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.
