Book Review: The Lunch Tree

 The Lunch Tree by Irene Cornwall Cofer, Mohave Pioneers Historical Society Inc., Kingman AZ, Drawings by Roy Purcell, 1969.  Available at Kingman Library.  Mostly this is a primary source work as Cofer describes her life and experiences.

Irene Cornwall was born, and mostly raised in the Sandy River area, close to present day Wickieup.  She presents stories form her own life, as well as articles dealing with the lives of those around her.  As a young girl her mother passed away and they moved to Kingman for a couple of years where her father was Mohave County Treasurer. 

She provides a story of meeting a woman from the Red Light district in Kingman--which was located at First and Beale at the time and later had to be relocated as it was too close to the school.  It was known as the Rabbit Patch and Black Jack ruled as queen.  On one occasion the author thinks she met Black Jack.  The lady she met called her "Baby."  She was eight at the time.

She also describes going past the slaughter house after crossing under the railroad bridge.  There were cattle ranging close by to the slaughter house.  This and other things I have read makes me think Slaughter House Canyon was named for the meat packing plant, and not for a moaning woman ghost who murdered her children.  

She described the wagon trip from Kingman to the Sandy River area.  The route followed the west side of the Hualapai Mountains and cut over to the Sandy Valley through Signal which was a larger town then and had a mining mill.  There were several stops along this route and they would stay with different people along the way enjoying their hospitality.  The "Lunch Tree" was one such stop.

This book is a good genealogy source if you have relatives who lived in the area, especially the Wickieup area.  She also gives information on people who lived in Signal, Hackberry and Kingman.  She provides a good description of their home life after they returned to The Big Sandy farm and ranch after living in Kingman a couple years.  She and her older sister took over the household chores which often included serving others who came to collect mail as they ran the post office and if people came at dinner time they would expect to be fed.  Traveling was harder in those days, and farms were far apart.  

Book Review: Kingman-Arizona

 Kingman-Arizona: City in Mohave County by Roman Malach, printed by Graphicopy, New York, 1974, Arizona Bicentennial Commission. 

This is a brief version of the history of Kingman Arizona up through 1974.  Kingman started in 1882 as a railroad town.  It was originally called Sheffield's Railroad Camp for the individual who first platted the city and sold lots.  However the name Kingman took hole after the individual who decided a train stop was needed here.  In 1887 the county seat was moved from Mineral Park to Kingman.  A few things I found interesting.  There is the mention of a slaughterhouse in Kingman.  This makes me think that Slaughterhouse Canyon takes it name form the meat packing rather than the weeping ghost.  He quotes the phone book and local businesses which informs me that there was a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kingman before 1940.  (This would be the Oak Street Baptist Church at  Oak and Sixth streets.)

Harvey House was an important restaurant for travelers on the train.  It was next to the train station.  The original courthouse in Kingman was a rented building which became the Commercial Hotel.  The first constructed courthouse was close to where the courthouse is now.  It wasn't until 1915 that the current courthouse was built.  Fourth of July rodeos were held, and at times cars were used to form the arena.  Kingman also had a ball team which would play with other nearby communities. 

 

Port Kingman was established by Charles Lindbergh and the airport was dedicated i 1928.  The original airport was by Bank and Airway.  It was part of a series of airports from Las Angeles to New York called the Transnational Airline later to become Trans World Airline.  

Kingman was incorporated in 1952.

Book Review: Kingman Army Air Field

 One of my regrets in moving to Kingman is we arrived too late to tour the museum at the airport that memorialized the Army Air Field.  It closed like a year before we moved here.  I went looking for it and found the hangar it had been in, but it was empty.  

I found a binder with information on the Army airfield at the Kingman Library.  This is marked reference so you cannot check it out. However they allowed me to make a copy.  It is either in the Arizona section or in the reference section.  It seems to move back and forth.  It was compiled by Bob Chilcoat in 2017.

The Kingman Army Airfield was born out of WWII.  There was such a need for an air training location that worker were diverted from the Davis Dam project to finish the airfields.  The air field was set up to teach gunnery for the B-17.  It was the sixth such school, and the largest.  The major portion was what would later become the Kingman Airport.  

The school was first called Flexible Gunnery School at Kingman.  However as of May 1943 the name was changed to Kingman Army Air Field.   The school was activated August 1942 and the first class was in January of 1943.  The classes were progressive, starting with bb gun shooting, then skeet shooting, and finally air to air shooting. It would be inactivated at the end of the war, summer of 1945, and closed Feb. 25, 1946.  36,000 gunners were trained.  

The base included all the things you would see in a small community: library, post office, chapel, movie theater, stage with base orchestra and regular dances, day room, large cafeteria, hospital, etc.  The base hosted many celebrities including Bob Hope and his troupe.  Also the Three Stooges visited.  

There were actual seven sub bases to KAAF.  This includes the main base in Kingman, the ground to ground range also in Kingman, Red Lake Field, Antares or Hackberry, Yucca, Topock, Signal and Lake Havasu.  Lake Havasu was often used as a place for soldiers to recreate in Lake Havasu.

Subsequent to this the base was converted to Storage Depot 41.  Word was received in September of 1945 of the change, and the first plane was received on October 19, 1945.  Planes from all over the world were no longer needed and many were flown to Kingman for storage or disposal.  By the end of the year there were almost 5000 aircraft in Kingman.  The highest total officially would be about 5500, however many have said there were 7000 aircraft, the highest total in the world to that point.  Mostly these were large bombers, but there were other aircraft as well.  Some were pot marked with shrapnel and barely flyable.  However there were no accidents in bringing the aircraft to Kingman.  

I most enjoyed in this collection, the article from the Arizona Highways magazine.  Here they described the final resting place and salvage of the aircraft, some of which was very important to those who flew in them.  A few were rescued, like Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb.  It is now in a museum.

This collection also has plenty of pictures.  I share a few but there are many more in the binder.

skeet shooting while moving

Kingman Storage Facility

Kingman and subbases

A training devices using movies

oxygen room, gives the fell of being at 30,000 feet

chapel

Bob Hope and crew

Timothy McVeigh and Michael Fortier in Kingman

The events of April 19, 1995 in Oklahoma City brought the world to Kingman, Arizona.  The Oklahoma City bomb detonated at 9:02 a.m. and destroyed the Murrah building.  This was a federal building.  It held offices for federal employees including Social Security Administration, Veteran's Administration, United States Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.  It also housed a day care, America's Kids.  500 people worked in the building.  A third of the building collapsed as a result of the blast.  168 people were killed, including 19 children.  Hundreds more were injured.  The building was demolished and a memorial put in its place.  This is still the worse domestic terrorism action.

Timothy McVeigh had planted the bomb, using a rider truck with a mixture of fertilizer, diesel fuel and other chemicals which was then detonated to deadly effect.  McVeigh had perfected his explosive techniques in the desert around Kingman.  He was drawn to Kingman as his friend from military service, Michael Fortier lived here.  They shared antigovernment sentiment.  Both were upset with the Branch Davidian intervention in Waco, Texas.  

Timothy McVeigh was originally from New York, Mike Fortier from Kingman, and a third man, Terry Nichols, who had a more active part in the plot from Michigan.  It was he and McVeigh who rented the truck and turned it into a bomb.

McVeigh lived in several houses in the Kingman area over a couple years before the bombing, including staying with Fortier and his wife, and renting a residence in Golden Valley.  When staying with Fortier they would discuss antigovernment literature and ideas.  At one time he showed Fortier and his wife how he intended to make the bomb, using soup cans to represent barrels of chemicals and kerosene.  Fortier and his wife attended several test bombs detonations; mostly pipe bombs.  This tests would take place in the desert by Kingman but I am not sure where.  I heard it might be off of Stockton Hill Road.  Fortier lived in a mobile home complex.  Again I have not been able to find an address.  

McVeigh would not always stay with Fortier.  He would often stay at hotels in Kingman, once on west Beale, but also Hill Top and a Motel 6.  He had several jobs in Kingman, including as a security guard and also worked at True Value Hardware where Fortier also worked.  Fortier introduced McVeigh to drug usage, including marijuana and methamphetamine.

Fortier traveled with McVeigh; and went with him to check out the Murrah building at one point.  He also received stolen arms from McVeigh and sold them at gun shows and used part of the money to help McVeigh finance his final operation.  

When McVeigh left Kingman to actually bomb the Murrah building, Fortier declined the offer to go with him.  So in essence he knew of the plot, but did not participate in the actual bombing.  

When confronted by the FBI within two days of the bombing, Fortier lied and said he did not know McVeigh or his bomb plot.  However he eventually turned.  For a plea bargain agreement he became the primary witness against McVeigh and Nichols.  Fortier received a twelve year sentence for his involvement.  He served ten and then went into witness protection plan.  His parents, who lived in Kingman moved away as the result of these events.  Timothy McVeigh was convicted and executed.  Terry Nichols received a life sentence.  Fortier's wife was not charged despite knowing of the plot.  This was part of the plea bargain arrangement of Michael Fortier.  

McVeigh

Fortier

Nichols

I understand the presence of the FBI in Kingman, as well as national media made for a rather uncomfortable period.  Many people were interviewed about their association with Timothy McVeigh.  Also Kingman was put in a negative light by the national media, and the generalization was that Kingman residents were nothing but meth addicts and pot smokers and gun toters.  It took some years for this stains to fade away.  I knew nothing of the connection with Kingman until I visited the library of the Mohave County History Museum and was directed to a box of materials by the matron.  I also found plenty of information online.

Book Review: Mohave County in Old Photographs

 Mohave County in Old Photographs by Roman Malach, Mohave County Board of Supervisors, Kingman, AZ, 1982.

Roman Malach was the Mohave County Historian.  There are several of his books available at the Mohave County Library in Kingman.  This book of old photographs is very interesting; however the quality of the pictures is lacking and sometimes they are not very clear.  I found this at Kingman Library in the local history area.

The first courthouse in Kingman

courthouse under construction

Kingman Ghost and History Stories Presented by Beale Theater Ghost Walk

 This is the sixth annual Ghost Walk by Beale Theater.  This is a very enjoyable presentation and worthy of any ghost story or history buff.  I consider myself both so I was in my element.   The first stop on the walk was to the old county jail where we heard a story I had never heard before.  The old jail is between the old courthouse and the new courthouse. They told of two brothers, drunk, who were trying to get home and having difficulty.  The noticed a kerosene lamp at the jail and decided to help themselves so they could see better.  The spilled kerosene upon themselves, and then accidentally lit the kerosene.  They both became infernos running through the street until they expired.  The fire turned them to ashes.

We then walked up the street by the Catholic church, and there was told of the screaming ghost of Slaughter House Canyon.  This was not too scary, as Slaughter House Canyon was at least a mile away.  But the story of how the screaming ghost came to be is very tragic.  A mother and her starving children slowly gave way to madness, which ended in tragic deaths of them all.

We were introduced to Lewis Kingman, whose name was given to our city.  However he did not talk about Kingman so much as he talked about Diablo Canyon and the Diablo Canyon Bridge.  While they waited for materials to build the bridge this was the end of the rail line, and a large community was established.  This community had the worse of human nature with drinking, gambling and its share of murders.  

There was a story of a gambling murder and the ghost who rides off with his partners every year at the same time.  I didn't catch the name of the murder victim, but the gambling was taking place in the Beale Hotel.

Hi Jolli, the camel master for the Beale Camel team told the story of the red camel ghost.  This ghost has been seen on the hills of Kingman but wanders the entire state of Arizona.  It is believed to be a lost camel from the Beale excursion.  It was first noticed with a rider strapped to its back.  In an agitated state it trampled and killed a woman.  The dead body strapped to its back must have been because of punishment, or perhaps a dying man who strapped himself so he wouldn't fall while the camel looked for water.  At any rate the man and the camel became ghosts still wandering the Arizona desert.  

The Beale Theater, being very old, also has its own ghost story.  A disgruntled former employee who was discharged when the theater changed hands, apparently kept letting himself into the theater and hanging about the cat walks and rafters.  He eventually disappeared.  But it is still believed he haunts the building.

Tom King was murdered at Commercial Restaurant which he helped run with his partner Don On.  This was part of a Chinese gang feud.  Four men, with the driver, approached and killed Tom King while the escape car waited for them.  Don On escaped murder as did another employee.  Don On disappeared shortly after and never heard from again.  However the employee, who was in a back room, witnessed the murders and was later able to testify against them. 

Andy Devine, as a youngster was running with a curtain rod in his mouth in the Beale Hotel which his father owned and ran.  Somehow he fell and the rod injured the back of his throat.  Devine blamed this for his raspy voice which became his signature characteristic as an actor.  

Central Commercial Store was the largest store in Kingman for some time.  They sold all types of items, groceries and dry goods, and farming supplies.  Tunnels under the Store leading to the powerhouse were used to bring heat.  However they also had clandestine uses which may have included smuggling and slavery.  So said the narrator from Beale Theater.

And I never knew Lee Williams High School had issues with being haunted as it was constructed over the cemetery which was moved to make ways for the school.  However not every family could afford to move the bodies.  Consequently some remained.  They were encountered when the school was first constructed, and then again during the remodel.  Part of the football field is over the graveyard.  During the remodel, several bodies were encountered.

Beale Street Theater Tour B

Some of the tour B stories also deserve a closer look.  The Daily Miner was moving their location to a larger facility.  At the time is was in the building now occupied by 66 Marketplace.  They were bringing items up from the basement in the elevator.  Everything was pretty much up and so the last worker was bringing the last box up.  The circuit gave way and the basement went dark.  However the elevator was headed down.  In his struggle to get his bearings the man fell in the elevator shaft and the descending elevator squished him.  As a result the elevator was shut down and boarded up.  However many years later eerie feelings prompted them to try and find the elevator.  They could not find it however.  

Kingman was at one time the home of a vibrant red light district.  It was called the Rabbit Patch and located where Locomotive Park is today.  Blackjack was the queen of the patch and recognized as the head madame.  She arrived in Kingman in 1888 and was often seen in town with her pet parrot "Polly."  Blackjack's real name was Josie Harcourt.  Pollie died around 1905.  Blackjack was devastated.  One of her patrons, in an effort to cheer her up, provided a casket and head stone for the bird.  There was a processional and the bird was laid to rest at the Pioneer Cemetery.  A picket fence was built around the grave.  Blackjack did not survive the bird for long and also passed away within a year and was buried beside the bird.

A botched stage coach robbery has lead to the story of gold being his in those mountains.  In 1872 Macallam and his companion heard of a gold shipment from Prescott to Fort Mohave going through Mineral Park.  They set up shop close to the stage station and waited.  They were able to relieve the stage coach driver and guard of the gold and sent them on their way.  The gold proved too heavy for them to carry, so they had to hide it some where.  However since they let the stage coach carry on, a posse was quickly upon them.  Macallam's companion was shot and killed.  Macallam was sent to prison.  While at Yuma State Prison he told a cell mate of the buried treasure before he died in jail.  However no one knows if he was ever able to find the gold.  So if the gold is still there or no is just a guess.  $72,000 worth of gold in 1872 would be worth almost a couple million now.

The stage station above Mineral Park

However, I discovered later that the tour was actually telling the story of "Hualapai Joe" Desredo.  In 1880 a stage coach disappeared with $200,000 in gold ingots and another couple of bags of gold west of Beale Springs.  Desredo and his men were already pursued by posse based on a store robbery in Mineral Park.  The posse had holed up in Beale Springs, and when Desredo and his men road into Beale Springs shots began to fly leaving Desredo's men dead and Desredo dying.  Desredo told the sheriff of the stolen gold, but also the strange happening with the stage coach.  He could hear it leaving and then the noise stopped suddenly.  A hermit, in 1940 wandered upon the remains of the stage coach, with human bones.  It had fallen into fissure beside a wash.  He was able to show this to a historian making him promise not to tell anyone.  He did not tell for several years, and when he told the sheriff's department wasn't interested in something that happened so long ago.  

Olive Oatman was traveling west with her family.  Her father was Mormon and with a small group of other Mormons had decided to pioneer in California rather than Utah.  All of the other members of the party stopped along the way.  However Sara's father was determined to continue on; which was his undoing.  A group of Native Americans, probably Apache, came upon them and after initially asking about food and tobacco brought out cubs and killed the entire family except two girls, Olive and her younger sister.  Olive and her sister were forced to walk many miles and kept in captivity.  The Mohave Tribe eventually purchased them and they lived with the Mohave along the Colorado River.  A year of famine took the life of Sara's younger sister.  When the White Community heard of a white girl among the Indians they were determined to rescue her.  Eventually arrangements were made for her to be returned to Fort Yuma.  To Olive's surprise her brother was waiting for her.  He had been left for dead but had survived.

The Bonelli House was on the tour, telling of the spirits that inhabit the house.  The home was built by George Albert Bonelli.  

The murder of Jennie Bauters resulted in the last hanging in Kingman.  Jennie was a successful madame in Jerome, AZ.  She was considered the richest woman in Arizona.  She owned Jennie's place in Jerome.   However as the town was becoming more cultured, she had moved on to a new mining town in Goldroad.  Unfortunately Clement C. Leigh had followed her.  He had lived off of her for many years as a common law spouse, and was determined to continue.  She refused to give him money, and he insisted.  In a drunken condition he murdered her in the morning, Sunday, September 3, 1905.  He made sure she was dead rolling her over and putting a bullet through head.  With his last bullet, he shot himself in the chest; but he did not die.  He was taken to Kingman for trial and found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang.  It took over a year to go through the appeal process.  He was finally put to death January 18, 1907.  He was a man with lots of bravado, but as he was being lead up the stairs to the gallows his courage failed him.  He fell and bonked his head.  After this he had to be carried and lifted up for the noose to be placed around his head.  The fall broke his neck.  He was buried at pioneer cemetery.  When the cemetery was moved he and his victim were both buried in a communal grave.  (The tour said his had was pulled off and then explained that he is the ghost at the school who is seen headless, pulling his head on a rope behind him.  Bt that likely is just story telling.)

Jennie Bauters in Jerome

The final story is that of a child falling from the balcony of the Red School.  The teacher who sent he and his companion to the balcony for discipling hung herself.  I have not been able to this point to verify this story; but the school does have a balcony.