Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a U.S. Navy officer in the service of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, was ordered by the U.S. War Department to build a federal wagon road across the 35th parallel.

His secondary orders were to test the feasibility of the use of camels as pack animals in the Southwestern desert.

Civil engineer Lewis Kingman supervised the building of the railroad from Winslow to Beale Springs.

The county seat transferred to the mining town of Cerbat in 1873, then to Mineral Park near Chloride.

During World War II, Kingman was the site of a U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) airfield.

The Kingman Army Airfield was founded at the beginning of the war as an aerial gunnery training base.

The airfield and Kingman played a significant role in this important era of America's history.

[citation needed] Following the war, the Kingman Airfield was one of the largest reclamation sites for obsolete military aircraft.

Postwar, Kingman experienced growth as several major employers moved into the vicinity.

In 1953, Kingman was used to detain those men accused of practicing polygamy in the Short Creek raid,[6] which was at the time one of the largest arrests in American history.

Several major new neighborhoods in Kingman were developed to house the skilled workers and professionals employed at the proving ground.

Likewise, the development of the Mineral Park mine near adjacent Chloride, and construction of the Mohave Generating Station in nearby Laughlin, Nevada, in 1971 contributed to Kingman's population growth.

Also, the location of a General Cable plant at the Kingman Airport Industrial Park provided steady employment.

The Kingman Explosion, also known as the Doxol Disaster or Kingman BLEVE, was a catastrophic boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) that occurred on July 5, 1973, during a propane transfer from a Doxol railroad car to a storage tank on the Getz rail siding near Andy Devine Avenue/Route 66.

The 1915-built Mohave County Courthouse and 1909-built Jail were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

[8] The county courthouse and jail, a 1928-built locomotive (the Santa Fe 3759), a World War II gunnery school radio tower, and about 50 various houses and other buildings in Kingman are listed on the National Register, comprising the majority of National Register listings in Mohave County.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Kingman has a total area of 37.5 square miles (97 km2), all land.

The storm was so significant that it was a contributing factor for closing Interstate 40 at the US 93 Junction for 24 hours.

People of German descent made up 17.8% of the population of the town, followed by English at 13.3%, Irish at 10.5%, American at 5.2%, Italian at 4.9%, French at 3.5%, Polish at 2.5%, Norwegian at 2.4%, Dutch at 1.8%, Scottish at 1.7%, Swedish at 1.2%, Russian at 1.0%, Scotch-Irish at 1.0%, Welsh at 0.9%, Portuguese at 0.6%, French Canadian at 0.5%, and Hungarian at 0.5%.

The city council consists of five elected officials – councilmembers SueAnn Mello, Jamie Scott Stehly, Deana Nelson, Cherish Sammeli and Keith Walker.

The city government also includes boards and commissions that assist the council in decision making.

[23] The United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management has a field office located in Kingman.

The Kingman airport now primarily exists as a location for long-term aircraft storage due to its suitable large ramp space and a long, decommissioned runway.

Kingman is located on the Southern Transcon route of the BNSF Railway which is the main transcontinental route between Los Angeles and Chicago, which carries approximately 100 to 150 freight trains per day.

FlixBus boards from a stop at 915 W Beale St. Tri-State Shuttle connects Kingman with Harry Reid International Airport in Paradise.

[26] Amtrak Thruway is Kingman station bus service that travels to Las Vegas's stations at South Strip Transit Terminal, Airport Terminal One and Las Vegas downtown, called the Amtrak Kingman-Las Vegas Thruway Motorcoach, a 107 miles (172 km) trip.