Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a U.S. Navy officer in the service of the U.S. Army corps of topographical engineers, was ordered by the U.S. War Department to construct a federal wagon road across the 35th Parallel. His secondary orders were to test the practicability of the use of camels as pack animals in the southwestern desert. Beale traveled through the present day Kingman in 1857 surveying the road and in 1859 to build the road. The road became part of Highway 66 and Interstate Highway 40. Remains of the wagon road can still be seen from White Cliffs Canyon in Kingman AZ.
For more on the History of Route 66 visit Kingman Merchants Mall at https://kingmanmerchantsmall.com/route-66
