Goldroad Arizona - Route 66 Ghost Towns

Although Goldroad is a Route 66 ghost town, its demise had little to do with the establishment of the new Interstate Highway that bypassed it. Gold was discovered here in the late 1890's and the town of Goldroad was officially established in 1902. After the gold strike the population of Goldroad grew to between 400-500 people. The area thrived until more substantial silver and gold strikes occurred in other areas. These days, there is nothing in the area but building foundations and many abandoned mines.

The town sprouted up on Route 66 between Oatman and Kingman Arizona. The next photo picks up where the road disappears in this one.

I believe this photo was taken in the 1920's. You can clearly see how Route 66 hair pinned up the mountains with no guard rails and barely enough room for one lane in each direction.  Through the years, many cars have gone off the edge. In the near future I'll do a post on the high-point pass through these mountains. 

I took this photo a couple of months ago from almost the exact vantage point as the photo above.  The curve in the road is the curve on the right side of the previous photo. Of course, it is about 100 years later. There is one mining operation still at work here and until recently, they gave tours. I "heard" that the tours stopped because they didn't want anyone to know how much gold they were finding. You can see the huge pile of mine tailings that completely cross the photo.  Mine tailings are materials left over after the extraction of valuable minerals from the ore. 

There are many vertical and horizontal mine entrances in the area. 

Some foundations from the former town.

Here is a huge vertical entrance. All of the related structure is long gone and only a deep mine shaft remains..

Others mines are both horizontal and vertical.  This one was only off the road by about 10 feet. I couldn't hear the rocks I threw into it, hit bottom.

I took this photo without even getting out of the jeep. Mines are everywhere!

Back roads like this one are covered with mines, pits and tailings.

Here (and in the next few photos) are more old building foundations made from local stone.

Places like this had to endure a double whammy. The gold dried up and Route 66 was bypassed by the interstate. They didn't stand a chance.



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