Auric Adventure

Summer in Arizona. Lots of sun, lots of heat... Wonderful.

As I explore my new digs I am enthralled with the local history. Rather than buy a coffee table book, I decide to check it out in person.

Miners explored these mountains, panning the washes and tunneling into the mountain sides. I have managed to dig up records from the 1800s until today and a bunch of the claims are in my GPS.

It is Sunday morning. I stop in Cave Creek and have breakfast in a saloon full of scruffy motorcycle people. Probably look a lot like the prospectors that founded this town.

My first stop is Three Fools Placer. This was probably the first gold strike in the area. As a placer it is just a bunch of gravel in a wash that happened to have some gold mixed in with it.

I find the wash, it is now someones back yard. I laugh. I wonder how often they see color as they dig to plant a new bush and assume it is fools gold. I also wonder who the three fools were that named the claim.

Not wanting to trespass I drive my little Honda Fit off the paved road up toward the Tonto National Forest. I park, take a bearing from my GPS and head up a hill. My first stop is the Phoenix Gold Mine. This is a big mine that was seriously mined in this century, but has been closed. I pass the mine and discover some of the original shafts that preceded the mine. A huge horizontal shaft heads into the mountain, much of the entrance is blocked by a recent cave in. Other shafts penetrate the area.

I traverse some canyons and cross Cottonwood Creek. Up the hill and I see the remains of the Cottonwood Creek Gold Mine claim marker. I peer down a deep vertical shaft, spooking a giant owl. The owl dives for the bottom of the shaft and turns into a side tunnel. I wonder how many animals fall into this open hole. I see tailing above and hike up the loose rocky hill. Beneath a desert palo verde tree is a horizontal shaft leading deep into the hill. (See photos)

I have my WalMart LED headlamp and the usual hiking tools including heavy gloves and a camp shovel. In I go.

The tunnel is full of desiccated cholla balls. These are balls of cactus quills. They quickly cover my hiking boots. I pass a small cave-in and head into the dark. The shaft is perhaps four feet wide and less than six tall. There is dried animal poop everywhere and the strong smell of a carnivore. I assume mountain lions have made this thier home. Nests on the walls house mice. There noses peek out at me as they try to see the source of the light. The walls are loose rock. If I bump them large pieces fall. This freaks me out a bit, as I'd rather not make this my permanent resting place.

I scurry out, covered in sweat. I had expected the mine to be cool, but this one was not.

Climbing up the hill I spot an unusual piece of quartz. It turns out it is an Apache arrowhead. Apaches hid here as they raided settlers in the mid 1800s.

Up the hill further I go. At the top of a nearby peak I find a big deep square shaft heading straight down. I peer over the edge, it looks bottomless. I drop a small stone... it takes three seconds to hear a thump.

Unlike the other shafts these walls are straight. Clearly a newer dig. This is the valcarce Claim registered to the Department of Energy (DOE). It was a thorite mine. Thorite is a mineral containing both thorium and uranium. All kinds of stuff in them thar hills.

All-in-all I found ten shafts this morning.

How do I take it to the next level? I'd like to find an Apache mine. The most famous legendary Apache mine in our area is the Lost Dutchman. Now we're talking an adventure!