although the Gold Ore Mine continued its lease and use of the mill (Figure 24). Joe Onetto (Figures 25 and 26) and a Mr. Fairbanks were the largest lessors of the Gold Road property at this time, and although their operations were relatively small, in February of 1925 they sent 50 tons of ore to Oatman for processing (Stein 1993).

Figure 24. 1925 New Gold Road Mill, Ed Edwards Onetto Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 25. Joe Onetto, Ed Edwards Collection

Figure 26. Joe Onetto 1906-1909, Betty Jean Cringle Swan Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

A general recession in the local mining industry resulted in cutbacks in mining operations in the late 1910s and 1920s. It was reported by the Arizona Bureau of Mines in 1928 that only three mining companies (the Gold Ore Mining Company, the Tom Reed Mining Company, and the Katherine Gold Mining Company) were doing anything more than prospecting in Mohave County. By 1925 population of Goldroad had dropped to around 25 (Winter 1993).

A Los Angeles group took over operations of the Gold Road Mine around 1928, and their new company was known as Gold Road Mining (EMJ 1928). The mill was quickly restarted as soon as possible with an expected capacity of 100 tons a day. Frank Onetto, who held a lease on the property before it was acquired by Gold Road Mining, was in charge of underground work, and R.H. Milne was the superintendent. The mine had a production record of $10,000,000, up to 1928 (EMJ 1928). Other owners include the Goldfield Great Bend Mining Co., Jack Shank, J.D. Spargo, E. Templin, F. Shasson, and D.B. Harper (Mindat 2014). The Goldroad community was centered around four claims during this period: Gold Road, Lineroad, Billy Bryan, and Railroad (Figure 27).

Figure 27. Historical photo of the Lineroad Tunnel. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Unlike other places in the country at the time, the Great Depression brought renewed prosperity to gold mining in the Oatman District. Readily available cheap labor and increasing value of gold prompted companies to resume prospecting and subsequently resume mining efforts at several claims (Stein 1993). The cyanide mill and underground mines at Gold Road saw a new group of lessees, called the Gold Road Mining Company, employ 25 men in mining and processing efforts. They made their first shipment of gold from the plant in early 1930 and were profitable for the remainder of that year.

Figure 28. Historical photo of boys on the steps of the Onetto house. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Despite the introduction of slime processing technology and the shallow (50 feet deep) discovery of gold in a new shaft at Gold Road, the mill closed in the fall of 1930. Several small lessors continued to operate at the Gold Road vein but were forced to transport their ore to the Tom Reed mill in Oatman for processing, which limited local employment opportunities (Stein 1993).

During the 1936 reopening by USS&RC, many of the terraces, road alignments, and building foundations that remained from the earlier occupation of the area were reincorporated into the community as it was rebuilt (Kirvan and Rogge 2006). However, all mining-related structures had been removed, as well as most of the houses and business buildings (Stein 1993). The Onetto house (Figure 28), the Patterson house, the Gold Road Garage (Figure 29), and ruins of some buildings in the Bad Lands were still standing at this time (Stein 1993).

Figure 29. 1925 photo of the Goldroad Garage by Gene Ganor. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

In 1936, the USS&RC constructed a new large mill capable of processing 300 tons per day. A conveyor was built to carry ore from the main shaft to the mill and a new powerline to the mill from Kingman was installed (Stein 1993). The USS&RC reused many existing building terraces and roads, and maintained the general layout of the townsite, with commercial zones in nearly the same locations as before. New houses were built for families of management-level employees east and upslope of the mill and mine, while the laborers built their own houses west and downslope from the mine in the Bad Lands area (Stein 1993). New facilities included a

Figure 30. 1944 photo of Goldroad by Frasher. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 31. 1944 photo of Goldroad from Route 66 by Frasher. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Catholic church, the Tomahawk Cafe, and a grammar school (Figures 30 and 31). A 44,000-volt electric line from Kingman was built in 1937, which supplied power for domestic and industrial use. The USS&RC leased and purchased surrounding mining operation and consolidated its interests around the rejuvenated town. The company signed a new long-term lease for the Red Top Mine at the east end of the Gold Road vein and bought old claims on the west end of the vein from the West Gold Road Mining Company (Figure 32; Stein 1993). Goldroad was once again thriving, employing around 230 men and supporting a variety of social, civic, and religious organizations by February of 1941, but this prosperity was short-lived.

Figure 32. Red Top Mine. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

World War II caused a shift in mineral markets and the town finally died as a result of Presidential Order L-208, which closed Gold Road Mine and all other non-essential metal mines in the country in October of 1942 to support the war effort. In 1943, USS&RC completely closed down operations at Gold Road Mine and salvaged the mining equipment and the town (Morris 1993). Gold Road mill, which had processed 612,000 ounces of gold, was dismantled and moved to Bayard, New Mexico, where USS&RC planned to develop its zinc and lead mining operations (Stein 1993). Many Goldroad residents and mine employees eagerly returned to their homes in New Mexico. The school at Goldroad remained, but enrollment dropped from 164 students in 1942 to only 6 in 1943 (Stein 1993).

Several subsidiary companies held the property, but none were able to reopen the mine, and from 1943 to 1948 there was virtually no activity at the mine (Stein 1993). In 1948 the USS&RC contracted N.R. Dunton of the Gold Road Garage to remove all buildings and property from the mine and the town. In 1949, the wood-frame buildings were torn down and the rock and adobe structures were rendered unusable so the USS&RC could discontinue paying property taxes on unoccupied buildings. The arrangement with Dunton was extended until 1953 to allow time to sell as much of the buildings and equipment as possible. Some of the residences were moved all the way to Kingman and the Catholic church was relocated to Davis Dam (Stein 1993). The USS&RC eventually went bankrupt in 1962.

Today, some structures are still relatively intact (Figure 33), but most miners' homes exist only as a few courses of stone on footers and house foundations. Operation dates, tons of ore recovered, and bullion value are detailed by Lausen (1931:15-16, Table II) and Yount (1994:17) lists her recollection of the years of operation.

In 1992, Addwest Minerals (Addwest) purchased Gold Road Mine, consolidated all of the claims covering the vein, bought a new processing plant, built a mill for extracting gold from the hard rock ore, and excavated a 6,200-foot-long decline tunnel into the mine to reach the gold reserves. Between 1995 and 1998 Addwest produced 92,500 ounces of gold (Adams-Ockrassa 2010). Miners worked three shifts a day until 1998 when they closed their operations due to the reduction in the price of gold. Portions of the mine were then open to tours. But in 2007 Addwest leased the nearby historic United Western Mine and reopened the Gold Road Mine. Addwest has since changed its name to Mojave Desert Minerals, LLC. Since 2007, Gold Road Mine has once again been producing gold, and as of 2010 was employing 125 locals (Figures 34 and 35; Adams-Ockrassa 2010).

Figure 33. 2014 photo of historical structures at Goldroad, taken from Historic Route 66.

Figure 34. 2014 Photo of ongoing operations at Gold Road Mine.

Figure 35. 2010 Photo of Gold Road Mine. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Ethnicity

The mine workers who came to Goldroad brought with them their own distinct social and cultural traditions and mining techniques. The initial workforce at Goldroad was primarily Italian, but changed to Mexican through time (Bradley 1993). In her book Goldroad Arizona on Historic Route 66, Norma Jean Richards Yount (1994) paints a vivid picture of life at Goldroad from 1937-1942, including the ethnic nature of the workforce, the majority of whom she describes as Mexican (exceeding 400, as compared to 50 whites). The company hired whites of Northern European ancestry as supervisors and administrators, while the positions of miners and muckers were filled by Hispanics and immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe (Winter 1993). Yount (1994:117) reports that wages in the mine were between $4.50 and $5.50 per day (Table 1).

Table 1. List of Daily Wages for Goldroad Employees, Between 1937-1942 (Yount 1994)

Figure 36. 1930 photo of the mining officers and crew from the Bud Woodward Collection (Leo Duriez front left). Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Leo H. Duriez was the Manager of Gold Road Mine from 1937-1942, and he is said to have earned great respect of his workers (Figure 36). Duriez recruited the Hispanic workers from the Fierro, New Mexico, area where Duriez had worked in the late 1920s until the Great Depression forced those mines to close. Many Goldroad residents were seasonal workers who would come work there in the fall and winter and leave for Colorado in the spring before the weather became too extreme. Yount (1994:IX) recalls that many of these seasonal miners were European immigrants of different backgrounds, including Cornish, Russian, and other Slavs. However, it is known from 1910 and 1920 census records, and corroborated by analyzed artifacts, that there were five Chinese cooks and a waiter working at the boarding house (Winter 1993). In addition, historical photographs record at least one African-American player for the Gold Road baseball team (Figure 37).

Figure 37. Historical photo of African-American ball player for Goldroad. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Everyday life at Goldroad in the late 1930s was shaped by the large Hispanic population that dominated the workforce. Many of the people that came to Goldroad from other parts of the country (like Oregon and Utah) felt that a caste system was in effect and feared that if they expressed their opinions they would be fired (Yount 1994). Hispanics were physically segregated from the whites in the camp except at school and during Girl Scout and Brownie meetings, which caused some issues. Although the Central Commercial grocery store owned by Henry Lovin (Morris 1993) was larger, a few white families bought the bulk of their groceries at Fortner's grocery store in "Mexican town" (Figure 38). Yount (1994:4) reports that she went to Fortner's once, since the Central Commercial store was closed on Sundays. This visit was not looked upon fairly by her mother and Yount never returned to Fortner's.

Figure 38. 1915 photo of “Mexican Town.” Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Although Oatman had a swimming pool for whites made of several water tanks welded together, the newer concrete swimming pool at Goldroad was only for Hispanics and was off-limits to whites. This swimming pool was equipped with dressing rooms and toilet facilities, which the pool at Oatman lacked (Yount 1994). This pool symbolized Duriez's deep love and appreciation for his Hispanic workers. Duriez's efforts were rewarded with intense loyalty when the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which had great strength and influence in Oatman, attempted to organize the miners at Goldroad and not one Mexican worker signed up with the union (Yount 1994).

Masonry architecture from the 1936 reopening of Goldroad,, including the Morris Bird house, the warehouse-office building, and the assay office area along the south side of Route 66, are the work of Carmen Garcia (Yount 1994). Terraces were constructed from blasting with dynamite, which also provided plentiful stone for construction. Other structures associated with this period were built on house sites from previous operations of the mine, but the masonry in the walls built by Garcia was far superior to that in the earlier walls. Most of the houses were wood construction on stone foundations laid by Garcia, and the larger houses the supervisors lived in had hardwood floors (Yount 1994). All of the houses, garages, offices, mill, and even the station wagon driven from Silver City each morning to transport workers to the mine were painted Smeltingco Gray with white trim, a color scheme used by USS&RC at their other properties (Yount 1994).

Religion

There was a non-denominational Sunday School run by Mrs. Sayer and some other women in the late 1930s. The only church building at that time, however, was the Catholic Church in "Mexican town" (Figure 39). Most of the white residents were likely Protestant (Yount 1994), although there were a handful of Mormons who were quite active. In 1939, the Goldroad Dependant Branch of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) was organized by presiding Elder Morris Bird and met at the school every Sunday evening, offering Sunday school and Sacrament Meeting. Missionaries between the ages of 19 and 21 were sent to camp to proselytize. The LDS church also organized the Goldroad Relief Society, which was also attended by non-LDS.

Transportation

From the Beale Wagon Road to Route 66, Transportation through Goldroad has been an integral theme that defines the area and its economic interconnectivity to the region, especially Kingman (Sonderman 2010; Motley 2012; NPS 2014). In his 1931 report to the Arizona Bureau of Mines, Lausen (1931:10) writes of "Numerous short roads [that] lead from the main highways to the individual groups of claims" (Figures 40 and 41). He notes that many of the roads were impassable in the mid-1930s. One road led off of the main highway, part of the National Old Trails Road system since about 1919, and later to become Route 66, about midway between Oatman and the Gold Road Mine, and followed Silver Creek to the mines in the northwestern part of the Oatman District. In addition, a branch from the Silver Creek Road turned north and connected with the Union Pass Road just north of Thumb Butte.

Figure 39. Historical photo of “Mexican Town” with the church at the top from the Rick Morris Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

With the introduction of the automobile, the needs for transportation infrastructure changed as well. The National Old Trails Road and U.S. Route 66, both generally follow the route of the Beale Wagon Road. Established in 1912, the National Old Trails Road was a hypothetical coast-to-coast highway promoted by the National Highway Association, boosters for a federally funded and maintained system of interstate highways for automobiles (Lowe 1914). Various historic roads, including the Beale Wagon Road, were promoted as the backbones of a new system of roads able to support automobile traffic. As the result of increased traffic along the Beale Wagon Road, which connected Goldroad with Kingman, the highway was completely reconstructed in 1914 and officially included in the National Old Trails Road system (Stein 1993).

Figure 40. 1907 map of the mines of the Gold Road and Vivian Districts (Schrader 1909: Plate X).

Figure 41. 1910 Photo of the City Stables and stage office of M.G. Wagner from the Elizabeth Hand Collection. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

The National Old Trails Road gave way to Route 66, famed of song and screen (Figures 42 and 43). The highway was built through Northern Arizona between 1920 and 1923 but was not enumerated as Route 66 until 1926 (Keane and Bruder 2003). The highway was rebuilt through Northern Arizona in the early 1930s as part of depression-era work projects. In some places it was re-routed, and in others only widened. Route 66 played an important role in the transportation history of the mid-twentieth century, carrying displaced “Dust Bowlers” during the depression and the later boom of migrants to the Sunbelt during the post-war era (Scott and Kelly 1988). The section of Route 66 that passes through Goldroad is among the most scenic portions of the route in Arizona and is likely eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (Stein 1993).

Figure 42. Historical photo of the curves of Route 66 through the Black Mountains near Goldroad. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 43. 1925 photo of Cadillac Curve on the National Old Trails Road above Goldroad. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Gold concentrate was transported from Goldroad to the railroad in Kingman for shipment to the USS&RC smelter in Midvale, Utah, using milk cans in the late 1930s (Yount 1994). The cans were hauled in the back of a company pickup truck into Kingman (Figure 44). Numerous washes crossed Route 66, and they flashed and flowed swift and deep when heavy rains came. Yount (1994:115) recounts one incident where a truck carrying ore-laden milk can was caught in a flowing wash during a severe rainstorm, and two or three of the cans of gold ore were washed out of the truck. As expected, USS&RC put forth great effort and eventually recovered the ore.

Route 66 (the Oatman-Topock Highway; a.k.a., Mohave County Highway 10; Figure 45) largely follows the route of the Beale Wagon Road (Stein 1994), and is shown on the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) Mohave County General Highway and Transportation Map from 1937 (Figure 46; ADOT 1937). This map also nicely details the network of interconnected roads between Gold Road Mine claim groups described by Lausen (1931). Mohave County Highway 10 generally follows the route of the 1850s Beale Wagon Road near Goldroad, but no evidence of the wagon road has been recorded in the area (Kirvan and Rogge 2006).

Commonly referred to as U.S. Highway 66, the road connected Chicago and Los Angeles over a distance of 2,400 miles from ca. 1923 to 1952 (Kirvan and Rogge 2006). Route 66 winds through the Black Mountains and through Sitgreaves Pass, traversing elevations that range from 2,670 to 2,910 feet above modern sea level. Grades are so steep in places that many vehicles were forced to proceed backwards up the hills because the fuel pumps and carburetors of the time were not capable of functioning at such inclines (Figure 47).

Figure 44. 1912-1913 photo of Mike Hoffman and Bill Crowley in the first big truck (a Saures) to go over Goldroad Hill. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Figure 45. 2014 photo of Historic Route 66, on the left, as seen from the Transwestern pipeline through Goldroad, looking west.

Figure 46. 1937 ADOT map showing Goldroad’s road network.

Figure 47. Historical photo of an abandoned vehicle near Goldroad. Courtesy of the Mohave Museum of History and Arts.

Route 66 enhanced commerce between the Midwest and the west coast, and was used in the 1930s by westward-moving migrants displaced by the climatic conditions of the Dust Bowl and the economic impacts of the Great Depression. Residents of Goldroad watched as these destitute homeless people rumbled past their homes almost daily, some on foot, and others in their cars and trucks that were loaded with all of their possessions (Yount 1994). N.R. Dunton, the owner of the Standard Station and garage, pulled many of these vehicles over the mountain to Goldroad for a fee. Some of the displaced refugees, including Tom Redding and his family from Kansas, settled at Goldroad and worked at the mine.

The route was used to transport troops and materials during World War II, and following the war, the all-weather road became popular for "open road adventure" (Kirvan and Rogge 2006). The newly invented car culture and tourism spawned numerous roadside businesses that developed to provide gas, food, and sleeping quarters along nearly the entire length of the highway (NHR66F 2014). The segment of Route 66 that passes near Goldroad was bypassed in 1952 by a new alignment that avoided the Black Mountains by going through Yucca and Topock, southwest of Kingman, and was subsequently replaced by Interstate 40 along this route around 1968. Route 66 was ultimately decommissioned in 1984.

Trade and Procurement

While Goldroad is in a remote and isolated location, its residents were well integrated into regional, national and international markets (Morris 1993:607). Artifacts indicate that there were a wide variety of food items available at area mining camps. However, in company towns like Goldroad, “the mining company closely controlled the number and variety of commercial establishments" (Morris 1993:608). Although there was a small market in the Hispanic section of town, Henry Lovin maintained a "special relationship" with the mining company, and his Central Commercial Store was the "company store" that supplied Goldroad residents with the majority of their locally purchased goods (Morris 1993). Lovin also owned the store in Vivian, and controlled the wholesale supply operation in Kingman. Transactions at the Central Commercial Store in Goldroad were likely in the form of debt accounts against wages, a form of controlled consumerism that limited individual choice and increased merchant profits.

Morris (1993) analyzed 1,012 complete and incomplete artifacts from excavations and surface collections at the Goldroad site and categorized them by level of consumerism (Table 2), defining these levels as: Local, all of Arizona, particularly the distribution centers of Phoenix and Kingman; Regional, extending into southern California, particularly San Diego and Los Angeles; Western Region, the western half of the United States, specifically San Francisco; National, goods originating from the Great Plains eastward; and International, products manufactures outside of the United States. Morris (1993) found that the site yielded artifacts from all levels of consumerism, but concluded that Goldroad was most heavily involved in a National trade network and that neither the location nor type of settlement prevented participation in particular market networks.

Table 2. Table Showing Levels of Consumerism at Goldroad (Morris 1993:609)

Morris (1994) also differentiated spatial areas of Goldroad with different levels of consumerism, concluding that consumer diversity was very apparent at Goldroad compared to neighboring towns like Vivian. The analysis of artifact functional distribution by level of consumerism indicated that subsistence goods were heavily procured from Local, Regional, and Western Region sources; medical and health products were obtained on the National level; while food preparation and consumption artifacts were generally procured at the International and National levels. This may also reflect behavior patterns and taphonomic factors associated with purchasing nondurable Local and Regional goods and foods like animal and botanical items. While commercial foods were still very important for subsistence at Goldroad, the town's historic occupants, especially Hispanic and Chinese people, took advantage of the wild resources around the camp, and evidence from excavations indicate that Goldroad residents seem to have exploited local wild animals and weedy plants more heavily and/or frequently than residents at other non-Native American sites along the Transwestern pipeline (Winter 1993).

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