Depot

Kingman exists because of the railroad, and the depot was its heart. The Atlantic and Pacific built the first one here in 1885, three years after tracks reached the townsite the railroad had named for its locating engineer, Lewis Kingman. Fire was the constant enemy: the depot, a string of coal cars, and the freight house all burned in May 1900, and the hastily rebuilt wood-frame replacement burned again in the fall of 1906. Each time the trains kept running and Kingman rebuilt.

What the plaque says

An article published in October 1883 noted that the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was about to begin construction of a large warehouse, loading platform and depot in Kingman. Work was delayed on the project, but the first depot was built in 1885., During the first days of May 1900 the depot, several carloads of coal, and the freight house burned. In July it was announced that the railroad had plans for the construction of a new depot built of locally quarried stone. The need for expediency led to it being built as a wood framed structure., In fall 1906 the depot again burned.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kingman — steps away
  The working hub of Route 66 in Arizona — a railroad town named for a surveyor, Andy Devine's hometown, and the last real stop before the road's two wildest endings.
• Oatman — 22 mi
  A gold camp in the Black Mountains that outlived its mines, now run by wild burros — reached by the wildest switchbacks left on Route 66, and named for a history worth telling straight.
• Hackberry General Store — 23 mi
  Looks like a junkyard, is a shrine — the 1934 store an artist brought back from the dead, and the Route 66 stop that inspired Fillmore in Cars.

More markers nearby

• Miner's Mineral Monument — steps away
• Depot Plaza — steps away
• Central Commercial — steps away
• Hotel Brunswick — steps away