Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of Sacramento Wash east of Topock, with the railroad across the middle and I-40 along the bottom

Railroad and road town · On Route 66

Powell

A railroad stop on the line to the first Colorado River bridge, with a post office from 1883 to 1886. Sources disagree on where it stood, and nobody has described what's left.

34°44′14″N 114°22′37″W · ≈770 ft

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

Not verified

We found no description of remains at Powell and no dated report of a visit. Federal land records put the mapped site on private land, beside BNSF's busy main line. The last stretch is on sand and dirt tracks. Stay off the railroad, and treat fences and signs as closed.

Overview

A stop on the way to a bridge that kept washing out

Powell was a station on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, the line that later became the Santa Fe and is now BNSF. It stood in Sacramento Wash, about six miles east of the Colorado River. The railroad reached the river in 1883 and built its first bridge at Eastbridge, south of Needles, on soft ground with no solid footing on either bank.

Powell got a post office on October 11, 1883. It closed on July 9, 1886. Meanwhile spring floods took out the Eastbridge bridge in 1884, 1886 and 1888. The railroad gave up on that crossing and built a steel cantilever bridge on rock at Mellen, now Topock, which opened in May 1890. The track to Eastbridge was abandoned.

Powell itself carried on as a stop on the line. A 1906 Supreme Court case over a deadly 1901 wreck puts Powell 6.8 miles east of Mellen, and USGS maps from 1903 to 1970 label it beside the tracks. We found no census count, no description of buildings and no account of anyone visiting the site.

Timeline

What we know

The 1950 Topock sheet: Powell on the Santa Fe, with small buildings beside the tracks
The 1950 Topock sheet: Powell on the Santa Fe, with small buildings beside the tracks · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. Atlantic and Pacific crews lay track down Sacramento Wash to the Colorado River. The first bridge goes in at Eastbridge, south of Needles.
  2. The Powell post office opens.
  3. Spring floods wash out or undermine the Eastbridge bridge in 1884, 1886 and 1888.
  4. The post office closes. Wikipedia says mail moved to Mohave City.
  5. The railroad's lawyer protests Mohave County's tax assessment of company buildings at Kingman, Yucca, Powell and East Bridge.
  6. A steel cantilever bridge opens downstream at Mellen, now Topock. The line to Eastbridge is abandoned.
  7. Eastbound train No. 4 stops at Powell for three or four minutes to adjust a locomotive's oil feed. Minutes later it meets No. 3 head-on west of Franconia.
  8. The USGS Needles sheet marks Powell on the Santa Fe line in Sacramento Wash, beside a 762-foot benchmark.
  9. The USGS Topock sheet still labels Powell beside the tracks.

Two answers

Where was Powell?

Wikipedia says the site of Powell now lies under Goose Lake in Topock Marsh, where the old rail bed to Eastbridge runs into the water. It gives no source for that, and we couldn't find one.

Everything else we found puts Powell in Sacramento Wash, well east of the marsh. The USGS place-name record, which supplies Wikipedia's own coordinates, is there. So are the Needles sheets of 1903 and 1904, the Topock sheets of 1950 and 1970, and the facts of a 1906 Supreme Court case, Santa Fe Pacific Railroad v. Holmes, which put Powell 6.8 rail miles east of Mellen in 1901.

We use the USGS location. Whether the 1883 station stood on the same spot, we can't confirm.

The historic maps below show what was mapped there: a station name and a benchmark on the tracks, a wagon road along the wash, and by 1950 the National Old Trails Road and a pipeline road to the south. The 1950 sheet also shows three or four small buildings beside the tracks. By the 1970 sheet they're gone and only a short siding remains.

Site map

The site today

The current USGS topo still prints the name Powell on the railroad, with a short siding beside it. The aerial shows the main line, desert scrub along the wash and a few dirt tracks. We can't make out any foundations, and no source lists any. Federal surface-management records show the mapped point on private land, with BLM land nearby.

USGS topographic map of the Powell site on the railroad in Sacramento Wash
USGS The National Map, topo. Powell is labeled on the railroad, with Sacramento Wash below it.
Aerial view of the Powell site: a railroad line crossing desert scrub, with dirt tracks to the north and south
Aerial imagery, same area. The railroad crosses the middle. No structures show at the mapped site.

Historic maps

Powell on USGS maps, 1903–1970

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 Powell, 1903
Needles sheet, 1903, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Needles, California, is the closest city. Both routes follow I-40 east across the Colorado River to exit 9, then leave the pavement for about four miles of sand and dirt tracks north of the interstate. The mapping service's own route turned off I-40 through a median crossover, so we rebuilt the last leg from exit 9 along tracks in OpenStreetMap. We haven't driven it.

USGS topographic map between Needles, Topock and Powell, with the route along I-40 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 Needles, California27.1 miabout 52 min
  1. From downtown Needles, take Broadway and J Street to I-40.1 mi
  2. Follow I-40 east across the Colorado River, past exit 1 at Topock and up Sacramento Wash.21.6 mi
  3. Take exit 9 (AZ 95) and turn left across the interchange to its north side, where the pavement ends.0.3 mi
  4. Head west on the sandy track along the north side of I-40, then keep west on the dirt track beyond it.3.6 mi
  5. Turn right on the track north to the railroad at the Powell site. Don't go onto the tracks.0.6 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • OpenStreetMap tags the first track west of exit 9 as sand. An undated listing rates the road 4WD. Don't try it in a car, and turn back if the sand gets soft.
  • Don't use the median crossovers on I-40. OpenStreetMap marks them closed to the public.
  • The railroad is an active BNSF main line. Stay off the tracks and the right-of-way, and don't park on crossings.
  • Federal records show the mapped site on private land. Respect fences, gates and posted signs.
  • Summer heat here is severe. Go in winter or fall, carry water, and fill up in Needles or at the truck stops at exit 9.

Photos

Have photos of Powell?

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

Visitor reports

Been to Powell?

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 Powell

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Powell": fact sheet fields (county, roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains).
  2. Wikipedia, "Powell, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: post office dates (from Theobald, Arizona Territory Post Offices & Postmasters), bridge washouts, 1890 abandonment, the Goose Lake claim, coordinates (GNIS).
  3. Jim Forte Postal History, Mohave County post offices: Powell, 1883–1886.
  4. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 (University of Arizona Press, 1978), p. 82: the 1883 bridge site, the 1884–1888 washouts, the May 1890 bridge at Mellen.
  5. Wikipedia, "Red Rock Bridge" and "Eastbridge, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: new track on the Arizona side, Eastbridge location.
  6. Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co. v. Holmes, 202 U.S. 438 (1906), via the Library of Congress: train No. 4's stop at Powell on November 20, 1901, and the 6.8 miles from Mellen.
  7. American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project, Kathy Block, "Franconia Cemetery and Graves" (rev. 2019): the 1887 tax protest naming buildings at Powell.
  8. Wikipedia, "U.S. Route 66 in Arizona", retrieved October 2026: the September 1952 bypass from Topock to Kingman through Yucca, on level ground near the railroad, later rebuilt as I-40.
  9. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection: Needles 1903 and 1904, Topock 1950 and 1970 (station name, benchmark, section and township; the 1970 sheet shows the US 66 highway under a mile south of the siding).
  10. BLM Surface Management Agency map service, queried October 2026: private land at the mapped point.
  11. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Track surfaces: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data to exit 9, then OpenStreetMap track geometry, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

Record5 of 10
  • Coordinates (USGS)
  • Post office dates
  • Railroad history
  • Historic maps, 1903–1970
  • Land status (BLM records)
  • Where the 1883 station stood
  • Buildings and population
  • What remains
  • Track conditions
  • Photos of the site
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.