Abandoned Towns
Camp Mohave in 1871: a bare parade ground with a flagstaff, low buildings around it and desert mountains beyond

Railroad and road town

Fort Mohave

An Army post built in 1859 to control the Mojave people and guard a river crossing, then a boarding school for Native children until the 1930s. A few ruins remain on a bluff that is now part of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation.

35°02′35″N 114°37′21″W · ≈530 ft

Photo: Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Ruins · 2021 report

The fort ruins stand on a bluff above the Colorado River inside the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. The newest dated description, an Associated Press report of October 2021, says they still exist there, and the tribe's own undated page says the same. We found no published rules for visiting them. Ask the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe before you go, and treat fences and posted signs as closed. The post cemetery is beside the ruins.

Overview

A fort at the crossing

Soldiers' quarters, 1871
Soldiers' quarters, 1871 · Photo: Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Fort Mohave stood on a low bluff on the Arizona bank of the Colorado River, at Beale's Crossing, where a new wagon road to California forded the river. In August 1858 raiders killed nine members of the first emigrant party to try that road. The attackers were mostly Hualapai, by Richard Lingenfelter's account, but the Army's answer fell on the Mojave people who farmed the valley. In April 1859 a column under Lt. Col. William Hoffman arrived by steamboat and on foot and built the post, first called Camp Colorado.

Duty there was miserable. The first soldiers lived in brush sheds, short of rations and shoes, and for a time dysentery killed two men a week. The Army pulled out and burned the post in 1861, early in the Civil War. California Volunteers rebuilt it in 1863, built friendly relations with the Mojave and went prospecting in their spare time. A civilian town, Mohave City, grew up beside the post until the Army cleared it off in 1869.

Regular troops held the fort until 1890, when the War Department turned it over to the Indian Service. The buildings became a boarding school where Native children from Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico were made to speak English and give up their traditions. The school closed in the 1930s, the buildings were later razed, and the land is now part of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. A few ruins remain on the bluff.

Timeline

Seventy years on the bluff

Officers' quarters, 1871
Officers' quarters, 1871 · Photo: Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. The Mojave people, who call themselves Pipa Aha Macav, farm the Colorado River bottomlands here, as they have for centuries.
  2. Raiders attack the first emigrant wagon party on Beale's new road at the river crossing, and nine emigrants are killed. The War Department orders a post at the crossing.
  3. Lt. Col. William Hoffman's expedition reaches Beale's Crossing and sets up Camp Colorado on a low bluff on the east bank. Sources give April 19 and April 20.
  4. Capt. Lewis A. Armistead, the first commander, renames the post Fort Mohave.
  5. Armistead's 50 soldiers defeat about 200 Mojave fighters, and open hostilities end.
  6. With the Civil War under way, the Army abandons the post and burns the buildings.
  7. Companies B and I of the 4th California Infantry rebuild and re-garrison the fort. Soldiers prospect the nearby ranges, and Mohave City grows up beside the post.
  8. Company C, 7th California Infantry, relieves Company I. Regular Army troops return in 1866.
  9. The commander extends the post's boundary over Mohave City and orders its civilians out.
  10. Timothy O'Sullivan photographs the post, and the Wheeler Survey's boat party sets out from here.
  11. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad reaches the Colorado 25 miles downriver, at Needles.
  12. The War Department hands the post to the Office of Indian Affairs. It becomes part of the new Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, and the buildings become a boarding school.
  13. The school closes. The tribe and the Arizona DAR say 1930; Legends of America and Wikipedia say 1935.
  14. The remaining buildings are razed, according to an undated listing.
  15. The USGS Davis Dam sheet marks "Fort Mohave (Ruins)."
  16. An Associated Press report describes ruins still standing on the bluff, on reservation land.

The Mojave and the fort

Hostages, peace and a school

California Volunteers with Mojave people at the fort, 1860s
California Volunteers with Mojave people at the fort, 1860s · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

The fort was built to punish and watch the Mojave. Lingenfelter writes that the 1858 attack at the crossing was made mostly by Hualapai raiders joined by a few Mojave, yet the Mojave alone bore the Army's response. When Hoffman's column arrived in April 1859, the Mojave refused to fight and agreed to his demand for hostages. Their principal chief, Cairook, offered himself as one, and the hostages were taken downriver to Fort Yuma. That summer Armistead's soldiers fought and defeated a Mojave force, and open hostilities ended.

Relations changed after 1863. The California Volunteers who rebuilt the post cultivated friendly ties with the Mojave, and many of the soldiers came back after the war to work their mining claims. Mojave families who settled near the fort became known as the Fort Mojave Tribe.

The tribe describes the ruins as a reminder of its “once-troubled historic relationship” with American civilization.

When the Army left in 1890, the Indian Service turned the buildings into a military-style boarding school. The Arizona DAR's Fort Mohave chapter says more than 300 students from tribes in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico attended each year. Wikipedia gives a figure of up to 200. Students had to use English and give up their own traditions. The school closed in 1930 or 1935, depending on the source.

What's left

Ruins above the river

An Associated Press report in 2021 and Legends of America, on a page updated in September 2026, both describe a few ruins on the bluff overlooking the river, just south of Bullhead City. An undated listing names nothing but foundations and says the last structures were razed in 1941. OpenStreetMap marks the ruins on the bluff top with the Fort Mojave Post Cemetery just south of them, and the 1970 USGS sheet shows the same cemetery with a lone grave beside it. The newest photos we found of the post are from 1871; we found none of the ruins as they stand.

The historic maps below trace the post's life. The 1886 sheet shows Camp Mojave on the east bank with a ferry just upstream. The 1892 edition labels the dashed boundary around it as the U.S. military reservation, a rectangle straddling the river. By 1926 the land is the Fort Mohave Indian Reservation and the buildings at the old post carry the Mohave City name. The 1950 sheet marks "Fort Mohave (Ruins)" with Mohave City's site just north, and the 1970 sheet calls it "Fort Mojave (Site)."

  • A few ruins and foundations on the bluff
  • Fort Mojave Post Cemetery
  • Mohave City site, just north (nothing left)
USGS topographic map of the bluff above the Colorado River, with a cemetery symbol near the fort site
USGS The National Map, topo. The fort stood on the bluff where the map now labels Mojave City. The small square below the label is the post cemetery.
Aerial view of the gullied bluff edge above the Colorado River, with faint tracks and lines on the bluff top
Aerial imagery, same area. The river runs along the upper left. Faint straight lines and tracks cross the bare bluff top where the post stood.

Record and legend

Claims to check

A state tourist attraction? Wikipedia's article on the fort says the ruins are controlled by the state of Arizona as a tourist attraction. It cites no source, and the tribe, the 2021 AP report and Legends of America all place the ruins on reservation land. We found nothing to support the state claim.

The founding date. Lingenfelter says Hoffman's expedition reached Beale's Crossing on April 20, 1859. Wikipedia gives April 19.

The school's closing. The tribe and the Arizona DAR say 1930. Legends of America and Wikipedia say 1935.

The map pin. Wikipedia's article on the modern community of Fort Mohave, which most map searches find first, carries coordinates about 60 miles north of the town. The fort site is on the river bluff west of AZ 95, as mapped here.

Historic maps

Fort Mohave on USGS maps, 1886–1970

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 Fort Mohave, 1886
Camp Mohave sheet, 1886, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Bullhead City is the nearest city, about 25 minutes away. From Las Vegas, the route crosses the Colorado River at Laughlin and runs south through Bullhead City. Both routes leave AZ 95 in the town of Fort Mohave and end on dirt roads at the bluff. The routes were computed from OpenStreetMap and we haven't driven them. The last stretch is on reservation land.

USGS topographic map from Bullhead City south to the Fort Mohave site, with the route along AZ 95 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 central Bullhead City7.9 miabout 25 min
  1. From central Bullhead City, take Rio Vista Drive, Ramar Road and Alta Vista Road to the Mohave Valley Highway (AZ 95).1 mi
  2. Turn left onto AZ 95 and head south into Fort Mohave.4.9 mi
  3. Turn right on Dunlap Road, right on Cavalry Road, then left on Sterling Road.0.8 mi
  4. Turn right on Infantry Road and follow it west to the fort site on the bluff.1.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • AZ 95 is paved. OpenStreetMap tags parts of Dunlap, Cavalry and Infantry roads as dirt. An undated listing rates the road 2WD.
  • The ruins are on Fort Mojave Indian Reservation land. We found no published visitor rules for the site. The tribe lists (760) 629-4591 for information.
  • The post cemetery is beside the ruins. Stay off the graves, and don't climb on walls or collect anything.
  • Summer heat along the river is severe. Go between October and April, and carry water.

Photos

Fort Mohave in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Fort Mohave?

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 Fort Mohave

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Fort Mohave": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains) and the 1941 razing.
  2. Wikipedia, "Fort Mohave", retrieved October 2026: founding and renaming, Armistead's 1859 fight, the 1861 burning, the 1863 reoccupation, the 1890 transfer, the school, coordinates.
  3. Wikipedia, "Fort Mohave, Arizona" and "Mojave City, Arizona": the garrison companies from 1863 to 1866, the Mojave name, Mohave City's post office and its 1938 closing, the school's size.
  4. Wikipedia, "Fort Mojave Indian Reservation": the reservation's creation from the military reservation in 1890.
  5. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 (University of Arizona Press, 1978), pp. 23–24, 29, 39–40, 82: the 1858 attack, the hostages and Cairook, the April 20, 1859 arrival, conditions at the post, Mohave City, the railroad at Needles.
  6. Legends of America, "Fort Mojave, Arizona" (updated September 2026): the 1861 burning, the 1863 reoccupation, the school to 1935, and the ruins on reservation land today.
  7. Arizona DAR, Fort Mohave Chapter, "Fort Mohave": the Fort Mojave Tribe's name, the school's 300-plus students a year and its 1930 closing.
  8. Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, "About us": the ruins on the bluff, the school to 1930, the tribe's information number.
  9. Associated Press via KTAR, "Project aims to preserve an Arizona tribe's cultural history" (October 17, 2021): ruins still on the bluff south of Bullhead City.
  10. Coordinates: Wikipedia's "Fort Mohave" article, matching "Fort Mojave (Site)" on the 1970 USGS sheet. Ruins and cemetery: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Reservation boundary: US Census Bureau TIGERweb. Legal description: BLM PLSS (CadNSDI). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; road surfaces from OpenStreetMap. Not field-checked. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits