Bradshaw City

Overview

A silver boom on top of the mountain

Bradshaw City stood in the pines of the southern Bradshaw Mountains, about two miles by road from Crown King, on what is now the Senator Highway. The range and the town carry the name of William Bradshaw, who led a party of prospectors into these mountains in 1863 and struck gold that fall. He was dead by mid-1865, years before the town was built.

The town came out of a silver rush. Strikes at the Tiger and Eclipse mines, and at the Del Pasco by one account, drew miners up the mountain, and in 1871 O. H. Case surveyed a townsite. By May the Arizona Citizen counted two stores, a restaurant, two saloons, an assay office and a butcher shop, with more going up. The Tiger's ore was rich: much of it was said to carry a thousand ounces of silver to the ton.

The boom lasted about two years. The Panic of 1873 and falling silver prices ended it, and the town had shrunk a good deal by 1877. A post office held on from 1874 to 1884. In 1896 the Arizona Republic reported that not a soul was left. Today the site is a Forest Service sign, a few stone foundations and a small cemetery whose graves no longer carry readable names.

Timeline

Boom, bust and a sign in the pines

1. Fall 1863William Bradshaw leads a prospecting party into the range later named for him and strikes gold. A mining district takes his name.
2. Sep 1864The name Bradshaw City first appears in the Arizona Miner.
3. 1864–1865Bradshaw dies. A Los Angeles paper reported in December 1864 that he killed himself at La Paz; Yuma County probate records give May 1865 at Bradshaw's Ferry.
4. 1870The Del Pasco Mine is found, by one account the source of most of the town's prosperity.
5. 1871Rich silver at the Tiger and Eclipse mines sets off a rush. O. H. Case surveys a townsite, and work starts on a wagon road through the mountains to the new mines.
6. Apr–May 1871The Arizona Citizen reports lots surveyed and houses going up, then two stores, a restaurant, two saloons, an assay office and a butcher shop.
7. 1873The Panic of 1873 and falling silver prices end the boom.
8. Jul 1, 1874A post office opens.
9. 1877The legislature puts $35,000 toward a road from Prescott to Bradshaw City. By then the town has shrunk a good deal.
10. Aug 1879Three miners are killed at the Tiger Mine and buried in the town cemetery.
11. Dec 15, 1884The post office closes. The town is largely abandoned.
12. 1896The Arizona Republic reports that not a soul remains and the houses have crumbled or been carried off.
13. 1969The USGS Crown King sheet marks "Bradshaw City (Site)" and the cemetery.
14. 2004–2005The most recent field descriptions we found: stone foundations, the Forest Service sign and six or seven unreadable headstones.
15. Mar 2025The Forest Service closes the Senator Highway past the site for two weeks of wet weather.

Legend and record

What the sign says, and what the record says

The population. Most accounts give Bradshaw City 5,000 people: the Forest Service sign at the site, the Sharlot Hall Museum's catalog, Wikipedia and an undated listing. Western Mining History puts the peak nearer 1,000, citing an 1896 Arizona Republic article, and suggests the bigger number counted the whole mining district. In 1998 a Forest Service employee who grew up in Crown King told Arizona Highways he found 5,000 hard to believe and thought most of the town had been tents. We give the range.

The founding date. A visitor in 2004 copied the sign's text as saying William Bradshaw founded the town in 1863. Western Mining History's reading of the marker credits him only with finding minerals in the mountains about 1863. The newspapers describe the townsite being surveyed and built in 1871, after Bradshaw had died. We treat 1863 as the start of the district and 1871 as the start of the town.

Bradshaw's death. A Los Angeles paper reported in December 1864 that he had cut his own throat at La Paz. The Sharlot Hall Museum's Days Past column questions that account, and Yuma County probate records list his death at Bradshaw's Ferry in May 1865. How and when he died is uncertain.

A story told in Arizona Highways in 1998: a Del Pasco mine owner elected to the first territorial legislature refused to bathe, so his fellow lawmakers dragged him to Granite Creek and scrubbed him. We found no record to confirm it. Treat it as a story.

What's left

Foundations, a sign and a hillside cemetery

The townsite sits on the south side of the Senator Highway among ponderosa pines, at about 6,300 feet. A 2004 visitor from the American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project found stone foundations and a small creek there, with the Forest Service sign across the road and old prospect holes in the hills. Wikipedia's current description matches: a few foundations and the sign.

The cemetery lies a short walk south of the townsite and is marked "Bradshaw City Cem" on the 1969 USGS sheet. In 2005 the same group counted six or seven headstones, none readable, and estimated up to 35 burials. Their list names three miners killed at the Tiger Mine in August 1879, a mine superintendent who died of lockjaw after an accident and a small child who drowned in a well. A 1998 visitor was told the old wooden headboards had been lost to weather and vandals.

The historic maps below show how fast the town left the record. The 1887 sheet marks Alexander, Meesville and Del Pasco Mountain nearby but no Bradshaw City. The 1903 sheet shows Crown King, Wasson Peak and a scatter of mine symbols, and the 1947 sheet names the Senator Highway and the Tiger Mine. Neither marks a town. The 1969 Crown King sheet is the first in the set to mark the site.

• Forest Service sign
• Stone foundations (2004 report)
• Cemetery: six or seven unmarked headstones (2005)
• Prospect holes and mine dumps
• Tiger Mine workings to the south

Historic maps

Bradshaw City on USGS maps, 1887–1981

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18871:250,00019031:125,00019471:62,50019691:24,00019811:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Black Canyon City, on I-17, is the nearest town with services. Crown King, two miles from the site, has a general store, a saloon and cabin rentals. Both routes below climb Crown King Road from I-17 exit 248. Our router then threads Crown King's cabin roads to an unnamed track that ends just north of the townsite. The public through road is the Senator Highway (Forest Road 52), which passes the site, but the router doesn't use it.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Have photos of Bradshaw City?

We haven’t added more photographs of Bradshaw City yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

The Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott holds photographs of the townsite and cemetery.

Visitor reports

Been to Bradshaw City?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Bradshaw City

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.

• Crown King1.2 mi NE · Yavapai
• Minnehaha3.7 mi SW · Yavapai
• Fort Misery3.9 mi S · Yavapai
• Hooper5.0 mi N · Yavapai
• Cleator9.0 mi NE · Yavapai
• Humbug10.0 mi S · Yavapai
• Wagoner10.4 mi W · Yavapai
• Goodwin11.1 mi N · Yavapai

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Bradshaw City": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates, population claim).
2. Wikipedia, "Bradshaw City, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates (GNIS), the 5,000 figure, current remains.
3. Western Mining History, "Bradshaw City": 1871 newspaper reports, the 1,000 population estimate, Tiger Mine ore and output, the Panic of 1873, the 1877 road money, the 1896 Arizona Republic report.
4. Sharlot Hall Museum Library & Archives, "Bradshaw City Cemetery" (catalog notes citing Granger's Arizona Names): first mention in 1864, the May 1871 business list, the townsite survey, the post office opening, the cemetery.
5. Terry Munderloh, "Isaac Bradshaw Picked-Up Legacy after Brother's Death," Sharlot Hall Museum Days Past, July 22, 2000: the 1863 strike, William Bradshaw's death, the 1871 townsite.
6. American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, "Bradshaw City" (archived copy; visits 2004–05): foundations, the sign's wording, elevation, the cemetery count and the 1879 burials.
7. Bob Thomas, Arizona Highways, 1998: distance from Crown King, doubts about the 5,000 figure, the lost headboards, the Del Pasco Mine and the McCracken story.
8. Kathy Montgomery, Arizona Highways, "Prescott to Crown King": Senator Highway directions and vehicle advice, the site on the route, Crown King services.
9. Overland Expo, "Crown King Road and Senator Highway," January 2022: exit 248, road surface, seasons.
10. Prescott National Forest, weather-related road closure, March 14, 2025: the closed stretch of Forest Road 52 and future closures.
11. Prescott National Forest, alerts, checked October 19, 2026: no closure posted for this area.
12. USDA Forest Service, "Recreational Drone Tips": altitude, line of sight, wildlife, fires and wilderness.
13. Rock Springs Café, official site, as of October 2026: hours, the 1918 founding, pies.
14. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; the last two miles are not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• USGS Crown King sheet, 1969: "Bradshaw City (Site)" beside the Senator Highway, with the cemetery to the south: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Prescott 1887, 1:250,000; Bradshaw Mountains 1903, 1:125,000; Crown King 1947, 1:62,500; Crown King 1969, 1:24,000; Bradshaw Mts 1981, 1:100,000.