Arizona lode gold mines and gold mining

              ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES
AND GOLD MINING
by
Eldred D. Wilson, J. B. Cunningham, and G. M. Butler
Bulletin 137
Revised 1967
Arizona
Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology
Geological Survey Branch
A Division of the University of Arizona
Tucson
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES
AND GOLD MINING
by
Eldred D. Wilson, J. B. Cunningham, and G. M. Butler
State of Arizona
Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology
Geological Survey Branch
845 N. Park Ave., Tucson, Arizona 85719
Bulletin 137
Revised 1967
Reprinted 1983
A Division of the University of Arizona
Tucson
FOREWORD
Arizona Bureau of Mines Bulletin No. 137, ARIZONA LODE
GOLD MINES AND MINING, was originally issued in 1934 in response
to the heavy demand that was being expressed during the early 1930's
for authoritative information on Arizona's gold deposits. After several
reprintings, the bulletin was allowed to go out of print during the early
years of World War II and, in view of the restrictions placed on gold mining
during the war, it was not considered necessary to reprint the bulletin
at that time. Circumstances now have changed, however, and interest in
gold is again strong and inquiries are being received almost daily for
information on gold deposits.
With this in mind and considering that the data on the geologic setting
and the mineralogical characteristics of the deposits described in Bulletin
No. 137 are as valid today as they were in 1934, it was decided to reprint
Parts I and II of the Bulletin without change. Much of Part III, which deals
with the laws and regulations governing mining, however, have been
deleted, inasmuch as many of the laws have been revised since 1934. For
information on this aspect of mining, the reader is referred to any of
the recently issued books and pamphlets on mining law.
We are pleased to acknowledge the financial assistance given by the
U.S. Department of Commerce through its State Technical Services Pro­gram
in the reprinting of this bulletin.
J. D. Forrester, Director
Arizona Bureau of Mines
IMPORTANT NOTICE: UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, VAL­UATION
FIGURES GIVEN IN THIS BULLETIN ARE BASED
ON A GOLD VALUE OF $20.67 PER OUNCE.
PREFACE
In 1929, thirty-nine mines or prospects in which gold was the
element principally sought were listed by the State Mine In­spector
of which four actually produced some gold. In his report
for 1933, however, the official mentioned lists seventy-four such
properties and over half of them produced more or less gold
during the year. These facts prove that the depression, which has
thrown many men out of work, and the great increase in the
price of gold have created an interest in prospecting for and
mining gold such as has not existed for many years.
Over twenty-six hundred persons are now prospecting for
placer or lode deposits of gold or operating on such deposits in
Arizona, whereas less than four hundred persons were employed
in gold mines in the State in 1929 and only a few score pros­pectors
for gold were then in the field. This tremendously in­creased
interest in gold has created a great demand for informa­tion
about Arizona's gold resources, which this bulletin is in­tended
to supply. Because Arizona has for many years produced
more copper than any other state in the Union, it is not generally
recognized that gold ores are widely distributed throughout the
State, and it is the hope of the authors that the publication of the
facts will attract more capital to Arizona for the development of
her gold deposits. It is also hoped that the sections on working
small gold lodes, on the laws and regulations relating to the lo­cation
and retention of lode claims, and on prospecting for gold
will be helpful to inexperienced prospectors.
This bulletin completes a series of three on gold that have been
published by the Arizona Bureau of Mines, the other two being
No. 133 (Treating Gold Ores) and No. 135 (Arizona Gold Placers
and Placering). These three bulletins contain practically all the
general information available on the subjects covered by them.
Subsequent bulletins that relate to gold mining in Arizona will
take the form of detailed reports on various mining districts.
It has been impossible for the Bureau with its limited staff and
funds to make this publication complete. It is quite probable that
a number of meritorious properties are not mentioned herein.
The fact that no reference is found in this publication to some
property should not be considered as proof, or even an indication,
that the property is unworthy. Moreover, it should not be as­sumed
that all the properties described are being managed effi­ciently
and honestly and that their operations are sure to be
profitable. It is not the duty of the Arizona Bureau of Mines to
investigate the management of mining companies or to advise
people concerning investment in mining stocks.
G. M. BUTLER.
July 1, 1934.
r
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES'
PAGE
Preface 4
Chapter I-Introduction...................................................................................... 13
Distribution, geologic setting, and types of deposits.......................... 13
Epithermal veins :................. 15
Mesothermal veins :........................ 15
Hypothermal veins 15
History of Arizona gold mining................................................................ 16
Production table.................................................................................... 18
Chapter II-Yavapai County............................................................................ 19
Topography 19
Climate and vegetation................................................................................ 19
Routes of access and transportation...................................................... 19
General geology............................................................................................ 21
Gold deposits................................................................................................... 21
Production.............................................................................................. 21
Distribution............................................................................................ 21
Types 21
Mesozoic or Tertiary veins........................................................ 22
Pre-Cambrian veins.................................................................... 22
Pre-Cambrian replacement deposits...................................... 23
History of mining.................................................................................. 23
Eureka district................. 23
Hillside mine ~.................................................................... 24
Comstock and Dexter mine................................................................ 25
Cowboy mine........................................................................................ 26
Crosby mine 26
Southern Cross mine 27
Mammoth or Hubbard mine.............................................................. 27
Prescott district 28
Bullwhacker mine................................................................................ 28
Cherry Creek district.................................................................................. 28
Monarch and nearby mines.............................................................. 29
Bunker or Wheatley property.......................................................... 30
Golden Idol or Hillside mine................... .........................................30
Federal mine.......................................................................................... 31
Leghorn mine 31
Gold Bullion or Copper Bullion mine............................................ 31
Gold Coin mine.................................................................................... 31
Quail or Golden Eagle mines............................................................ 31
Arizona Comstock or Radio mine.................................................... 32
Golden Crown mine............................................................................ 32
Logan mine 32
Groom Creek district.................................................................................. 32
National Gold (Midnight Test) mine............................................ 32
Other properties.................................................................................... 33
Walker district.............................................................................................. 34
Sheldon mine 34
Mudhole mine. 35
Bigbug district.. 35
Iron King mine...................................................................................... 36
McCabe-Gladstone mine 36
Union mine.............................................................................................. 37
Little Jessie mine.................................................................................. 38
Lelan-Dividend mine.......................................................................... 38
5
PAGE
Henrietta or Big Bug mine............................................................... 39
Poland-Walker tunnel ,............. 39
Money Metals·mine.............................................................................. 40
Hassayampa district 41
Oro Flame and Sterling mines....... 41
Ruth mine "'" 43
Jersey Lily mine ,................................... 44
Davis-Dunkirk mine............................................................................ 44
Tillie Starbuck mine.......................................................................... 45
Senator mine ,................. 46
Cash mine 47
Big Pine mine........................................................................................ 48
"Trapshooter" Reilly propert.y.......................................................... 48
Starlight group.............................................................................. 48
Crook vein...................................................................................... 49
Mount Union mine........................................................................ 50
Golden Eagle mines """"""""""""'" 50
Turkey Creek district.................................................................................. 50
Black Canyon district.:................................................................................ 51
Golden Turkey mine............................................................................ 51
Golden Belt mine................................................................................... 52
Silver Cord vein.................................................................................... 53
French Lily mine ,..,.. 54
Richinbar mine 54
Bradshaw district 55
Pine Grove district """""""""""""""" 55
Crown King group.............................................................................. 56
Del Pasco group.................................................................................... 57
Philadelphia mine................................................................................ 57
Fairview tunneL................................................................................... 58
Lincoln mine.......................................................................................... 58
Tiger district.................................................................................................. 59
Oro Belle and Gray Eagle mine ,............................. 59
Minnehaha vicinity...................................................................................... 59
Humbug district............................................................................................ 60
Humbug mines...................................................................................... 60
Castle Creek district.................................................................................... ,61
Golden Aster or Lehman mine ,... .62
Black Rock district...................................................................................... 62
Oro Grande mine "'.,...... 62
Gold Bar or O'Brien mine.................................................................. 63
Groom mine 64
Arizona Copper Belt mine................................................................ 65
White Picacho district................................................................................ 65
Golden Slipper mine.......................................................................... 65
Weaver district.............................................................................................. 66
Octave mine 66
Other properties 68
Martinez district 69
Congress mine........................................................................................ 69
Production...................................................................................... 70
Veins and workings.................................................................... 71
Congress Extension mine.................................................................... 73
Chapter III-Mohave County............................................................................ 73
General' geography........................................................................................ 73
General geology............................................................................................ 73
Gold deposits.................................................................................................. 75
Types........................................................................................................ 75
Lost Basin districL.................................................................................... 75
6
PAGE
Gold Basin district...................................................................................... 76
Eldorado mine...................................................................................... 76
O. K. mine.............................................................................................. 77
Cyclopic mine........................................................................................ 77
Other properties 77
Northern Black Mountains........................................................................ 78
Bold Bug mine...................................................................................... 78
Mocking Bird mine.............................................................................. 78
Pilgrim mine.._ _.............. 79
Other properties 79
Golden Age 79
Kemple _.................................................................................. 79
Dixie Queen "'..'."'.'.'." 80
Klondyke 80
Golden Door 80
Oatman or San Francisco districL........................................................ 80
Situation and accessibility................................................................ 80
History and production...................................................................... 80
Topography and geolbgy.................................................................... 83
Distribution of veins.......................................................................... 83
Form of veins........................................................................................ 83
Mineralogy.............................................................................................. 84
Stages of mineral deposition.............................................................. 84
Wall-rock alteration............................................................................ 89
Ore shoots 89
Origin of the ores.................................................................................. 89
Tom Reed property.............................................................................. 90
United Eastern mine.......................................................................... 92
Gold Road mine _. 93
Moss mine.............................................................................................. 94
Telluride mine 94
Pioneer or German-American mine................................................ 94
Gold Dust mine 95
Leland mine 96
Midnight mine 96
Sunnyside mine.................................................................................... 97
Iowa mine................................................................................................ 97
Lazy Boy mine....................................................................................... 97
Hardy vein 98
Gaddis-Perry vein "'..'."."..'.".'... 98
Ruth vein................................................................................................ 98
Mossback mine __.. 98
Gold Ore mine _...................... 99
Future possibilities of districL _ _......... 99
Union Pass or Katherine districL 101
Situation and accessibility _ 101
History and production 101
Topography and geology _ _ 101
Veins 101
Katherine mine 103
Roadside mine _ 104
Arabian mine 105
Tyro mine _ _ 106
Sheeptrail-Boulevard mine _ 106
Frisco mine _.. 107
Black Dyke group 107
Pyramid mine 107
Golden Cycle mine _ _ 108
Other properties 108
Future possibilities 108
7
..-----_._-----------~._--~~~
PAGE
Music Mountain districL 108
Ellen Jane mine ;' 109
Other properties , 109
Cerbat Mountains 109
Chloride vicinity 110
Pay Roll mine.... 110
Rainbow mine 111
Samoa mine 111
Tintic mine 112
Mineral Park vicinity 112
Tyler mine 112
Cerbat vicinity 112
Golden Gem mine 112
Idaho mine 113
Vanderbilt mine 113
Flores mine............................................................................................ 113
Esmeralda mine 114
Cerbat mine 114
Oro Plata mine 114
Cottonwood district...................................................................................... 115
Walkover mine 115
Chemehuevis district .' 115
Best Bet or Kempf property 116
Gold W'ing property 116
Dutch Flat mine 116
Chapter IV-Cochise County 116
Dos Cabezas district 117
Consolidated Gold Mines Company (Dives mine) 118
Gold Ridge mine 119
Gold Prince mine 119
Le Roy mine 120
Golden Rule district.. 121
Golden Rule or Old Terrible mine 121
Tombstone district 122
Gold ores 123
Chapter V-Yuma County 124
General geography 124
General geology 124
Gold deposits 124
Cienega district 126
Billy Mack mine 126
Lion Hill mine 126
Rio Vista Northside mine 127
Capilano mine 127
Sue mine ; 127
Planet district 127
Planet lease............................................................................................ 128
Harquahala or Ellsworth districL 128
Bonanza (Harquahala) and Golden Eagle mines 128
Production 129
Deposits............................................................................................ 130
Soccoro mine 131
San Marcos mine 132
Hercules mine........................................................................................ 132
Hidden Treasure mine 133
Alaskan mine 133
Plomosa district 134
Dutchman mine 134
Blue Slate mine 135
Old Maid mine................................ 135
8
PAGE
La Paz or Weaver district.. 135
Goodman mine ,. 136
Other properties.................................................................................... 136
Kofa district 136
Gold-bearing lodes 137
King of Arizona mine 137
North Star mine.................................................................................. 139
Economic possibilities 141
Production 142
Alamo region 143
Sheep Tanks district 143
Resolution vein 144
Other veins : 145
Origin of veins....... 147
Economic possibilities 147
Tank Mountains 147
Gila Bend Mountains 148
Trigo Mountains 148
Castle Dome Mountains 148
Big Eye mine 148
Las Flores district................................................................. 149
Traeger or Agate mine........................................................................ 150
Golden Queen claim :........................................................... 150
Pandino claim 150
Wellton Hills or La Posa district.. 151
La Fortuna district 151
Fortuna mine 152
Minor gold deposits , 155
Economic possibilities 156
Chapter VI-Maricopa County 156
Vulture district 157
Vulture mine 157
Production 160
Vein and workings 161
Sunrise mine 162
Big Horn district 163
El Tigre mine 163
Cave Creek district 164
Winifred district 165
Jack White mine 165
Salt River district 166
Max Delta mine 166
Chapter VII-Pinal County 167
Goldfields district. 167
Young or Mammoth mine 167
Pioneer district 168
Lake Superior and Arizona mine 169
Queen Creek mine................................................................................ 170
Belmont property 170
Mammoth district.......................................................................................... 170
Veins 172
Ore bodies....................................................................... 172
Future possibilities 174
Casa Grande district.. 175
Mammon mine 175
Chapter VIII-Pima County , 175
Cobabi or Comobabi district... 177
Akron mine............................................................................................ 177
Corona group 178
Other claims 178
9
PAGE
Quijotoa Mountains 178
Morgan mine 179
Baboquivari Mountains ~ 179
Western portion 179
Allison mine 179
Southern portion 180
Economic possibilities 181
Puerto Blanco Mountains 181
Introduction , """"" 195
Drilling 196
Placing of drill holes 197
Drill steeL 198
Steel used for hand drilling 198
Explosives 201
Blasting accessories 203
Don·ts 203
Blasting """" 204
Misfires , 205
Tramming 206
Shoveling 206
IV1ine shafts 207
Hoisting rope 215
Timbering 217
Drift sets 217
Shaft timbering 219
10
Chapter IX-Gila County .
Payson or Green Valley district .
Geology .
g~~~~~i~r~f<;sibimi~~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Chapter X-Greenlee County .
Gold Gulch or Morenci district .
Lakemen property .
Hormeyer mine .
Copper King Mountain vicinity .
Chapter XI-Santa Cruz County .
Oro Blanco district. .
Production .
Types of gold deposits .
Old Glory mine .
Austerlitz mine .
Tres Amigos, Dos Amigos. and Oro Blanco mines .
Margarita mine .
Chapter XII-Graham County .
Lone Star district .
Clark district .
Rattlesnake districL .
Powers mine .
Knothe mine .
Gold Mountain property .
PART II
THE OPERATIONS AT SMALL GOLD MINES
182
182
184
184
184
185
185
185
187
187
187
187
188
139
189
190
190
191
192
192
192
193
193
194
194
PART III
LAWS, REGULATIONS, AND COURT DECISIONS BEARING ON THE
LOCATION AND RETENTION OF LODE CLAIMS, TUNNEL
SITES, AND MILL SITES IN ARIZONA
PAGE
Introduction 222
Who may locate lode claims , 222
Shape and size of lode claims.......................................................................... 222
Things to be done to locate a lode claim 223
Changing or amending locations 226
Location of abandoned or forfeited claims 226
Number of claims that can be located 226
Annual labor or assessment work 226
Tunnel sites............................................................................................................ 232
Mill sites 234
The Apex law or extralateral rights 235
Ownership of placer deposits on lode claims 236
Ownership of lodes within the boundaries of placer claims 236
Selling and taxing lode claims 237
Patenting lode claims 237
PART IV
SOME HINTS ON PROSPECTING FOR GOLD
Unfavorable areas 239
Favorable areas 240
Structures that may contain gold................................................................... 240
Surface characteristics of gold lodes............................................................. 242
Identifying gold 243
Seeking gold lodes................................................................................ 244
Sampling gold lodes 245
11
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Figure I.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Arizona.... 14
Figure 2.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Yavapai '
County 20
Figure 3.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Mohave
County.............................................................................................. 74
Figure 4.-Structure sections, Oatman district........................................ 81
Figure 5.-Longitudinal sections showing location of ore shoots in
the Tom Reed vein and the Gold Road vein, Oatman
district.. 91
Figure 6.-Geologic map of the Katherine districL 102
Figure 7.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Yuma
County 125
Figure B.-Geologic map of Fortuna region, Yuma County 153
Figure 9.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Maricopa,
Gila, and Pinal counties 159
Figure 10.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Pima and
Santa Cruz counties 176
Figure ll.-Geologic map of Payson districL 183
Figure 12.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Greenlee,
Graham, and Cochise counties 186
Figure 13.-Various positions of drifts with relation to veins and
stopes 197
Figure 14.-The placing of drill holes for blasting 199
Figure 15.-Starter bit for hand drilling 200
Figure 16.-Methods of attaching cap and fuse to the cartridge 205
Figure 17.-Hand windlass 208
Figure lB.-Tripod type of headframe 209
Figure 19.-Headframe 211
Figure 20,-Automatic dumping device for an inclined shaft.. 213
Figure 2I.-Automatic dumping device for a vertical shaft.. 216
Figure 22.-Timber supports for small drifts 218
Figure 23.-0ne- and two-piece timber supports 219
Figure 24.-Supports for shaft skids 220
Figure 25.-Details .for shaft timbers 221
Figure 26.-Examples of lawful lode mining claims 224
PLATES
Plate I.-Geologic map of Oatman districL............................................. 81
Plate Il.-View showing structure of the Gold Road vein, Oatman
district..... 86
Plate IlL-Banded quartz of the third stage of deposition, Oatman
district................................................................................................ 87
Plate IV.-Quartz of the fourth stage of deposition, Oatman .district.. 87
Plate V.-Quartz of the fifth stage of deposition, Oatman districL... 88
Plate VI.-Headframe at an Arizona mine 214
12
IMPORTANT NOTICE: UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, VAL­UATION
FIGURES GIVEN IN THIS BULLETIN ARE BASED
ON A GOLD VALUE OF $20.67 PER OUNCE.
PART I
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES
By ELDRED D. WILSON
CHAPTER I-INTRODUCTION
DISTRIBUTION, GEOLOGIC SETTING, AND TYPES
OF DEPOSITS
Of the approximately $2,800,000,000 worth of minerals that have
been produced by Arizona, gold has constituted about 5.6 per cent,
or some $158,000,000 (see page 18). Of this gold production,
more than $84,000,000 worth or 53 per cent has come from lode
gold and silver mines, nearly 40 per cent as a by-product from
copper, lead, and zinc mining, and 7 per cent from placers.
Figure 1 shows the distribution of lode gold deposits in Arizona.
No commercial gold deposits have been found in the northeastern
or Plateau portion, which consists of a thick, relatively undis­turbed
succession of Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Tertiary rocks rest­ing
upon a basement of pre-Cambrian schist, gneiss, and granite.
Nearly 80 per cent of the State's lode gold production has come
from deposits that occur within a distance of 65 miles from the
southwestern margin of the Plateau. These deposits occur within
the belt that, in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mex­ico,
borders the Colorado Plateau and, as B. S. Butler points out,
contains more than 75 per cent of the mineral deposits of the
Southern Rocky Mountain region. This belt has been subjected
to intense faulting and igneous intrustion. Notable gold deposits
occur also southwest of this belt, in areas of intense faulting and
intrusion by stocks.!
1 Butler, B. S., Ore deposits as related to stratigraphic, structural, and
igeneous geology in the western United States: Am. Inst. Min. Eng.,
Lindgren Volume, pp. 198-240, 1933; Relation of ore deposits of the
Southern Rocky Mountain region to the Colorado Plateau: Colo. Sci.
Soc., Bull. 12, pp. 30-33, 1930.
13
Figure I.-Index map showing location of lode gold districts in Arizona.
ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
Goldfields
Superior (Pioneer)
Saddle Mountain
Cottonwood
Mammoth (Old Hat)
Casa Grande
Owl Head
Old Hat
Quijotoa
Puerto Blanco Mountains
Comobabi
Baboquivari
Greaterville
Arivaca
Oro Blanco
Wrightson
Gold Gulch (Morenci)
Twin Peaks
Lone Star
Clark
Rattlesnake
Dos Cabezas
Golden Rule
Tombstone
Turquoise
Huachuca
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
25 La Fortuna
26 Eureka
27 Prescott, Groom Creek
28 Cherry Creek
29 Squaw Peak
30 Hassayampa, Walker, Big­bug,
Turkey Creek
31 Black Canyon
32 Peck, Bradshaw, Pine
Grove, Tiger, Minnehaha
33 Humbug, Castle Creek
34 Black Rock, White
Picacho
35 Weaver 10ctave)
36 Martinez
37 Vulture
38 Big Horn
39 MIdway
40 Agua Fria
41 Cave Creek
42 Winifred
42-a Salt River
43 Payson (Green Valley I
44 Spring Creek
45 Globe
46 Banner or Dripping
Springs
&ale
q 10 to~ ofDeol1Uu
14
I Lost Basin
2 Gold Basin
3 Northern Black Mountains
(Weaver. Pilgrim)
4 Union Pass
5 Oatman
6 Musie Mountain
7 Cerbat Mountains
(Wallapal)
8 McConnico
9 Maynard
10 Cottonwood
11 Chemehuevls
12 Cienega
13 Planet
14 Plomosa
15 La Paz
16 Ellsworth
17 Kofa
18 Sheep Tanks
19 Tank Mountains
20 Gila Bend Mountains
21 TrIgo Mountains
22 Castle Dome
23 Las Flores (Laguna,
24 La Posa
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 15
The lode gold deposits in Arizona are of Lindgren's epithermal,
mesothermal, and hypothermal types. 2 The epithermal veins have
furnished nearly half of the production, the mesothermal slightly
more than half, and the hypothermal less than one per cent.
Epithermal veins: Representative of the epithermal type are
the veins of the Oatman, Union Pass, Kofa, and Sheep Tanks dis­tricts.
These veins were deposited under conditions of moder­ately
low pressure, at depths generally less than 3,000 feet below
what was then the surface. They are best developed in areas of
Tertiary volcanic activity and are of Tertiary age. The veins are
characterized by rather irregular form, with rich ore bodies rela­tively
near the surface, only; fine-grained to chalcedonic greenish­yellow
quartz, commonly with microscopic adularia; marked
banding or crustification due to successive stages of deposition;
breccia inclusions; and wall-rock alteration to chlorite, carbonates,
quartz, and fine-grained sericite. Calcite is commonly abundant
in the gangue, and the quartz locally shows lamellar structure
pseudomorphic after calcite. Their gold generally occurs as very
finely divided, pale-yellow particles, alloyed with more or less
silver. Gold and silver tellurides, generally so common in epi­thermal
deposits, have not been found in Arizona.
The epithermal veins have formed no placers of economic im­portance.
Mesothermal veins: Representative of the mesothermal type
are most of the veins of the Bradshaw, Weaver, Date Creek (Con­gress),
Vulture, Harquahala, Gila (Fortuna), and Dos Cabezas
Mountains. These veins were deposited under conditions of mod­erately
high temperature and pressure, at depths of more than
3,000 feet below what was then the surface. They occur in schist,
gneiss, granite, and sedimentary rocks, and are predominantly of
Mesozoic or Tertiary age. In general, they are persistent and are
characterized by rather regular form; localization by fractures
with even to smooth walls; coarse-grained texture; banding due
mainly to shearing and replacement; and wall-rock alteration to
carbonates, quartz, and rather coarse-grained sericite. They gen­erally
contain sulphides, particularly pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena,
sphalerite, and arsenopyrite. Their gold occurs both as fine to
coarse free particles and as a finely divided constituent of the
sulphides. Many of them contain more silver than gold by weight.
Most of them have not been of commercial grade below depths of
several hundred feet, but the Congress and Octave veins were
mined to depths of 4,000 and 2,000 on the dip, respectively.
Where veins of this type carried fairly coarse free gold, placers
have been formed.
Hypothermal veins: Hypothermal veins of economic impor­tance
are not abundant in Arizona. They are represented in the
2 Lindgren, Waldemar, Mineral deposits, 4th. ed., 1933.
16 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
Cherry Creek district and in portions of the Bradshaw: Mountains
area, of Yavapai County. Their characteristics are summarized
on page 22.
HISTORY OF ARIZONA GOLD MINING'~
Gold mining in Arizona did not start to any appreciable extent
until after the acquisition of the territory by the United States
from Mexico in 1848 and 1853. What little mining was done by
the Spanish and Mexican miners was for silver. A little placer
gold was brought in to the churches by Indian converts from the
dry working of gravels in the desert, but no systematic mining
was done.
After the final occupation of Arizona in 1853, the only accessible
part of the Territory was that around the old Mexican settlements
of Tucson and Tubac. Considerable prospecting was done in this
part of the Territory by American prospectors, and several silver
mines and one copper mine were opened, but little or no gold
mining was done. On the outbreak of the Civil War, the with­drawal
of troops opened the door to Apache raids, and all mining
ceased.
During the Civil War, prospectors entered the Territory with
the California troops, and several exploring parties were organ­ized
to hunt for gold in the central part of the State, hitherto an
unknown wilderness dominated by Apaches. Rich placers were
found near the Colorado River at Gila City, La Paz, and Quartz­site,
and soon after the Rich Hill, l.ynx Creek, Hassayampa, and
Big Bug placers in the Bradshaw Mountains of central Arizona
were discovered. Base metal mines and even silver mines were
not sought, as only gold could be mined at a pr<~it from this in­accessible
and hazardous corner of the world. ~fter the richer
parts of the placers were exhausted, gold ledges were located and
worked in the crudest manner. Most of the free-milling ore
proved superficial. Only one large deposit, the Vulture, was ex­ploited
on a large scale.
At the end of the Civil War, troops were again withdrawn, re­sulting
in ten years of chaos and bloody warfare with the Apaches.
Little mining was done except around Prescott and Wickenburg
where some protection was given by troops guarding Prescott,
then the capital of the Territory. .
Finally, in 1872, large reservations were set aside for the In­dians
and the first truce was declared. The country was then en­joying
the post-Civil War period of high commodity prices. Gold
was relatively low in price as compared with silver and copper.
Prospecting for these two metals, on the establishment of peace
with the Indians, took precedence over gold, resulting, in the
succeeding ~en years, in the discovery and exploitation of rich
silver mines in the Bradshaws, Silver King, Signal, Globe, and
3 By J. B. Tenney.
III
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 17
Tombstone. This silver boom was followed after the completion
of the two transcontinental railroads in 1881 by the discovery and
early exploitation of nearly every copper deposit in the Territory.
From 1884 to 1893 the country went through a severe deflation
of commodity values. The copper and silver markets fell rapidly
resulting in a relative rise in the price of gold. On the demoni­tization
of silver in 1893, practically all silver mining ceased, and
only the richest and largest copper mines continued to operate.
From 1893 to 1900, miners from all the old silver camps of the
West again turned to the search for gold, which resulted in Ari­zona
in the discovery of numerous new gold deposits, more not­ably
the Congress and Octave in the Bradshaw Mountains, the
Mammoth north of Tucson, and the rich Harqua Hala, La Fortuna,
and King of Arizona mines in the desert of Yuma County. The
development of the cyanide process and of better concentration
methods encouraged the reopening of numerous old mines near
Prescott and the exploitation of the deeper base ore.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the long period of
stagnation ended and commodity prices again turned upwards.
Gold mining became less attractive, and the miners in Arizona
turned their attention to copper. From 1900 until the business
collapse of 1929 and 1930, gold mining was subordinate to base­metal
mining. The only exceptions were the discovery and ex­'
ploitation of the rich vein deposits of the Gold Road, Tom Reed,
United Eastern, and others, in the Oatman district. Gold mining
also continued on a reduced scale in the older mines of the Brad­shaw
Mountains and in those of Yuma County.
On the collapse of commodity prices in 1930, miners again
turned their attention to gold. The first result was the search
for new placers and the reworking of old fields, with indifferent
results. The higher gold prices that were established by the
United States in 1933 have revived activity in most of the old gold
camps and stimulated prospecting throughout the State. In 1933,
production was about 12 per cent greater than in 1932.
Arizona has produced more non-ferrous metallic wealth than
any state or territory in the Union. While most of this production
has been in copper, nearly every copper mining operation in the
State has yielded important quantities of gold.
As a gold producer, Arizona ranks seventh in the United States.
In the following table, the Arizona gold production is shown
segregated as to its source. As is seen, about 40 per cent has come
as a by-product of copper and lead mining, chiefly after 1900.
GOLD PRODUCTION OF ARIZONA
(Values Based on a Price of $20.67 Per Ounce of Fine Gold)
From Lode Gold Mines From Placers From Copper Mines From Lead Mines TOTAL
PERIOD ----
Per Per Per Per
Value cent Value cent Value cent Value cent Value
.-_. f----
1853-1872, Approx. Approx. Approx.
incl. $ 2,860,000 36.4 $ 5,000,000 63.6 $ 7,860,000
~-
1873-1893, Approx. Approx. Approx.
inc!. $ 9,500,000 73.5 $ 3,420,000 26.5 $ 12,920,000
1898-1903, Approx. Approx. Approx. Approx Approx.
inc!. $16,907,000 70.1 $ 1,800,000 7.5 $ 4,893,000 20.3 $ 500,000 2.1 $ 24,100,000
--
1904-1930,
incl. $53,387,000 49.6 $ 518,000 .5 $49,911,000 46.4 $3,744,000 3.5 $107,560,000
1931-1933, Approx. (a) (a) (a) (a) Approx. (b) (b) (b) (b) Approx.
incl. $ 1,706,000 30.7 $ 3,854,000 69.3 $ 5,560,000
Grand Total
1853-1933, Approx. Approx. Approx. Approx. Approx.
inc!. $84,360,000 53.4 $10,738,000 6.8 $58,658,000 37.1 $4,244,000 2.7 $158,000,000
I I
(a) Gold lode and placer mines combined.
(b) Copper and lead mines combined.
I-'
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ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES .4ND MINING 19
CHAPTER II-YAVAPAr COUNTY
TOPOGRAPHY
As show on Figure 2, Yavapai County comprises an irregular
area about 105 miles long from west to east by 104 miles wide.
Except for the margin of the Plateau Province along its north­eastern
boundary, this area consists of a series of northward­and
northwestward-trending fault-block mountain ranges and
valleys. The largest of these ranges is the Bradshaw, which is
about 45 miles long by 20 miles wide and attains a maximum
altitude of 7,971 feet above sea level. Farther west, the moun­tains
are somewhat smaller but equally rugged. As shown on
Figure 2, the region is drained by the Verde, Agua Fria, Hassa­yampa,
and Santa Maria'rivers. The lowest point, about 1,500
feet above sea level, is on the Santa Maria River.
CLIMATE AND VEGETATION
The climatic range of Yavapai County is illustrated by the fol­lowing
examples:
The highest and lowest temperatures on record for Prescott
(altitude 5,320 feet) are 105° and -12°, while for Clemenceau
(altitude 3,460 feet) they are 110° and 13°, respectively. The
normal annual precipitation at Crown King (altitude 6,000 feet)
is 32.42 inches, while at Prescott it is 18.52 inches. This higher
country is subject to considerable snow in winter. The lower
portions of the region receive only from 10 to 13 inches of rainfall
yeady.4
In general, the higher ridges and valleys are well wooded and
watered, while the slopes below 5,000 feet in altitude are brushy,
and the country below 3,500 feet is characterized by desert veg­etation.
ROUTES OF ACCESS AND TRANSPORTATION
As shown by Figure 2, the Phoenix line of the Santa Fe Rail­way
crosses Yavapai County from north to south. A branch from
this line connects Clemenceau, Clarkdale, and Jerome with the
Phoenix line. Another branch via Mayer and Humboldt, to
Crown King was partly dismantled in 1926,
Various highways, improved roads, and secondary roads tra­verse
the county and lead from Prescott, the principal distrib­uting
center, to the mining districts (see Figure 2).
Since the closing of the Humboldt smelter, the gold smelting
ores and concentrates have generally been sent to EI Paso and
Superior.
4 Smith, H. V. The climate of Arizona: Univ. of Ariz. Agri. Exp. Sta.,
Bull. 130, 1930.
Figure 2.-Map showing location of lode gold districts in Yavapai Count-v.
Scale
0l:.,.~,--..:::1O:..-...:.::15---:1O::.......:;25 Mil..
Kr.Y
E--<I lii~hway"
o .second...!) Road"
t:'>o'-'1 lnlermlt.lent. St.rea.rns
ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
ll:t
1 Eureka 11 Peck, Bradshaw
2 Prescott 12 Pine Grove, Tiger
3 Cherry Creek 13 Minnehaha
4 Squaw Peak 14 Humbug
5 Groom Creek 15 Tip Top
6 Walker 16 Castle Creek
7 Big-bug 17 Black Rock
8 Hassayampa 18 White Picacho
9 Turkey Creek 19 Weaver
10 Black Canyon 20 Martinez
20
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 2L
GENERAL GEOLOGY
Except for certain areas of Paleozoic sedimentary beds in the
northern and northeastern portions of the county, the mountains
are made up of metamorphic and igneous rocks.
The oldest formation, the Yavapai schist5
, consists of meta­morphosed
pre-Cambrian sedimentary and igneous rocks which
have been crumpled into generally northeastward-trending belts,
cut by various intrusives, and subjected to complex faulting.
The principal intrusives consist of dikes and stocks of diorite,
batholithic masses of granite with pegmatites, stocks of grano­diorite
and monzonite-porphyry, and dikes of rhyolite-porphyry.
The diorite and granite are of pre-Cambrian age, while the gran··
odiorite and monzonite-porphyry are, because of their composi­tion,
regarded as Mesozoic or early Tertiary. The rhyolite­porphyry
dikes cut the granodiorite and are also probably Meso­zoic
or early Tertiary.
Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic and sedimentary formations
in places mantle large areas of the older rocks.
GOLD DEPOSITS
Production: Yavapai County ranks first among the gold­producing
counties of Arizona. It has yielded approximately
$50,000,000 worth of gold of which about 50.5 per cent was derived
from copper mines, 39 per cent from gold and silver veins, 10 per
cent from placers, and 0.5 per cent from lead and zinc mines.6
Most of the gold obtained as a by-product of copper mining has
come from the Jerome district, where a large amount of the ores
have yielded from 0.025 to 0.225 ounces of gold per ton.
Distribution: As indicated by Figure 2, the gold districts are
confined to the southern half of the county where faulting and
igneous intrusion have been relatively intense.
Types: The principal types of gold deposits in Yavapai County
are exemplified in the Bradshaw Mountains and Jerome quad­rangles
where Lindgren7 has classified them as follows:
(1) Mesozoic or early Tertiary gold and gold-silver veins;
(2) pre-Cambrian gold-quartz veins; and (3) pre-Cambrian gold­quartz-
tourmaline replacement deposits.
5 Jaggar, T. A. and Palache, C., Bradshaw Mountains Folio: U. S.
Geol. Survey, Folio No. 126, 1925.
Lindgren, W., Ore deposits of the Jerome and Bradshaw Mountains
quadrangles, Arizona: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 782, 1926.
Reber, L. E., Geology and ore deposits of the Jerome district:
Am. Inst. Min. and Met. Eng., Trans., vol. 66, pp. 3-26, 1922.
Lausen, Carl, Pre-Cambrian greenstone complex of the Jerome
quadrangle: Jour. Geol., vol. 38, pp. 174-83, 460-65, 1930.
6 Figures compiled by J. B. Tenney.
•7 Work cited, pp. 36-48.
22 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
As these types of deposits differ markedly in distribution, min­eralogy,
texture, and form, their distinction is of primary eco­nomic
importance. The pre-Cambrian gold deposits of the coun­ty
have not produced over $1,000,000, whereas the Mesozoic or
early Tertiary veins have yielded more than $18,000,000 worth
of gold.
Mesozoic or early Tertiary veins: Representative of this type
are the Congress, Octave, Humbug, Pine Grove or Crown King,
and Walker veins, and most of the deposits in the Eureka, Hassa­yampa,
Groom Creek, Bigbug, and Black Canyon districts.
In general, these veins, though locally lenticular, are persistent,
straight, and narrow, with definite walls. Their gangue is mas­sive
to drusy milky-white quartz, with or without ankeritic car­bonates.
Their ore shoots, below the zone of oxidation, contain
abundant sulphides, principally pyrite, galena, sphalerite, chal­copyrite,
arsenopyrite, and tetrahedrite. Most of them are silver
bearing, and many contain more--silver than gold by weight. In
the primary zone, some of their gold is free, but most of it occurs
as sub-microscopic intergrowths with the sulphides, particularly
the finer-grained galena, chalcopyrite, and pyrite. Their oxidized
zone was rich in free gold but generally shallow. They have
yielded placers only where their primary zone carried consider­able
free gold. The vein wall rocks generally show sericitization
and carbonatization. High-temperature minerals are absent.
These veins belong to the mesothermal class and were depos­ited
at depths of 3,000 or 4,000 feet below what was then the sur­face.
They occur in schist, granite, and granodiorite or quartz
diorite. As they cut the granodiorite and, in the Bradshaw Moun­tains,
appear to be genetically related to the rhyolite-porphyry
dikes, Lindgren regards them as of Cretaceous or early Tertiary
age.
Pre-Cambrian veins: Representative of this type are the Cher­ry
Creek, Bullwhacker, Jersey Lily, Ruth, Richinbar, Yellow
Aster or Lehman, and Minnehaha deposits.
These veins are characteristically lenticular in form. Their
gangue is shiny milky-white to glassy quartz with tourmaline and
minor amounts of ankeritic carbonates. Below the zone of oxida­tion,
pyrite, chacopyrite, sphalerite, and galena are locally present
but generally not abundant. In the primary zone, the gold oc­curs
both as coarse free particles and as sub-microscopic inter­growths
with the sulphides. Some silver is present with the gold.
The vein walls show slight alteration. Most of the placers of this
region have been derived from veins of this type, but, where a
large proportion of the gold occurs in the sulphides, placers are
lacking.
These veins belong to the hypothermal class and were deposited
under conditions of high temperature and pressure. Lindgren
has pointed out that they are probably genetically connected with
the pre-Cambrian Bradshaw granite.
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 23
Pre-Cambrian gold-quartz-tourmaline replacement dep9sits:
The only deposit of this type known in the county is that of the
Iron King mine, described on page 36. It is believed to have
been formed by emanations from the pre-Cambrian granite.
HISTORY OF GOLD MINING IN YAVAPAI COUNTYs
Prior to the Mexican War, early trail-makers and trappers pen­etrated
the Bradshaw Mountains and reported the presence of
minerals there, but the inaccessibility of the country and the
danger from the Indians discouraged prospecting. It was not
until the Civil War, when troops from California, many of whom
were gold miners, came in, that parties were organized to pros­pect
the area.
In 1862, a party headed by A. H. Peeples and guided by Pauline
Weaver discovered the Rich Hill gold placers. During the fol­lowing
year, the Joseph Walker party, of Colorado, journeyed
through the Hassayampa region and found gold placers on Lynx,
Big Bug, Hassayampa, and Groom creeks.
The discovery in the same year of the rich Vulture ledge, south­west
of Antelope Peak, stimulated lode gold prospecting. Many
deposits were found, and their free-milling ores were treated in
crude reduction works, chiefly arrastres and small stamp mills.
Base ore was generally encountered at depths of 50 to 100 feet.
From the discovery of several silver bonanzas, during the early
seventies, until the building of the railway into Prescott, in 1888,
lode gold mining in Yavapai County was subordinate to silver
mining.
During the late eighties, after the exhaustion of the silver mines,
many old gold mines were reopened and new ones, notably the
Congress, Hillside, and Octave, were discovered. During the
early nineties, concentrators to treat base gold ores were erected
at the Senator, Crown King, Little Jessie, and other mines, and a
copper smelter was built at Arizona City.
The perfection of the cyanide process, in the early twentieth
century, was an added stimulus to base gold ore mining. The
most important producers of this period were the Congress, Oc­tave,
and McCabe-Gladstone. From 1913 until 1930, little lode
gold mining was done in the county.
EUREKA DISTRICT
The Eureka district, of southwestern Yavapai County, is bound­ed
by the Santa Maria River on the south, Burro Creek on the
northwest, the Mohave County line on the west, and the Phoenix
branch of the Santa Fe Railway on the east. From Hillside, its
principal railway shipping point, the area is accessible by im­proved
roads that lead to Bagdad and Kingman, and by numerous
unimproved routes.
b By J. B. Tenney.
West and northwest of Hillside are the McCloud Mountains, a
granite range that attains a maximum altitude of 4,900 feet. West­ward,
these mountains give way to the ruggedly dissected basin
of the Santa Maria and its tributaries, Burro, Boulder, Yavapai,
and Bridle creeks. This basin, which descends to a minimum
altitude of 1,600 feet, is characterized by desert vegetation and
hot summers. Aside from the larger streams, water is obtained
from a few springs and shallow wells.
This region is composed mainly of granite, gneiss, and schist,
intruded by various dikes and stocks and overlain in places by
mesa-forming lavas. It contains the Bagdad copper deposit, the
Copper King zinc deposit, and several gold-bearing veins of
which the Hillside and Crosby have been notable producers. Al­though
these veins are of the mesothermal quartz-pyrite-galena
type, they have been mined mainly in the oxidized zone. Early
in 1934, preparations were being made to mine and concentrate
ores from the sulphide zone.
HILLSIDE MINE
Situation: The Hillside property of seven claims is in Sees. 16
and 21, T. 15 N., R. 9 W., in the vicinity of Boulder Creek. From
the railway at Hillside station, it is accessible by 32 miles of road.
History9: This deposit was discovered in 1887 by John Lawler.
The first ore, which consisted of lead carbonate rich in gold and
silver, was shipped to Pueblo, Colorado. From 1887 to 1892, Law­ler
did about 7,000 feet of development work, built an 84-mile
road to Seligman, erected a small stamp mill, and made a con­siderable
production. In 1892, the property was sold to H. A.
Warner who organized the Seven Stars Gold Mining Company.
Guided in part by the advice of T. A. Rickard, this company car­ried
out considerable development work, erected a mill, and built
a road to Hillside station. The Warner companies, however,
failed in the 1893 depression, and the Hillside property, after pro­tracted
litigation, reverted to Lawler. For several years after
1904, the mine was worked intermittently, mainly by lessees.
Upon the death of Lawler in 1917, operations ceased until early
in 1934 when H. L. Williams purchased the property and con­structed
a new 125-ton mill. Regular operations, employing eight
men underground and twelve in the mill, began in July, 1934.
Production: Acording to records and estimates by Homer R.
Wood, who was engineer at the property during part of its ac­tivity,
the Hillside mine produced 13,094 tons of ore which yielded
9,329 ounces of gold and 219,918 ounces of silver, in all worth
about $296,500.
Topography and geology: The Hillside mine is on the east side
of Boulder Creek, in a deep canyon of moderately fissile grayish
mica schist. This schist is intruded on the east by coarse-grained
"Historical data largely from Homer R. Wood, of Prescott.
24 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 25
granite and, 2 miles south of the mine, by the Bagdad granite
porphyry stock. Narrow dikes of pegmatite are locally present.
Vein and workings: The Hillside vein occurs within a nearly
vertical fault zone that strikes N.-N. 15° E. and, in places, separ­ates
into branches a few feet apart. In the vicinity of the vein,
the schist dips almost fiat.
The vein has been opened by over 10,000 feet of workings, dis­tributed
over a length of approximately 2,400 feet. Its width
ranges from a few inches to several feet and averages abol1t 1%
feet. On the fourth or deepest level, which is from 60 to 300 feet
below the surface, it consists of stringers and irregular bunches
of coarse-grained massive white quartz with abundant sulphides.
Microscopic examination of a polished section of ore from the
fourth level shows that the sulphides are mainly pyrite and
galena, together with some sphalerite. Considerable. oxide and
carbonate material, containing principally iron, lead, and zinc, is
visible. The pyrite ranges from massive texture to grains less
than 200-mesh in size. The galena occurs as irregular bodies
many of which are visible to the unaided eye. They commonly
terminate in small veinlets less than 0.0004 inch wide. The gold
occurs both in the oxidized material and in the sulphides, but is
most abundant in the galena. The silver of the sulphide zone
occurs mainly with the sphalerite. Specimens of wire silver have
been found in vugs in all the levels, and cerargyrite is locally
abundant in the upper workings.
The vein contains some sulphides on the third level and is prac­tically
all oxidized above the second level. It has been largely
stoped out from the second level to the surface. The wall rock
shows strong alteration to quartz and sericite.
COMSTOCK AND DEXTER MINE
The Comstock and Dexter property is on a tributary of Boul­der
Creek, about 11/2 miles south of the Hillside mine. During
the late eighties and early nineties, the Dillon brothers worked
this deposit and treated their ore in a small stamp mill. Later,
the mine was acquired by John Lawler and associates. Accord­ing
to local people, the deposit produced several thousand dollars'
worth of gold.
In 1932, the General Minerals Company obtained the property,
built a new camp and a road that connects with the Hillside mine
road, and started sinking a new shaft. Operations were suspended
in 1933.
Here, mediumly massive gray schist strikes northward and dips
almost vertically. The vein strikes and dips essentially with the
lamination of the schist. It was opened by more than 500 feet of
drifts on two adit levels, and by a new 120-foot vertical shaft that
reaches the upper level. Most of the ore mined consisted of oxi­dized
material from the upper level which, according to M. J.
COWBOY MINE
Lawler10, generally averaged less than $16 per ton. in gold.
As seen in the lower adit drifts, which are about 300 feet in
length and 170 feet below the collar of the new shaft, the vein
ranges from a few inches to about 11/2 feet in width. It consists
of stringers and irregular bunches of coarse-grained, massive
white quartz with irregular bunches and disseminations of pyrite,
galena, and sphalerite.
26
--------~~-------
ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
The Cowboy property of four claims is accessible by one mile
of road that branches westward from the Bagdad highway at a
point 23 miles from Hillside. This deposit, which is reported to
have been discovered in the eighties, was relocated in 1923 by
G. G. Gray. The U. S. Mineral Resources credit it with a small
production of gold-lead ore in 1911, 1925, and 1931. Some of this
ore carried about an ounce of gold per ton.
The prevailing rock is micaceous schist, intruded on the east
by granite and cut by granite-porphyry dikes. The principal vein
strikes northwestward and dips about 60° SW. It has been
opened by an inclined shaft, reported to be 200 feet deep, with
about 700 feet of drifts. When visited in January, 1934, these
workings were under water to the 65-foot level. So far as seen,
the vein-filling consists of narrow, lenticular masses of brecciated
jasper together with more or less coarsely crystalline shiny gray
quartz. It contains small scattered masses and disseminations of
limonite, cerussite, anglesite, and galena. The gold occurs mainly
with the lead minerals, particularly in the jaspery portions of
the vein.
CROSBY MINE
The Crosby property, in Secs. 4 and 9, T. 13 N., R. 8 W., is
accessible from the Bagdad highway by 3.5 miles of road that
branches westward at a point 13 miles from Hillside.
The U. S. Mineral Resources state that the Nieman and Crosby
property produced in 1906-1907, 1911-1916, but do not give the
amounts. In 1927, according to Carl G. Barth, JrY, the Red
Crown Mines, Inc., produced $1,000 in bullion, and lessees ob­tained
$1,870 from 22 tons of ore. Some production was made
during 1928 and 1930. In 1931, according to the U. S. Mineral
Resources, 100 tons of ore that averaged more than 1.7 ounces of
gold per ton were shipped, and 25 tons were treated by amalgama­tion
and concentration. Lessees were continuing small scale
operations in 1934. When visited in January, a little ore was being
mined from the adit level and treated in an old 10-stamp amal­gamation-
concentration mill.
10 Oral communication.
nOral communication.
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 27
The mine is at an altitude of 3,300 feet, in a small area of banded
gray schist that is surrounded by light-colored granite and in­truded
by pegmatite, rhyolite-porhyry, and basic dikes. The vein,
which strikes N. 10° E. and dips 25°-30° K, ranges from less
than an inch to about 18 inches in width. Its filling, where un­oxidized,
consists of coarse-textured, glassy, grayish-white quartz
with bunches and disseminations of pyrite. Rich ore from the
oxidized zone shows brecciated quartz with abundant cellular
limonite. The gold appears to occur in the iron minerals and to
a less extent as visible particles in the quartz. Considerable seri­cite
has been formed in the wall rocks.
The vein has been opened by an incline, reported to be 350 feet
deep, with water at the 235-foot level. According to Carl G. Barth,
Jr., the vein has been largely stoped out for a length of 325 feet
from the surface to the 165-foot level. He states that it is cut
off on the south by a fault occupied by a basic dike.
SOUTHERN CROSS MINE
The Southern Cross Mine, in the southwestern part of the
Eureka district, south of Grayback Mountain, is accessible by 4%
miles of road that branches southward from the Kingman road at
a point 28 miles from Hillside. This deposit was opened by shal­low
workings more than thirty years ago. During the first few
months of 1934, the present owner, R. L. Gray, shipped from the
property about 55 tons of ore that is reported to have contained
from 0.75 to 1.0 ounce of gold per ton.
The vein strikes northward, dips from 15° E. to almost flat, and
occurs in vertical mica schist. Its gangue is coarse-textured,
massive, grayish-white quartz with fractures and small cavities
filled with limonite and sparse copper carbonate. The walls show
marked sericitization and limonite staining.
Underground workings include a 70-foot inclined shaft that
passes through the vein, and two short, near-surface drifts with
small stopes on the vein. As shown by these workings, the vein
is lenticular and ranges from a thin seam up to 4 feet in thickness.
MAMMOTH OR HUBBARD MINE
The Mammoth property of eight claims, held by Hugh Hub­bard
and associates, is 81f2 miles by road north of Hillside and
within % mile of the Santa Maria River.
This deposit, which is reported to be on school land, was dis­covered
many years ago. Since 1931, it has produced several cars
of ore.
Here, a moderately hilly pediment is floored by extensively
jointed granite. The present shaft, which is 175 feet deep, was
sunk on a narrow southward-dipping fault zone that showed a
little iron oxide and copper stain. Between the 80- and 100­foot
levels, a short drift to the east encountered an ore shoot that
CHERRY CREEK DISTRICTB
PRESCOTT DISTRICT
28 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
BULLWHACKER MINE
The Bullwhacker mine is about 4 miles in air-line east of Pres­cott
and a short distance south of the Dewey road, on the divide
between Granite and Agua Fria creeks. The principal rocks are
dense black schists with dikes of diorite porphyry, intruded on the
west by Bradshaw granite. Blake12
, in 1898, described this de­posit
as "A small mine ... sometimes called the Bowlder claim.
It is notable for bearing coarse gold of high grade in a small
quartz vein. The vein varies in thickness from a few inches to a
foot. The quartz is hard and occurs in bowlder-like masses,
rounded hard lumps, in which the gold occurs. There is appar­ently
one ore chute or chimney pitching northward. The claim
has been worked to a depth of 132 feet by a shaft and most of the
pay ore extracted (1886) to that depth."
Lindgren'3 states that the massive milky-white quartz con­tains
a little pyrite in crystals and stringers.
strikes S. 70° W., dips 40° NW., and is about 20 feet long by 2 to
2% feet thick. This vein material consists of coarse-grained milky
quartz, pale-yellowish calcite, and fine-grained purple fluorite.
Small masses and disseminations of yellowish pyrite are present
in the quartz. In places, the pyrite is oxidized to limonite. The
wall rock shows strong sericitization. According to Mr. Hubbard,
the ore mined from this shoot in January, 1934, averaged about
0.4 per cent of copper, 0.51 ounces of gold, and 2 to 3 ounces of
silver per ton. Trucking to Hillside cost $1.50 per ton.
The Cherry Creek district is in the southern portion of the
Black Hills, in the vicinity of Cherry post office, on the head­waters
of Cherry Creek. By highway, this place is 16 miles
from the railway at Dewey and 22 miles from Clemenceau.
Regarding the history and production, Lindgren says:
"Many of the mines, the Monarch property in particular, were
operated in a small way in the early days, their ore generally
being reduced in arrastres . .. In 1907 seven properties were in
operation, with six mills. Some high-grade ore containing as
much as $60 or even $100 to the ton was extracted. In 1908 six
mines yielded 464 tons, from which was obtained $5,775 in gold
and 86 ounces in silver, a total value of $12 to the ton. In 1909
12 Blake, Wm. P., In Rep't. of Gov. of Arizona, 1898, p. 262.
13 Work cited, p. 108.
14 Lindgren, W., Ore deposits of the Jerome and Bradshaw Mountains
quadrangles, Arizona: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 782, pp. 102-107, 1926.
14 Reid, J. A., A sketch of the geology and ore deposits of the Cherry
Creek district, Arizona: Econ. Geol., vol. 1, pp. 417-36, 1906..
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 29
four mines produced 330 tons yielding 329 ounces of gold and 127
ounces of silver, together with 29 tons of concentrates yielding
40 ounces of gold and 115 ounces of silver. In 1910 seven mines
produced 1,332 tons, from which was obtained $6,352 in gold and
93 ounces of silver; this ore was obviously of low grade. In 1911
the district yielded $9,402 from 531 tons of ore, or about $17 to
the ton. The producers were the Etta, Federal, Hillside, and Leg­horn
mines. In 1912 the Monarch and two other properties pro­duced
gold. In 1914 the production was $2,866 from four prop­erties.
In 1915 ore was mined from the St. Patrick, Garford, and
Esmeralda claims. In 1916 two properties produced a little bul­lion
. .. In 1922 operations were again begun at the Monarch and
the Logan." A little gold bullion was produced in the district
during 1923 and 1925. Several cars of ore were shipped in 1930,
1931, 1932, and 1933.
Most of the district is in the upland basin of Cherry Creek, with
elevations of 5,000 to 5,500 feet, but part of it extends down the
steep eastern slope of the Black Hills. The prevailing rock is
Bradshaw granite, locally overlain by Cambrian and Devonian
sedimentary rocks and Tertiary lavas.
The veins occur in the granite, within shear zones which strike
north-northeastward and dip at low or moderate angles westward.
Their filling consists of irregular, lenticular bodies of massive,
shiny white quartz with small amounts of greenish-black tour­maline.
The ore is marked by irregular grains and bunches of
more or less oxidized chalcopyrite, bornite, sphalerite, and galena.
In places, pseudomorphs of limonite after pyrite are abundant.
Although the water level is about 60 feet below the surface,
oxidation, which is probably of pre-Cambrian age, extends to
depths of 300 feet. The ore bodies are generally small. Part of
the gold occurs as visible but fine particles in the quartz, particu­larly
with limonite, but part is contained in the sulphides. Lind­gren
15 states that the concentrates after amalgamation are re­ported
to contain from 4 to 5 ounces of gold and a small amount
of silver per ton. He regards these veins as positive examples
of pre-Cambrian high temperature deposits. The Cherry Creek
veins have yielded no placers of economic importance.
MONARCH AND NEARBY MINES16
The Monarch or Mocking Bird mine is at the eastern foot of the
Black Hills, at an altitude of about 4,500 feet. It has been oper­ated
intermittently with stamp mills since 1886 and has probably
produced more than any other mine in the district, but many of
the old workings are caved. The country rock is fine-grained
light colored granite which shows practically no alteration in the
vein walls. The mineral deposit consists of several veins which
15 Work cited, p. 103.
H Description abstracted from Lindgren, work cited, p. 105.
strike N. 100 -20 0 W. and dip 32°-45°W. They are made up of lenses,
several feet in maximum width, of coarsely crystalline white
quartz vein 5 to 6 feet wide, developed to a depth of 200 feet,
ore is mostly free milling, but some galena and chalcopyrite are
present.
The Etta, Gold Ring, and Conger mines, south of the Monarch,
were producers during the eighties. The Conger is reported to
have been recently worked in a small way by lessees. Lindgren
says: "The Etta is mentioned in the Mint report for 1887 as a
quartz vein 5 to 6 feet wide, developed to a depth of 200 feet;
and containing ore of a value of $29 to the ton."
The Pfau mine, according to J. S. Sessions, about 2 miles south­southeast
of the Monarch, produced intermittently for about nine
years prior to 1904.
30 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
BUNKER OR WHEATLEY PROPERTY
The Bunker or Wheatly property of eight claims is a short dis­tance
northwest of the Inspiration ground and about 1% miles
north of Cherry. This property was worked to some extent in
the early days. In 1923, it produced a little ore that was treated
in the Federal mill. During 1932 and 1933, the present owner,
E. V. Bunker, shipped several cars of ore containing from 0.75 to
2.0 ounces of gold per ton. The principal workings are at an ele­vation
of about 5,700 feet on three veins which dip gently south­westward
and are from 25 to 45 feet apart. As exposed by the
present shallow workings, these veins range up to 6 feet, but
probably average less than one foot, in thickness. Considerable
massive quartz is present. The gold occurs, very finely divided
and associated with abundant limonite, within cellular and brec­ciated
quartz.
GOLDEN IDOL OR HILLSIDE MINE
The Golden Idol or Hillside mine is 1¥2 miles by road north of
Cherry, at an altitude of about 5,400 feet. Lindgren17 states that
the property was worked from 1907 to 1910 and was equipped with
a stamp mill and cyanide plant. During the past fifteen years, it
has been held by the Verde Inspiration Company and the West­ern
States Gold Mining Company, but has made little or no pro­duction.
Lindgren continues: "There appear to be three veins
on the property, and on one of them an incline 375 feet long has
been sunk at a dip of 35° W. . .. Pits near the shaft show a 4­foot
vein of sheared granite with bunches of quartz. The quartz
shows bluish-black streaks of tourmaline, also a little pyrite and
chalcopyrite. It contains solution cavities with limonite. The
ore is said to have contained $7 to $12 to the ton."
17 Work cited, p. 106,
------------~~-------~-~~~-
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 31
FEDERAL MINE
The Federal mine is west of the Bunker, about 1% miles north
of Cherry at an altitude of 5,300 feet. Its southward-dipping
vein is reported to have been explored by a 260-foot incline in
1907. A mill was built at about that time, but little ore was mined.
LEGHORN MINE
The Leghorn mine, about 1% miles north of Cherry, is reported
to have been worked intermittently, with some production, from
1904 to 1918, and to a small extent in 192418
• Lindgren10 says:
"The vein is contained in granite and has been opened by an in­cline
600 feet long, dipping 35° W. In Weed's Mines Handbook
for 1922 it is stated that there are 6,000 feet of workings. A
Chilean mill has been erected on the property. . .. The vein is
said to average 2 feet in width. The quartz contains chalcopyrite
and gold, but it is probable that difficulties were encountered
below the zone of oxidation. Specimens from the dump show
abundant solution cavities filled with hematite and secondary
quartz."
GOLD BULLION OR COPPER BULLION MINE
The Gold Bullion, formerly know as the Copper Bullion prop­erty,
is about 2 miles west-northwest of Cherry. During the early
days, according to local reports, it was opened by a 660-foot incline
and several hundred feet of shallower workings. These openings
were on a steeply westward-dipping vein that pinches and swells
to a maximum width of about 7 feet. As seen near the surface, it
consists of lenses of quartz together with locally abundant masses
of hematite and limonite. The gold is very finely divided. In
places, the quartz contains irregular bunches of partially oxidized
galena. Copper stain is locally present. Since 1930, several cars
of shipping ore have been mined from near the surface.
GOLD COIN MINE
The Gold Coin property, which in 1934 was being worked by the
Southwestern Gold Mining Corporation, is east of Hackberry
Wash, about % mile from the Dewey road. In the early days,
this property was opened by a shaft about 100 feet deep. Within
the past two years, it has been developed by a 1I8-foot shaft and
has produced several cars of ore. The vein dips steeply eastward,
is rather pockety, and attains a maximum width of about 3 feet.
QUAIL AND GOLDEN EAGLE MINES
Some ore has recently been shipped from shallow workings on
lenticular, steeply eastward-dipping veins on the Quail and Gold­en
Eagle groups which are adjacent to the Dewey road and Hack­berry
Wash.
18 Oral communication from J. S. Sessions.
10 Work cited, p. 107.
ARIZONA COMSTOCK OR RADIO MINE
The Arizona Comstock or Radio group, east of Hackberry Wash,
is reported to have produced some ore from near the surface dur­ing
the early days. It shows a steeply southwestward-dipping
vein, up to about 20 inches wide, that was opened by a shallow
shaft, a winze, and about 100 feet of drifts.
GOLDEN CROWN MINE
The Golden Crown property is east of Hackberry Wash and
southeast of the Dewey road. Early in 1934, it was being worked
by Binder Brothers, and is reported to have shipped two cars of
ore during 1933. The vein, which is rather irregular, dips approx­imately
25° SW. and ranges up to about 3% feet in thickness.
It has been opened by about 300 feet of drifting from a shallow
incline that encountered considerable water at 50 feet. Its quartz
is massive to brecciated and contains abundant limonite derived
from coarse-grained pyrite.
LOGAN MINE20
The Logan mine, about 2 miles southwest of Cherry, was re­opened
in 1922 and operated for a short while by the New United
Verde Copper Company. It was idle in 1934. Material on the
dump consists of decomposed granite and slightly copper-stained
quartz. The property was equipped with a small mill.
GROOM CREEK DISTRICT
The Groom Creek district is mainly in the vicinity of upper
Groom Creek, an intermittent stream that flows southwestward
to join the Hassayampa at a point about 5 miles south of Pres­cott.
Within its drainage area, which ranges in elevation from
5,400 to more than 7,000 feet above sea level, are several silver­gold-
bearing quartz veins which have been worked intermittently
for many years. In this area, water and timber are relatively
abundant, but operations during winter are sometimes hampered
by snow.
The principal rocks are pre-Cambrian sedimentary schist, in­truded
by stocks and dikes of granodiorite and diorite. The quartz
veins tend to be narrow and lenticular. They probably belong to
the mesothermal type but have been worked mainly above the
sulphide zone.
The Midnight Test (National Gold), Empire, King-Kelly-Monte
Cristo, Victor, and Home Run properties are in this district.
When visited in January, 1934, only the Midnight Test mine was
being actively operated.
NATIONAL GOLD (MIDNIGHT TEST) MINE
The Midnight Test mine, held by the National Gold Corpora­tion,
is on the northwestern slope of Spruce Mountain, at an
20 Abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, p. 107.
32 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
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ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 33
elevation of 7,000 feet. According to local people, this mine was
worked to shallow depths during the early days and was devel­oped
by a 400-foot shaft prior to 1906. For a short while during
this period, a small mill operated on the property. In 1919, the
mine yielded some milling ore. The total production prior to
1922 is reported to be $100,00021, part of which came from a rich
shoot of silver ore near the surface. Subsequently, the property
was obtained by the National Exploration Company, later the
National Gold Corporation, which has carried on considerable
underground exploration and built a 200-ton mill designed for
amalgamation, flotation, and table concentration. The National
Gold Corporation has made several shipments of ore and con­centrates.
The principal rocks of the vicinity consist of silicified schist,
intruded by stocks and dikes of granodiorite and diorite. When
visited in January, 1934, the main shaft was 600 feet deep, on an
incline of 80° W., and the workings seen followed a shear zone
that trends N. 15°-20° W., mainly in the schist. The fractured
portions of this zone are generally marked by abundant limonite
and hematite. No manganese dioxide was seen. In some places,
irregular to lenticular, generally narrow veins of coarse-grained.
druzy quartz are present. This quartz contains scattered kernels
of galena and, mainly below the 300-foot level, bands and scat­tered
bunches of pyrite with minor amounts of sphalerite. Gold
is reported22 to occur mainly in the iron oxides of the shear zone
and to a less extent in the quartz and sulphides.
OTHER PROPERTIES
The Monte Cristo mine, one-half mile east of Groom Creek
settlement, is reported to have produced considerable silver ore
and some gold during the eighties, from 1902 to 1905, and in 1920.
Lindgren states that the King-Kelly fissure, which strikes N.
15° W., with vertical or steep westerly dip, is a narrow vein con­taining
fine-grained druzy quartz, sparsely disseminated pyrite,
and a little galena.23
The Empire vein, according to Lindgren, outcrops in a quartz­itic
schist and diorite and strikes N. 20° W. He states that, from
about 1902 to 1910, a considerable amount of ore containing ap­proximately
equal values of gold and silver was mined from the
oxidized zone and milled. A 300-foot shaft, sunk to water level,
showed that the ore becomes pyritic in depth.24
The Home Run property is reported to have shipped a car of
ore in 1932.
21 Lindgren, Waldemar, Ore deposits of the Jerome and Bradshaw Moun-tains
quadrangles, Arizona: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 782, p. 114.
22 Oral communication from W. W. Linesba.
23 Work cited, p. 113.
24 Work cited, p. 114.
34 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
WALKER DISTRICT25
The Walker district is near the head of Lynx Creek, in a well­watered,
wooded region more than 6,000 feet above sea level.
Here, many veins with free gold in the oxidized zone were dis­covered
and worked with arrastres by the early-day placer min­ers.
Lindgren estimates that the total production of the district
does not exceed $1,500,000. More than half of this yield was made
prior to 1900.
The productive veins are mainly in a granodiorite stock, 2 miles
long by one mile wide, that intrudes Yavapai schist on the north­west
and Bradshaw granite on the southeast. All of these rocks
are cut by prominent dikes of rhyolite-porphyry. The veins,
which occur within steeply dipping fault zones several feet wide,
commonly consist of several streaks of quartz with gold-bearing
sulphides.
SHELDON MINE26
The Sheldon mine, about a mile southwest of Walker, is esti­mated
to have produced about $200,000 prior to 1922. The vein,
which is in the southwestern portion of the granodiorite area,
strikes N. 30° E., dips from 70° to 80° SE., and is traceable for
more than half a mile on the surface. Prior to 1922, it had been
opened by a 650-foot vertical shaft with several hundred feet of
drifts on the 250, 450, and 650-foot levels, and oxidized ore had
been stoped in places between the 200-foot level and the surface.
In 1922, the mine made about 185 gallons of water per hour. A
20D-ton concentration flotation plant was built in 1924 and several
thousand tons of copper-lead ore, carrying some gold and silver,
was treated in 1925, 1926, 1929, and 1930. During this period, the
shaft was deepened to 1,280 feet and several thousand feet of
development work was done.
The vein pinches and swells but averages 4 or 5 feet in thick­ness.
Its principal ore shoot apparently pitches 60�� northward
and is reported to be 16 feet wide by 700 feet long on the 650-foot
level. The vein minerals are milky-white, vuggy quartz and some
calcite, with more or less pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena,
and tetrahedrite. Some supergene copper minerals are present in
the oxidized zone. The quartzose ore is stated to contain an
ounce or more of gold per ton, but the sericitic and pyritic gran­ite
is only about one-tenth as rich. The ore mined in 1923 was
reported to average about 2.76 per cent of copper, 3.5 per cent of
lead, $5 in gold, and 8.5 ounces of silver per ton. In 1931, the out­put
amounted to about $18,000 in gold, 78,400 ounces of silver,
908,377 pounds of copper, and 36,693 pounds of lead, in all worth
about $170,000.
25 Abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, pp. 109-10.
2£ Abstracted largely from Lindgren, W., work cited, pp. 110-12.
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ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 35
MUDHOLE MINE27
The Mudhole mine, a short distance southwest of Walker, was
worked to some extent prior to 1897. Its production from 1897
to 1903 is reported to have been $480,000 in gold and silver. The
property has been practically idle since 1912.
This deposit, which appears to be mainly in dark magnetitic
hornfels, near the contact of the granodiorite stock, consists of
two parallel veins, each 6 to 8 feet wide. Workings include a
740-foot shaft, inclined at 47°, and a shaft and tunnel about 2,000
feet farther southwest. Bleached hornfels on the dump at this
tunnel shows seams which contain galena and sphalerite with
some chalcopyrite and pyrite. The ore is reported to have con­tained
from $7 to $15 in gold and silver.
BIGBUG DISTRICT28
The Bigbug district is on the northeastern slopes of the Brad­shaw
Mountains. It ranges in altitude from 7,000 feet, west of
Bigbug Mesa, to 4,500 feet, in Agua Fria Valley. The western
portion is timbered and fairly well watered, while the lower dis­sected
pediment or foothill belt is rather dry and brushy to open
country.
This area is made up of schist, intruded in places by diorite,
granodiorite, granite, and dikes of rhyolite-porphyry. The schist
is mainly of sedimentary origin, with many quartzitic beds, but
contains also some igneous members. It is intruded on the west
by the Mount Union belt of granite, and southwest of McCabe, by
a stock of granodiorite. These relations are shown on the geo­logic
map of the Bradshaw Mountains quadrangle, by T. A. Jag­gar
and C. Palache.2
!J Basalt flows of post-mineral age form
Bigbug Mesa where they rest upon a late Tertiary or early Qua­ternary
pediment. Elsewhere in the district, this pediment has
extensively dissected by post-basalt erosion.
Lindgren has classified the ore deposits, other than placers, as
(1) Pyritic copper deposits, such as the Blue Bell, Hack­Butternut,
and Boggs; (2) Pre-Cambrian quartz veins, such
old Mesa, near Poland; (3) The Iron King gold-silver re­pl~
lCem{mt deposit; (4) Later veins, probably connected geneti-with
rhyolite-porphyry dikes, mainly near Poland and Prov-
....... U.U.<Jl~ the early days, some of the Bigbug deposits yielded a
COllsideraJJle amount of gold and silver from the oxidized zone.
to 1931, inclusive, the production of the district, as
the U. S. Mineral Resources, amounts to approxi-
,VV'V,L'VV in copper, gold, silver, lead, and zinc. Nearly
amount was in gold of which about $30,000 came
~bstrl~ctl~d from Lindgren, W., work cited, p. 112.
~~b1i;r;E~dabstracted from Lindgren, W., U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 782.
.t' by U. S. Geol Survey in Folio 126 and Bulletin 782.
IRON KING MINE30
"A little more than a mile west of the Humboldt smelter, in the
open foothills, is the Iron King mine, now owned by the South­west
Metals Company, which also owns the Humboldt smelter.
To the officers of that company I am indebted for most of the
following information. The deposit, which carries gold and silver,
forms a replacement zone in the Yavapai schist, but it differs
from the normal copper deposits that are so numerous farther to
the south in the same schist. It was worked about 1906 and 1907.
The production in 1907 was 1,253 ounces of gold, 35,491 ounces of
silver, and 3,933 pounds of copper.
"The deposit is developed by two shafts 750 feet apart and 435
and 225 feet deep. Several thousand tons of pre averaging $8
a ton in gold and silver have been shipped to the neighboring
smelter. It is claimed that the ore in sight amounts to 20,000 tons
and that the deposit contains much low-grade siliceous material
averaging $1 or $2 in gold to the ton. The ore is reported to con­tain
from $6 to $8 in gold and 4 to 23 ounces in silver to the ton.
Some diamond drilling has been done; the cores in the ore body
contained $8 in gold and 9.60 ounces of silver to the ton, 32 per
cent of iron and 14 per cent of insoluble matter. Other parts of
the ore body contain as much as 70 per cent of insoluble con­stituents.
"The deposit forms a series of lenses in part overlapping, in
highly silicified schist, which strikes N. 21 0 E. and dips 750 W.
These lenses are 150 to 500 feet long and 5 to 10 feet wide. The
whole mineralized zone is 75 feet wide.
"The water level was found at a depth of 140 feet, and near
this level in one ore body there was some enriched copper ore
containing 4 to 5 per cent of copper.
"The ore is a steel-gray flinty schist containing a crushed quartz
mosaic of coarser and finer grain intergrown with some dolomitic
carbonate and abundant prisms of bluish-gray tourmaline. The
sulphides are disposed in streaks and consist of fine-grained ar­senopyrite,
pyrite, light-colored sphalerite, and a little chalco­pyrite
and galena."
McCABE-GLADSTONE MINE31
The McCabe-Gladstone property of eight claims is a short dis­tance
south of McCabe, on Galena Gulch.
During the early seventies, this deposit yielded considerable
amounts of rich oxidized ore. The property then remained prac­tically
idle for many years. It was worked continuously from
1898 to 1913 by the Ideal Leasing Company, with a reported pro­duction
of $2,500,000 to $3,000,000. The mine was again idle from
1913-1933 but early in 1934 was reopened and unwatered by H.
30 Quoted from Lindgren, W., work cited, pp. 127-28.
31 Largely abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, PP. 130-32.
36 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
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ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 37
Fields and associates. In June, 1934, mine ore, mixed with
old gob and dump material, was being treated in a 200-ton flota­tion
mill.
The mine is developed by two shafts, 800 feet apart and 900 to
1,100 feet deep, together with several miles of workings. A longi­tudinal
section of the mine is given in U. S. Geol. Survey Bulle­tin
782.
Here, amphibolitic schist is intruded by dikes of rhyolite­porphyry
and, a short distance farther southwest, by a stock of
quartz diorite.
The vein strikes N. 54° E. and dips 79° SE., but, between the
two shafts, a 20-foot dike of rhyolite-porphyry apparently de­flects
the strike southward. The vein averages about 3112 feet
wide. Stoping has followed five ore shoots, each 200 to 500 feet
long. At least two of them appear to extend to the I,100-foot
level. They pitch steeply westward and average somewhat less
than a foot in thickness.
The ore consists of quartz together with considerable amounts of
pyrite and arsenopyrite and a little sphalerite, galena, and chal­copyrite.
The following analysis of the shipping ore and the
concentrates is given: Silica, 31.4 per cent; copper, 2.0 per cent;
lead, 2.1 per cent; zinc, 4.7 per cent; iron, 24.6 per cent; arsenic,
3.9 per cent; antimony, 1.0 per cent; sulphur, 20.4 per cent; gold,
1.6 ounces per ton; silver, 10.2 ounces per ton.
UNION MINE32
The Union mine is about 1% miles southwest of McCabe, in the
upper part of Chaparral Gulch, at an elevation of approximately
5,000 feet.
This deposit, which became known in the late sixties, at one
time was consolidated with the Little Jessie. Except for a little
intermittent work and small production, the property has been
practically idle for many years. Early in 1934, the Union and
J essie mines were reported to be held by the Arizona Consolidated
Mining Company which was carrying on development work and
installing new milling machinery.
The workings include a 1,200-foot tunnel, with more than 1,000
feet of drifts on the vein, and a 200-foot shaft sunk from the tun­nel
level. The vein, which is a continuation of the Lelan vein,
strikes about N. 70 0 E., dips steeply southeastward, and is fol­lowed
by a later unmineralized basic dike. The ore consists of
massive glassy quartz, up to 10 feet thick, with irregularly dis­seminated
pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, and galena. Where
cut on the tunnel level and on the 77-foot level of the shaft, the
ore shoot is reported to be 250 feet long, with a pitch of about
300 SW. The lower limit of the ore is reported to be about half
an ounce in gold per ton. Except in the oxidized zone, which is
shallow, the gold does not occur free.
32 Largely abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, pp. 133-34.
38 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
LITTLE JESSIE MINE
The Little Jessie mine is about 1,700 feet south of the Union~
This deposit was discovered in 1867. From about 1890 to the
end of 1898, it was worked by J. S. Jones and lessees. Their mill
is reported to have produced about $750,000 worth of bullion and
concentrates, chiefly from the Little Jessie. From about 1909 to
1916, considerable development work was done and a little ore
was shipped, mainly by the Chaparral Mining Company. Early
in 1934, the Arizona Consolidated Mining Company was reported
to be carrying on development work and installing new mill
machinery at the Union-Jessie property.88
Lindgren states that, in 1922, the shaft was 659 feet deep, and
that much high-grade auriferous pyrite was encountered between
the 500- and 600-foot levels. He adds that the ore contains from
one-half to one ounce of gold per ton and very little silver.84
LELAN-DIVIDEND PROPERTY
The Lelan mine is on a ridge southwest of the Jessie.
This deposit was discovered during the sixties. Browne's re­port
for 1868 states that 60 tons of ore from the Dividend mine,
treated in the Big Bug (Henrietta) mill, yielded $20 per ton in
free gold.85 At that time however, it was not of commercial
grade. According to Lindgren, the Lelan and Dividend were
worked more or less from 1900 to 1914, and during part of that
time were equipped with a 10-stamp mill. He states that their
ore production prior to 1923 was probably at least 10,000 tons
which contained from a half to 3 ounces of gold per ton, to­gether
with a little silver, copper, and lead.80 In 1932 and 1933,
the property was operated by the Southern Exploration Com­pany
with a force of about twenty-five men. This company
erected a 100-ton flotation-concentration plant and produced con­centrates
during part of 1933. Operations were suspended at the
end of the year.
The vein, which is a continuation of the Union, strikes north­eastward
and dips steeply southeastward. It is opened by a 500­foot
shaft inclined at 80 0
, with development on five levels. Most
of the recent production is reported to have come from the fourth
level. The vein is rather lenticular and ranges up to several
feet in width. Its filling consists of massive, shiny white quartz
with irregular masses, seams, and disseminations of pyrite, chal­copyrite,
sphalerite, and galena. The gold occurs in the sulphides.
88 History compiled by J. B. Tenney.
34Work cited, pp. 132-33.
35 Brown, J. Ross, Mineral resources of the states and territories west
of the Rocky Mountains. 1868.
36 Work cited, p. 133.
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ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 39
HENRIETTA OR BIG BUG MINE
The Henrietta mine which, in the early days, was known as
the Big Bug, is about one-half mile north of Bigbug Creek and one
mile west of Poland siding.
Browne's report for 1868 states that, in 1866, the Big Bug mine
was some 50 feet deep and was producing ore from near the sur­face.
In 1871, according to Raymond, the Big Bug vein was not
being worked, but the Big Bug 10-stamp mill was treating gold
ores from the vicinity.H7 At that time, the combined costs of min­ing
and milling amounted to about $9 per ton.
The following data are largely abstracted from Lindgren's re­port:
In 1883 and 1884, the Big Bug property was the most
prominent one in the district. During this early period, the mine
made a large production 'mainly from the oxidized gold ores from
the upper levels. From 1915 to 1919, the mine was operated by the
Big Ledge Copper Company which did considerable development
below the old workings and produced gold-bearing copper ore.
The property was equipped with a 100-ton flotation mill. In 1923,
this company was reorganized as the Huron Copper Mining Com­pany.
Some shipments of copper ore containing gold were made
in 1926 and 1930.
A longitudinal section of the workings is shown in U. S. Geol.
Survey Bulletin 782. The old developments, which extended to
the sulphide zone, include a 500-foot shaft, on the ridge, with a
1,500-foot tunnel through the ridge, 220 feet below the collar, and
considerable stoping. Farther north, on the Gopher claim, the
vein has been opened to depths of a few hundred feet. The deep­er
work, which was done by the Big Ledge Copper Company, in­cluded
a 2,200-foot tunnel and a 600-foot winze with levels and
stopes extending a few hundred feet northward.
The vein, which occurs mainly in massive, fine-grained amphi­bolite
or diorite, strikes north, dips about 70° W., and is from 2 to
6 feet wide. Its gangue consists of massive quartz with some cal­cite..
About 60 per cent of the unoxidized ore consists of pyrite,
chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena. Ore from the lower levels
is reported to contain 3.2 per cent of copper and 14 per cent of
iron, together with 0.2 ounces of gold and 2.7 ounces of silver
per ton.
POLAND-WALKER TUNNEL38
Poland, at the northern foot of Bigbug Mesa, is accessible by
road from the Black Canyon Highway. The spur of the Santa
Fe Railway that formerly served this vicinity was dismantled a
few years ago. Near the southern portal, amphibolite is intruded
on the north by somewhat schistose granite, and on the west by a
75-foot dike of rhyolite-porphyry. The tunnel extends northward
37 Raymond, R. W., Statistics of mines and mining in the states and terri­tories
west of the Rocky Mountains. 1871.
38 Largely abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, p. 136.
89 Oral communication.
for 1,100 feet through a ridge of this granite. It exposed several
veins upon which considerable work has been done.
The Poland vein, which was cut 800 feet from the south portal,
strikes northeast and dips steeply northwest. Ore on the dump
shows druzy quartz with pyrite, sphalerite, and galena. Ac­cording
to local reports, the vein was opened by several thousand
feet of drifts and a 325-foot shaft ,below the tunnel level. From
1900 until about 1912, intermittent production was made with a
20-stamp mill. The 1907 yield was $130,465 in gold and 16,609
ounces of silver. The total output for this period is estimated at
$750,000, probably mostly in silver. According to the U. S. Mineral
Resources, the mine made a small production of gold ore in 1926,
1930, and 1931. Early in 1934, occasional shipments of gold-bear­ing
ore and concentrates were being made by F. Gibbs and as­sociates.
Prior to 1922, some production was made from the Occidental
vein which is reported to have been cut 500 feet from the north
portal of the tunnel and followed to a depth of 200 feet below
the tunnel level. This vein, which is said to be similar to the
Poland vein, carries gold, silver, and lead.
MONEY METALS MINE
The Money Metals mine, about 1Y4 miles west of the Poland
tunnel and Bigbug Mesa, is accessible by a road that branches
northeastward from the Senator Highway at a point about lfs
mile south of the Hassayampa bridge.
This deposit was located in 1897 by F. Reif who shipped some
ore from the upper levels and sold the property. After some
further development work, the mine remained idle until 1928
when it was reopened. Since 1933, it has been operated by the
Yavapai Gold and Silver Mining Company.
The country rock is gneissoid granite. A rhyolite-porphyry
dike about 60 feet wide follows the hanging wall of the vein, and,
a short distance farther west, a mass of diorite intrudes the
granite.
Workings on the property include a 300-foot shaft, inclined 68°
W., together with a total of approximately 1,400 feet of drifts on
three levels. When visited in February, 1934, water was kept
from the 200-foot level with a Cornish pump.
As exposed underground, the vein strikes N. 50° W. and dips
65° to 70° W. In places, it has been offset by transverse faults.
The vein filling consists of coarse-grained, grayish white quartz
with irregular masses, veinlets, and disseminations of galena,
sphalerite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite. The wall rock shows strong
sericitic alteration. According to J. K. Kilfeder,89 mine superin­tendent,
much of the vein contains about half an ounce of gold
per ton. On the 200-foot level, the ore shoot is about 175 feet long
by 2 to 5 feet wide.
-----------,,-,,-----_....__...._- ----------~~--_- ---"'."_.
40 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
..----------------------~--------~~----~--
42 Raymond, R. W., Statistics of mines and mining in the states and terri­tories
west of the Rocky Mountains, pp. 240-41. Washington, 1872.
48 Oral communication.
In 1871, Raymond said that "The Sterling mine has become
quite famous, as much on account of the richness of the sulphurets
it contains as from the repeated failures in working them. It was
discovered in 1866."42 He stated that an unsuccessful attempt
had been made to treat the ore with a 10-stamp mill equipped
with amalgamation plates, Hungerford concentrators, and chlor­ination
apparatus.
Prior to 1908, according to H. K. Grove, the Oro Flame, then
known as the Mescal claim, made a considerable production with
a 20-stamp mill.48
Since 1928, the Oro Flame-Sterling property has been worked
by H. K. Grove and associates, the Oro Flame Mining Company
and the Oro Grande Mining Company. The U. S. Mineral Re­sources
states that about 1,000 tons, shipped in 1929, contained
913.32 ounces of gold, 2,529 ounces of silver, and 12,676 pounds of
copper. More than 800 tons were shipped in 1930. According to
Mr. Grove, the total output from 1928 to 1933 amounted to eighty
cars of ore that averaged $25 per ton. Most of this ore came from
the Oro Flame workings. A 40-ton flotation and concentration
mill was completed early in 1934.
Topography and geology: In this vicinity, the deep, meander­ing
canyon system of Hassayampa Creek exposes schist, intruded
by large masses of diorite and granite and persistent dikes of
rhyolite-porphyry.
Veins: In the southern portion of the property, the Oro Flame
vein occurs within a fault zone that strikes N. 20° W., dips 76°
NE., and separates gneissic granite on the northeast from schist
with diorite on the southwest. On the southeastern side of Has­sayampa
Creek, the vein has been opened by a 320-foot inclined
shaft, an adit, and several hundred feet of drifts. Above the 220­foot
level, it has been largely stoped out for a length of 400 feet
by a width of 3% feet. The mine makes but little water. As
shown by these workings, the fault zone is from 3 to 6 feet wide,
and the ore occurs mainly as narrow vertical lenses, seams, and
bunches that trend northward, more or less diagonally from foot
wall to hanging wall. The best ore shoots seem to occur where
rather flat fractures intersect the footwall. The ore consists of
massive\grayish-white quartz with irregular masses, veinlets, and
disseminations of fine-grained galena and fine-grained, pale­yellowish
pyrite. The gold occurs mainly in the sulphides, par­ticularly
the galena. According to Mr. Grove, the ore carries
about 0.12 per cent of copper and 3 ounces of silver to each ounce
of gold. In the semi-oxidized zone, which in the shaft extends to
a depth of about 60 feet, some free gold, accompanied by hema­tite
and limonite, was present. The vein wall rocks show consid­erable
alteration to sericite and carbonate.
42 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 43
Near the new mill on the northwestern side of Hassayampa
Creek, the vein has been opened by the 110-foot Oro Grande shaft.
Some milling ore was stoped from near the surface.
About 150 feet east of the Oro Flame adit, a vein strikes about
N. 20° W., dips 80° SW., and outcrops near a persistent dike of
rhyolite-porphyry. Both this vein and the Oro Flame vein are
reported to be traceable northward across the property. At the
northern or Sterling end, their supposed continuation appears as
two veins that strike northeastward and dip steeply towards each
other. According to Mr. Grove, the western or Gold Bug vein
has been opened by a 410-foot shaft, inclined at 45°, with more
than 1,000 feet of drifts on the 300-foot level. Water now stands
at the 250-foot level. Mr. Grove states that the eastern or Ameri­can
Eagle vein has been opened by two surface tunnels, a little
stoping, and a drift from the 300-foot level of the Gold Bug work­ings.
The Sterling ore is massive white quartz with practically
no sulphides other than the pyrite and chalcopyrite. Raymond
described the Sterling (Gold Bug) outcrop and workings of 1870
as follows: "It occurs in greenstone and metamorphic slates,
parallel to which it strikes northeast, and dips with them to the
southeast. There are very large croppings of brown-streaked
quartz on the surface, which have yielded in the mill belonging
to the company from $15 to $20 per ton. The vein is opened by
an incline 118 feet deep. The largest body of ore was encoun­tered
from the surface to a depth of 53 feet, where the quartz was
16 feet wide and filled with iron and copper sulphurets, the
former largely predominating. This chimney continued of the
same size for 100 feet along the strike of the vein as far as ex­plored,
but in depth gave out below the 53-foot leveL" He states
that a 100-ton lot of this ore, of which about 10 per cent was sul­phides,
yielded $15 per ton in free gold and $6 per ton by chlor­ination.
44
RUTH MINE45
The Ruth deposit, on Indian Creek, % mile north of Hassa­yampa
Creek, is opened by a 300-foot shaft. It has yielded some
gold, but its later production, which was made in 1911-1913, 1916,
and 1926, has been chiefly lead, zinc, and silver ore and concen­trates.
This vein occurs in Bradshaw granite which, near the
walls, is schistose, soft, probably sericitized, and impregnated with
tourmaline and pyrite.
The vein dips steeply eastward. It consists of coarse-grained
milky quartz, with narrow seams of pyrite, ankerite, and tourma­line.
Pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, and sphalerite occur as irreg­ular
bunches and streaks in the quartz.
44 Work cited, p. 240.
45 Abstracted from Lindgren, work cited, p. 116.
JERSEY LILY MINE46
The Jersey Lily mine is 4 miles south of the Ruth, on a ridge
at an altitude of 6,000 feet. The production, which is said to
amount to $7,000 worth of gold, was made many years ago.
In this vicinity, the rocks are slaty and fissile to amphibolitic
schists. The vein, which is thick, consists of massive milky quartz
with small crystals and thin, irregular veinlets of pyrite. Al­though
rich in scattered spots, it is generally of low grade.
DAVIS-DUNKIRK MINE
The Davis-Dunkirk mines, held by Davis-Dunkirk Mines, Inc.,
is on the western slope of the Bradshaw Mountains, near the
head of Slate Creek. By road, the main camp, at the mill, is 14
miles from Prescott and 3 miles west of the Senator Highway.
As the elevation at the camp is about 6,400 feet and on part of the
road over 7,000 feet, communications in winter are sometimes
hampered by snow.
These veins were located in the sixties or early seventies of the
past century. Raymond, in 1874, stated that: "Seven and a half
tons of ore from the Davis mine near Prescott have been shipped
to San Francisco and yielded $618.75 or $88.50 per ton. This vein
is only opened by a few holes from 5 to 10 feet deep."47 Little
other historical data for the mine are available, but its produc­tion
prior to 192248 is said to have been about $200,000. In 1925,
the property was obtained by Davis-Dunkirk Mines, Inc., which
subsequently built a new camp and a 120-ton flotation mill. Reg­ular
operations, employing about twenty men, began in August,
1933, and yielded fifteen cars of concentrates up to January 10,
1934.
Here, the steep-sided canyon of Slate Creek exposes moderately
fissile pre-Cambrian schist, intruded by stocks and dikes of gran­odiorite
and diorite and a few dikes of rhyolite-porphyry. The
mine workings are mainly in schist which, a short distance
farther west, is intruded by a large stock of granodiorite and, on
the southeast, by diorite.
The Dunkirk vein occurs within a fault fissure that strikes
northeastward and dips nearly vertically southeastward. As seen
on the lowest adit level, its thickness ranges from a few inches to
about 3 feet. The filling is mainly coarse-grained grayish­white
quartz with abundant pyrite and chalcopyrite. In places,
coarsely crystalline pale-pinkish ankerite is the principal gangue.
Rather intense sericitization and silicification are apparent in the
wall rock. The richer gold and silver ore shoots, as indicated by
several old stopes above this adit, tend to be somewhat irregular
46 Abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, p. 117.
47 Raymond, R. W., Statistics of mines and mining in the states and terri­tories
west of the Rocky Mountains, p. 347. Washington, 1874.
46 Lindgren, W., work cited, p. 119.
44 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
TILLIE STARBUCK MINE
45
----------_._~~. - ..__.
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING
The Tillie Starbuck mine, held by H. L. Williams and asso­ciates,
is near the head of Slate Creek Canyon, less than a mile
east of the Davis-Dunkirk mill. This property was formerly
owned by Major A. J. Pickrell who developed it with a few
thousand feet of tunnels, winzes, and raises.
Lindgren51 gives the following description: "The country rock
is Yavapai schist intruded by dikes of light-colored rhyolite­porphyry.
The foot-wall is said to be followed by a dike of
rhyolite-porphyry 10 feet wide. The strike of the vein is N. 10"
W., the dip 80° E., and the width 2 to 17 feet. The outcrop is per­sistent
on the high ridge to the south, wheI1e the ore is largely
oxidized. There are three ore shoots with backs of about 700 feet
above the lowest tunnel level. This lowest tunnel is first a cross­cut
southeast to the vein for 640 feet and continues on the vein
for 1,000 feet. It is claimed that 100,000 tons of $10 ore have been
developed in the vein.
"The ore, which is mainly quartzose, contains from $10 to $17
to the ton, of which two-fifths is gold and three-fifths silver.52
The ore carries free gold and pans colors. The quartz is rather
fine grained, is milky with many small druses, and includes num­erous
sericitized rock fragments . .. The ore minerals are sparse
pyrite and sphalerite in small grains and in places specks of
pyrargyrite, which appears to be of hypogene origin."
49 Oral communication.
60 Work cited, p. 119.
51 Work cited, pp. 119-20.
5<Probably from 0.2 to 0.3 ounces of gold and 6 to 11 ounces of silver
'per ton.
in form and distribution. The silver content is asserted to be de­creasing
with depth. At a point approximately 1,400 feet in from
portal, the vein separates into two branches about 45° apart.
In January, 1934, ore was being mined from workings at the bot­tom
of a 100-foot winze sunk at this point. According to H. L.
Williams,49 manager of the property, the mill concentrates from
this ore averaged about one ounce in gold and 62 ounces in silver
per ton.
The left branch of the vein continues northeastward, towards
old Davis mine. Ore from the upper levels of this mine was
described by Lindgren50 as consisting of fine-grained, druzy quartz
with sparse pyrite and yellow sphalerite, with abundant grains
proustite and polybasite. He regarded this vein as of the shal­low-
seated type, but the Dunkirk vein belongs distinctly to the
mesothermal type.
Workings on the Davis-Dunkirk property consist of more than
feet of adits, raises, stopes, and winzes, distributed over
four claim-lengths and with a vertical range of 1,600 feet.
When visited in January, 1934, the present owners were ex­tending
an adit tunnel that had been driven for 1,400 feet by
Major Pickrell and was designed to intersect the vein at a depth
of 300 feet below the deepest winze.
SENATOR MINE
The Senator mine, near the head of Hassayampa Creek, is ac­cessible
from Prescott by the Senator Highway. This deposit was
opened by a short tunnel prior to 187153 and was worked mainly
from 1883 to 1899. It has been held by the Phelps Dodge Cor­poration
since 1889. Intermittent operations by lessees have
yielded several cars of low-grade ore containing copper, gold, and
silver.
Lindgren54 has described the deposit as follows: "It is princi­pally
a gold property consisting of several parallel veins striking
north-northeast. Among them are the Senator vein, carrying lead­zinc
ores only and containing mostly gold with some silver; the
Ten Spot vein, which carries mainly pyrite; the Tredwell vein,
carrying heavy pyrite with specularite and gold; and the Snoozer
vein, carrying copper ores with specularite. The shipping ore
yielded $30 in gold and silver to the ton. There is a small mill
on the property in which the ore from the Senator shoot was
worked. The total production is said to be about $530,00a ;net,
almost all of which came from the Senator ore shoot. Of this
about $330,000 was extracted since 1890.
"Most of the veins crop out near the loop in the wagon road,
which here ascends the Mount Union pass, at an altitude of about
7,000 feet. The Senator veins cut across the road a short dis­tance
below the Mount Union pass (altitude 7,188 feet) and also
crop out on the ridge a short distance to the west. Here the
main shaft was sunk 635 feet deep to the tunnel level (altitude
about 6,500 feet). Below this tunnel, which extends eastward
to the Cash mine, the shaft is continued for 200 feet, giving a
total depth of 835 feet.
"The geology is complicated. There are lenses of diorite, am­phibolite,
and Yavapai conglomeratic schist, all travel·sed by
dikes of rhyolite-porphyry. One dike of this kind, about 40 feet
wide, cuts the Yavapai schist along the road a short distance be­low
the Mount Union pass. A vein striking N. 40° E. from which
a shipment was recently made crosses neat the same place. It is
probably the Ten Spot vein. The ore here, as exposed in a tun­nel
of quartzose ore, carries pyrite, chalcopyrite, and specularite.
"According to information kindly given by J. S. Douglas,
who operated the mine between 1891 and 1893 and from 1896 to
1899, there was only one profitable ore shoot in the Senator prop­erties,
that of the Senator vein. This shoot starts just to the
west of the old Senator shaft on top of the hill and pitches south-
53 Raymond, R. W., work cited.
54 Work cited, PP. 120-21.
46 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
......._-- -----------------------~---~-=--=-~~~-=-===~~.,55 Lindgren, W., work cited, pp. 121-22.
56 U. S. Geol. Survey Geol. Atlas, Bradshaw Mountains folio (No. 126).
1905.
ward until on the tunnel level, 600 feet below the collar of. the
shaft, the center of the shoot is 450 feet south of the shaft. The
l'hoot had a stope length of 250 feet and averaged 18 inches in
width. The Senator shoot carried milling ore with free gold as­sociated
with quartz, pyrite, galena, and zinc blende. Magne­tite
occurred in the vein only nortn of the shoot, where it crosses
Maple Gulch.
"The Ten Spot, Snoozer, and Tredwell veins contained low­grade
shipping ore with magnetite, specularite, chalcopyrite, and
gold, but in the Senator property, none of this material was ex­tracted
at a profit."
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 47
CASH MINE55
The Cash vein, about 1,000 feet east of the Senator outcrops, is
probably the extension of one of the Senator veins. Prior to
1883, it was opened by three shallow shafts. It was extensively
worked from 1900 to 1902 and has been reopened for short per­iods
at various times since. Lindgren says: "The mine is de­veloped
by a shaft 400 feet deep and has a 10-stamp mill with
plates and concentration. The value of the total production could
not be ascertained.
"Amphobolite schist crops out on the road between the Senator
veins and the Cash. The shaft dump shows Yavapai schist in­jected
with diorite. Dikes of normal rhyolite-porphyry about 10
feet wide crop out along the road to the mine. The vein strikes
N. 40° E. and dips 60° SE."
Jaggar and Palache56 describe the vein, which was being worked
in 1900, as follows:
"The ore body in this mine is in the form of a series of well­defined
lenses that have a maximum thickness of 2112 feet and
occur in sericite schist which is in places black and graphitic.
The ore is rich in sulphides, chiefly galena, sphalerite, pyrite, and
chalcopyrite, contains some tetrahedrite in quartz, and is char­acterized
by comb and banded structure, the center of the vein
being generally open and lined with beautiful crystals of all
the vein minerals. A rich body of free gold ore was found in this
mine at a depth of 200 feet from the surface."
Lindgren continues: "The ore seen on the dumps in 1922 con­tains
predominating quartz with some calcite and more or less
pyrite, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite. Some of the sphalerite is
coated with covellite. On the main ore dump was noted banded
ore of magnetite and pyrite like that in parts of the Senator mine.
"Although the underground workings could not be visited, it
seems clear that there are here two different kinds of veins, one
of which contains magnetite, specularite, and adularia, in addition
to pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena, the. place of the
iron oxides in the succession being between pyrite and chalco­pyrite.
.. Ore of a second type carries apparently only chalco­pyrite,
galena, and sphalerite."
BIG PINE MINE
The Big Pine mine is about a mile west of the Senator, on the
south side of Hassayampa Creek. Lindgren states that it "has
four tunnels between altitudes of 7,000 and 7,400 feet and a 200­foot
shaft with drifts 200 and 350 feet long. There is a cyanide
plant on the property, which apparently has had little produc­tion.
C. H. Dunning states that the vein occupies a fracture
in quartz diorite and contains quartz and pyrite. The oxidation
is said to be deep, and the ore shoots long and irregular. The
vein strikes N. 35° W. and dips 70° NW. The ore is reported to
contain $9 to the ton in gold and silver, about half of each by
value."
"TRAPSHOOTER" REILLY PROPERTY
The holdings of "Trapshooter" Reilly Gold Mines include the
old Crook, Venezia, Starlight, and Mount Union mines, in Crooks
Canyon. These mines are in the vicinity of Venezia post office,
which, via the Senator Highway, is 15 miles from Prescott.
During the early days, these mines were rather extensively
worked in the oxidized zone, which was generally from 40 to less
than 200 feet deep. Later, sulphide ores were mined and treated
in a 20-stamp amalgamation-concentration mill at Venezia and in
the Mount Union mill. Much of this work was done by the late
J. B. Tomlinson and lessees. From 1927 to about 1932, the prop­erty
was held by the Westerner Gold-Lead Mining Company
which, according to the U. S. Mineral Resources of 1'930, milled
about 100 tons of gold ore and shipped one car of lead-zinc ore.
Since about 1932, the property has been held by "Trapshooter"
Reilly Gold Mines. This company shipped some bullion and
concentrates, but suspended operations in September, 1933.
The total combined production of these mines probably does
not exceed $500,000.57
This area is composed of ridges and canyons with altitudes of
6,200 to 7,400 feet. It lies in the granite belt that extends south­ward
through Mount Union and contains many dikes of rhyo­litic
to basic composition.
Starlight group: Lindgren58 gives the following description:
"The three claims of the Starlight group lie about half a mile
north of Venezia, at an altitude of about 6,600 feet. They were
formerly owned by an English company . .. The developments
consist of three short tunnels with a vertical interval of 200 feet.
In the upper tunnel the vein strikes N. 30° E. and dips 60° W.
57 Lindgren, W., work cited, pp. 123-25.
58 Work cited, pp. 123-24.
48 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
59 Mainly abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, pp. 124-25.
"The upper tunnel runs along the vein for 300 feet. The vein
is 4 or 5 feet wide and carries several 6-inch streaks of heavy
galena and zinc blende. These solid streaks are said to yield
high assays in gold and silver. Some ore has been packed up to
the Mount Union mill for treatment. There is said to be a shoot
270 feet in length along the tunnel.
"The gangue is quartz-filling with an indication of comb struc��ture.
In part the vein has been reopened and brecciated. Other
gangue minerals are ankerite and fine-grained fluorite. Pyrite
with coarse-grained black sphalerite and more or less galena
make up the ore minerals. A dike of rhyolite-porphyry of nor­mal
appearance shows in some places along the vein. Some of
the breccia is cemented by galena and sphalerite."
According to local reports, the present company milled about
150 tons of ore from this group.
Crook vein:59 The Crook vein outcrops at an altitude of about
7,000 feet, a short distance northeast of the Venezia road. It is
very persistent and is reported to be traceable in a S. 100 E.
direction for more than a mile.
During the early days, according to local people, its oxidized
zone was worked by open cuts, mainly with arrastres, to depths
of generally less than 40 feet, over a length of approximately
4,700 feet. The mine was operated shortly prior to 1902 by the
Pan American Mining Company, and in a small way by lessees for
some time afterwards. Attempts to work the lower levels of the
vein were not generally successful. In 1933, the present company
mined some ore from here and started an adit tunnel on the sup­posed
extension at Venezia. The total production is estimated at
$250,000.
The vein strikes N. 100 W. and dips 75 0 W. It occurs in gneiss­oid
granite and follows, on the hanging wall, a persistent 15­foot
dike of dark-green rock. It has been opened by a long tun­nel,
160 feet below the outcrop, and by a 100-foot shaft. As seen
in the tunnel, the vein ranges in width from a narrow stringer to
about 4 feet, and averages about 11/2 feet. Its longest ore shoot
is said to have been 60 feet long by 20 inches wide. The vein
filling consists of coarse-grained grayish-white quartz with some
ankerite and abundant pyrite, galena, and black sphalerite.
Ore from a 100-foot shaft nea.r the main tunnel contained quartz
veins 4 to 6 inches wide with sulphides partly altered to chalco­cite.
The country rock here is partly sericitized quartzose schist.
At Venezia, a tunnel has recently been run northward for
about 200 feet on the supposed extension of the Crook vein. It
shows a few stringers of white quartz with some ankerite and
pyrite.
A short distance below Venezia, the vein was opened by a 200­foot
shaft, but the enterprise apparently was unsuccessful. About
---------------------
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 49
a half mile farther south, some rich ore was mined from a short
tunnel where the vein is about 2 feet wide.
Mount Union mine:60 The Mount Union mine, a quarter mile
southwest of the summit of Mount Union, at an altitude of 7,400
feet, is accessible by a road that branches eastward at the divide.
In 1906, this mine yielded lead ore with gold and silver. A small
Huntington mill was operated for a short time, but the total pro­duction
of the mine was not large.
Here, the rock is Bradshaw granite, cut by many dikes of
rhyolite-porphyry. Two veins are reported to occur on the prop­erty,
one of them from 6 to 10 feet wide, but they do not show
well at the surface. Material on the dump shows pyrite, galena,
and sphalerite in quartz. According to local reports, the ore was
of low grade and the. gold difficult to amalgamate.
GOLDEN EAGLE MINES
The Golden Eagle property of eight claims, held by C. M. Zan­der
and R. M. Hansen, is on a branch of Slate Creek, in the west­ern
portion of the Bradshaw Mountains. By road, it is 5 miles
from the Senator Highway and from Prescott.
Part of this ground was located in 1880. Developments consist
of about 2,000 feet of tunnels and two 100-foot shafts. Surface
equipment includes a power plant and a 25-ton concentrator,
equipped with a ball mill, amalgamation plates, and a table. The
U. S. Mineral Resources state that a small production was made
by the property in 1925 and 1926.
Here, the rock is Yavapai schist, intruded on the east by a mass
of diorite. As most of the surface is covered by dense brush, sur­face
exposures are poor. Work has been done on several veins
which generally strike northeastward and dip nearly vertically
SE. They typically consist of small lenses and scattered bunches
of grayish-white quartz in shear zones. In places, the quartz
contains small irregular masses and disseminations of pyrite and
chalcopyrite. The gold occurs both in the sulphides, particularly
the chalcopyrite, and in fractures in the quartz.
TURKEY CREEK DISTRICT
The Turkey Creek district is in the vicinity of upper Turkey
Creek, south of Bigbug Mesa. This region is made up mainly of
Yavapai schist of sedimentary origin, intruded on the east and
west by Bradshaw granite and on the south by the monzonite­porphyry
stock of Battle Flat.
During the early days, this district was a notable producer of
silver and gold. Since 1906, it has yielded a few thousand tons
of ore that contained lead, silver, gold, and copper.
One gold-quartz mine, the Cumberland, is described by Lind­gren61
as follows:
60 Abstracted from Lindgren, W., work cited, p. 125.
61 Lindgren, W., Ore deposits of the Jerome and Bradshaw Mountains
quadrangles, Arizona: U. S. Geo!. Survey Bull. 782, p. 150. 1926.
50 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
ARIZONA LODE GOLD MINES AND MINING 51
"The Cumberland mine is one mile north of Pine Flat and was
last in operation about 1908. According to information obtained
from T. Roach, of Pine Flat, this is a gold quartz vein striking a
little ,east of north and dipping west. The shaft is 350 feet deep
and there are short drifts. The shoot on the north is said to have
continued to the lowest workings; it contains ore of $40 grade,
which was treated in a 10-stamp mill at Pine Flat. The gold is
reported as free and visible in places. The water level was found
at a depth of 90 feet.
"It is probable that here, as in many other places, the condi­tions
became unfavorable when the workings reached the sul­phide
ore below water level. There is said to be placer ground
in the vicinity of the Cumberland mine."
BLACK CANYON DISTRICT
The Black Canyon district comprises an area about 18 miles
long by 8 miles wide that extends, between the eastern foot of
the Bradshaw Mountains and the Agua Fria River, from the
vicinity of Cordes on the north to the Maricopa County boundary
on the south.
Here, a northward-trending belt of sedimentary Yavapai schist,
about 2 miles wide, is intruded on the east and west by Bradshaw
granite and on the east by a northward-trending strip of diorite.
These formations floor a former valley and hilly pediment that is
covered on the east by volcanic rocks and has been deeply dis­sected
by the southward-flowing, meandering drainage system of
Black Canyon. The elevation of the district ranges from 2,000
to 4,000 feet above sea level.
Lindgren62 groups the gold-bearing veins of the Black Canyon
district into two classes: (1) Pre-Cambrian quartz veins, mainly
in the vicinity of Bumblebee and Bland Hill; and (2) quartz veins
which dip at low angles and appear to be genetically connected
with younger dikes of rhyolite-porphyry.
According to figures compiled by V. C. Heikes, of the U. S.
Geological Survey, the Black Canyon district from 1904 to 1924,
inclusive, produced $131,848 worth of gold, silver, lead, and cop­per.
Of this amount $71,132 was gold of which a small percentage
came from placers.
The pre-Cambrian veins, according to Lindgren, are of glassy
quartz with free gold and some sulphides. They have furnished
most of the gold for the placers of the district. He mentions the
Cleator property, at Turkey Creek, and the Nigger Brown,
Blanchiana, and Gillespie mines, south of Bumblebee, as having
been worked in a small way.
GOLDEN TURKEY MINE
The Golden Turkey mine, held by H. C. Mitchell and associates,
is on the west side of Turkey Creek, near the eastern foot of the
1)2 Work cited, p. 153.
52 ARIZONA BUREAU OF MINES
GOLDEN BELT MINE64
63 Oral communication.
64, In part abstracted from Minton, D. C., Cost of equipping and develop­ing
a small gold mine in the Bradshaw Mountains quadrangle, Yava­pai
County, Arizona: U. S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular
6735. 1933.
65 U. S. Bureau of Mines Mineral Resources for 1931, Part I, p. 410.
The Golden Belt mine, held by the Golden Belt Mines, Inc., is
a few hundred feet north of the Golden Turkey. Its original lo­cation
is reported to have been made in 1873 by George Zika. Pro­duction
prior to 1916, according to the local press, amounted to
several hundred tons of ore of which part was shipped and part
was milled. The present operators obtained this ground in 1931
prior to which time a small mill had been built and a little devel­opment
work done. Subsequently, the mill has been rehabilitated
and operated. In 1931, 134 tons of concentrates from 1,345 tons
of ore were produced, and 107 tons of smelting ore were shipped.65
Bradshaw Mountains, at an elevation of about 3,000 feet. Via the
Black Canyon Highway, the property is about 15 miles from
Mayer, the nearest railway shipping point.
Some years ago, a 100-foot shaft was sunk on the property, but
no production was made until 1933 when the workings were ex­tended,
and more than 4,000 tons of ore were run through the
Golden Belt mill. The monthly yield was approximately two
cars of concentrates containing gold and silver together with
some zinc and a little copper. Several shipments of smelting ore
also were made.
Here, pre-Cambrian schist strikes northward and dips almost
vertically. The vein, which strikes northeastward and ranges in
dip from 30° to less than 10° SE., occupies a fissure zone that is
probably due to thrust faulting. As exposed, the vein ranges
from a few inches to more than a foot in width and in places
forms a branching lode several feet wide. The vein filling con­sists
of very coarsely crystalline, milky to clear, glassy quartz
together with rather abundant irregular masses and dissemina­tions
of pyrite, galena, and sphalerite. In places, a little chalco­pyrite
is present. The gold accompanies the sulphides, particu­larly
the pyrite. The vein walls show rather intense sericitiza­tion
and silification and in places contain disseminated meta­crysts
of practically barren pyrite.
When visited in January, 1934, developments consisted of a
500-foot inclined shaft and approximately 2,000 feet of workings.
Most of the ore mined has come from below the 350-foot level,
particularly where the vein flattens in dip. According to Mr.
Mitchell,63 the oxidized zone extended to a depth of approximate­ly
250 feet on the incline.
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