Head of Tide

Kingman, Arizona sits along Historic Route 66 in the eastern portion of the Mohave Desert. As you might think it is hot and dry. Most of Kingman’s developmental history occurred after my great grandfather died in 1941.  He went there early in the 1920’s to begin mining operations.

There are only a couple of things that I remember my father telling me about his grandfather. I think my father only saw his grandfather once, or twice, so there weren’t many story opportunities. At the time of what I believe to be their last meeting (when my father was in his late teens and visiting Kingman) my great grandfather, Charles Herbert, said to my father, “Why don’t you come work with me (in mining)?” To which my father said, “No, but thank you”.  Although I suspect he might have thought “Hell no!” There was no way my father would work in the desert for a man he hardly knew in a far place distant from were he’d grown up on the East Coast. If he had, he’d never have met my mother and…well, I wouldn’t be here.

It was the other things my father told me though that intrigued me. I remember my father telling me, “My grandfather was a millionaire three times over but each time he made a million, he’d come out of the hills and his third wife would spend it all. When he died he had nothing”.  I had this picture of my great grandfather panning for gold like I’d seen demonstrated in California when I was a child. The thought of his wife spending millions made me dream about how our lives might have be different if she hadn’t spent all his money. She must have been something. I was intrigued. 

But…what I found out about my great grandfather’s business and his third wife was much different than what I’d been led to believe.