Formation of Mining Districts
Gold Placers on Colorado - Eureka District -Castle Dome - La Paz - Weaver and Walker Diggings - Planet Mine- Antelope Peak - Lynx Creek - Big Bug - Vulture Mine- Castle Dome Mining District -Weaver Mining District - Pioneer Mining District - Yapapei Mining District - Walker Mining District- Quartz Mountain Mining District.
As we have heretofore seen, numerous attempts had been made by
citizens of what is now Arizona, and also citizens of New Mexico, to
organize the Territory of, Arizona, which attempts, up to the winter of
186263, did not seem to have been taken seriously by Congress, this
territory being considered practically worthless and the home of the
wildest set of Indians that ever cursed any portion of the continent,
and it is doubtful whether the Territory would have been organized had
it not been for the discovery of gold and silver within its boundaries.
The first discoveries, as we have seen, were made on the Gila about
twenty miles from the Colorado, where gold placers were opened in 1858
and caused some excitement, A traveler passing at that time said he saw
twenty dollars washed out of: eight shovels full of dirt; this in the
rudest manner by an unpracticed hand. The diggings were located in sand
hills from a half a mile to a mile from the river, and there being no
water at hand, dry washing was resorted to by the Indians and Mexicans,
who made from one to two dollars a day, and occasionally secured twenty
to thirty dollars.
About this time the Eureka District was located above what is now the
city of Yuma, where a vein of argentiferous galena carrying from twenty
to thirty per cent of silver with a small amount of gold, was
discovered. These lodes were in the mountain ranges from one to twenty
miles east from the river bank, and were reached by trails. A few of
them were taken up in 1862, and at that time were partially developed.
Castle Dome, fifty miles above Yuma City, so called from its being
located upon this isolated mountain resembling a dome, was laid out
about this time. The lodes were in the mountains fifteen to thirty miles
back from the river, but were not easy of access, and water was very
scarce. The ores were argentiferous galena in a vein stone of fluor
spar, and contained from thirty to forty ounces to the ton. For years
afterwards they were extensively worked and some of them proved quite
profitable.
The next district was that above the town of La Paz, and bore the same
name. It was first explored in the Colorado River gold excitement of
1862. Mr. A. McKey, a member of the Territorial Legislature from La Paz,
furnished to J. Ross Browne, the annexed account of the discovery of the
placers that caused the up building of La Paz, which became a place of
considerable importance and a favorite shipping point for goods for
Central Arizona, and, although I have heretofore alluded to these
diggings, yet it may not be out of place to insert at this point the
statement of Mr. McKey, which is as follows:
"Captain Pauline Weaver, and others, in the month of January, 1862, were
trapping on the Colorado River, and at times would stray off into the
mountains for the purpose of prospecting for gold. They had discovered
what was then named and is still called 'El Arollo de la Tenaja,' which
is about two miles north from El Campo Ferra, and about seven miles east
from La Paz. In this gulch they had discovered gold in small quantities,
and had taken out two or three dollars' worth, which Captain Weaver kept
in a goose-quill.
"Soon after this discovery Weaver visited Fort Yuma and exhibited what
gold he had. This evidence of the existence of a commodity so much
sought for in this country convinced others that gold might be found in
quantities by hunting for it. Don Jose M. Redondo having heard of; the
discovery, at once set out to visit the newly found 'El Dorado,' in
company with several others. He arrived a few days afterward at the camp
of Captain Weaver, who pointed out to him and his party the particular
gulch from which he had taken the gold. After a short examination of
this place the party set out in different directions to discover, if
possible, something which would pay to work, and the extent of the
placers. Within less than a mile from Weaver's camp, south, Redondo took
a pan of dirt to prospect, and when he had dry washed it, to the
astonishment of himself and the party with him, he found that he had one
'chispa' which weighed two ounces and one dollar, besides other small
pieces. Others of his party found good prospects, but none of the
company had come for anything more than to ascertain the truth or
falsity of the reported glad tidings and therefore were not prepared to
remain and work for want of the necessary provisions and tools, but were
compelled to return to La Laguna, a settlement some twenty miles above
Fort Yuma, on the Arizona side of the Colorado. After their arrival at
La Laguna, and report of what they had discovered, a party of forty
persons prepared to visit the new mines. After their arrival in the
placers, about the middle of February, 1862, discoveries were made
almost daily, until it was known that every gulch and ravine for twenty
miles east and south was rich with gold. Ferra Camp, Campo en Medio,
American Camp, Los Chollos, La Plomosa, and many other smaller places,
all had their rich diggings, but the discovery made by Juan Ferra, of
the Ferra Gulch, was, without doubt, the most valuable of any. Very soon
the knowledge of these discoveries spread to Sonora and California, and
people began to pour in from all points, and continued to come until
they probably numbered fifteen hundred. This population was maintained
to a greater or less extent until the spring of; 1864, when the apparent
exhaustion of the placers and the extreme high prices for provisions
caused large numbers to leave. The discovery of the Weaver and Walker
diggings in the year 1863, drew away many of the miners from these
placers.
"Of the yield of these placers, anything like an approximation to the
average daily amount of what was taken out per man would only be
guesswork. Hundreds of dollars per day to the man was common, and now
and again a thousand or more per day. Don Juan Ferra took one nugget
from his claim which weighed 4/7 ounces and six dollars. Another party
found a 'chispa' weighing 27 ounces, and another one of 26 ounces. Many
others found pieces of from one or two ounces up to 20, and yet it is
contended that the greater proportion of the larger nuggets were never
shown for fear of some evil spirits, who infested the mines at the time.
It is the opinion of those most conversant with the first working of:
these placers that much the greater proportion of the gold taken out was
in nuggets weighing from one dollar up to the size of the 'chispas'
above named. I have often heard it said of those days that 'not even a
Papago Indian would work for less than $10 per day.'
"As has been seen from the above, the gold was large and generally clear
of foreign substances. The largest piece (above mentioned) did not
contain an apparent atom of quartz or any other base matter. The gold
from the different camps varied a trifle in its worth at the mint in San
Francisco, and brought from $17.50 to $19.50 per ounce. But all that was
sold or taken out here went for from $16 to $17 per ounce. Since the
year 1864 until the present, there have been at various times many men
at work in these placers, numbering in the winter months hundreds, but
in the summer months not exceeding 75 or 100; and all seem to do
sufficiently well not to be willing to work for the wages of the
country, which are and have been for some time, from $30 to $65 per
month and found. No inconsiderable amount of gold comes in from these
placers now weekly, and only a few days ago I saw, myself, a nugget
which weighed $40, clear and pure from any foreign substances.
"Some parties have lately come into these diggings with what is called
concentrators or dry washers, which they have been working for a few
weeks, and in conversation with Mr. Finkler (an owner of one of these
machines) he told me that he could make $20 per day where he was at
work, and pay three dollars per day for his hands, and that he only
required four to work the machine. Should these machines prove a success
these placers will soon be peopled again with industrious, prosperous
miners. Of the total amount of gold taken from these mines, I am as much
at a loss to say what it has been as I was to name the average daily
wages of the first years, and as I might greatly differ from those who
were among the first in these mines, I do not feel justified in setting
up an opinion as against them; I shall, therefore, give the substance of
the several opinions which I have obtained from those who were the
pioneers of these placers. I have failed to find any one of them whose
opinion is that less than $1,000,000 were taken from these diggings
within the first year, and in all probability as much was taken out
within the following year."
In 1863 what was known as the Planet Mine was discovered by one Ryland,
who, in 1864, organized a company in San Francisco. This was a copper
mine, and the second copper mine discovered in the Territory. It was
worked from 1865 up to 1873, the selected ore being shipped to San
Francisco and there sold at a hundred dollars a ton. The mine was
located twelve miles from the Colorado, and within a mile from Bill
Williams' Fork.
It was not until 1862 and 1863 that an attempt was made to thoroughly
explore Central Arizona. Whipple and Beale, as we have seen, had crossed
on the 35th parallel. Aubrey and Leroux had seen something of the Verde
River and the northern tributaries of the Gila, but no one had attempted
more than a hurried trip through the country, although all believed it
rich in precious metals.
Late in 1862, or early in 1863, Pauline Weaver, who had crossed Arizona
by the Gila as early as 1832, being attracted by the placers at La Paz,
was induced to look for others in the interior of the country, and
started with a party of men for an exploration. They discovered what has
since been known as Weaver Diggings near Antelope Creek, and located the
town of Weaver some sixty miles south of Prescott. About this time the
Walker party of gold hunters arrived at the Pima Villages and determined
to explore the country north, from which the Indians brought fabulous
reports of great wealth. This part}^ discovered the Hassayampa, one of
the main streams of Central Arizona, having its rise about ten miles
southeast of the town of Prescott, and running south until it sinks in
the desert some twelve miles below the town of Wickenburg. Part of the
Walker party went to the Weaver Diggings, and there Swilling and others,
as we have seen, discovered the rich placers upon the top of Antelope
Peak, which, from the accounts, was literally covered with gold, nuggets
of unusual size being found. It is said that one man with his jackknife
took out four thousand dollars in a single day from these diggings, and
that there was taken from the small area of ground a million dollars in
gold.
The remainder of the Walker party gradually ascended the Hassayampa,
finding gold at almost every point, and in the winter of 1863, took
possession of the Lynx Creek and Walker Diggings, ten miles east from
Prescott, from which it was estimated that not less than half a million
of dollars was taken. They also gathered much gold on Big Bug, four
miles east of Lynx Creek, and when these placers were exhausted, the
prospectors turned their attention to quartz veins, and found there was
no lack of them all along the Hassayampa, and upon the Agua Fria, a
parallel stream of considerable size, and also upon Lynx Creek, Big Bug,
and Turkey Creek, and other creeks in Central Arizona, lodes of gold,
silver and copper were found. In the excitement, as is always the case,
a great many locations were made and recorded which had no value.
About this time Henry Wickenburg discovered and located what was
afterwards known as the Vulture Mine, a ledge of about forty feet wide,
having a chimney of ore five hundred feet in length, the ores of which
averaged about forty dollars a ton, and another chimney about six
hundred feet in length, of about the same width, the ores of which ran
about fifteen dollars a ton.
These chimneys were worked to a vertical depth of about a hundred and
seventy feet on the vein, and many millions of dollars were taken out.
The opening of these gold mines in Central Arizona, accounts of which,
no doubt greatly exaggerated as they were reproduced in San Francisco
and again in the East, were probably the incentive to Congress to
organize at once the Territory of Arizona. The country, at that time,
needed gold and silver to meet its war expenses, and our statesmen in
Washington, no doubt became convinced that Arizona was a country worthy
of reclamation and redemption from savagery.
The excitement attendant upon the discovery of these diggings drew into
the Territory a large immigration, sufficient, in a way, to protect
themselves from their Indian foes, which they had to do because the
military, with the exception of a small guard at Tucson and Fort Mohave,
was withdrawn from Arizona into New Mexico, and all the Indian tribes,
with the exception of the Papagoes, Pimas, Maricopas and Yumas, were
upon the warpath.
The following early locations and organizations of mining districts,
made in those early days, will be interesting to the general reader.
They are given without correction in grammar or spelling:
The foregoing mining districts were formed under the old California mining laws, which allowed miners to form their own mining districts, and designate the number of claims, and their size, which could be located. Claims on placers covered certain areas, and vein mines were located on the ledge vertically, in general not following dips, spurs and angles.
Notes About Book:
Source: History Of Arizona Volume 2, By Thomas Edwin Farish, 1915, Printed
and Published by Direction of the Second Legislature of the State of
Arizona, A. D.
Notes about Online Publication: This manuscript has been ocr'd and heavily
edited. Many of the Native American words have been reproduced as clearly as
online publication will allow us, but not all are exactly the way they were
in the original work. The structure of this manuscript has been changed to
allow better online presentation.
