Hackberry is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in

Mohave County Mohave County occupies the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 counties in the state. As of the 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman, and the largest city is Lake Havasu City. It is th ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, United States. It is located on State Route 66 (former U.S. Route 66) northeast of Kingman. Hackberry once had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

; as of 2015 the US Postal Service served 68 residential mailboxes in the town with ZIP code 86411. As of the 2020 census, Hackberry had a population of 103.

History

A former

mining town A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry. Historical mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Bendig ...

, Hackberry takes its name from the Hackberry Mine which was named for a hackberry tree in a nearby spring. Prospector Jim Music helped develop the Hackberry Silver Mine in 1875. Mining of various metals developed the town, sending it from boom to bust based on fluctuating commodity prices. The Indianapolis Monroes Iron Clad Age of June 12, 1886, includes a brief article titled "They Changed the Minds of Several", referring to an educated miner from the area: "J.J. Watts writes from Hackberry, Arizona: 'The books you sent me last year have changed the minds of several to whom I loaned them. It is a pity that liberal books and papers cannot be more generally circulated and read. If they could be we should soon have more outspoken, honest men that would dare to speak their true sentiments.'" Based on an article taken from the July 24, 1909, edition of the ''Mohave County Miner'' out of Kingman, Arizona, J.J. Watts was an old prospector. Here is that article. "Some time ago the report was current in Kingman that Indians had killed an old prospector, in the Wallapai mountains, first burying the body and later burning up everything of an incriminating nature. The man was supposed to be J. J. Watts, who mined and prospected in the Music mountain range many years. William Grant, the Hackberry merchant, this week received a letter from B.F. Watts, of Marshall, Oklahoma, conveying the information that J.J. Watts died at

Lander, Wyoming Lander is a city and the county seat of Fremont County, Wyoming. It is located in central Wyoming, along the Middle Fork Popo Agie River, Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River, just south of the Wind River Indian Reservation. It is a tourism center ...

, last winter. The man who was killed by the Indians is believed to be a stranger that came to Kingman and was lured to the mountains by the Indians by a story of a lost mine that they had found in that section. The man was killed by Willietopsy and his sons, so it is reported by the other Indians." By 1919, infighting between the mine's owners had become litigation, and the ore was beginning to be depleted. The mine closed; Hackberry briefly almost became a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

. Various service stations in town served

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...

travelers after the highway came to town in 1926; all were shut down after

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...

bypassed the town. I-40's path between Kingman and Seligman diverges widely from the old segment of State Route 66 between these points, leaving Hackberry stranded from the new highway. Hackberry Road would not even be given an off-ramp. John Grigg operated a

Union 76 76 (formerly Union 76) is a chain of gas stations located within the United States. The 76 brand is owned by Phillips 66. Unocal, the original owner and creator of the 76 brand, merged with Chevron Corporation in 2005. History The Union Oil ...

service station on Route 66 in Hackberry from the 1920s until his death in 1967. The Northside Grocery (established 1934) and its

Conoco Conoco ( ), formerly known as Continental Oil, is an American Petroleum industry, petroleum brand that is operating under the current ownership of the Phillips 66 Company since 2012 and is headquartered in the Westchase, Houston, Westchase neigh ...

station were among the last to close, in 1978. Hackberry almost became a ghost town again, but members of the Grigg family have lived there since the 1890s and continue to live there. Six generations of the Grigg family are buried in the Hackberry cemetery. In 1992, itinerant artist

Bob Waldmire Robert Waldmire (April 19, 1945 – December 16, 2009) was an American artist and cartographer who is well known for his artwork of U.S. Route 66, including whimsical maps of the ''Mother Road'' and its human and natural ecology. Being the son of ...

re-opened the Hackberry General Store as a Route 66 tourism information post and

souvenir shop A gift shop or souvenir shop is a store primarily selling souvenirs, memorabilia, and other items relating to a particular topic or theme. The items sold often include coffee mugs, stuffed animals, toys, t-shirts, postcards, handmade collections ...

on the former Northside Grocery site. Waldmire sold the store to John and Kerry Pritchard in 1998 due to local disputes regarding the environmental and aesthetic impact of

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...

, which by that time were establishing themselves in the area to remove local stone for use in

landscaping Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following: # Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal ...

. The store remains in operation with a collection of

vintage car A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930, Either a "survivor" or one that has been fixed up according to the or ...

s from the heyday of

U.S. Route 66 in Arizona U.S. Route 66 (US 66, Route 66) also known as the Will Rogers Highway, was a major United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway in the state of Arizona from November 11, 1926, to June 26, 1985. US 66 ...

; in 2008, its owners donated land for a new

fire hall __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...

to be built for the community.

Geography

Hackberry is in eastern Mohave County along SR 66, northeast of Kingman, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, and west of Seligman. Hackberry Road runs south from the town, leading to

U.S. Route 93 U.S. Route 93 (US 93) is a major north–south U.S. Numbered Highway in the western United States, that connects U.S. Route 60 (US 60) in Wickenburg, Arizona, with British Columbia Highway 93 at the Canadian border (north of ...

south of

. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the Hackberry CDP has an area of , all land. The town sits at the west end of Truxton Canyon, followed by Route 66 as it climbs to the east. Truxton Wash flows northwest into the

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

Hualapai Valley Hualapai Valley is a valley in Mohave County, Arizona. Location Hualapai Valley is an endorheic basin and its watershed terminates in the dry lake or Dry lake, playa called Red Lake (Mohave County, Arizona), Red Lake at an elevation of 2762 feet. ...

, ending at Red Lake from Hackberry.

Education

Most of the CDP is in the Hackberry School District. A portion of the CDP is in the Valentine Elementary School District.

Gallery

File:Hackberry Arizona 300 miles desert.jpg, Hackberry File:Hackberry-Hackberry General Store-1934.jpg , Hackberry General Store File:Hackberry-Mobilgas Gas Pump.jpg, Mobilgas fuel pump File:Hackberry-Hackberry Garage-1934-2.jpg , Hackberry Garage – 1934 File:Hackberry-Hackberry Shell Station-1934.jpg , Hackberry Shell station – 1934 File:Hackberry-Hackberry Music Hall in Hackberry, Az.jpg , Hackberry Music Hall File:Hackberry-Hackberry Motel-1935.jpg , Hackberry Motel – 1935 File:Hackberry-Hackberry-Hackbery Café-1920-2.jpg, Hackberry Café – 1920 File:Hackberry-Bonnie and Clyde Car.jpg, Automobile abandoned in Route 66 File:Hackberry-Charcoal Kiln-1920-1.jpg, 1920 charcoal kiln File:Hackberry-Charcoal Kiln-1920-2-Inside.jpg, Inside the 1920 charcoal kiln

History

Geography

Education

Gallery

Demographics

See also

References

Further reading