A Wnadering Walk Guidebook: Kingman, AZ by Tom Alyea, Wandering Walks of Wonder, Las Vegas, NV, 2019.
This a very quick description of a three mile hike through downtown Kingman. It starts with a brief history of the town, from Captain Beale who laid out an east to west trail across the United States in 1857, to Lewis Kingman who planned a rail terminal in late 1870s. The town was officially founded in 1882. It became the county seat in 1887.
Kingman received rapid expansion during WWII when the Kingman Army Air Field provided training the machine gun operators for the B-17 bomber, the flying fortress. 35,000 airmen were trained during the war. After the war the same area was used as a storage and recycling facility for thousands of planes which were no longer needed.
The hike starts at the power house on Route 66/Andy Devine. The power house was built 1907 and supplied power not only for Kingman but many nearby communities and mines. When Hoover Dam was completed in 1938 it soon became obsolete to the hydroelectric capability of the dam.
Other highlights on the hike include the Santa Fe depot, Beale Hotel where Andy Devine wandered as a child, the Brunswick Hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard stayed when they were married. The Mohave Union High School gymnasium with its unique ceiling. It is all that is left of the old Kingman High School which moved to Bank Street and has now been replaced by Lee Williams High School. The Kingman Grammar (now Palo Christi) School is behind the courthouse, The courthouse and old jail, St. Mary's Church, AT&T offices. The Bonelli House is now a museum. The Elks Lodge built in 1904 is the oldest freternal organization, The I.O.O.F. was the second built in 1912. The Little Red School House was replaced by the Grammar School. The Masonic Temple is on Fourth Street, as is the Central Commercial Building, an early store.
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