Abandoned Towns
A row of weathered wooden storefronts on a dirt street in Chloride under a clear sky

Silver mining town

Chloride

A silver camp from the 1860s that never quite emptied. About 230 people still live among its old buildings, yard art and painted boulders, and its post office has been open since 1893.

35°24′35″N 114°11′50″W · 4,009 ft

Photo: Graeme Churchard from Bristol (51.473110 -2.625987), UK, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Living town

Chloride is a small residential town, open to visitors all year. Most shops and the museum open only on weekends, and the gunfight shows run on some Saturdays at noon. The old mine workings east of town are closed to the public. Respect private yards and check current hours with the Chloride Chamber of Commerce before a long drive.

Overview

The silver camp that stayed

Chloride from a granite outcrop nearby, 2009
Chloride from a granite outcrop nearby, 2009 · Photo: Óðinn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5 ca

Chloride sits at about 4,000 feet on the western slope of the Cerbat Mountains, 23 road miles north of Kingman. It is named for the heavy silver chloride ore that showed in the rock ledges here. Four prospectors located the Silver Hill mine in 1863, and sources date the camp to 1862 or 1863. Conflict between miners and the Hualapai held the district back until a treaty in the early 1870s opened it up.

The post office opened in 1873. About 250 people lived here by 1875 and about 2,000 by 1900, when a branch railroad had just arrived from the Kingman area. The best years ran from 1900 to 1920, with some 75 mines in the hills around town. The Tennessee and the Schuylkill were the biggest, producing gold, silver, lead and zinc. Wikipedia puts the peak population near 5,000, well above every other count we found. By 1938 about 750 people were left, and rising costs closed the mines in 1944.

Chloride never emptied. Its post office reopened in 1893 and has stayed open since, and the town is widely described as the oldest continuously inhabited mining town in Arizona. The 2020 census counted 229 residents. Retirees, artists and winter visitors keep the old buildings in use. Legends of America estimates 20,000 tourists a year, drawn by the yard art, the weekend gunfight shows and Roy Purcell's painted boulders in the hills east of town.

Timeline

From Silver Hill to the 2020 census

The old railroad depot
The old railroad depot · Photo: Victor Solanoy from Silicon Valley, USA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
  1. Prospectors first look for minerals in the hills that became the Chloride district.
  2. Four prospectors locate the Silver Hill mine. Sources date the camp to 1862 or 1863.
  3. A treaty with the Hualapai opens the district to large-scale mining.
  4. A post office opens under the name Chloride. The camp had first been called Chloride City.
  5. About 250 people live in the camp.
  6. The post office reopens after a closure. It has stayed open ever since.
  7. A branch railroad reaches Chloride from the Kingman area. Legends of America gives 1898; Wikipedia, citing 1899 newspapers, gives August 16, 1899.
  8. About 2,000 people. The next 20 years are the peak, with some 75 mines working the district.
  9. The rails are extended to the Tennessee Mine.
  10. Miners vote eight to one against an IWW-backed strike. The sheriff jails four strike leaders and orders them out of town.
  11. Writer Louis L'Amour spends time in Chloride. Much of the town burns in a fire during his stay.
  12. The Santa Fe closes its Chloride station.
  13. Population is down to about 750.
  14. Rising costs close the mines. The town shrinks but never empties.
  15. The census counts 135 residents.
  16. Roy Purcell paints his murals on boulders in the hills east of town.
  17. Purcell and other artists repaint the murals.
  18. The census counts 229 residents.

Art in the boulders

The Purcell murals

The Purcell murals east of town, 2016
The Purcell murals east of town, 2016 · Photo: Victor Solanoy from Silicon Valley, USA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Petroglyphs near Chloride, 2017
Petroglyphs near Chloride, 2017 · Photo: Joshua Noble, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

In 1966 Roy Purcell, a prospector who became a painter, covered a cluster of granite boulders east of town with bright, abstract murals. Legends of America says he was living in the hills there with a group of friends at the time. The paintings cover about 2,000 square feet of rock, on faces up to about 30 feet high. In 2006 Purcell came back with about ten other artists and repainted them with automotive paint.

The murals are about a mile and a half east of town on a rough dirt road, marked by signs painted on rocks. The Kingman visitor site advises a high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicle, or a walk of about 1.3 miles from town. Older petroglyphs are scattered on the rocks nearby. Don't touch the paint or the rock art.

What's here

Old buildings in a working town

The old Arizona Central Bank building
The old Arizona Central Bank building · Photo: Scotwriter21, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Mine ruins on the east edge of town, 2007
Mine ruins on the east edge of town, 2007 · Photo: David Smith, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Chloride is a lived-in place, so most of what survives is still in use. The Chloride Historical Society runs the Jim Fritz Museum at Cyanide Springs, a western-style street of false fronts whose shops open on gunfight days. Around town stand the two-cell jail, the old railroad depot, the post office, the Chloride Baptist Church and the old Arizona Central Bank building. The volunteer fire department keeps a 1939 Ford fire engine. The cemetery lies west of town.

The ruins of the Tennessee and Schuylkill mines sit east of town and are closed to the public. Tennessee Avenue continues toward them as an unpaved road. Legends of America says it needs a high-clearance vehicle, with one steep, rocky stretch that needs four-wheel drive.

The historic maps below trace the district. The 1886 sheet shows a road from Chloride to Mineral Park, a few miles southeast below Cherum Peak. The 1939 and 1944 sheets mark the Tennessee Mine on the east edge of town, the Arizona Magma Mine to the west and Silver Hill just southwest. By 1982 more than a dozen named mines ring the town in the hills to the east and south.

  • Jim Fritz Museum at Cyanide Springs
  • Two-cell jail
  • Railroad depot
  • Post office
  • Chloride Baptist Church
  • Arizona Central Bank building
  • 1939 Ford fire engine
  • Cemetery
  • Tennessee and Schuylkill mine ruins (closed)
  • Purcell murals and petroglyphs
USGS topographic map of Chloride showing the street grid, Silver Hill and Tennessee Wash
USGS The National Map, topo. The street grid sits between Silver Hill, to the southwest, and Tennessee Wash.
Aerial view of Chloride: a grid of houses and dirt streets beside a wide, pale wash
Aerial imagery, same area. Houses fill the grid; Tennessee Wash cuts across the lower right.

Visiting

Visiting today

The post office and the signposts in the town center, 2007
The post office and the signposts in the town center, 2007 · Photo: Jpatokal at wts wikivoyage, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

A visitor in March 2026 found the Mineshaft Market open as a shop and Arizona visitor center with town maps, and Yesterday's Restaurant serving Friday to Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Shep's Miners Inn, newly renovated, is the only place to stay in town. The Cyanide Springs shops were closed that day because they open only when there is a gunfight show.

Sources disagree on the gunfight schedule. The Kingman visitor site lists every Saturday at noon, cut to the first and third Saturdays in July and August. The March 2026 visitor was told first and third Saturdays at noon, September to December and February to May. Old Miner's Day, the town's biggest event, has been held on the third Saturday of October, with a parade, gunfights and vendors.

Historic maps

Chloride on USGS maps, 1886–1982

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.

USGS topographic map around Chloride, 1886
Camp Mohave sheet, 1886, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Day trip

Plan a day trip to Chloride from Kingman

Take it with you

Day trip itinerary

The essentials, the sample day with boxes to tick, what to photograph and the coordinates, on two printable pages. Handy where there's no signal.

Download the PDF (425 KB)

Chloride is 35 minutes up US 93 from Kingman, close enough for a half day. Go on a Saturday if you can. The gunfight show runs then, and the shops at Cyanide Springs open for it. Add the walk out to the Purcell murals and you have a full morning.

A sample day

  1. Leave downtown Kingman and head north on US 93. Turn right on Chloride Road, which is paved into town. The drive takes about 35 minutes.
  2. Stop at the Mineshaft Market, which a March 2026 visitor found open as a shop and visitor center with town maps. Then walk past the jail, the old depot, the bank building and the Baptist church.
  3. Walk or drive out to the Purcell murals, about a mile and a half east of town on a rough dirt road. Look for the petroglyphs on the rocks nearby.
  4. On Saturdays, the gunfight show at Cyanide Springs. The shops there open on show days.
  5. Lunch at Yesterday's Restaurant, open Friday to Sunday as of March 2026.
  6. Head back down US 93. About 6 miles south of the Chloride turnoff, the Mineral Park historical marker stands at Mineral Park Road. Mineral Park itself is inside a working copper mine and closed.
  7. In Kingman, the Arizona Route 66 Museum on Andy Devine Avenue is open daily until 5 p.m., last entry 4:30. Adults $10.
  8. Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner, at 105 E. Andy Devine Ave in Kingman, is open daily until 8 p.m.

Coming from Las Vegas? US 93 runs south past Hoover Dam to the same turnoff. Leave by 8 a.m. to reach Chloride by 10.

What to photograph and film

  • The Purcell murals. Bright paint covers granite boulders, on faces up to about 30 feet high. Step back to fit a whole boulder in the frame, and don't touch the paint.
  • The petroglyphs. Older rock art sits on the boulders nearby. Low, raking light brings out the pecked lines. Look, but don't touch.
  • Storefronts and yard art. Weathered false fronts and yard art fill the streets around town. Shoot from the street, since most yards are private.
  • The gunfight. Good for video. The show starts at noon under a high sun, so expect hard shadows.
  • The depot and the bank. The old railroad depot and the Arizona Central Bank building each make a strong single-building portrait.
  • Chloride from above. The 2009 panorama in our gallery was taken from a granite outcrop near town. High ground shows the street grid against the Cerbat Mountains.

Map & directions

Getting there

Kingman is the closest city, about 35 minutes away. From Las Vegas, US 93 runs south past Hoover Dam to the same turnoff. Both routes end on Chloride Road, which is paved all the way into town.

USGS topographic map between Kingman and Chloride with the route along US 93 and Chloride Road drawn on it

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

From downtown Kingman23.2 miabout 34 min
  1. From downtown Kingman, follow East Beale Street east to US 93.2 mi
  2. Continue north on US 93, the Hoover Dam–Kingman Highway.17.1 mi
  3. Turn right on Chloride Road (County Road 125). Legends of America puts the turnoff between mileposts 52 and 53.2.9 mi
  4. Continue straight as the road becomes Tennessee Avenue and enters town.0.8 mi
  5. Turn right on 2nd Street, then left on Minnesota Avenue.0.5 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Chloride Road is paved from US 93 into town. Ordinary cars are fine.
  • The road to the Purcell murals is rough dirt. The Kingman visitor site advises high clearance or four-wheel drive, or you can walk about 1.3 miles from town.
  • The mine ruins east of town are closed to the public. East of town, Tennessee Avenue turns to dirt, with a steep, rocky stretch that needs four-wheel drive.
  • Most businesses open only on weekends, some only on gunfight Saturdays. Check ahead if you want lunch or the museum.
  • Summers are hot. Fall through spring is the best season to walk around town.

Photos

Chloride in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Chloride?

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.

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White Hills

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Nearby

Other sites near Chloride

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Chloride": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates).
  2. Wikipedia, "Chloride, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation (GNIS), 1899 railroad opening, Louis L'Amour and the fire, peak-population estimate, 1960 and 2020 census counts.
  3. Legends of America, "Chloride, Arizona: Preserving the Past for the Future", updated June 2026: Silver Hill, Hualapai treaty, post office, railroad dates, Tennessee and Schuylkill mines, 1944 closure, buildings, visitor numbers, mine roads, milepost of the turnoff.
  4. Sharlot Hall Museum, "Chloride and Its Corpus are Both Colorful and Historic" (Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright, 2003): name origin, Silver Hill mine, Chloride City, populations in 1875, 1900 and 1938, the 1917 strike vote.
  5. Explore Kingman, "Day trip: Chloride", checked October 2026: museum at Cyanide Springs, depot, jail, businesses, gunfight schedule, mural road advice and walking distance, the chamber's phone number.
  6. Mohave County Historical Society, "Arizona Route 66 Museum" and admission, as of October 2026: hours, address and admission.
  7. Explore Kingman, "Discover Kingman Route 66" (posted February 2025, checked October 2026): Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner, its address and hours.
  8. Legends of America, "Ghosts of the Cerbat Mountain Range", updated October 2026: the Mineral Park turnoff on US 93.
  9. DesertUSA, "Chloride, Arizona": 1966 mural date, Old Miner's Day, the 1939 Ford fire engine.
  10. Just a Little Further, "Chloride Arizona: A Living Ghost Town" (March 2026): businesses open and their hours, gunfight schedule, 2006 repainting, the mural road.
  11. Elevation cross-checked with a USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits