Kingman AZ: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Kingman grew up where the railway and later Route 66 crossed the desert, and its old centre still lines Andy Devine Avenue, as the road is called here. Everything worth seeing is within a few blocks of the Powerhouse, so park once and walk. The museums are small and close by late afternoon. Trains rumble through day and night, a reminder of what built the town.
A short history of Kingman AZ
Kingman was founded in 1882 as a railway station and named after Lewis Kingman, the surveyor who marked out the route of the line. Silver and gold were mined in the surrounding mountains, and in the 20th century Route 66 passed through it. During the Second World War an air force training base operated here, and after the war thousands of aircraft were brought to it to be scrapped. Today it is a medium-sized town, with a Route 66 museum in the old power station.
The ten best sights in Kingman AZ
1Arizona Route 66 MuseumThe story of the road from wagon trail to the revival, inside the old Powerhouse; the visitor center is downstairs
2Mohave Museum of History and ArtsLocal history, turquoise and a room on the actor Andy Devine; a block from the Powerhouse
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3Kingman Railroad Museum
In the old depot beside the busy main line; small, with model trains
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4Santa Fe Locomotive 3759
A huge steam engine on show in Locomotive Park, across from the Powerhouse
5Bonelli HouseA 1915 stone house furnished as a wealthy Kingman family lived in it; open limited days
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6Camp Beale Springs
A short trail to the spring and the site of an 1870s army post, a sad chapter of Hualapai history
7Route 66 Electric Vehicle MuseumA small, surprising collection of electric cars old and new
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8Cool Springs Station
A rebuilt 1920s filling station and museum at the foot of the climb to Oatman
9Oatman HotelThe adobe hotel in the old mining town; walls inside papered with signed dollar bills
10Hackberry General StoreAn old gas station crammed with Route 66 relics, 37 km north-east on the old road
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Kingman AZ →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Kingman AZ:
Free walking tours in Kingman AZ
Downtown on the old road
Kingman grew up where the railway and later Route 66 crossed the desert, and its old centre still lines Andy Devine Avenue, as the road is called here. Everything worth seeing is within a few blocks of the Powerhouse, so park once and walk. The museums are small and close by late afternoon. Trains rumble through day and night, a reminder of what built the town.
- Powerhouse and Route 66 Museum · The Powerhouse was built in the early 1900s to supply electricity to the mines in the hills around Kingman. The museum inside follows the road from a wagon route to the Dust Bowl migrants of the 1930s, who drove west through here looking for work.
- Santa Fe Locomotive 3759 · Engine 3759 is one of the big 4-8-4 steam locomotives the Santa Fe railway bought in the late 1920s to haul its long-distance passenger trains across the desert, before diesels replaced steam.
- Beale Wagon Road memorial · In 1857 Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale surveyed a wagon road west along the 35th parallel, using camels from the US Army's short-lived Camel Corps as pack animals. The railway and Route 66 later followed much of his line.
- Mohave Museum of History and Arts · Andy Devine, the gravel-voiced actor of Stagecoach and dozens of westerns, grew up in Kingman, where his family ran a hotel. The town named its stretch of Route 66 after him, and the museum keeps a room of his memorabilia.
- Kingman Railroad Museum · The town is named after Lewis Kingman, the surveyor who laid out the railway line through this valley in the early 1880s. The museum is in the town's old depot, still beside the main line.
- Bonelli House · The Bonelli family's first house on this lot burned down, so in 1915 they rebuilt it of local volcanic stone to make it fireproof. It is furnished today much as a prosperous Kingman family lived in the early 1900s.
Over Sitgreaves Pass to Oatman
The original Route 66 west of Kingman climbs straight over the Black Mountains on a narrow road of hairpin bends, with no guard rails and big drops. It is about 45 km to Oatman, a gold-rush town now kept alive by visitors and by the wild burros that wander its street. Drive it in daylight and without a trailer. From Oatman the road continues down to the Colorado River and California.
- Camp Beale Springs · The army post here held Hualapai people who had surrendered after years of war. In 1874 they were forced to march to a reservation at La Paz on the Colorado River, where many died of heat and disease, before the survivors made their way back to their homeland.
- Cool Springs Station · The stone filling station of the 1920s fell into ruin after traffic left the old road. In 1991 the film Universal Soldier blew up what was left of it, and it was rebuilt by a local enthusiast in 2004 as it once looked.
- Sitgreaves Pass · The pass is named after Lorenzo Sitgreaves, an army topographer who explored the route in 1851. In the 1930s the climb was so feared that some travellers paid locals to drive their cars over it for them.
- Oatman · The town is named after Olive Oatman, a girl taken captive in 1851 after an attack on her family's wagon, who lived for five years among the Mohave and bore a blue chin tattoo for the rest of her life. She was released near here in 1856.
- Oatman Hotel · Clark Gable and Carole Lombard married in Kingman on 29 March 1939, and the hotel says they spent their wedding night here on the way back to Hollywood. The room is kept as the honeymoon suite.
- Oatman main street and the burros · The burros are descendants of the donkeys miners used and then turned loose when the mines closed in the 1940s. They are wild animals protected by law; feed them only the pellets sold in the shops.
North: silver towns and the old road to Hackberry
North of Kingman the desert holds the traces of the mining that came before the road: wagon ruts, silver towns and old diggings. A loop takes in the granite hills at the edge of town, the half-ghost town of Chloride, and then Route 66 north-east to the Hackberry store. The roads are paved except the last stretch to the murals. Carry water; there is little shade anywhere.
- White Cliffs Wagon Trail · The deep grooves in the soft white rock were cut by heavy ore wagons, braked hard as they came down from the mines in the hills to the railway in Kingman in the late 1800s.
- Monolith Garden · The towers and balanced boulders are granite, rounded by weathering along cracks in the rock until only the hard cores were left standing above the desert floor.
- Chloride · Prospectors found silver here in the 1860s, and the town takes its name from the silver chloride in the ore. It never quite died like other mining towns; a few hundred people still live among the old buildings.
- Roy Purcell murals · In 1966 the artist Roy Purcell painted these bright symbolic murals on the granite boulders above town, calling the work The Journey.
- Kingman Airport · In the Second World War this was Kingman Army Airfield, a school for aerial gunners. After the war thousands of surplus warplanes were flown here to be stored and melted down for scrap.
- Hackberry General Store · In 1992 the Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire bought the empty store and reopened it as a stop for travellers on the old road. Pixar later based Fillmore, the hippie van in Cars, on him.
Getting to Kingman AZ and getting around
- Kingman Amtrak station · The Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles stops here once each way, late at night
- Kingman Airport · A general-aviation field 13 km north-east, once a wartime gunnery school; no airline service
Cheap eats in Kingman AZ
Kingman eats American road food: diners, burgers, Mexican from across the nearby border states, and big breakfasts for drivers heading into the desert. Prices are lower than in the national parks, and portions are large. Most of the character is on the old road downtown; the chains sit by the interstate. In Oatman there is food, but only until the town shuts at dusk.
- Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner · Burgers, shakes and homemade root beer, about $10-16
- Calico's · Home-style breakfasts and lunches on the old road, about $10-16
- Mudd on 66 · Coffee and pastries downtown, about $4-8
- Scoops on 66 · Ice cream on Andy Devine Avenue, about $4-7
- Federico's Mexican Food · Burritos and tacos, quick and cheap, about $8-12
- Black Bear Diner · Big diner plates on the west side, about $12-18
Museums in Kingman AZ
- Arizona Route 66 Museum · Old cars, road signs and the migrant story; small entry fee
- Mohave Museum of History and Arts · Local history, Hualapai baskets and Kingman turquoise
- Kingman Railroad Museum · Small museum in the old depot; trains pass all the time
- Route 66 Electric Vehicle Museum · Electric cars from early days to now
- Bonelli House · Historic house museum; check opening days
- Cool Springs Station · Tiny roadside museum and shop on the way to Oatman
Nature and day trips near Kingman AZ
- Hualapai Mountain Park · Pine trails and picnic spots high above the desert
- White Cliffs Trail · Easy short walk to the wagon ruts
- Monolith Garden · Granite towers; best at sunrise
- Cerbat Foothills trailhead · Desert trails right on the edge of town
- Sitgreaves Pass · Pull-out at the top for the view west to the Colorado valley
Things to do in Kingman AZ with kids
- Oatman burros · Buy a bag of burro pellets and meet them on the street; mind the babies
- Locomotive Park · The giant steam engine to look at up close
- Oatman street shows · Staged Wild West shoot-outs on the main street on many days
- Scoops on 66 · Ice cream stop downtown
- Hualapai Mountain Park · Cool forest, easy trails and picnic tables in summer heat
Where to eat in Kingman AZ
- Dambar Steak House · Old-school steakhouse, mains about $20-40
- Mattina's Ristorante Italiano · Italian dinner downtown, book on weekends, about $20-35
- Black Bridge Brewery · Local craft beer by the railway, about $6-8 a pint
- Rutherford's 66 Family Diner · Diner dinners on the east side, about $12-20
- Oatman Hotel Saloon & Restaurant · Lunch under the dollar bills, burgers about $12-18; closes early
- El Potrillo · Mexican plates and margaritas, about $12-20
Frequently asked questions about Kingman AZ
What is there to see in Kingman AZ?
The top sights in Kingman AZ are Arizona Route 66 Museum, Mohave Museum of History and Arts and Kingman Railroad Museum. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Kingman AZ?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Kingman AZ without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Kingman AZ?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Kingman AZ, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Downtown on the old road.
How do you get to Kingman AZ and get around?
The main ways are Kingman Amtrak station and Kingman Airport. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Kingman AZ, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Kingman AZ that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Kingman AZ for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.