Chloride Arizona

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This page last updated on 01/03/2019

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10/15/2015 Trip Notes: Instead of going on today's trip to St. Thomas with the Rock-hounds, Blake Smith and I took a daytrip to Chloride, Arizona, most noted as the home to the Roy Purcell Murals (Fig. 01c). Click the link below for more pictures. Though I didn't have a lot of new pictures on this visit, the main thing I noticed was that the past several years of drought has taken a toll on many of the town's structures, including the "Welcome to Chloride" shown in (Fig. 01). We hiked to a mine about a mile up the road past Purcell's site. the picture in (Fig. 01b) is looking back at the site with the town of Chloride in the distance. (Fig. 01b) 08/21/2012 Trip Notes: Harvey Smith and I took a daytrip to Chloride, Arizona, most noted as the home to the Roy Purcell Murals (Fig. 01c) below. Roy painted these back in 1986 on a rocky hill just a few miles out of town. Check out the page I created from a daytrip my wife and I took here back in February of 2010 … Roy Purcell Murals. There are also ruminants of more than 75 old silver, gold and copper mines (Fig. 01a) above) scattered within a five mile radius of the towns’ center. After stopping at the local tourist center to gather some information on what to see, we spent a couple of hours driving around town capturing pictures of local landmarks. Our first stop was to the old Chloride Cemetary (Fig. 02). We were amazed at how many graves had no remaining identifying markers. Click here to view a collage of the pictures I took here … Chloride Arizona Cemetery. Next, we made stops at (Fig. 03) the post office, (the oldest in Arizona), the original Santa Fe railroad station (Figs. 04 & 05), and the old jail (Figs. 06 & 07). Opposite the old jail we found a private yard with hundreds of Prickly Pear Cactus. Check out the pictures here ... Prickly Pear Cactus. We then headed out to the site of the murals and spent the remainder of the morning hiking the area around the murals, where we found several petroglyphs and a couple of mine audits (Figs. 08 & 09).  We then drove back into town and had a beer at Yesterdays Restaurant (Figs. 10 & 11), which used to be the original Butterfield Stagecoach stop from 1868 to 1919, before we headed up the northern end of Big Wash Road which led us 15 miles up and into the Cerbat Mountains. Read more below.

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Having heard that there were two campgrounds high up into the Cerbat mountains behind Chloride, we decided to take a drive up Big Wash Road to check them out. With absolutely outstanding views and drop-dead scenery (Figs. 12 thru 16), this road led us deep into the mountains and up to an elevation of more than 6,000 feet. The view in (Fig 14) was taken from campsite #3 at the Windy Point Campground and shows part of the road we traveled to reach it. The place where the most distant part of the road reaches the saddle is the location of the Packsaddle Campground. The view of Chloride in (Fig. 15) was just a few feet from where we had our lunch on site #3 in (Fig. 16). After lunch we drove another two miles to the trailhead for the Cherum Peak Ridge Trail. We are looking forward to this hike on our next visit. After another hour of “scouting” around for future hikes we finally decided to call it a day and head for home.

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Background & History: The name Chloride came from the silver chloride found in the surrounding hills. Today, silver chloride is used in photographic emulsions and antiseptic silver solutions. Sometime during the 1840’s, prospectors canvassing the area stumbled upon numerous veins rich in silver surrounding the area that would someday become Chloride. The silver was found primarily at a site known as Silver Hill. But silver wasn't all they found. Many metals were actually mined in Chloride including gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, molybdenum, vanadium and turquoise, with silver being the predominate ore. Silver built the town, but it was the discovery of lead and zinc that sustained it. Though the town of Chloride was founded about 1863, turmoil with the Hualapai Indians slowed mining considerably. In 1870, a signed treaty with the Hualapai's cleared the way for extensive mining of the area. After the treaty, several mining camps were started in the Cerbat Mountains including Mineral Park, Cerbat and Chloride. In fact, they are still mining copper at Mineral Park today. In 1873, the United States Post Office Department opened an office in Chloride and the Chloride Post Office has been in continuous operation since 1893 making it one of the oldest continuously operated post offices in the state of Arizona. Soon, all manner of new business began to spring up in Chloride. From 1868 to 1919, the Butterfield Stage Line serviced Chloride and surrounding area. The stage stop and repair station was located at the building presently known as Yesterday's Restaurant. In 1871, Chloride became the Mohave County seat. At its high point, it’s rumored that the population escalated to approximately 5000, but dropped to 2000 around 1917. In 1898, the Sante Fe Railroad extended its tracks from Kingman to Chloride, dramatically reducing the costs for ore and supply shipments. Just two years later the town boasted a population of 2,000, supported primarily by two major mines, the Tennessee and the Schuykill. Both these mines would produce gold, silver, lead and zinc on a major scale up into the late 1940s. Chloride’s peak years were between 1900 and 1920, when some 75 mines were in operation in the area. In 1910, the railway was again extended directly to the Tennessee Mine, the largest in the area. With the coming of the railroad, Butterfield’s Stage Line finally discontinued service in 1919. By the 1930s, the richest mine in the area was the Golconda, located between Kingman and Chloride. It has been estimated that the Golconda produced six and a half million dollars in ore. Later on, the Tennessee Silver Mine surpassed the Golconda in total ore produced. The Santa Fe Railroad provided both passenger and cargo service until 1935 when a decision to close the station was finally made. It was known as the B&F, back and forth. The railway station still stands today and is fairly intact, but the tracks are long gone. In 1944 the mines were forced to close due to the low prices of silver and other minerals that made the cost of materials and labor too high. Since then Chloride has became a virtual ghost town. During the counterculture period of the 1960's, a band of hippies led by a man named Roy Purcell camped in the hills above Chloride to the East. During their stay, Roy painted what are now known as throughout the world as the "Chloride Murals". Ancient petroglyph's are also known to be located in this area. Presently, the continuous population is around 150 and reaches a high of 250 during the winter months when "snow-birds" come in from the cold. There are two restaurants, two bars, several gift shops, a convenience store, fire station, and a few interesting tourist sights, including the historic post office and train station. Many of the present day citizens are retirees, artists, musicians, and the like. Some residents work locally, some have their own shops, while others work in the casino industry in Laughlin or Las Vegas or are employed in one of many businesses in Kingman.