Carl Chapman
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Ehrenberg, a desert community alongside the Colorado River, has a colorful history. It was founded in 1863 as Mineral City, at the site of William and Isaac Bradshaw's ferry landing. In the 1870s, when the Colorado River served as a main source of transportation to the interior of the Arizona territory, Ehrenberg became a major port. Gold crazed Californians crossed the Colorado River at Ehrenberg during the great La Paz rush.
The town was renamed Ehrenberg after Herman Ehrenberg, a surveyor and mining engineer, who was murdered in Dos Palmas, Calif., in 1866. By the mid-1870s, Ehrenberg was booming, with nearly 500 people living mostly in brush and adobe houses. Mike Goldwater, grandfather of former Sen. Barry Goldwater, established a mercantile store and warehouse there.
Less than two miles north of Ehrenberg lie the remains of the early-day La Paz, which was at one time considered for the capital of Arizona. La Paz was flooded in the late 1800s or early 1900s, and the population moved down river to Ehrenberg, which itself suffered a population exodus in the early 1900s.
