Bouse, AZ

Bouse is a census-designated place in La Paz County, set along Arizona State Route 72 between Parker and the western desert communities near U.S. 60. The community began as a mining camp, and its name changed from Brayton to Bouse in the early twentieth century. Today the local map includes Bouse Elementary School, scattered homes and farms, desert roads, and the county’s Camp Bouse memorial. The school is one of the few institutions that gives the dispersed community a daily address.

ATTRMarine 69-71 / CC BY-SA 4.0

The railroad helped Bouse grow in the early 1900s, but the Swansea mine’s closure in the 1920s ended the first boom. In 1943, General George Patton established Camp Bouse in nearby Butler Valley as a secret World War II tank-training site for a night-fighting device. The camp closed after the war, leaving foundations, tracks, and a story that still shapes the area’s historical identity. Route 72 remains the practical spine, linking Bouse with Parker, Hope, and the wider La Paz County desert.