Abandoned Towns
The Gold Road Mine's plant and roads in a desert gulch, seen from the Route 66 grade below Sitgreaves Pass

Gold mining town · On Route 66

Goldroad

A gold camp on the Route 66 grade just above Oatman, razed for taxes in 1949. The mine beneath it is working again, so the townsite is private and closed.

35°02′48″N 114°22′47″W · ≈2,840 ft

Photo: G. Edward Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Active mine · private

The townsite lies inside the Gold Road Mine, which restarted in late 2025 and reported pouring gold in August 2026. The property is private and closed to visitors, and we found no public tours since 2007. View it from Historic Route 66. Don't enter mine roads or gates.

Overview

The town the mine swallowed

Gold Road Gulch with the mill and the No. 1 and No. 3 shafts, USGS 1921
Gold Road Gulch with the mill and the No. 1 and No. 3 shafts, USGS 1921 · Photo: USGS, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Goldroad stood in a gulch on the west side of Sitgreaves Pass, just over a mile north of Oatman on what became Route 66. Jose Jerez found the outcrop in 1899 or 1900. Legends of America says he was out looking for a lost burro. The ore assayed about 40 ounces of gold to the ton, and in 1901 Jerez sold the claim for $50,000.

The owners built a company town for the miners. It had a post office from 1902 and, at one time, more than 400 people. The mine's best years were 1905 and 1906. Output estimates vary widely. Legends of America credits the mine with more than $2 million and the district with over $7 million from 1906 to 1931, and Western Mining History credits the mine with nearly 750,000 ounces. The mine closed in 1931, was working again by 1936 after the gold price rose, and stopped under the wartime ban on gold mining. The post office closed in October 1942, and in 1949 the town was razed to save on taxes.

Mining came back in the 1990s and has started and stopped with the gold price ever since. The latest restart came in late 2025. The townsite now lies inside a working, private mine. What a visitor can see is the plant, a few stone ruins along the highway and the gulch from the switchbacks of old Route 66.

Timeline

Boom, bulldozer and restart

The Gold Road mine in 1906, photographed by F. C. Schrader of the USGS
The Gold Road mine in 1906, photographed by F. C. Schrader of the USGS · Photo: F.C. Schrader, US Geological Survey, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
US 66 at Goldroad on a postcard dated June 1944, five years before the town was razed
US 66 at Goldroad on a postcard dated June 1944, five years before the town was razed · Photo: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. John Moss finds traces of gold in the Black Mountains, then leaves for the silver strikes in the Cerbat Mountains.
  2. Jose Jerez finds a ledge of gold-bearing quartz. Kingman storekeeper Henry Lovin had grubstaked him. Sources give both years.
  3. A California group buys the claim for $50,000. It later changes hands again for $275,000.
  4. The Goldroad post office opens.
  5. The mine's richest years.
  6. USGS geologist F. C. Schrader photographs the mine.
  7. The district produces more than $7 million in gold.
  8. The mine closes and its mill is dismantled.
  9. The gold price rises from $20.67 to $35 an ounce. The mine is pumped out and back at work by 1936, sending ore to the Tom Reed mill at Oatman.
  10. The post office closes. The wartime ban on gold mining shuts the mine.
  11. The town is razed to save on taxes.
  12. Route 66 moves to a new road through Yucca, leaving the Goldroad grade to local traffic.
  13. Addwest Minerals acquires the mine and resumes production after three years of development.
  14. Low gold prices close the mine. Tours run during the shutdown.
  15. Higher gold prices bring mining back, and the tours end.
  16. Para Resources restarts the Gold Road mill.
  17. The mill and mine restart under Gold Road International.
  18. The operator reports 17,625 tons of feed and 214 ounces of gold poured for the month.

The mine today

A mine that keeps coming back

A Gold Road Mine portal, 2019
A Gold Road Mine portal, 2019 · Photo: Marine 69-71, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Addwest Minerals bought the Gold Road Mine in 1992. After three years of development, hard-rock miners worked three shifts a day until gold prices fell in 1998 and the mine shut. During that shutdown the company ran mine tours. Rising prices brought mining back in 2007, and the tours ended. Para Resources restarted the mill in February 2019.

The current operator, Gold Road International, says it restarted the mill and mine in late 2025. Its report for August 2026 lists 17,625 tons of feed, most of it old tailings from the Tom Reed mine at Oatman, and 214 ounces of gold poured. The company is aiming for 8,000 to 10,000 ounces a year.

We found no public tours since 2007. Treat every gate, mine road and building as off limits.

What's left

Foundations beside the highway

Stone ruins beside Route 66 at the upper workings, April 2026
Stone ruins beside Route 66 at the upper workings, April 2026 · Photo: G. Edward Johnson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Little of the town survives. An undated listing names rock and adobe foundations, stone house ruins, water tanks and cement stairs. A photo from April 2026 shows stone ruins beside Route 66 at the upper workings. Most of the old townsite is now mine ground. In the aerial view below, terraced workings and a green pond fill the north side of the highway, and the plant buildings line the road.

The historic USGS sheets further down show the town's arc. The 1886 sheet has only a road line over the range. The 1942 and 1954 sheets print Goldroad as a town on the highway, just north of Oatman. The detailed 1967 Oatman sheet marks it “Goldroad (Site),” with a cemetery to the north, the Goldroad Mine across the highway and a note that Kingman is 25 miles on. By 1982 only “Goldroad Mine” is left on the map.

  • Rock and adobe foundations
  • Stone house ruins
  • Water tanks
  • Cement stairs
  • Stone ruins at the upper workings
  • Working mine plant
  • Old Route 66 grade
USGS topographic map of the Goldroad area: Silver Creek Wash and the winding old highway
USGS The National Map, topo. The old highway winds across the lower half. The townsite sat between it and Silver Creek Wash.
Aerial view of the Gold Road Mine: terraced workings and a green pond above a road, plant buildings at right
Aerial imagery, same area. Mine workings and a pond at top, the plant at right and Route 66 curving through the lower left.

Historic maps

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

Map & directions

Getting there

Goldroad sits on Historic Route 66 between Sitgreaves Pass and Oatman. From Kingman, the route crosses the pass and runs right past the mine. The plotted townsite point is inside the mine, so both routed lines below end on a private mine road. Stop on Route 66 instead. The Las Vegas route uses Silver Creek Road, a dirt road.

USGS topographic map between Kingman and Goldroad with the Route 66 approach over Sitgreaves Pass 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 Kingman29.1 miabout 1 h 03 min
  1. From downtown Kingman, follow East Beale Street to I-40.1.2 mi
  2. Take I-40 west and leave at the McConnico exit, which the BLM lists as exit 44.4.2 mi
  3. Turn right on Shinarump Road, then left onto Oatman Road (County Route 10, Historic Route 66). It climbs over Sitgreaves Pass and winds down past the Gold Road Mine plant.22 mi
  4. The routed line then doubles back on Silver Creek Road (County Route 155) and a mine road to the townsite point. That road leads into the private mine. Don't follow it.1.6 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The townsite is inside a working mine. Stay on Route 66 and stay out of mine roads, gates and buildings.
  • Oatman Road over Sitgreaves Pass is paved but narrow, with hairpin curves and steep grades. Posted limits run from 20 to 45 mph.
  • Vehicles over 40 feet aren't allowed over the pass between Golden Valley and Oatman.
  • Silver Creek Road from Bullhead City is dirt. Arizona Highways calls it rough in spots but passable in any car driven with care.
  • The BLM lists fuel in Kingman, Golden Valley, Bullhead City and Fort Mohave. Oatman, just down the road, has food and shops.
  • Summer heat is severe. The BLM recommends October through April.

Photos

Goldroad in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Goldroad?

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 Goldroad

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Goldroad": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates, population).
  2. Legends of America, "Gold Road, Arizona – Gone …. For Now", updated October 2026: John Moss, Jerez and the grubstake, sale prices, peak years, production, the 1949 razing, Addwest, the tours and the 2007 restart.
  3. Western Mining History, "Goldroad": coordinates and elevation, the post office break, the 1931 closure and 1936 restart, production in ounces.
  4. Gold Road International plc, operational update for August 2026 (released September 3, 2026): the late-2025 restart and current output.
  5. Para Resources, February 28, 2019: restart of the Gold Road mill.
  6. Wikipedia, "County Route 10 (Mohave County, Arizona)": Goldroad on the old highway, Sitgreaves Pass, the September 17, 1952 bypass.
  7. Wikipedia, "U.S. Route 66 in Arizona", retrieved October 2026: US 66 from 1926 on the Topock–Oatman–Sitgreaves Pass route, and the September 17, 1952 bypass through Yucca.
  8. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Arizona": the alternate name Acme. Wikipedia has no article on Goldroad itself.
  9. BLM, "Route 66 Oatman Road Back Country Byway": 40 ft length limit, grades, exit 44, fuel and season.
  10. Arizona Highways, "Silver Creek Road": road surface on the Bullhead City approach.
  11. USGS photo captions (1906, 1921), via Wikimedia Commons. Elevation: 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