A HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN KINGMAN

• Introduction
• 1850-1900
• 1901-1920
• 1921-1940
• 1941-1960
• 1961-1980
• 1981-2000
• 2001-Present
• Bibliography

1941-1960

 

1941 - Maj. John C. Horton of the West Coast Flying Training Command Headquarters at Moffett Field, California, took a trip to Kingman and found it the perfect location for a future gunnery school. The land was fairly level, the population was sparse, and land was available at a fair price. The clouds of war had been building in Europe since the mid-1930s.

December 7: With the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, war was declared against the Japanese Empire and, shortly afterwards, against Germany. The B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, along with the rest of the family of war planes, was needed immediately on both fronts.

1942 - March: The Army Air Force authorized the construction of a gunnery school in Kingman, 9 miles east of town on U.S. 66. The estimated cost was about $9 million.

August 4: The Army Air Force Flexible Gunnery School was officially declared open for business. The Hualapi Valley north of town was requisitioned by the War Department as a ground and aerial gunnery training school, with little if any compensation paid to the ranchers. And only a short notice was given to move family and livestock.

December: By this time some 7,000 persons -- the first wave of what would eventually be 36,000 personnel trained here -- had arrived: the 1120th through 1123rd squadrons, the all black 334th Aviation Squadron, and the 100th Guard Squadron (M.P.s).

Also this month, sixty-seven miles down the Colorado River from Hoover Dam, Davis Dam had been started with Bullhead being the construction headquarters. (The latter was located on the site of an old mining ghost town, Hardyville. The location for the dam was originally selected back in 1902.)
Work on the dam was temporarily suspended now, and the construction crews were sent to Kingman to help with the new base. Kingman's biggest boom occurred as the population instantly doubled due to military personnel and their wives, as well as civilian defense workers.
Housing was the biggest problem for the newcomers, and servicemen and their families found shelter anywhere they could, no matter how basic, crude and expensive it was.
Many area residents also opened their homes and rented accommodations. Among the newcomers were members of many cultures and races- at times a challenge and education to the local population -- as it was often across this nation during these years. Severe overcrowding occurred in the Kingman schools because of the influx of so many military dependents.

1943 - May 7: The facility was officially named the Kingman Army Air Field. The base continued to grow and change as many new squadrons were added and some of the existing ones were combined. A detachment of Chinese gunners were even sent here for training. The principle aircraft were B-17 bombers, with A-T6, A-T1 and A-T23s used for flight training and target-towing.
Morale was always an issue among a large group of young men miles from home, many for the first time, and no place to go with their weekend passes but the tiny desert town of Kingman. Bob Hope, the Three Stooges, Kay Kaiser with his orchestra, and many other big name entertainers assisted the USO in keeping the people happy and willing to work all out for the war effort. With sanction from Warner Brothers, Bugs Bunny was adopted as the official base mascot. The locals also arranged for a rodeo and barbecue to be held on the base. Many of the newcomers were from urban backgrounds and unfamiliar with the talents and abilities of cowboys. The spectators' wild appreciation nearly embarassed the low profile cowpunchers off the Arizona range who had never expected to be so popular.

1944 - January 6: A bus loaded with gunnery students bound for the base, crossed the railroad tracks just north of the entrance. The driver did not see the oncoming train. The train and bus collided, and twenty-eight students died. {As there was a base hospital, it is not known how many of the victims or injured were brought to MGH.} Four days earlier, a B-17 flying near McClellan Field, California, disintegrated in bad weather. Of the thirteen men killed in the resulting crash, eleven were from Kingman.

During the year the field, redesignated Army Air Force Unit 3018, was one of the top training schools in the U.S. In competition with the six other gunnery schools, Kingman often took top honors.

1945 - The population of Kingman was estimated to be about 7,000. Mining activity was evident in 12 mining districts with 29 operational mines. Agriculture was mostly ranching with 257 ranches in operation.

June 30: With the war in Europe over, the Kingman Army Airfield was deactivated and personnel were either discharged or transferred. Three months later the War Assets Administration set up shop at Kingman. The base, along with four others, would now become a holding area for a huge amount of surplus military aircraft.

October 10: The planes began to fly into Kingman from many different U.S. and overseas bases. War-weary aircraft could be seen landing with great frequency throughout the days that followed. A number came in with an engine or two feathered. Occasionally an aircraft which had experienced hydraulic failure would be landed wheels-up. Amazingly enough, there were no serious accidents or fatalities involved in the mass movement of planes to the base. By the end of the year, almost 4,700 aircraft were dispersed on the vast acreage adjacent to the airfield.

1946 - February 26: The training base became Storage Depot 41, where thousands of airplanes -- many obsolete or in poor condition -- were to be rendered down into aluminum ingots. Kingman was one of five sites chosen for the task. In addition to B-17s, other airplanes brought into the base included B-24s, P-38s, B-26s, and A-26s. All told, some fifty-five hundred aircraft came to the area, eighty percent of which were heavy bombers. Craft in flyable condition were offered at cut-rate prices for civilian, military, or historical uses.

April: Construction restarted on Davis Dam on the Colorado River. Until its completion in 1953, it was a source of millions of dollars to the economy. It brought hundreds of workers to the areas of Kingman and the infant settlement of Bullhead City on the river. The dam formed Lake Mohave in the Lake Mead Recreation Area and submerged most of Bull's Head Rock, the old navigation landmark which was the city's namesake. The first Mohave County Fair was held this year.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was organized this year under the mantle of the Department of the Interior to supercede the General Land Office and Grazing Service. The BLM began playing an increasingly prominent role in the lives of ranchers in the western U.S.

Also this year, Dr. Arthur A. Arnold returned to Kingman after serving in the South Pacific during WWII. (He had come to Chloride as a doctor in 1941.) Dr. Arnold became associated with Dr. Marvin K. Paup, also in practice here since 1937. Dr. Paup was a partner of Dr. Walter Brazie. Dr. Arnold would practice until 1978 and then remain in town.

1947 - February: The aircraft scrapping operation at Kingman got underway. The three eight-hour shifts per day provided employment for hundreds of workers. The monthly payroll exceeded $200,000, immensely aiding the economy of Kingman. Some 3 million gallons of aviation fuel which had arrived in the tanks of the aircraft were the major fuel source for the smelter furnaces which operated around the clock. The process of dismantling ferrous items from each aircraft and moving it to the smelters was time consuming and labor intensive. The reward was that each of the bombers, whether it be a B-17 or B-24 yielded approximately 10,000 pounds of pure, high grade aluminum which was in great demand at the time.

Also this year, Boulder Dam was renamed Hoover Dam in honor of former Pres. Herbert Hoover.

1948 - March 31: Seventy million pounds of aluminum had been shipped out of the Kingman Storage Depot by the job's end during this year's first quarter. One task that did remain, however, was the gigantic clean-up of aircraft debris scattered over thousands of acres. Clean-up operations do not make money for a contractor and the result at Kingman was certainly evidence of that fact. Even today, over 50 years later, there are plenty of fuel bladders, gasoline caps and numerous small aircraft parts which give mute testimony to what occurred there.

July: The U.S. Military now released the base for civilian use, and it became a property of Mohave County. Businessmen would start to develop an industrial park at the old military base. (Today it also serves as a thriving general aviation airport and storage facility for commercial airliners.) Many of the civilian workers as well as a surprising number of servicemen and their families, either remained or returned, to become permanent residents of Kingman; the sleepy little western town starting to mature into a vital and progressive small city.

1949 - July: The executive secretary of the Arizona Medical Association visited Kingman at month's end trying to stimulate an active local health council. He stated that, apparently in Kingman, they have licked the rabies problem by getting the county board of supervisors to establish a pound and bring in a veterinarian.
They have tackled such problems such as drinking water in the schools, fly menaces at open food stands, and have gone out and actively campaigned for the arrival of the State Department of Health mobile X-ray unit -getting 3,000 to turn out as opposed to an 800 turnout the previous year.

A nursery and delivery room had been added to MGH in the forties, with the "Utah Construction Company" addition added to the inside patio.

1950 - Mohave County population: 8,510   -  Kingman popultion: 3,342.
There were 749,587 people in Arizona, and 151 million in the U.S.

1952 - With Davis Dam nearing completion (it would be dedicated in December), some of the younger war veterans in town wanted to improve Kingman. At the time there weren't many street lights and not very many sidewalks. The County Board of Supervisors suggested they form a city, so bonds could be passed. Petitions were circulated and the County, in the meantime, did install 54 street lights. Although many of the older residents felt that the county could do things cheaper, an election was held and the majority of our citizens wanted to incorporate the city.
The City of Kingman became official. (It became the first city to incorporate in Mohave County since Chloride had in 1900 -- but the latter then unincorporated in 1916. Kingman was also the last U.S. county seat to be incorporated.) A garbage truck was purchased and people were hired to operate it. All of the streets were paved and two improvement districts were formed.

Also this year, Route 66 bypassed the stretch of mountains around Oatman to be I-40 from Kingman, Arizona to Needles, California. Oatman and neighboring spots became real Ghost Towns.

1955 - The city changed the name of Front Street to Andy Devine Avenue in honor of the movie star who grew up in Kingman. (Born in Flagstaff in 1905, by his first birthday his family had moved to Kingman. Coincidentally, the 25-bed Flagstaff Hospital was donated to that community this year (1955), and later would be renamed Flagstaff Medical Center.

August: Good rains fell throughout Mohave County. After two years of poor rainfall, the rangeland was dry and depressed by this date and any remaining surface water was disappearing rapidly. Cattle prices were still good but the condition of the herds was deteriorating.

1957 - August: Across Beale St. from Mohave General Hospital and further east in the park, Steam Engine #3759 was introduced to the area residents in Locomotive Park. (Thirty years earlier the high school's baseball games were played down at the old city diamond -- which later became this park. And thirty years after the engine was installed, the "Great Locomotive Pull" would move it forward to accommodate a new caboose.)

1958 - MGH was considered the largest hospital along Route 66 between San Bernadino, CA and Albuquerque, NM, a length of about 700 miles.

1960 - Mohave County population: 7,736   -  Kingman population: 4,525.
The city purchased the water company and then passed a bond issue to build a storage tank. Parks were being built, and that summer and fall everybody in town had water.