Santa Claus (also known as Santa Claus Acres) is an uninhabited desert place in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. Originating in 1937, Santa Claus lies approximately northwest of Kingman, Arizona, along U.S. Route 93 between mile markers 57 and 58, immediately north of Hermit Drive and just south of both Grasshopper Junction, Arizona, and the Junk Art of Chloride, a group of metal statues in Chloride, Arizona, that include a flamingo made out of a motorcycle gas tank. Characterized in 1988 as "a little roadside place on the west shoulder of U.S. Route 93,"
In connection with its beginnings in 1937, Santa Claus received several attractions and buildings, including the Kit Carson Guest House which was renamed the Santa Claus Inn. Nina Talbot, a real estate woman and the owner of Santa Claus, made plans to use the Santa theme in a parched desert location to attract buyers for her surrounding, subdivided land. By 1942, the town of Santa Claus had become a full-fledged tourist spot.
After twelve years operating Santa Claus, Talbot's land resale plans for Santa Claus never materialized, in part because the only inhabitants in the town were the ones working there. Talbot sold her interest in the town in 1949. Others made plans during the 1950s to improve Santa Claus, which received publicity through the writings of American novelist and famed science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein and U.S. pioneer restaurant rater Duncan Hines and through 1961 remailing service advertisements offering to postmark letters from Santa Claus, for a small fee.
The popularity of Santa Claus declined in the 1970s. In July 1983, owner Tony Wilcox unsuccessfully offered to sell Santa Claus for $95,000, which was reduced to $52,500 by 1988. All remaining operating businesses in the town closed in 1995. In the 2000s, the town became difficult to locate. All that remained were several vandalized buildings, a wishing well, and the "Old 1225"—a pink children's train tagged with graffiti covering hand-painted renderings of Santa and his elves. The abandoned town was torn down some time in late 2021 or early 2022.
History
Early years
upright|thumb|left|The legend of American frontiersman [[Kit Carson continued to grow after his 1868 death through dime novels, such as the one above.]]
In the 1930s, Nina Talbot (not to be confused with the actress of a similar name) and her husband moved from Los Angeles, California, to Kingman, Arizona, to operate a motel. Talbot built a series of buildings using a North Pole, Santa's workshop theme as part of the Santa Claus (or Santa's Workshop) attraction. Heinlein describes a diet-shattering gourmet feast served by Mrs. Claus, in reality a Mrs. Douglas, who ran The Santa Claus Inn restaurant in the 1940s. an American magazine devoted to science and technology. The advertisements offered remailing services where Christmas cards and letters would be remailed from Santa Claus, Arizona, at a cost of $.25 plus the postage for the remailing. In July 1983, owner Tony Wilcox listed the entire town for sale. In the early 1990s, the restaurant offered Dasher and Dancer omelette and Santa Claus burgers and oil portraits of John Wayne could be purchased from the shops. By 2004, the town had become difficult to locate. In 2006, Santa Claus, Arizona, was noted as being abandoned and likely to become another lost American highway icon. In that same year, videographer Matt McCormick retraced and filmed the steps of his family road trip through Santa Claus in 1956. The resulting three-minute movie, Fifty Years Later (2006), included clips of Santa Claus in 1956 and comparison clips from the town in 2006. What presently remains is several vandalized buildings, a wishing well, and the "Old 1225", a derailed, pink children's train tagged with graffiti that mar the hand-painted renderings of Santa and his elves on the train. As of early 2022, all remaining buildings have been removed. Residing in the Sacramento Valley basin, the ground water in Santa Claus is contained in a basin-fill aquifer and other water-bearing sediments at a depth of approximately below the land surface.