THE FARTHEST YOU can get from anywhere in Arizona and still be in the state, at least technically, is Littlefield. Admittedly, there are some pretty far out places in the vast stretches of the Navajo country or the desert down by Ajo, but they aren’t in the same class with Littlefield.

Isolation? This tiny historic settlement in Arizona’s extreme northwest corner is walled off the by Virgin Mountains from the Arizona Strip, the largest collection of empty square miles this side of Death Valley. The Strip’s separation from the rest of the state is enforced by the canyons of the Colorado River.

Littlefield is a place you almost can’t get to from Arizona. It cannot be reached by road within Arizona, although U.S. 91 runs through town, nipping a corner of our state from southern Utah to Nevada.

LITTLEFIELD WAS ONCE PART of Paiute County, most of which was given to Nevada by congress in 1866. Now, it is in Mohave County and when the law touches the lives of Littlefield’s handful of people it must come from Kingman, 193 miles away and a five-hour drive through Nevada.

Littlefield is an interesting page in the Arizona story. It is the state’s oldest permanent Anglo-Saxon farming settlement, dating to 1864 when Henry W. Miller led a party there from Santa Clara, Utah. They build homes and helped secure the Mormon Road to Southern California, a route pioneered by Jedidiah Smith and his trappers in 1826.

The early years were hard. At times the settlement was on the verge of abandonment by isolation. One problem was the determination of the beavers to interfere with irrigation. For at time they called the place Beaver Dams but the name eventually became Littlefield for one of the first families. Today most of the residents are descendents of pioneer Samuel Reber and bear that name.

THERE IS LESS CERTAINTY about the origin of the name virgin as applied to the mountains that are Littlefield’s backdrop and the river that has given the village its lifeblood and also some bad times.

Best guess is that it came from the early Spanish, perhaps Father Escalante, with their love for names of the saints and the Virgin Mary. Old maps show the Spanish spelling of virgen. Then there was a man among Smith’s trappers named Thomas Virgen who was killed by Indians near the river, another possible source of the same name.

Littlefield people are understandably less enthusiastic about being Arizona residents than most. They send their children to school in Nevada and read the Utah papers. Only in voting, car registration and other legal matters are they aware of living in Arizona and then with a great deal of inconvenience.

FEW PEOPLE IN ARIZONA ever visit Littlefield’s corner of the state. It is the same driving distance from Pheonix as Los Angeles.

(This article was published in ARIZONA DAYS AND WAYS MAGAZINE, April 18, 1965)