Ehrenberg Chamber: Intro.

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, California, 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 Senator Barry Goldwater, established a mercantile store and warehouse there.

The unincorporated community has a Mohave Desert setting 200 feet above sea level. Nearby mountains provide topographic relief. Ehrenberg is on Interstate 10, across the Colorado River from Blythe, California. Phoenix is 142 miles east.