Katherine

Overview

A gold camp that left its name on a lake

Katherine was a gold camp on the gravel plain east of the Colorado River, just north of today's Bullhead City. Two places carry the name today. The mining camp grew around the Katherine Mine, and its fenced mill ruins and pale tailings sit a mile or two northeast of the lake. Katherine Landing is a National Park Service marina and campground on Lake Mohave, named for the mine. The lake itself is younger than the camp: it filled behind Davis Dam, completed in 1951.

The mine began in September 1900, when a teamster named S. C. Baggs panned gold from a granite knob he passed while hauling ore to the Sheeptrail mill. He named it for his sister. Early work went slowly. Hauling was a problem, the amalgamation process recovered gold poorly, and the 1906 San Francisco fire scared off investors.

The real boom came after 1919, when a new company sank a deeper shaft and built a cyanide mill. Promoters in San Francisco and Kingman compared Katherine to Cripple Creek. A town went up with a post office and a boarding house big enough to feed a 100-man crew in half an hour. The company went bankrupt in 1929, a second company revived the mine in 1933, and the federal order that halted gold mining in World War II shut it down. Lessees worked it off and on afterward. The town has since been removed. What's left is a field of concrete piers and foundations, now fenced off by the Park Service.

Timeline

Forty-three years of gold

1. Late 1860sProspectors from Fort Mohave find gold in the Union Pass district. Mines such as the Sheeptrail follow, with a mill near the Colorado River.
2. Sep 1900S. C. Baggs, hauling ore to the Sheeptrail mill, pans samples from a granite knob beside the road and claims it. He names the mine for his sister, Katherine. Early records spell it Catherine.
3. 1900–1904About 2,000 tons of ore go to the Sheeptrail mill. The mine reaches the 300-foot level and is sold in 1904.
4. 1906The San Francisco fire hits the mine's investors, and they pull their support.
5. 1915The Oatman gold boom spills north. New claims around the mine take the Katherine name, but none of them produce.
6. 1919The Katherine Gold Mining Co. sinks a new shaft and builds a mill and cyanide tanks. Promoters compare the deposit to Cripple Creek, Colorado.
7. Dec 21, 1921The post office opens. One account dates it to 1925.
8. Jun 1925A cyanide mill starts up at 75 tons a day. It is later enlarged to 250 tons.
9. Jun 5, 1929The post office closes. In December the Katherine Gold Mining Co. goes bankrupt.
10. 1933–1934Higher gold prices bring the Gold Standard Mining company in. A fire damages the plant in September 1934, and the mill runs again by November.
11. 1934Forty men work here. The mill treats ore from the nearby Roadside, Arabian and Tyro mines as well.
12. 1942–1943Rising costs and the War Production Board's Limitation Order No. 208 close the mine. The mill's last day is April 15, 1943 by one account. The main shaft fills with river water.
13. 1951Davis Dam is completed downstream, and Lake Mohave fills the canyon. A promoted townsite called Tri-State, across the river, ends up underwater.
14. 1959William Ground of Kingman is one of several lessees who work the site after the war.
15. By 2015The mine has been reclaimed and its main shaft plugged. A pump stands where the headframe was, supplying water to nearby homes. The town has been removed.
16. 2020The Katherine census place, which takes in the landing, counts 76 residents.
17. Jun 2026The National Park Service lists the Katherine Mine and Mill site as closed to the public and fenced off because the ground is unstable.

Camp and landing

Which Katherine is which

The mine and mill. The ruins most guides mean by "Katherine" are at the Katherine Mine, beside Katherine Wash. USGS maps from 1950, 1970 and 1982 all mark the mine there, with its tailings pond just to the west. A USGS geology page puts it about 3 miles northeast of the Katherine Landing marina; on the map it's about 1.5 miles in a straight line. Our map point is the mine.

The landing. Katherine Landing is the Park Service's marina, campground and developed area on Lake Mohave, about 2 miles above Davis Dam and reached from AZ 68. It took its name from the mine. The USGS place-name database puts its point for "Katherine" here, and the census place called Katherine, with 76 residents in 2020, covers the landing and the homes nearby.

The townsite. Where the 1920s town stood is less clear. One history says the promoted Katherine townsite was about two miles east of the mine. A 1942 USGS map prints Katherine close to the river, west of the mine. Arizona Daily Star mining historian William Ascarza wrote in 2015 that the town has been removed. Another promoted townsite, Tri-State, lay across the river and is now under Lake Mohave.

Record and legend

Promotion, numbers and a baby named Katherine

Two sources repeat a promotion from the boom years: a free town lot for parents who named a daughter Katherine.

An undated listing says the offer went to the first couple to do so. Ascarza's history says it was open to miners whose first-born daughter got the name. Neither names anyone who claimed a lot, and we found no record that anyone did. Treat it as a promoter's offer.

Production. Katherine was talked up more than it paid. Ascarza puts the mine's output through 1933 at $1.7 million in gold and $100,000 in silver, and the whole district's at more than $3 million by the war. Another history says the mine produced less than $2 million from 1900 to 1940, while the mill earned $3.6 million on ore from other mines. We give both.

Dates. An undated listing dates the post office from December 1921 to June 1929, and Ascarza also says 1921. Another account says 1925 to 1929. The figures for the mill's size also vary, from a 150-ton plant in 1919 to a 75-ton cyanide mill in 1925 and a 300-ton mill by 1934. The mill was enlarged and was rebuilt after a 1934 fire, which may explain some of the spread. Wikipedia's article on Katherine Landing says the mine worked in the late 1800s; every mining history we found dates the discovery to 1900.

What's left

Concrete piers behind a fence

The mill is the main ruin. Descriptions list a field of concrete pillars, platforms and foundations, stairs and walkways with metal railings, and rusting iron tanks and machinery. West of the mill a large tailings pile has eroded into pale gullies; the current USGS topo shows it as a pond. The main shaft has been plugged, and a pump stands where the headframe was. A cluster of homes sits just east of the mill site. The Park Service once ran ranger tours from Katherine Landing, but a 2020 article reported that the tours had ended and the site was closed for safety. It is still closed and fenced. We haven't found freely licensed photos of the ruins, so the gallery below shows the landing.

The historic maps below show the whole arc. The 1892 sheet has nothing here but Pyramid Canyon on the Colorado and the road to Union Pass. The 1942 sheet prints Katherine as a town. The 1950 Davis Dam sheet marks the Katherine Mine as inactive, with mine buildings and roads fanning out across the plain. By 1970 a row of buildings lines the road east of the mine, and the 1982 sheet labels the tailings pond and shows the developed landing by Loaf Rock on the lake shore.

• Concrete mill piers and foundations
• Platforms, stairs and walkways
• Rusting tanks and machinery
• Tailings pile
• Plugged main shaft
• Katherine Extension Mine workings (east)

Historic maps

Katherine on USGS maps, 1892–1982

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.

18921:250,00019421:250,00019501:62,50019701:24,00019821:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Bullhead City is right next door, about 25 minutes away. From Las Vegas, the route runs down US 95 and across the Colorado River into Bullhead City. Both end on the county road beside the fenced mine site. The ruins are closed, so this is a drive past them; Katherine Landing, the park area on the lake, is a short drive back toward the water.

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

Photos

Katherine Landing today

The Katherine Landing marina on Lake Mohave, November 2003The Lake View Trail above the Katherine Landing marinaDesert hills along the Lake View Trail near Katherine Landing

Visitor reports

Been to Katherine?

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.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Katherine

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

• Polhamus Landing3.1 mi SW · Mohave
• Hardyville8.1 mi S · Mohave
• Mohave City13.7 mi S · Mohave
• Fort Mohave13.8 mi S · Mohave
• Murphyville15.1 mi N · Mohave
• Goldroad16.1 mi SE · Mohave
• Oatman17.0 mi SE · Mohave
• Chloride23.3 mi NE · Mohave

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Katherine": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates) and the free-lot story.
2. William Ascarza, "Mine tales: Mohave County mine produced gold, silver," Arizona Daily Star (May 17, 2015): discovery and naming, owners, the 1906 setback, the 1919 revival and Cripple Creek promotion, the free lot, post office year, boarding house, production, the 1934 workforce and mill, the wartime closure, later lessees, reclamation and the removed town.
3. DesertUSA, "Katherine Mine": the Sheeptrail mill, the Catherine spelling, the 1915 boom claims, the Katherine and Tri-State townsites, the 1925 cyanide mill, the bankruptcy, the 1934 fire, the April 1943 closure, production and the ruins.
4. USGS, "Lake Mead – the Katherine Mine" (2005): distance from the marina, operating years and the older Catherine spelling.
5. National Park Service, Lake Mead NRA Superintendent's Compendium (last updated June 11, 2026): closure and fencing of the Katherine Mine and Mill site, Katherine Landing's campground and entrance station, entrance fees.
6. Helen Serras-Herman, Xpo Press (January 2020): the end of ranger tours, the safety closure and NPS ownership.
7. Wikipedia, "Katherine, Arizona", "Katherine Landing, Arizona" and "Davis Dam", retrieved October 2026: the census place and its 2020 count, the landing's location and name, the dam's 1951 completion.
8. Coordinates: the Katherine Mine as mapped on the USGS Davis Dam sheets of 1950, 1970 and 1982. The USGS GNIS populated place "Katherine" (feature ID 25305) marks the landing instead. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• The Katherine Landing marina on Lake Mohave, November 2003: Kevin.Daniels, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
• The Lake View Trail above the Katherine Landing marina: Andrew Cattoir (Lake Mead National Recreation Area), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Desert hills along the Lake View Trail near Katherine Landing: Andrew Cattoir (Lake Mead National Recreation Area), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Katherine printed as a town beside the Colorado on the 1942 USGS sheet: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• The 1982 USGS sheet: the Katherine Mine east of Lake Mohave, and the landing by Loaf Rock: 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): Camp Mohave 1892, 1:250,000; Camp Mohave 1942, 1:250,000; Davis Dam 1950, 1:62,500; Davis Dam 1970, 1:24,000; Davis Dam 1982, 1:100,000.