Mountain man Pauline Weaver discovered gold in the Arroyo De La Teneja, on the eastern bank of the Colorado River, on January 12, 1862.

[5] La Paz had a population of 1,500 and was a stage stop between Fort Whipple, Arizona and San Bernardino, California.

The placers were largely exhausted by 1863, but the community hung on as a shipping port for steamboats of the Colorado River and supply base until the Colorado River shifted its course westward in 1866, leaving La Paz landlocked.

The county records were shipped to Yuma by Captain Polyphemus in the Nina Tilden.

[10][11] Nothing remains of La Paz except a couple of crumbling stone foundations and a historical marker.