Today's Bradshaw Trail is a historic overland stage route in the western Colorado Desert of Southern California. It is a remnant of the much longer Bradshaw Road, also known as the Road to La Paz, or Gold Road, established in 1862 by William D. Bradshaw. It was the first overland route to connect the gold fields near La Paz in the U.S. New Mexico Territory, later the Arizona Territory, to Southern California's more populated west coast. Once in La Paz, additional roads provided access to the mining districts of the central New Mexico/Arizona Territory, near Wickenburg and Prescott.