Kofa

Overview

The king of Arizona's gold camps

Kofa was the camp of the King of Arizona Mine, at the southwest end of the Kofa Mountains, about 22 miles of dirt road east of US 95. Charles E. Eichelberger found gold there in 1896. The company stamped "K of A" on its equipment, and the camp took the name Kofa. So, in time, did the mountains, which older maps call the S. H. Mountains, and the wildlife refuge that now surrounds them.

Water was the first problem. In 1898 the company built a five-stamp mill and cyanide plant at Mohawk on the Gila River, 35 miles south, and the ore went there. A 1,000-foot well five miles south of the mine later supplied water for treating ore closer to home. Sources differ on whether the new plant stood at the mine or at the well. The camp had a boarding house, saloons, doctors, a company store and a school. About 125 men worked the mine, most of them Cornish, and accounts of the camp's size run from about 300 to 750 people.

For about a decade the mine averaged 200 tons of ore a day. The rich ore gave out with depth, and the mine shut down in the summer of 1910. Totals run from $3.5 million to more than $4 million in gold and silver, depending on the source. The post office hung on until 1928. Since 1939 the district has been part of a federal refuge for desert bighorn sheep, but the mine claims stayed private, and mining has come back in small ways since. Today the camp is a private parcel, the cemetery lies just outside it on refuge land, and the name Kofa on most maps points somewhere else entirely.

Timeline

From strike to wildlife refuge

1. 1896Charles E. Eichelberger finds high-grade gold ore at the southwest end of the range then called the S. H. Mountains. With backing from railroad executive Epes Randolph and H. B. Gleason, the King of Arizona Mining Co. is formed.
2. 1898There's no water at the mine, so the company builds a five-stamp mill and cyanide plant at Mohawk on the Gila River, 35 miles south.
3. 1899Col. Eugene S. Ives buys the property for $250,000, by one account. The camp is busy, its miners mostly Cornish, and a school for 16 pupils is planned.
4. Jun 5, 1900The Kofa post office opens. The name comes from "K of A," the mark the company stamped on its property.
5. 1906Felix Mayhew, a night-shift miner at Kofa, opens the North Star Mine two miles north. Its camp, Polaris, counts 339 people in 1910.
6. 1907The King of Arizona is in decline as its rich ore runs out.
7. Summer 1910The mine shuts down. Ore that averaged $40 a ton is down to about $3 a ton at 750 feet.
8. 1925–1926The Southern Pacific builds a line from Wellton to Phoenix. A stop on it near the Gila River, about 32 miles southeast of the camp, is named Kofa.
9. Aug 27, 1928The post office closes.
10. Jan 25, 1939Executive Order 8039 creates the Kofa Game Range to protect desert bighorn sheep. The old camp lies inside it.
11. 1940sGeneral George S. Patton's troops train in the Kofa Mountains during World War II and leave unexploded ordnance behind.
12. 1950sFederal buying programs bring small tungsten and manganese operations to the district.
13. 1976The Fish and Wildlife Service takes sole charge, and the range becomes Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.
14. 1990The USGS Kofa Butte sheet shows open-pit mines beside the old King of Arizona workings.
15. 2010–2011Volunteers map 33 possible graves in the Kofa cemetery. Visitors find the mine operating and closed to the public, with signs pointing to distant viewing spots.
16. Oct 2026Federal land-status data still show the mine and the heart of the camp as a private parcel inside the refuge.

Two places, one name

The camp and the siding

Search for Kofa, Arizona and you'll probably land in the wrong place. The USGS place-name record for Kofa (GNIS 24482), and the Wikipedia coordinates taken from it, point to 32.882° N, 113.647° W. That's a railroad siding at about 390 feet near the Gila River, on the line the Southern Pacific built from Wellton to Phoenix in 1925 and 1926. OpenStreetMap labels the track there Kofa Siding. Union Pacific took the middle of the line out of service in 1996, and by 2010 the 80 miles between Roll and Arlington, siding included, were used only for car storage.

The mining camp is 32 miles to the northwest, at about 1,820 feet on the foot of the Kofa Mountains. That's where the gold was, where the post office opened in 1900, and where the cemetery is. The siding came 15 years after the mine closed, and we found no record of a settlement there beyond the railroad. The legal description an undated listing gives for Kofa, T2S R17W, also fits the camp. The 1962 and 1990 USGS Kofa Butte sheets mark the King of Arizona Mine in section 12 of that township.

• Kofa, the mining camp. The King of Arizona Mine, about 33.269° N, 113.967° W. This page.
• Kofa siding. A stop on the former Southern Pacific line, now Union Pacific's Phoenix Subdivision, about 32.882° N, 113.647° W. Where most map apps and Wikipedia put the name.
• Polaris. The camp of the North Star Mine, about two miles north of the King of Arizona, founded in 1909. An undated listing gives it its own entry.

The King of Arizona Mine itself no longer has its own entry in the current GNIS names database, which helps explain why the siding's record gets used for the camp. We placed the camp from the USGS topo sheets and OpenStreetMap.

What's left

Tailings, a fence line and a cemetery

Little of the town survives. An Arizona Highways writer described crumbling buildings, tailings piles, mounds of broken crockery, blue glass and rusted cans, with signs on the private land reading "Stay on Designated Roads" and "Danger Cyanide." A visitor in December 2011 found the mine operating and closed, and photographed it from about half a mile away. Wikipedia notes that some old buildings are used as winter homes. An undated listing names a few buildings and the cemetery.

The cemetery lies about three-quarters of a mile east-southeast of the mine, outside the private parcel. A 2010 survey by the Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project counted 33 possible graves in a plot about 105 by 150 feet, inside a wooden picket fence that was partly down. Only two markers could be read: a marble headstone for Reyes Garcia, who died on February 3, 1901, and a rough stone carved "1908" on one side and "1910. Died Nov. 24" on the other.

Next door to the King of Arizona is the Rob Roy mine. In January 2011 refuge staff and NOLS students cleaned up that site, repaired the Tillotson house and painted a building that once served as the post office, with a plan to make the house a small exhibit. We found no later report on that plan.

The historic maps below trace the district. The 1942 Vicksburg sheet marks the Kofa Mine at the foot of the S. H. Mountains and a "Deep Well" to the southwest, probably the well that solved the water problem. The 1954 sheet letters "Kofa Game Range" across the mountains, with the King of Arizona below the North Star Mine and Polaris Mountain. The 1962 Kofa Butte sheet is the most detailed. It shows the King of Arizona, Rob Roy, Eagle, Black Dahlia and Evening Star mines, Rob Roy and North Star wells, jeep trails, and the cemetery to the southeast. By 1990 the same sheet adds open-pit mines beside the old workings and King Road looping around the hills.

• Cemetery, 33 possible graves (refuge land)
• Mine workings and tailings (private)
• Open pits from later mining (private)
• A few buildings
• Rob Roy mine buildings
• Broken crockery and glass

Historic maps

Kofa on USGS maps, 1942–1990

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.

19421:250,00019541:250,00019621:62,50019881:100,00019901:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Quartzsite is the closest town with services. Both routes take US 95 to the refuge's King Valley entrance and then King Road, a dirt road that runs about 22 miles east across King Valley to the mine hills. The routed endpoint is on King Road just west of the private parcel. We haven't driven the route, and the dirt section is why the time runs so long.

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 Kofa?

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

The Arizona Historical Society holds a photograph of the camp.

Visitor reports

Been to Kofa?

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 Kofa

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

• Polaris1.9 mi N · Yuma
• Castle Dome19.7 mi SW · Yuma
• Plomosa26.7 mi N · La Paz
• Brenda27.9 mi N · La Paz
• Texas Hill Station35.1 mi SE · Yuma
• Harquahala35.4 mi NE · La Paz
• Castle Dome Landing35.6 mi SW · Yuma
• Peterman's Station35.7 mi S · Yuma

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Kofa": fact sheet fields (county, roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates) and its note on private land and military airspace.
2. Wikipedia, "Kofa, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the GNIS coordinates and 390-foot elevation of the siding, Ives and the $250,000 sale.
3. Wikipedia, "Kofa Mountains" and "Kofa National Wildlife Refuge": the "K of A" stamp, private land and winter homes, Patton's training and unexploded ordnance.
4. William Ascarza, "Mine Tales: Kofa Mountains gave area golden glow," Arizona Daily Star: discovery, backers, the Mohawk mill, the well, the Ives purchase, workforce, population of 300, ore grades and depth, 1910 closure, $3.5 million total, North Star and Polaris, 1950s tungsten.
5. Rose Houk, "Kofa Country," Arizona Highways: historian Frank Love's figure of more than $4 million, the 750 peak, the 1899 school and Cornish miners, the 1907 decline, what remains.
6. Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, Kofa Cemetery (Kathy and Ed Block, 2010): cemetery position, size, graves and markers, the 24.4-mile gravel road, the mine as private with no public access.
7. William Mogan, azghosttowns.com, "Kofa" (last visit December 2011): mine operating and closed, viewing areas, road advice, no relic collecting.
8. NOLS, January 2011: the Rob Roy mine cleanup, the Tillotson house and the old post office building.
9. USGS Bulletin 845, Guidebook of the Western United States, Part F (1933): the Wellton–Phoenix line built in 1925 and 1926 and the Kofa stop on it.
10. Wikipedia, "Phoenix Subdivision (Union Pacific Railroad)": the 1996 closure of the line's midsection.
11. US Fish and Wildlife Service, Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, Visit Us, as of October 2026: the 1939 executive order, King Valley entrance, road conditions, vehicle and camping rules, unexploded ordnance, protected cultural features, open daily with no fee, restrooms only at the Yuma headquarters, no fuel, water or towing, cell coverage, the Palm Canyon entrance.
12. US Fish and Wildlife Service, Kofa refuge trails: the 0.45-mile Palm Canyon Trail, as of October 2026.
13. US Fish and Wildlife Service, "May I fly a drone on a national wildlife refuge?": drone takeoff and landing banned on refuges (50 CFR 27.34).
14. Megan Kopp, Time Travel Trek: the 1976 transfer to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
15. Land status: BLM Surface Management Agency dataset, queried October 19, 2026 (private parcel around the mine; cemetery on refuge land). Airspace: FAA Special Use Airspace data, October 2026.
16. Coordinates: the King of Arizona Mine on the USGS Kofa Butte 1:62,500 (1962) and 1:24,000 (1990) sheets and in OpenStreetMap; the siding from USGS GNIS feature 24482. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The 1962 USGS Kofa Butte sheet: the King of Arizona Mine, its buildings and the cemetery to the southeast: 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): Vicksburg 1942, 1:250,000; Phoenix 1954, 1:250,000; Kofa Butte 1962, 1:62,500; Little Horn Mountains 1988, 1:100,000; Kofa Butte 1990, 1:24,000.