Clip, Arizona Ghost Town: History, Status and Directions

Overview

A silver mill on the river

Clip stood on the Arizona bank of the Colorado River, about 70 river miles above Yuma by Wikipedia's count, where Clip Wash comes down out of the Trigo Mountains. The Silver Clip Mine was up the wash. Arizona Highways credits its discovery to a prospector named Jose Mendivil in 1881. The ore came down to the river to be milled, and by 1882 there was a landing and a ten-stamp mill on the bank, run for the mine's owners, Anthony G. Hubbard and a partner named Bowers.

The landing put Clip on the steamboat route, and ore was shipped by riverboat. Arizona Highways says the Clip turned out more than a million dollars' worth of silver ore between 1883 and 1887. More than 200 people lived at the mill town, which had a general store and, from February 1884, a post office. Near the end the mill was only reworking the mine's tailings, and it closed in 1887. With silver prices falling, the town went too, and the post office closed in October 1888.

The sources don't agree on where to put the town. Wikipedia and the old USGS topo maps place Clip at the mill and landing on the river. An undated listing places it just north of Silent, another camp of the period, though the township it gives for Clip, T3S R23W, takes in the mill site. This page follows the maps. Today the riverbank here lies inside the boundary of Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, and we found no dated report from anyone who has been to the site.

Timeline

What we know

**Clip Mill (Site) on the 1954 USGS Picacho NW sheet, on the east bank of the Colorado** · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain

1881Prospector Jose Mendivil finds the Silver Clip Mine in the Trigo Mountains, per Arizona Highways. Wikipedia says only the early 1880s.
1882A river landing and the ten-stamp Clip Mill are working on the Colorado, for mine owners Anthony G. Hubbard and Bowers.
1883–1887The Clip produces more than a million dollars' worth of silver ore, which is shipped by riverboat, per Arizona Highways.
Feb 6, 1884The Clip post office opens.
1887The mill shuts down after a last stretch of reworking the mine's tailings.
Oct 13, 1888The post office closes. Like other silver towns, Clip fades as silver prices fall in the late 1880s.
1954The USGS Picacho NW sheet marks "Clip Mill (Site)" on the east bank, with REFUGE lettered along the river.
1998Arizona Highways describes the region as protected by a wilderness area on one side and a weapons training range on the other.
2026USFWS realty maps, last edited in August, put the site inside the Imperial refuge boundary. They record a secondary interest in the land all around it, but none in a small block at the site itself.

Site map

Where the mill stood

The 1954 and 1965 Picacho NW sheets in the historic maps below label "Clip Mill (Site)" on the east bank, where a road along the river meets a track running east toward the mountains. REFUGE is lettered down the bank on both. The 1954 sheet shows a braided river with sandbars and side channels; by 1965 the river runs in one wide channel. The 1986 Trigo Mts sheet no longer names the mill. It letters the wildlife refuge along the river, draws a refuge boundary to the east and shows Clip Wash coming in from the east.

Current aerial imagery shows a clearing at the site with one or two small objects that may be structures. We don't know what they are or who uses them. Wikipedia, without a citation, says a private family trust owns the site. The Fish and Wildlife Service's land maps record a secondary Service interest in the land all around but none in a small block at the site, which is consistent with that. Treat it as private until you know otherwise.

USGS topographic map of the Clip site on the east bank of the Colorado River, with Clip Wash and a track along the bank — **USGS The National Map, topo.** The Colorado runs down the left side. Clip Wash comes in from the east, a track follows the east bank, and green lines mark land boundaries.

Aerial view of the Clip site: the Colorado River at left and a clearing on the east bank with one or two small bright objects — **Aerial imagery, same area.** The river is at left. Near the center, a clearing on the east bank holds one or two small objects that may be structures.

Historic maps

Clip on USGS maps, 1954–1986

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 Clip, 1954 — **Picacho NW sheet, 1954, 1:24,000** · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Blythe, California, is the closest town with services. We found no source for a public road to Clip on the Arizona side, so both routes below end on Walters Camp Road on the California side of the river, about 2 miles north of the site in a straight line. The router times nearly all of their last 8.8 miles at walking pace, which is why the drive times are so slow for the distance. We haven't driven them, and we don't know of a legal way to reach the site from where they end.

USGS topographic map between Blythe and Clip with the routed approach along CA 78 and the Colorado River 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 Blythe, California39.1 miabout 3 h 21 min

From downtown Blythe, turn around and head west on Hobsonway, take Lovekin Boulevard south to I-10 west, and take the exit signed SR-78 South.3.8 mi
Turn left onto Neighbours Boulevard (I-10 Business, CA 78).6.9 mi
Follow CA 78 along 28th Avenue, Rannells Boulevard and 32nd Avenue, then on as Ben Hulse Highway.19.6 mi
Turn left onto Three Slashes Road, which becomes 8N04.2.3 mi
Turn left onto Walters Camp Road.4.3 mi
Turn left onto Monty Court Road and continue on Old River Road, then go right on Imbertson Way, left on Green Tree Road and back onto Walters Camp Road to the end of the route. The site is about 2 miles south, across the river.2.2 mi

Google Maps directions Apple Maps OpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

We haven't driven these routes. The router times nearly all of the last 8.8 miles, from Three Slashes Road on, at walking pace. OpenStreetMap (October 2026) tags Three Slashes Road, 8N04 and Walters Camp Road (BLM 704) as compacted gravel, with one stretch of Three Slashes Road as a rough dirt track.
Both routes end on the California side of the Colorado. The site is on the Arizona bank, about 2 miles south of the route's end.
The site lies inside Imperial National Wildlife Refuge's boundary. Refuge rules say "Vehicles are only allowed on designated public use roads" and "Camping, fires, and target shooting are not permitted." Its lands are open dawn to dusk.
Wikipedia, without a citation, says a private family trust owns the site itself. Respect fences, gates and posted signs.
In 1998 Arizona Highways' writer drove from Cibola, Arizona, along the river levees, then on a road east toward the Trigos, and parked at the wilderness boundary to hike Lopez Wash, two drainages north of Clip Wash. We found no later source on that road or on whether it is a designated public use road today.
In 1998 Arizona Highways wrote that the Trigo Mountains have a wilderness area on one side and a weapons training range on the other, with unexploded shells. Stay off the range.
An undated listing rates the summers hot and suggests winter or fall. Carry water.

Photos

Have photos of Clip?

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

Visitor reports

Been to Clip?

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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Nearby

Other sites near Clip

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

Cibola9.0 mi N · La Paz
Nortons Landing9.5 mi S · La Paz
Williamsport11.7 mi SE · La Paz
Drift Desert15.8 mi N · La Paz
Castle Dome Landing19.5 mi SE · Yuma
La Laguna27.5 mi SE · Yuma
Castle Dome30.2 mi E · Yuma
Ehrenberg30.2 mi N · La Paz

Sources

Sources and credits

ghosttowns.com, "Clip": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates, population), its placement near Silent and its note on the road (undated).
Wikipedia, "Clip, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates, elevation, the landing and mill, owners, mill dates, population, post office dates, decline and the family trust.
Bill Broyles, "Legends of the Lost," Arizona Highways, September 1998: Mendivil's 1881 discovery, the 1883–1887 production, the river mill and riverboat shipping, the wilderness and weapons range around the Trigos, and the writer's drive from Cibola to Lopez Wash.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, "Visit Us" and "Rules & Policies" (undated, read October 2026): dawn-to-dusk hours, vehicles on designated roads only, no camping, fires or target shooting.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Realty, approved-boundary and real-estate-interest map layers (last edited August 24, 2026; queried October 2026): the site inside the Imperial refuge boundary, a secondary Service interest in the land around it, and no recorded interest in a small block at the townsite. Resource-grade maps, not a legal survey.
ghosttowns.com, "Silent": Silent's post office years (1880–1884).
Road surfaces: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Township and range at the mill site: BLM national PLSS layer (CadNSDI), queried October 2026. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

Clip Mill (Site) on the 1954 USGS Picacho NW sheet, on the east bank of the Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Picacho NW 1954, 1:24,000; Picacho NW 1965, 1:24,000; Trigo Mts 1986, 1:100,000.