About Bullhead

The history of this area can be divided into 2 parts. First, Bullhead City.

Bullhead City, located across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, was born as the Davis Dam began to rise in the 1940s, but the real history was before that. It was before Bullhead City was even a thought. Imagine a genuin old west mining town...name, Hardyville. A simple river port with huge steamboats chugging down the Colorado River stacked high with food, mining supplies and some miners too. Relaxed slow-moving life. It was the place to be if you wanted to make some money and relax a little. Until the railroad from Needles through Yucca to Kingman and beyong was built, Hardyville had been in running for eight prosperous years. But now with the railroad and mining pushing away from the river, the town was abandoned. Yes, Hardyville was a real to life ghost town. But something had it out for this once thriving river community. Two fires demolished the area over two years, 1872 and '73. Well, now it's time for the dam to be built. It's 1940 and Bullhead City has an interesting orgin. There is a rock, a rather large rock, that rested along the Colorado, shaped like a bull's head. But now that the dam has been constructed, the rock which once served as a landmark, is now submersed alomost completely. What is left above water level is no longer recognizable as the famous rock. Since that time, Bullhead City has grown and expanded into what it is today. More is to come, that's for sure. Who knows how the history will write in a hundred more years?

The other part of this area's history is that of Fort Mohave and Mojave Valley. The spellings can be switched but the orgins are different. Mojave originates from tribal language while the white man here spelled it Mohave.

Instead of miners and steamboats, this area was home to the Mojave Tribe who were great farmers. This was more so the Mojave Valley area. Fort Mohave was an English settlement built to watch over "Mohave Road" that crossed the river. When Mohave county was established, Fort Mohave was done away with and Mohave City took over. But in 1890 we had another ghost town on our hands. As years passed the government split the land into a checkerboard fashion between the natives and the railroads. Today, the remaining Mojave Tribe own that land still, but they do more than farming. Don't misunderstand, they still farm, but they also own and operate several Casinos, restaraunts, utility companies, home subdivisions and more.

From mining towns to native tribes and double ghost towns, this area had recovered quite well and still has that relaxed feeling on top of everything.