Norton's Landing or Norton's,John and Lillian Theobald, Arizona Territory Post Offices & Postmasters, The Arizona Historical Foundation, Phoenix, 1961. was a steamboat landing on the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

, in what was then Yuma County,

Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...

. Today it is in

La Paz County, Arizona La Paz County () is the 15th County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Arizona, located in the western part of the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 16,557, making it the List of counties ...

. Nortons Landing is 52 miles upriver from

Yuma, Arizona Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 95,548 at the 2020 census, up from the 2010 census population of 93,064. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, Metropolitan ...

4 miles above Picacho, California and 18 miles below the Clip, Arizona landing. Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978
/ref> It lies on a rocky point of land next to the river at 215 feet of elevation just east of Red Cloud Wash and Black Rock Wash, where roads to the district mines in the mountains met the Colorado River.

History

Nortons Landing was developed for the Red Cloud Mine and other nearby mines of the Silver Mining District in the

Trigo Mountains The Trigo Mountains are a north-south trending mountain range in La Paz County, Arizona, bordering the Colorado River on the east in the Lower Colorado River Valley. The range lies north of the Colorado River as it turns east, north of Martin ...

. The Silver District became active in 1879 when George Sills, Neils Johnson, George W. Norton, and Gus Crawford relocated many silver claims abandoned following the death of Jacob Snively in 1871.James E. Sherman, Barbara H. Sherman, Ghost Towns of Arizona, University of Oklahoma Press, Aug 1, 1969 The landing and settlement was named for George W. Norton who owned the Red Cloud Mine and its smelter at the landing, and had been the engineer in charge of constructing the first railroad bridge across the

, at

in 1877. The landing also had general store, and a post office called Norton's from June 4, 1883, to August 24, 1888, when it was discontinued, mail being sent to Yuma. It again had a post office from September 3, 1891, to March 13, 1894, when it was again discontinued and the town died. Norton's Landing continued until April, 1897. The Arizona Sentinel, Yuma, AZ, on 17 April 1897: The famous and well-known silver district mining town, Norton's Landing, is completely deserted, on account of the low price of silver and the mines closing down. The inhabitants have all removed to that flourishing mining camp, Picacho.

Present site

The site is now a ghost town in La Paz County, Arizona. Only a few foundations, mining equipment, and slag from the reduction works remain. Norton Landing
from ghosttowns.com accessed July 31, 2015

References

External links

Photo of some of the mining debris remaining at the site. {{Steamboats of the Colorado River Ghost towns in Arizona Former populated places in La Paz County, Arizona Port cities and towns in Arizona Steamboat transport on the Colorado River 1882 establishments in Arizona Territory