Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the Colorado River bending past a bare bluff, with farm fields across the river and Fort Mohave's streets to the east

River and lake town · Railroad and road town

Mohave City

A river landing and saloon town that grew up beside Fort Mohave in the 1860s and served as the first Mohave County seat. In 1869 the Army took its land. Nothing of the town is left.

35°02′40″N 114°37′23″W · ≈520 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

Site only · 2026 report

Mohave City stood on the bluff beside the Fort Mohave ruins, inside the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. Nothing of the town survives, and Legends of America, updated September 2026, describes only a few ruins of the fort on the bluff. We found no published rules for visiting the bluff. Ask the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe before you go, and treat fences and posted signs as closed.

Overview

The town the fort swallowed

The Army set up Fort Mohave in 1859 on a low bluff on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, where the wagon road to California crossed. When California Volunteers reoccupied the post in 1863, a civilian town grew up next to it. Mohave City was a river landing and trading post for miners in the surrounding mountains, and a place for soldiers to spend their pay. Its saloons and brothels did well.

In 1864 the new territorial legislature created Mohave County, and Mohave City became its first seat. A post office opened in October 1866. The town's lead didn't last. Hardyville, five miles upriver, had the ferry, the steamboat company's backing and a shorter haul to the mines, and in January 1867 it took the county seat.

Then the Army moved in. In 1869 the fort's commander stretched the post's boundary over the town and ordered the civilians out within 30 days. Some stayed on, and the post office kept the Mohave City name until 1938, long after the Army had handed the post to the Indian Service. The land is now part of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation. Nothing of the town remains, and only old maps show where it stood.

Timeline

Landing, county seat, eviction

Mohave City printed beside the old post on the 1926 USGS sheet
Mohave City printed beside the old post on the 1926 USGS sheet · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. The Army sets up a post on a low bluff above Beale's Crossing of the Colorado River. It soon takes the name Fort Mohave.
  2. California Volunteers re-garrison the fort after two years of abandonment, and soldiers start prospecting the nearby mountains.
  3. Mohave City starts as a river landing and trading town beside the fort, serving soldiers and miners.
  4. The first territorial legislature creates Mohave County. Mohave City is its first county seat by Wikipedia's count; the town's own article says it gained the seat by 1866.
  5. The Mohave City post office opens.
  6. Hardyville, five miles upriver, takes the county seat.
  7. The fort's commander extends the post's boundary over the town and orders civilians out within 30 days. Many leave. Some stay, and so does the post office.
  8. The census counts 159 people.
  9. About 50 people remain, with a post office, a gunsmith, a blacksmith, a pharmacist and a general store.
  10. Hardyville's post office closes in favor of the one at Mohave City.
  11. The War Department hands the post to the Office of Indian Affairs. Its buildings become a boarding school.
  12. The school closes. Sources give both years.
  13. The Mohave City post office closes. The land stays part of the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation.
  14. The USGS Davis Dam sheet prints "Mohave City (Site)" beside "Fort Mohave (Ruins)".

Site and maps

Finding a town that left no trace

Sources disagree on exactly where Mohave City stood. Richard Lingenfelter's history of Colorado River steamboating calls it adjacent to the fort. An undated listing puts it a mile north. The USGS maps side with the first account. The 1926 Mohave City sheet prints the town's name beside two buildings at the old post, which by then was an Indian school. The 1950 Davis Dam sheet prints "Mohave City (Site)" just north of "Fort Mohave (Ruins)." The federal place-name database puts Mojave City on the same bluff, and that's the point we use.

The earliest map below, from 1886, shows only "Camp Mojave" on the east bank with a ferry crossing just upstream. By 1970 the sheet marks the fort site, a cemetery and a single grave to the south, and nothing for the town. Today the bluff top is bare desert crossed by dirt tracks, with the streets of Fort Mohave about a mile and a half to the east.

The same place-name database also puts "Hardyville (historical)" on this bluff. That point is wrong: Hardyville stood about five and a half miles north, in what is now Bullhead City.

  • Nothing of the town
  • Fort Mohave ruins on the same bluff
  • Fort Mohave post cemetery, just south
USGS topographic map of the bluff above the Colorado River labeled Mojave City, with a cemetery symbol to the south
USGS The National Map, topo. The current map labels Mojave City on the bluff. The small square to the south is the post cemetery.
Aerial view of a bare bluff above the Colorado River, cut by gullies and crossed by faint tracks
Aerial imagery, same area. The river runs along the upper left. The townsite is somewhere on the bare bluff top, now crossed by faint tracks.

Record and legend

Claims to check

Five miles from the fort? Wikipedia's article says Mohave City was founded by soldiers from the fort "5 miles down river." That doesn't fit Lingenfelter's "adjacent," the 1869 order that absorbed the town into the post, or the USGS maps. We treat the town as next to the fort.

When did it start? Wikipedia and an undated listing say 1863. Lingenfelter describes Mohave City as a third river port, after Iretaba City (January 1864) and Hardyville (March 1864), without giving a year.

When did it become county seat? Wikipedia's county article lists Mohave City as seat from 1864 to 1867. Its article on the town says it had grown large enough by 1866. Both agree Hardyville took over in January 1867.

Which town did the census count? After 1869 the names Mohave City and Fort Mohave were used for the same place, so later population figures, such as 175 in 1910, may count the post and its school as much as any town.

Historic maps

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

Map & directions

Getting there

Bullhead City is the nearest city, about half an hour away. From Las Vegas, the route crosses the Colorado River at Laughlin and runs south through Bullhead City. Both routes leave AZ 95 in Fort Mohave and end on dirt roads at the bluff. The routes were computed from OpenStreetMap and we haven't driven them. The last stretch is on reservation land.

USGS topographic map from Bullhead City south to the Mohave City site, with the route along AZ 95 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 central Bullhead City8.0 miabout 27 min
  1. From central Bullhead City, take Rio Vista Drive, Ramar Road and Alta Vista Road to the Mohave Valley Highway (AZ 95).1 mi
  2. Turn left onto AZ 95 and head south into Fort Mohave.4.9 mi
  3. Turn right on Dunlap Road, right on Cavalry Road, then left on Sterling Road.0.8 mi
  4. Turn right on Infantry Road and follow it west to the bluff above the river.1.1 mi
  5. Turn right on the track to the site.0.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • AZ 95 is paved. OpenStreetMap tags parts of Dunlap, Cavalry and Infantry roads as dirt, and the last stretch to the bluff is an unnamed track. An undated listing rates the road 4WD.
  • The site is on Fort Mojave Indian Reservation land. We found no published visitor rules for the bluff. The tribe lists (760) 629-4591 for information.
  • Nothing of Mohave City survives. Don't dig or collect anything, and stay out of the fort ruins and the cemetery.
  • Summer heat along the river is severe. Go between October and April, and carry water.

Photos

Have photos of Mohave City?

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

Historic photographs of the neighboring Army post appear on our Fort Mohave page.

Visitor reports

Been to Mohave City?

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 Mohave City

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Mojave City": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates) and its "a mile north of Fort Mojave".
  2. Wikipedia, "Mojave City, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: founding, saloons, county seat, the 1869 removal, census counts, 1880s businesses, the school, the 1938 post office closing, GNIS coordinates.
  3. Wikipedia, "Mohave County, Arizona" and "Bullhead City, Arizona": the county seat sequence and the 1883 transfer of Hardyville's post office to Mohave City.
  4. Wikipedia, "Fort Mohave": the fort's founding, the 1863 reoccupation and the 1890 transfer.
  5. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 (University of Arizona Press, 1978), pp. 24, 39–40: the fort on its bluff, Iretaba City and Hardyville, Mohave City "adjacent to the fort" and its removal in 1869.
  6. Legends of America, "Fort Mojave, Arizona" (updated September 2026): the fort's history, the school's 1935 closing, and the ruins on reservation land today.
  7. Arizona DAR, Fort Mohave Chapter, "Fort Mohave": the boarding school and its 1930 closing.
  8. Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, "About us": the fort ruins on the bluff and the tribe's information number.
  9. Coordinates: USGS GNIS "Mojave City" (feature ID 25308), as on Wikipedia. Historic positions read from USGS sheets of 1886, 1926, 1950 and 1970. Reservation boundary: US Census Bureau TIGERweb. Legal description: BLM PLSS (CadNSDI). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026; road surfaces from OpenStreetMap. Not field-checked. Status checked against the sources above on October 19, 2026.

Photo and map credits

Record5 of 9
  • Post office dates
  • County seat history
  • 1869 removal
  • Site on USGS maps
  • Historic maps, 1886–1982
  • Exact town footprint
  • Visitor access rules
  • Road condition, last mile
  • Photos of the town
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.