La Paz

Overview

A river town the river left behind

La Paz was the first gold-rush town on the Arizona side of the lower Colorado River. In January 1862 the mountain man Pauline Weaver panned gold from a gulch in the Dome Rock Mountains, a few miles east of the river. By spring a town of adobe and brush buildings stood on the river shore below the diggings. Steamboats from Yuma tied up there, and William Bradshaw's new wagon road from Southern California ended at his ferry across the river.

The gold lay in shallow gravels and came out fast. The U.S. Geological Survey puts the take at about $1 million in the first year and about as much again by 1864, when the placers were largely worked out. Some nuggets weighed more than 20 ounces. In 1863 La Paz was the largest town in the new Arizona Territory and was considered for the capital. A year later it became the seat of Yuma County.

Then the river moved. Sometime between 1866 and 1870 the Colorado cut a new channel to the west and left the landing high and dry. River trade moved six miles south to Ehrenberg, the county seat went downriver to Yuma, and the post office closed in 1875. A record flood in 1912 wore down most of what was left. The site now lies inside the Colorado River Indian Reservation, and the descriptions we found list only a well, one stone foundation and low mounds of melted adobe.

Timeline

From gold strike to empty townsite

1. Jan 1862Pauline Weaver, a mountain man, pans gold from a gulch in the Dome Rock Mountains east of the Colorado River. Other parties follow within weeks.
2. Spring 1862A town of adobe and brush buildings grows on the river shore below the diggings. It is named La Paz, for the feast of Our Lady of Peace.
3. May 1862William Bradshaw leads a party east from San Gorgonio Pass in California to open a direct road to La Paz, and starts a ferry at the crossing.
4. 1862–1864The placers yield about $1 million in gold the first year and about $1 million more by 1864, when they are largely worked out.
5. 1863La Paz is the largest town in the new Arizona Territory and is considered for the capital.
6. 1864La Paz becomes the seat of Yuma County.
7. Jan 17, 1865A post office opens.
8. 1866–1870The Colorado shifts west and leaves the landing stranded. Sources give 1866, 1868 and 1870. River trade moves to Ehrenberg, six miles south.
9. 1870The census counts 254 residents.
10. 1870–1871The county seat moves downriver to Arizona City, now Yuma. The records travel by sternwheeler, the Nina Tilden.
11. Mar 25, 1875The post office closes. By this year the town is deserted.
12. Jun 1912A record flood spreads over the townsite. A 1958 account says the last adobe walls melted into the ground.
13. Aug 25, 1970The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Old La Paz, with its location restricted.
14. 1983The new La Paz County takes the town's name.

Record and claims

Where the sources disagree

Many of the numbers for La Paz come from later retellings, and they don't always agree. Here is where they part ways.

When the river moved. Wikipedia gives 1866. A cemetery history from the American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, citing a thesis by Doe Stragnell, gives 1868 and says the river changed course overnight. A 1958 Desert Magazine history gives 1870 and says the new channel left La Paz about two miles from the water. Either way, the landing was dead within a decade of the strike.

How many people. Most accounts put the peak at about 1,500. The 1958 article says about 5,000 lived there within a year, and DesertUSA repeats a claim that more than 5,000 people worked the placers at one time. The 1870 census, taken after the river moved, counted 254.

How much gold. The USGS figure is about $2 million through 1864, and Wikipedia gives about 50,000 troy ounces a year in 1863 and 1864. DesertUSA quotes an estimate of at least 1.3 million ounces. That is far beyond the other figures, and we haven't seen its basis.

An 1868 account describes nuggets of 26, 27 and 47 ounces. The biggest on record, valued at about $1,150, is credited to Juan Ferrar. Ferrar Gulch, where he found a nugget of more than 47 ounces, reportedly held the district's richest gravels.

The capital. Wikipedia says La Paz was considered for territorial capital in 1863. The 1958 article says it missed by one vote. We haven't found the vote itself, so treat the one-vote margin as a story.

Site and access

Where the town stood

None of the old USGS sheets labels the townsite. The 1933 and 1940 Dome Rock Mountains sheets in the next section mark La Paz Well at the foot of the mesa, where Goodman Wash comes out of the hills, with Goodman Slough, an old river channel, curving past to the west. The 1940 sheet adds a red boundary line that turns at the well, which we read as the reservation line of the day. By 1963 the wash is called La Paz Wash, and the 1:250,000 sheet shows Ehrenberg and Blythe a few miles south.

Our map point is La Paz Well, the location Wikipedia takes from GNIS, at about 290 feet. GNIS's current record for La Paz (historical) sits about 3 miles east, in the hills at about 580 feet. Accounts of adobe buildings on the river shore and a flood across the townsite fit the lower point better, but the National Register keeps the site's exact location restricted.

The descriptions we found are short. An undated listing names a well, the foundation of one stone building that has been repaired and many low mounds of adobe, and says the site is fenced and entry is discouraged. Wikipedia adds a historical marker. The 1958 article found the ground overgrown with mesquite and arrowweed. Only the 1958 article is dated, and we haven't confirmed that the marker still stands. The one old photo of the town we can show, in the gallery below, has adobe walls still standing; its date and photographer are unknown.

The townsite is inside the Colorado River Indian Reservation, according to the Census Bureau's boundary files. The tribes' posted rules require a permit for any off-road vehicle on the reservation, keep vehicles on existing roads and trails, and allow camping only in designated campsites. Their camping rules also forbid removing or damaging objects of archaeological or historical interest.

• La Paz Well
• One repaired stone foundation
• Low adobe mounds
• Historical marker (unconfirmed)
• Fence around the site

Historic maps

La Paz on USGS maps, 1933–1986

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.

19331:62,50019401:62,50019551:24,00019631:250,00019861:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Blythe, just across the California line, is the closest city, and Ehrenberg is the closest Arizona community. Both routes leave I-10 at Ehrenberg and run north on the Ehrenberg Parker Highway, which becomes Mohave Road. The routed point is La Paz Well, beside the road on reservation land. We haven't driven it, and the townsite's access status is unconfirmed.

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

Photos

La Paz in photos

The Parker Valley from the air in 2007, looking south down the Colorado toward the La Paz end of the valleyAdobe walls at La Paz in an old photo of unknown date and author; the Commons file dates it to about 1890

Visitor reports

Been to La Paz?

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 La Paz

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

• Mineral City5.2 mi SW · La Paz
• Olive City5.5 mi SW · La Paz
• Ehrenberg5.7 mi SW · La Paz
• Drift Desert20.8 mi SW · La Paz
• Plomosa20.8 mi E · La Paz
• Poston22.0 mi N · La Paz
• Cibola27.3 mi SW · La Paz
• Brenda31.0 mi E · La Paz

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "La Paz": fact sheet fields (road, legal description, climate, best time, remains, fence, post office dates).
2. Wikipedia, "La Paz, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: discovery date, name, county seat, capital, 1866 river shift, 1870 population, records to Yuma, marker, coordinates and elevation (GNIS).
3. Maureen G. Johnson, Placer Gold Deposits of Arizona, USGS Bulletin 1355 (1972), La Paz district: the discovery, production to 1864, nugget sizes, Juan Ferrar, reservation.
4. Audrey MacHunter and Randall Henderson, "Boom Days in Old La Paz," Desert Magazine, September 1958, via digital-desert.com: adobe town on the shore, 1870 river shift, 5,000 population, one-vote capital story, 1912 flood, overgrowth.
5. American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, "Ehrenberg, Arizona: Historic Pioneer Cemetery," revised January 7, 2013: the 1868 date for the river shift, citing Doe Stragnell's thesis on La Paz and Ehrenberg.
6. Jay W. Sharp, "Bradshaw's Desert Trail," DesertUSA: Bradshaw's 1862 road and ferry, population and production claims.
7. National Park Service, NPGallery, "Old La Paz" (NRIS 70000117): National Register listing date and restricted location.
8. Colorado River Indian Tribes, Fish and Game Department: off-road vehicle code and permit fee, camping regulations (posted 2023), phone numbers; Tribal Historic Preservation Office contact. Checked October 19, 2026.
9. Reservation boundary: US Census Bureau TIGERweb, American Indian areas layer, and the BLM Surface Management Agency layer (Bureau of Indian Affairs land), point queries October 2026. Township and range: BLM PLSS CadNSDI. Current GNIS record: USGS geonames service, "La Paz (historical)" (ID 1940036).
10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The Parker Valley from the air in 2007, looking south down the Colorado toward the La Paz end of the valley: Jstuby, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Adobe walls at La Paz in an old photo of unknown date and author; the Commons file dates it to about 1890: Unknown photographer, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The 1933 Dome Rock Mountains sheet: La Paz Well and Goodman Slough: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Dome Rock Mts 1933, 1:62,500; Dome Rock Mts 1940, 1:62,500; La Paz Mtn 1955, 1:24,000; Salton Sea 1963, 1:250,000; Blythe 1986, 1:100,000.