Hualapai Valley is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

Mohave County, Arizona Mohave County occupies the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 List of counties in Arizona, counties in the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 213,267. The county seat is Kingman ...

Location

Hualapai Valley is an

endorheic basin 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 ...

and its watershed terminates in the

dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa (), is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceed recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkalin ...

or playa called Red Lake at an elevation of 2762 feet. It is bounded on the east by the

Grand Wash Cliffs The Grand Wash Cliffs extend south-southeast from the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northwest Arizona west of the Shivwits Plateau south through the Grand Cliffs Wilderness and into the Lake Mead Recreation Area. The Grand Wash Cli ...

and

Peacock Mountains The Peacock Mountains are a small, 26 mi (42 km) long mountain range in northwest Arizona, Southwest United States, US. The range is a narrow sub-range, and an extension north, at the northeast of the Hualapai Mountains massif, which lies t ...

, on the south by the

Hualapai Mountains The Hualapai Mountains are a mountain range located in Mohave County, Arizona, Mohave County, east of Kingman, Arizona, Kingman, Arizona. Rising up to 8,417 feet at its highest peak, the higher elevations of the Hualapai Mountains support Madrea ...

, on the west by the

Cerbat Mountains The Cerbat Mountains () is a mountain range in Mohave County in northwest Arizona immediately north of Kingman. The Cerbat Mountains and the White Hills (Arizona) adjacent north, are the dividing ranges between the Detrital Valley west, and t ...

and the White Hills. It extends from its divide with Gold Basin at over 2680 feet, southward to Red Lake, and northward from Kingman and the Hualapai Mountains at 4439 feet, to Red Lake.

Walapai

Walapai is a

populated place In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of dwellings grouped together to t ...

Arizona State Route 66 State Route 66 (SR 66) is a surface road in the U.S. state of Arizona in Mohave, Coconino, and Yavapai Counties. In 1914, the road was designated as part of the National Old Trails Highway but in 1926 was re-designated as U.S. Route 66 (U ...

(former

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 ...

) 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. Walapai is located in the Hualapai Valley along a railroad line northeast of Kingman. Walapai has 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 ...

with ZIP code 86412.

History

From 1857 to 1858 Lieutenant

Edward Fitzgerald Beale Edward Fitzgerald Beale (February 4, 1822 – April 22, 1893) was an American naval officer, frontiersman, rancher and diplomat. He fought in the Mexican–American War, emerging as a hero of the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846. He achieved n ...

, built the first federal highway in the southwest,

Beale's Wagon Road In 1857, an expedition led by Edward Fitzgerald Beale was tasked with establishing a trade route along the 35th parallel from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Los Angeles, California. The wagon trail began at Fort Smith and continued through the New Me ...

. Beale's road roughly followed the 35th Parallel railroad route laid out by Lieutenant

Amiel Weeks Whipple Amiel Weeks Whipple (October 21, 1817 – May 7, 1863)Anderson, TSHA was an American military officer and topographical engineer. He served as a brigadier general in the American Civil War, where he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chanc ...

west across

New Mexico Territory The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of '' Nuevo México'' becomi ...

through the Flagstaff area and then turned away northward through

Peach Springs Peach Springs () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,098 at the 2020 census. Peach Springs serves as the administrative headquarters of the Hualapai people and is located on the Hual ...

Truxton Wash Truxton may refer to: * Truxton, Arizona, a settlement south of the Grand Canyon in Mohave County, Arizona, USA * Truxton, Missouri, a small town west of St. Louis *Truxton, New York, a town in Cortland County, New York, USA. * ''Truxton'' (video ...

, and the Hualapai Valley, making its way through what became Kingman to a crossing 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 ...

near the location of

Fort Mohave Fort Mohave was originally named Camp Colorado when it was established on April 19, 1859 by Lieutenant Colonel William Hoffman (U.S. Army), William Hoffman during the Mohave War. It was located on the east bank of the Colorado River, at Beale's ...

. J. L. Smith, was known as ''Hualapai Smith'' for being first to explore the Hualapai Valley of Arizona before any other prospector in the early 1860s.The Arizona Sentinel, Saturday, January 22, 1887, p. 3

References

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