I listed this area first because of the historical significance to it! It was the first known and recorded placer gold district in California (long before the Gold Rush.) In the late 1700’s The Spanish first mined it and then Mexican miners and later on (such as during the Great Depression up until now) it was mined intermittently. This area absolutely fascinates me because of the fact it was the oldest known gold mining region and it’s a beautiful and interesting area. I’ve been trying to get out here for years but it’s so far from where I live (5 hours) and so I was finally able to get out here a few times - I found some good gold while there! I don’t recommend this area during the summer - way too hot and dangerous if not prepared for the heat! The old Potholes Cemetery used to be nearer to the area but was moved to another location (One mile north of Bard). You can visit the old cemetery and take some photos while there. They moved the cemetery because they diverted part of the Colorado River (to split off to the American Canal) - I read somewhere that workers found nuggets in the dirt as they dug to make the channel!!! Wow!!! Cool! This area is worked by Drywashing and there are a couple of prospecting clubs to join if you want. One in particular that I belong to is called the SPMA (Based in the San Diego area)

Background Information:

This district is in the southeast corner of Imperial County about 50 miles east of El Centro and 10 miles northeast of Yuma, Arizona; near the Colorado River and west of the Laguna Dam. Nearly all of the gold produced here has come from dry desert placer deposits. The value of the total output is estimated at $2 million. The district was so named because the gold was found in small depressions or pots.The discovery of rich placer gold ground by the Spanish along the Colorado River not far from from modern-day Winterhaven, California was one of the first (if not the first) gold discoveries in the entire Golden State.

Small-scale mining began here in 1775-80, when California was under Spanish rule, and continued into the early 1800s when the state was under Mexican rule. The most productive period, apparently from the 1860s to the early 1890s, saw as many as 500 Mexicans and Indians working the dry washes. Winnowing was with blankets, and, later, hand-operated bellows-type dry washers were employed. Nearly all of these were one or two-man operations. When a deposit was worked out the miners would move on to another one, usually in the same district. These operations had mostly ceased by 1900, as the deposits were largely exhausted. Later, several attempts were made here and in the Cargo Muchacho and Chocolate Mountain districts to the west to work the dry placers by large-scale methods. All of these attempts failed because of high equipment and operating costs, erratic distribution of gold values, rough terrain, and scant moisture, which even in desert placers, makes it difficult to separate the heavy and light particles. Also, much of the easily recoverable gold had already been removed from these deposits.

Bibliography

Crawford, J. J., 1894, Pot Holes Mines: California Min. Bur. Rept. 12, p.242.

Haley, C. S., 1923, Dry placers-Gold placers of California: California Min. Bur. Bull. 92, pp. 154-160.

W. B. Tucker, 1926, Imperial County, Potholes placer: California Min. Bur. Rept. 22, p. 261.

The Chocolate Mountains of southeastern California have a venerable mining history. Spanish prospectors discovered gold in these mountains way back in 1780. At the southern end of the range, the Spaniards discovered placer gold trapped in small pockets and cavities in the bedrock. The "Potholes", as the area came to be called, were worked by Mexican miners and then by Americans during the 1860's. Further north, near Picacho Peak, Spanish prospectors also discovered placer gold. The placer deposits that made the Picacho Basin famous were located in the washes and arroyos that drain the Chocolate Mountains and empty into the Colorado River. The Picacho gold deposits were rediscovered during the early 1860's by the famous Mexican prospector and mining man Jose Maria Mendivil. The placers have been worked sporadically ever since.

The Cargo Muchacho Mountains rise up from the desert floor only 10 miles west of the Chocolates.

They are an uplifted block of Mesozoic rocks, the majority of which are granites which have intruded slightly older metamorphic rocks. Spanish prospectors discovered gold in the Cargo Muchachos in 1780. Over 80 years later, American prospectors rediscovered the old Spanish workings and also made a few big strikes of their own. In 1884, the amazingly rich Gold Rock veins were discovered by a railroad worker named Pete Walters. That first year, the rich ores assayed out at $150 per ton, but by 1897, the tenor of the ores had decreased to $3 per ton. Fortunately, the Cargo Muchachos were rejuvenated in 1897 by the discovery of the American Girl lode in the central part of the range. This new discovery fueled the local economy for a number of years, but by 1906 the vein had played out and the Cargo Muchachos slowly faded into obscurity.

SOUTHEASTERN CHOCOLATE MOUNTAINS AREA

Located 8 miles northeast of the Cargo Muchacho District, the Southeastern Chocolate Mountains area was primarily a gold district, although silver, lead, and copper were also found and mined here. Placer gold deposits had been worked here in this area long before the United States acquired the territory. 18

The Chocolate Mountains hold gold and silver values in narrow quartz veins with some high grade pockets. Placer gold deposits occur along the mountain's western and southern flanks. The loose gold would concentrate itself into bedrock depressions giving part of this geographic area the nickname “Potholes.” The area is located in the north half of section 25, Township 15 South, Range 23 East, San Bernardino Meridian, of the Bard 7 1/2 - minute quadrangle. This area is where the Spanish settlers mined gold for the first time in recorded California history, and lies one-quarter mile west of present day Laguna Dam and adjacent to and underlying the All American Canal. 19

The Potholes district had a reported total production of $2,000,000, taken out over a period of many years by a multitude of men (upwards of 400) working independently. The miners usually operated in one or two man groups. They moved from gully to gully like nomads as old areas would cease to pan out and new ones were sought. The district, at gold prices of less than $35 an ounce, became uneconomical by 1900. Large-scale hydraulic operations were attempted in this area and in the Picacho Basin, using the Colorado River as a water supply, during the 1890s without success. In 1942, evidence of old Mexican workings and arrastres were abundant in the area. 20

Duncan, Trio and Senator mines

The Three C's or Duncan Mine, probably the source of the Potholes District gold, was one of the many mines in the Southeastern Chocolate Mountains area to be located close to the Colorado River. Owned by a R. J. Duncan of Yuma, the mine in the late 1800s consisted of a 150-foot shaft. Today it has 300 feet of horizontal workings and a 300-foot shaft with 5 levels. 21

Located right next door, the Trio Mine operated during 1933 through 1935 by the Trio Mining Company. The All American canal flooded the mine workings in 1936. The Senator Mine, 1 mile northwest of the Imperial Reservoir, was located in June, 1877. It's peak period of production occurred from 1896 to 1900. Totaling the production from those years with it's production for 1935 shows 1,100 ounces of gold were recovered from its 3 to 8 foot wide quartz vein. 22

Picacho Mine

Perhaps the most famous mine in this area, and in all of Imperial County, is the Picacho Mine (also known as the Dewitt C. Jayne Mine). Dr. Jayne was a New York drug manufacturer and one of the first to invest in this mine. His investment may have been profitable, but the Picacho Mine was beset with problems and bad luck every decade of its active existence.

David Neahr began construction for the mine of a fifteen stamp mill overlooking the Colorado River in 1879. In 1882, 8,000 tons of ore were mined, yielding an average of $21 per ton. Although the mill was profitable, Neahr was forced into bankruptcy when a dishonest employee stole $7,000. At approximately the same time, Neahr was seriously injured by a runaway horse and died in 1898.23

The California Gold King Mining Company, with former Colorado Senator Stephen A. Dorsey as president, consolidated the Picacho mines and operated them until 1906, when the Picacho Basin Mining Company took over. In 1902, a huge 450 ton mill was in operation, and by 1904 it had 700 employees with a monthly payroll of $40,000. A narrow gauge train brought ore from the Picacho Mine to this mill, which was boasted as the largest cyanide plant in America. At this time the town of Picacho, which grew up and around the mill, consisted of some 2,500 souls. 24

In July, 1904, a belt in the mill broke loose due to overloading, and the flywheel disintegrated, showering pieces through the roof and up to one-fourth of a mile down slope. Although workers repaired this damage quickly, construction of the Laguna Dam on the Colorado curtailed the hauling of ore concentrates by steamer to Yuma, and this, plus diminishing ore values, contributed to the final shutdown of the mill in September, 1910.25

In 1939, the Nipissing Mining Company of Canada hauled in a 200-ton mill from Tonopah, Nevada, in efforts to re-establish mining operations at Picacho, but World War II prevented the company from staging a comeback. Ruins of the mill, the machine shop of the 450-ton mill, and the boiler and tank are among the objects and buildings still standing. The total production estimate for the Picacho Mine is approximately $2,000,000.26

The townsite of Picacho is now partially covered by the Colorado River and is part of the Picacho State Recreation Area. To the east of the Picacho townsite lies White Gold Basin, named after the presence in that area of a gold with an abnormal amount of silver, causing it to appear white. Two mines, the Gilden Dream and the Mayflower, were both active in this area in the late l890s and early 1900s.27

South of the Picacho townsite but north of the Picacho Mine were two placer mines, the Georgia Placer and Crescent Placer mines. Both are in Little Picacho Wash and were located in 1891. Source of the placer gold is presumed to be from the Picacho Mine area. Copper was discovered in the early 1 900s in this same area. The Picacho Copper Mine is in a 100 by 1,600 foot mineralized zone. Although no recorded production is known to have taken place, the area is popular with rockhounders as malachite, azurite, black agate, chalcedony, and galena are found here and near Picacho Peak. 28

California Picacho Mine

Placer deposits in Little Picacho Wash, first worked in the late 1780's were ignored for more than a century until the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad to Yuma became a stimulus that led to a revival of interest in the area. In the 1890s the California Picacho Company consolidated title to these deposits, which were about 5 miles from the Picacho Mine referred to earlier. In 1893, a pumping plant was erected on the Colorado River and 5 miles of flumes were built by an English company, the Picacho Gold Mining Company. This group spent $240,000 before admitting the project was a failure in May, 1894.29

The stock promotion for this ill-fated venture was handled by Baron Grant, who had promoted the Emma Mine in Utah. A Liverpool soap manufacturer, R. W. Hudson, purchased most of the stock. The venture was labeled by a newspaper of the day as one of the most absurd engineering feats ever undertaken in the West”. The flumes leaked, and the pumps could not generate enough pressure to supply more than a trickle at the other end. By 1896, individual miners and prospectors were successfully mining the area by dry washing or hauling the gravel to the Colorado River by mule and were accomplishing through primitive methods what British technology could not. 30

PAYMASTER DISTRICT

Productive as early as 1867, the Paymaster District, located 16 miles northwest of the Picacho District, includes the area between Quartz Peak and Midway Well. The district is best known for it's silver and manganese production. Some copper at the Volunteer Group Mine was produced on a small scale throughout the 1920s. Chrysocolla, malachite, and azurite are found here. The Jet Black or Hodges Mine produced over 5,000 tons of manganese ore during World War I and II. 31

The Paymaster Mine, located in the central Chocolate Mountains, has been and continues to be the most productive silver and lead mine in the county. After its discovery in 1867, supplies and a fifteen-stamp mill were shipped from San Francisco by boat around Baja California and up the Colorado River to a point near the mouth of Arroyo Seco, 13 miles northeast of the mine. Production continued until 1880, when at the 400 foot level the richer ore ran out. Shortly thereafter, the mill was dismantled and moved to the Cargo Muchacho Mine.

In more modern times the Paymaster was reopened when the remaining ore was discovered to have 6.2 ounces of silver per ton. It was operated from 1919 to 1921. The tailings were cyanided in 1922 and 1923, and in 1938-1939 the Paymaster again saw a brief period of operation. Total production from the Paymaster Mine was about 170,000 ounces of silver recovered from 25,000 tons of ore. 32

Northeast of Glamis in the Paymaster District are a dozen or more gold lode and placer mines, all of shallow depth with little development. The oldest mine, the Mesquite Placers, date back to the 1880s, when 150 men were dry washing the area. This area most likely will become increasingly popular with the weekend prospector and the rockhound.