La Laguna, Arizona was a short-lived gold mining camp and steamboat landing on the Colorado River in what is now Yuma County. It existed primarily from 1860 to 1862 (with some residual activity afterward) in the New Mexico Territory and served as an early supply point for placer miners before declining rapidly with the larger La Paz gold rush. Its site now lies submerged beneath Mittry Lake.
Location and Founding
La Laguna stood on the Arizona (east) bank of the Colorado River roughly 20 miles upstream from Yuma (then near Fort Yuma/Colorado City). Coordinates place it near 32°49′N 114°29′W. Gold placers were reported in the vicinity by the late 1850s or 1860, drawing prospectors—many Mexican and local—to the area across from the earlier Potholes diggings on the California side. The settlement developed as a modest river landing with a few merchants, basic services, and a ferry that carried miners and supplies across the river.
José María Redondo (1830–1878), a Sonoran-born entrepreneur who had prospected in California and southern Arizona, played a central role. Around 1859 he settled in the area, operated a store and bakery, ran a ferry (with partner William Werninger by about 1861), and established ranching and early irrigation efforts. He later became known as a pioneer of irrigation in the Yuma area (“Father of Irrigation in Yuma”), a territorial legislator, and mayor of Yuma. Redondo was among the first to mine gold at the richer La Paz diggings.
Role with Colorado River Steamboats
Steamboats began regular service on the lower Colorado River in the early 1850s, primarily to supply Fort Yuma more cheaply than overland freight from California. Shallow-draft stern-wheelers (and some side-wheelers) of the Colorado Steam Navigation Company and predecessors carried freight, passengers, military supplies, and mining equipment from the Gulf of California upstream. La Laguna appears in historical lists of landings as active roughly 1860–1863, about 20 miles above Yuma and just upstream of Potholes (California).
The landing’s river access was its main advantage in the desert. Steamboats delivered goods that would otherwise have required expensive mule or wagon transport, supporting the small population of merchants and the surrounding placer miners who needed tools, provisions, and a way to move ore or gold dust. The ferry complemented this by linking the Arizona and California sides. River traffic overall grew with the early 1860s mining boom, making companies such as George A. Johnson’s highly profitable before railroads later undercut them.
Supplying the Surrounding Areas and the Mining Economy
La Laguna functioned as a local supply hub for placer miners working nearby gulches and river gravels. Merchants provided food, mining equipment, and other necessities; the ferry facilitated movement of people and goods. The camp supported early gold recovery in the broader Laguna area (including later-noted placers in the Laguna Mountains/Las Flores and McPhaul districts), though production there was modest compared with later strikes.
In January 1862, Captain Pauline Weaver and others discovered rich placers at what became La Paz (Laguna de la Paz), farther upstream. José Redondo was in the party that confirmed the find; one early pan yielded a sizable nugget. News spread rapidly. Miners and suppliers abandoned or scaled back at La Laguna for the richer La Paz diggings (and soon other districts). A party of about 40 reportedly returned from the discovery to La Laguna for supplies before the rush fully developed. La Paz quickly grew into a major boomtown and steamboat destination; La Laguna declined.
By the mid-1860s it was largely replaced as a significant landing by Castle Dome Landing (about 15 miles farther north), which served the Castle Dome Mountains silver and gold discoveries. La Laguna lingered briefly as the site of Redondo’s store and ranch. Redondo himself moved on to larger ranching, irrigation (including the San Ysidro Ranch), mercantile businesses in the Yuma area, and public office.
Decline, Later Context, and Legacy
The combination of the La Paz rush, shifting river channels, and the rise of other landings ended La Laguna’s brief prominence. Steamboat navigation on the lower Colorado continued for decades (supporting forts, mines, and settlements up to the Virgin River area) until the Laguna Diversion Dam (built 1905–1909, the first dam fully across the Colorado) blocked upstream travel and marked the practical end of the commercial steamboat era. The old La Laguna site was later inundated by Mittry Lake.
Today La Laguna is remembered as a minor but illustrative ghost town of the early Colorado River mining and transportation frontier—one of the first Arizona-side landings tied to the steamboat network that opened the lower river valley to settlement and extraction before railroads and dams transformed the region. Its story is closely linked to Redondo’s career and to the sequence of gold rushes that briefly made the lower Colorado a busy corridor of paddle-wheelers, ferries, and boom camps.