The trail is named for trailblazer William David Bradshaw who first crossed the area in 1862. A former forty-niner, Bradshaw knew that the northern gold mines were rapidly emptying and that miners and other people leaving the area would need a more direct trail from the south across the desert to the new gold strike at La Paz. Without a direct trail, they would have to travel a great distance southeast to Yuma, then north up the river to La Paz. Bradshaw was a smart man; he knew there were lots of chances to make money in a gold boomtown.