Polhamus Landing

Overview

A landing built to beat Hardyville

From the mid-1860s, freight for the mines inland came up the Colorado by steamboat to Hardyville and went on by wagon, by the 1870s mostly to the camps around Mineral Park and Cerbat. William Hardy controlled that trade. In May 1881 two Mineral Park merchants, Welton and Grounds, went into business with Isaac Polhamus Jr., superintendent of the river's steamboat company, and opened a rival landing about five miles upstream.

They cut away part of a hill on the riverbank, put up a large warehouse and other buildings, and graded a road that joined the old wagon road beyond a sandy stretch, cutting about five miles off the trip to Mineral Park. It worked at once. By Richard Lingenfelter's account more freight was landed there than at any other point on the river, and the Arizona Sentinel's freight lists for 1881 and 1882 show Polhamus taking twenty-five to thirty-five times as much freight as Hardyville.

The boom lasted about a year. The Sentinel stops mentioning the landing after June 1882, as the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad built west across Arizona and the mines turned to the railhead. By May 1883 the tracks had reached the Colorado near Needles. Six decades later Davis Dam went up at the head of the valley, and the likely site now lies just below it, inside Bullhead City.

Timeline

One busy year

1. 1856Isaac Polhamus Jr., who learned his trade on the Hudson and Sacramento rivers, comes to the Colorado. He will captain its steamboats for nearly 50 years.
2. 1864Hardyville is founded five miles downriver and becomes the low-water head of navigation and the shipping point for the mines inland.
3. 1877The Southern Pacific reaches Yuma and buys the Colorado Steam Navigation Company. Polhamus stays on as its superintendent.
4. May 1881Polhamus and the Mineral Park merchants Welton & Grounds open a new landing about five miles above Hardyville, to shorten the haul to the mines and break Hardyville's hold on the trade.
5. Jun 4, 1881The Arizona Sentinel reports a warehouse and other buildings on ground cut from the riverbank hill, and a new road that skips a sandy stretch and saves about five miles to Mineral Park.
6. Sep 1881The Sentinel's freight list shows 98,619 pounds landed at Polhamus against 2,794 at Hardyville.
7. Jan 1882The Sentinel calls the place Welton & Grounds Landing.
8. Jun 1882The freight list shows 22,834 pounds for Polhamus and 880 for Hardyville. It is the last mention of the landing we know of.
9. May 1883The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad reaches the Colorado near Needles, and the mining trade leaves the river landings.
10. Nov 17, 1883The Sentinel reports that Welton & Grounds has dissolved and become Welton & Beecher.
11. Sep 10, 1886Polhamus and Jack Mellon buy the struggling steamboat line from the railroad's backers.
12. 1942–1953Davis Dam is built at the head of the valley. Its construction camp grows into Bullhead City.

1881–1882

Polhamus against Hardyville

The landing's whole history fits in a few newspaper items, quoted in its Wikipedia article. The Arizona Sentinel, published in Yuma, printed lists of freight shipped upriver by steamboat. Two of them show what the new landing did to the old one.

In the September 1881 list, 98,619 pounds of freight went to Polhamus Landing and 2,794 pounds to Hardyville. In the June 1882 list the figures were 22,834 and 880.

The June 1882 list is the last time the Sentinel names the landing. Both landings were losing to the railroad. Lingenfelter writes that by then only the upriver trade to the mines at Eldorado Canyon and Mineral Park and to the army at Fort Mohave kept the riverboats going, and much of that went once the railroad crossed the Colorado in 1883.

The landing's namesake outlasted it by decades. Polhamus bought the steamboats from the railroad's backers in 1886 and ran them with Jack Mellon.

Polhamus had been on the river since 1856. On his first trip up to Fort Mohave in 1859, Lingenfelter writes, he tied his boat up sixty miles short of the fort rather than risk Mojave Canyon, until the commander sent soldiers down with orders to "bring her up or sink her." He became the steamboat company's general superintendent and is remembered as the dean of the Colorado riverboat men.

Site and maps

Somewhere below the dam

The 1881 report puts the landing about five miles above Hardyville, on a riverbank hill that had to be cut back to make room. Wikipedia's coordinates fit that description; its infobox credits them to a 2006 backcountry guidebook, which we haven't seen. They fall on the east bank about a third of a mile below the Davis Dam powerhouse, five miles north of the Hardyville cemetery, at the foot of Pyramid Canyon. An undated listing says only that the site is near the dam. We found no survey, photo or marker that fixes the spot, so treat our map point as approximate.

None of the USGS sheets below names the landing. The 1886 sheet shows Hardyville and, about three miles above it on the east bank, a place called Harpers, where a road leaves the river for Union Pass. We found nothing that connects Harpers to Polhamus Landing. The 1926 sheet shows the river running free, with no dam. By 1950 Davis Dam fills the canyon mouth and a town named Davis Dam sits less than a mile downstream, and the 1970 sheet shows a powerhouse, gaging stations and a boat ramp near the likely site.

• No known trace of the landing
• Riverbank now lined with dam works, roads and campsites

Historic maps

Polhamus Landing 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.

18861:250,00019261:96,00019501:62,50019701:24,00019821:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

The site is inside Bullhead City, about 14 minutes from the city center. From Las Vegas, the route crosses the Colorado at Laughlin and turns up AZ 68. Both routes end on Arizona Street, which runs along the river toward the dam. Nothing marks the landing; this is a look at the river where it likely stood.

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

Photos

The site in photos

The river below Davis Dam, near the likely site, 2009The Arizona bank just below the dam, seen from Nevada, 2005Davis Dam and Lake Mohave from the air, 1972. The likely site is beside the river below the dam, at the bottomThe Davis Dam powerhouse and outflow, 2009Steamboats at the Yuma landing, about 1880

Visitor reports

Been to Polhamus Landing?

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.

River and lake

More river and lake ghost towns

The nearest in Arizona.

Guide

Hardyville

35.12, -114.59

Mohave County, Arizona

A ferry crossing and steamboat landing on the Colorado that served as Mohave County's seat in the late 1860s. Railroads took its trade, Bullhead City…

Inside Bullhead CityRiver and lake

Guide

Mohave City

35.04, -114.62

Mohave County, Arizona

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…

Site only · 2026 reportRiver and lake

All 58 river and lake ghost towns →

Nearby

Other sites near Polhamus Landing

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

• Katherine3.1 mi NE · Mohave
• Hardyville5.0 mi S · Mohave
• Mohave City10.6 mi S · Mohave
• Fort Mohave10.7 mi S · Mohave
• Goldroad14.7 mi SE · Mohave
• Oatman15.5 mi SE · Mohave
• Murphyville17.4 mi N · Mohave
• Cerbat25.5 mi E · Mohave

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Polhamus Landing": fact sheet fields (roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains) and the site's location near Davis Dam.
2. Wikipedia, "Polhamus Landing, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the founders, the Arizona Sentinel reports of June 4, 1881, September 17, 1881, January 14, 1882, June 10, 1882 and November 17, 1883 as quoted there, and its coordinates, which the infobox credits to Massey and Wilson, Backcountry Adventures Arizona (2006), p. 48 (we have not seen the book).
3. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 (University of Arizona Press, 1978), pp. 28, 39, 50, 68, 74, 79–84 and a portrait caption: Polhamus's career, Hardyville, the May 1881 founding and its freight, the railroad, the 1886 purchase.
4. Wikipedia, "Bullhead City, Arizona": the Southern Pacific's 1877 purchase of the steamboat line, the May 1881 date, Hardyville's decline, Davis Dam (1942–1953) and the city's origin.
5. Mohave County Parks, "Davis Camp" and "Fee Schedule", checked October 22, 2026: day-use hours, the day-use fee and free entry.
6. National Park Service, Lake Mead NRA Superintendent's Compendium (last updated June 11, 2026, checked October 22, 2026): the drone ban. It lists no closure for the river below Davis Dam.
7. Davis Camp's boundary: OpenStreetMap, October 22, 2026. The published coordinates sit at its north-east corner, about 75 m from the river as OpenStreetMap maps it.
8. Coordinates: Wikipedia, as above; approximate. City limits: US Census Bureau TIGERweb. Land status: BLM Surface Management Agency data (National Park Service) and the National Park Service Land Resources Division boundary (Lake Mead National Recreation Area). Legal description: BLM PLSS (CadNSDI). Dam facilities, Davis Camp and road surfaces and access: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 22, 2026.

Photo and map credits

• The river below Davis Dam, near the likely site, 2009: Alan Stark from Goodyear, AZ, United States, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
• The Arizona bank just below the dam, seen from Nevada, 2005: Zzyzx, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
• Davis Dam and Lake Mohave from the air, 1972. The likely site is beside the river below the dam, at the bottom: Charles O'Rear, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The Davis Dam powerhouse and outflow, 2009: Alan Stark from Goodyear, AZ, United States, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
• Steamboats at the Yuma landing, about 1880: George Rothrock, Wikimedia Commons, 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 1886, 1:250,000; Mohave City 1926, 1:96,000; Davis Dam 1950, 1:62,500; Davis Dam 1970, 1:24,000; Davis Dam 1982, 1:100,000.