Hackberry

History

A former mining town, 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, 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…

Geography

Hackberry is in eastern Mohave County along SR 66, northeast of Kingman, the county seat, and west of Seligman. Hackberry Road runs south from the town, leading to U.S. Route 93 south of Interstate 40. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 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 Hualapai Valley, ending at Red Lake from Hackberry.

Race & ethnicity