Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the Colorado River at Ehrenberg, with green farm fields on the California side and RV parks, homes and desert on the Arizona side

Gold mining town · River and lake town

Olive City

A steamboat landing and ferry crossing that lasted from 1863 to 1866, named for Olive Oatman. Nothing is left, and the river has moved, so its mapped site now sits on the California bank.

33°36′40″N 114°31′33″W · ≈260 ft

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

Site only · not verified

Nothing remains of Olive City. The river has shifted since the 1860s, and the townsite's mapped point now falls on the California bank, in Riverside County, across from Ehrenberg. We found no source on who owns the spot or whether you can walk to it, and the route ends beside RV parks on the Arizona bank, where we found no source on public access to the river. There is nothing to see on the ground.

Overview

A landing that lasted three years

Olive City was born of a flood. In 1862 high water moved the Colorado River away from La Paz, the gold camp a few miles upstream, and the next spring a new landing grew up on the river below it. It was first called Olivia, then Olive City, after Olive Oatman, who survived her family's massacre and captivity among the Yavapai and the Mohave. It was the first crossing of Bradshaw's Ferry.

It stayed small. Sylvester Mowry, writing in 1864, called it the principal town of the Weaver District, with twenty houses and a steamboat landing. He noted that the furnaces in the Colorado region were nearly all worked by Mexicans, and that some Frenchmen at Olive City had a better class of furnace. An undated listing reports 19 residents, all men. Wikipedia says its founders were largely Confederate sympathizers who refused to sell lots to Black, Chinese, Native American and Mexican settlers and to people from India.

The town lost out to its neighbors. Mineral City was founded a mile downstream in the fall of 1864, the ferry moved there, and by 1866 Olive City was abandoned. Mineral City became Ehrenberg in 1870. Nothing of Olive City survives, and the river has moved again since. Its mapped location now lies on the California bank, across the water from Ehrenberg.

Timeline

From flood to abandonment

  1. A great flood moves the Colorado River's channel and cuts the gold boomtown of La Paz off from the water.
  2. A new landing grows up on the river below La Paz. It is called Olivia, then Olive City, after Olive Oatman.
  3. Miners form the Weaver District, which tries to keep out Mexican and Native American miners.
  4. A Confederate sympathizer shoots and kills two Union soldiers at La Paz, in what Wikipedia calls the La Paz Incident.
  5. Union infantry camp between La Paz and Olivia. A letter from La Paz dated September 20 puts Olive City on the mesa at the foot of Weaver Pass, just above the ferry and near a steamboat landing.
  6. Sylvester Mowry calls Olive City the principal town of the Weaver District, with twenty houses.
  7. Mineral City is founded a mile downriver, and Bradshaw's Ferry moves there from Olive City.
  8. A new landing between the two towns grows into Mineral City. Olive City is abandoned.
  9. Mineral City is renamed Ehrenberg.

Site map

Where the landing stood

The sources don't agree on exactly where Olive City was. Wikipedia puts it on the Arizona bank, a mile above Mineral City, half a mile above the first Ehrenberg site and three miles southwest of La Paz, though Wikipedia's own coordinates for Olive City and La Paz are about 5.5 miles apart. Brian McGinty, author of The Oatman Massacre, quoted by True West's Bob Boze Bell, found an 1863 letter placing Olive City on the mesa at the foot of Weaver Pass, just above the ferry. He also found an item in the Hayes Scraps collection that put a town called Olivia about five miles below La Paz, on the river's west bank, and a map that showed it a mile and a half above Ehrenberg.

The GNIS point used on this page falls on the west bank today, in the wooded bend across from the north end of Ehrenberg. Neither historic sheet below names Olive City, which had been gone for 85 years when the first was drawn. The 1951 sheet shows the river braided around sandbars with the state line down the channel, Ehrenberg's ruins and cemetery on the Arizona bank, the Ehrenberg Bridge and a California checking station. The 1970 sheet redraws the channel and adds a trailer park on the Arizona side.

  • Nothing remains
  • Nearby: the Ehrenberg cemetery, with graves of early settlers (Arizona bank)
USGS topographic map of the Colorado River at Ehrenberg with the La Paz and Riverside county line along the river
USGS The National Map, topo. The map point sits on the river's west bank, on the California side of the county line, north of Ehrenberg.
Aerial view of a wooded bend on the west bank of the Colorado River, with farm fields to the left and RV parks across the water
Aerial imagery, same area. The point is in the wooded bend at center. Farm fields fill the California side; RV parks and homes line the Arizona bank.

Historic maps

Olive City on USGS maps, 1951–1970

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 Olive City, 1951
Blythe sheet, 1951, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Blythe, California, is the closest city, about 10 minutes away. From Phoenix, the route runs out I-10 west for about 143 miles. Both routes end just off Quize Lane in Ehrenberg, on the Arizona bank beside RV parks, about 240 yards from the map point, which lies across the river. There is nothing to see of the old town.

USGS topographic map of the Colorado River between Blythe and Ehrenberg with the route along I-10 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 Blythe5.8 miabout 10 min
  1. From downtown Blythe, head east on East Hobsonway (I-10 Business).0.5 mi
  2. Turn right on South 7th Street and take the ramp onto I-10 east.0.5 mi
  3. Follow I-10 east across the Colorado River into Arizona.3.5 mi
  4. Take the exit, go straight through the roundabout and follow Poston Road north.0.8 mi
  5. Turn left on Ehrenberg Parker Highway.0.2 mi
  6. Turn right on Quize Lane, then left where it ends. The route stops near the river, about 240 yards from the map point on the far bank.0.3 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Both routes end on the Arizona bank, beside two RV and trailer parks (OpenStreetMap, October 2026). We found no source on public access to the river there. The mapped site is across the river on the California side, and we found no source on access to it either.
  • Nothing of Olive City remains, so there is nothing to look for on the ground.
  • Summer heat on the lower Colorado is severe. Carry water.

Photos

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Visitor reports

Been to Olive 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 Olive City

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Olive City": fact sheet fields (road, legal description, climate, best time, remains) and its undated count of 19 residents.
  2. Wikipedia, "Olive City, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the 1862 flood, the names Olivia and Olive City, the founders and their rules on selling lots, the Weaver District, the La Paz Incident, the Union camp, Mineral City and the ferry, abandonment in 1866, the 1870 renaming, the site's present location, coordinates and elevation (GNIS 42818).
  3. Wikipedia, "Bradshaw's Ferry", retrieved October 2026: the ferry at Olive City, then Mineral City in 1864.
  4. Sylvester Mowry, Arizona and Sonora (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1864), pp. 87–91: Olive City as the principal town of the Weaver District, its twenty houses, its steamboat landing and the Frenchmen's furnace.
  5. Bob Boze Bell, "Arizona Maps and Olive Sites Galore," True West blog, March 2, 2018: Brian McGinty on the Olive Oatman name, the 1863 La Paz letter, the Hayes Scraps item on Olivia and the map locations.
  6. Land manager at the map point: BLM Surface Management Agency map, queried October 2026 (undetermined). Township, range and section: BLM national PLSS layer (CadNSDI), queried October 2026. RV parks at the route's end: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

Record5 of 9
  • Coordinates (GNIS)
  • Founding and abandonment
  • Size in 1864 (Mowry)
  • Ferry history
  • Historic maps, 1951–1970
  • Exact location (sources differ)
  • Land ownership
  • Access to the site
  • Post office, if any
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.