Franconia

Overview

A section house on a busy main line

Franconia was a siding and section house on the Atlantic and Pacific line, later the Santa Fe and now BNSF, in Sacramento Wash about 30 rail miles from Kingman. A small crew lived here to keep its stretch of track in repair. By one account it was named by F. W. Smith, a railroad general superintendent, for his son Frank.

The record is thin but specific. In 1887 the railroad had two small wooden houses here. The 1900 census found three people: a foreman born in England and two laborers from Japan. We found no post office. Franconia did have a telegraph operator, and in 1901 his "no orders" signal sent a westbound passenger train on toward an eastbound one. They met head-on just west of the siding.

Today the line is double track and very busy. When researchers from the American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project (APCRP) visited around 2011, they found concrete slabs where buildings had stood, scattered debris and unmarked graves on both sides of the tracks.

Timeline

A siding's record

1. 1883The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad lays its line down Sacramento Wash to the Colorado River.
2. May 28, 1887The railroad's lawyer protests Mohave County's tax assessment of company buildings, including two small wooden houses at Franconia.
3. 1900The census lists three people at Franconia: section foreman J. R. Carroll, born in England, and two Japanese track laborers.
4. Nov 20, 1901Two Santa Fe passenger trains meet head-on just west of Franconia. Eight men working on the trains die or are never found.
5. Jun 1903Santa Fe engineer George Payne is crushed beneath his engine on a side track at Franconia.
6. 1917Laborer Antonio Gomez dies of smallpox. His is the only death certificate APCRP found that names Franconia as the burial place.
7. Apr 1923The Santa Fe double-tracks the line through Franconia.
8. 1935By APCRP's account, the section houses by the tracks are given away to anyone who will haul them off.
9. Aug 21, 1945A passenger train pulling out of the Franconia siding is hit by a following train. 57 people are hurt and nobody dies.
10. 1993A Waste Management subsidiary holds a permitted landfill site at Franconia. APCRP saw no activity there in 2011.
11. By 2011APCRP researchers find concrete slabs and unmarked graves on both sides of the tracks.

November 20, 1901

Six minutes early at Franconia

Before dawn on November 20, 1901, westbound train No. 3 was running late out of Kingman. The dispatcher issued orders that let it run two hours behind schedule with the right of track. Eastbound No. 4, pulled by two oil-burning engines, was to wait for it on the siding at Franconia.

No. 3 didn't keep to its orders. It passed Yucca two minutes early and reached Franconia six minutes ahead of its allowed time. Its engineer signaled for orders, the operator answered by semaphore that there were none, and the train ran through at 60 to 70 miles an hour. No. 4 had stopped at Powell for a few minutes to adjust a locomotive's oil feed and was still on the single track, doing 40 to 50.

The trains met on a curve about a mile and a quarter west of Franconia. Other accounts put it at a mile and a half or two miles.

The Mohave County Miner's account, as quoted by APCRP, names eight men working on the trains who died or were never found, including the engineer of No. 4's lead engine and two firemen. The second engine exploded, and its burning oil set the cars on fire. The remains of several men riding without tickets were found later, along with a coffin being carried east. A relief train came from Kingman, and the injured went to Needles.

Holmes, the engineer of No. 4's second engine, survived and sued. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1906 upheld his $9,000 award. The court found that the dispatcher knew No. 3 was running early and should have stopped it at Franconia.

Franconia saw a second wreck on August 21, 1945. A westbound passenger train carrying Navy medical staff was easing from the siding onto the main line when a following westbound train hit it. The Interstate Commerce Commission blamed signals that didn't protect moves from the siding. Its report, as summarized by APCRP, counts 49 passengers and 8 railroad and Pullman workers hurt, and no deaths.

What's left

Slabs and unmarked graves

APCRP's survey found a large concrete slab beside the tracks on the north side, probably the base of the section house, and five smaller slabs with drain holes farther north toward the Black Mountains. The graves of at least six men lie north and east of the large slab. One had a fallen wooden cross, another a decayed wooden marker, and some were ringed with stones. None had a name.

South of the tracks, near an old hobo camp, the team counted eight more possible graves and two pet graves. Whether these belong to the same cemetery, nobody knows. OpenStreetMap marks the Franconia Cemetery just north of the main line, about 80 meters from the point we use for the town.

An undated listing says nothing remains. None of the historic sheets below marks buildings at Franconia. They show the station name, a 1,101-foot benchmark and a wagon road along the wash, and the 1970 sheet adds a well and a paved road up to the tracks.

• Large concrete slab (section house site)
• Five small slabs with drain holes
• Unmarked graves north of the tracks
• Possible graves south of the tracks
• Scattered cans, glass and metal

Historic maps

Franconia on USGS maps, 1903–1970

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.

19031:125,00019501:62,50019701:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Lake Havasu City is the closest city. From Las Vegas, the route runs down US 95 to Needles and east on I-40. Both leave I-40 at exit 13, Franconia Road, which is paved up to the railroad. OpenStreetMap shows the road passing under the railroad there and doubling back west on dirt to the site. We haven't driven 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 Franconia?

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

The Mohave Museum of History and Arts holds a photograph of the 1901 wreckage.

Visitor reports

Been to Franconia?

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 Franconia

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

• Powell6.2 mi W · Mohave
• Eastbridge18.3 mi W · Mohave
• Liverpool Landing19.1 mi S · Mohave
• Oatman21.0 mi N · Mohave
• Goldroad22.2 mi N · Mohave
• Cedar27.0 mi E · Mohave
• Fort Mohave29.0 mi NW · Mohave
• Mohave City29.1 mi NW · Mohave

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Franconia": fact sheet fields (county, roads, climate, best time, remains).
2. Wikipedia, "Franconia, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: former siding, coordinates and elevation (GNIS).
3. American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, Kathy Block, "Franconia Cemetery and Graves" (2011, rev. 2019): the name, 1887 assessment, 1900 census, 1903 death, both wrecks (quoting the Mohave County Miner, the Kingman Miner and the ICC report), double-tracking, graves, slabs, landfill permit, directions.
4. Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. v. Holmes, 202 U.S. 438 (1906), via the Library of Congress: train orders, times, speeds and location of the 1901 collision, and the court's ruling.
5. Jim Forte Postal History, Mohave County post offices: no Franconia office listed.
6. AARoads, "Interstate 40 West, Kingman to California" (updated March 2022): BNSF siding at exit 13.
7. Wikipedia, "U.S. Route 66 in Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the September 1952 bypass from Topock to Kingman through Yucca, on level ground near the railroad, later rebuilt as I-40.
8. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection: Needles 1903, Topock 1950, Franconia 1970 (station, benchmark 1101, section and township; US 66 half a mile south on the 1970 sheet).
9. BLM Surface Management Agency map service, queried October 19, 2026: private land along the siding and at the site, on both sides of the tracks, with BLM sections farther out.
10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Road surfaces, rail layout and the cemetery: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The 1903 Needles sheet: Franconia on the Santa Fe in Sacramento Wash, with benchmark 1101: 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): Needles 1903, 1:125,000; Topock 1950, 1:62,500; Franconia 1970, 1:24,000.