THE OLD ‘COOLGARDIE CAMP’, (North of Barstow):
GoldMiners OutPost

Email: crazyforgold007@yahoo.com
Tel. (760)374-2102

This is another one of my favorite places to go to! I usually get good gold here and it’s fairly easy to dig (the gold is not too deep) It’s all claimed up though. (GPAA, VALLEY PROSPECTORS, OC 49 er;s, PCSC, etc) This district is not easy to find initially, because a person can get confused with all of the different dirt trails, but when I finally found my way in here some years ago I came upon the Valley Prospectors drywashing - and when I seen the good gold they got at the end of the day, they allowed me to drywash that day and I got good gold also. I became a member after that and have not regretted it, I have good memories in here. Later I found out that some GPPA members were getting some good gold also, so I tried those spots also. It’s really hard NOT to find gold in the area! There have been small nuggets found here but there’s not a history of really large (and abundant) nuggets. It’s mostly fines, flakes and pickers, but plentiful - you shouldn’t have problems finding at least SOME gold here! It’s awesome and serene being in the desert digging for gold (when it’s not too hot of course) - Its been said that the gold deposits got there by an ancient river, blah blah (don’t believe everything you hear - people just ‘parrot’ what other pinheads think)- but I don’t believe this to be true - First of all, much of the gold is chunky (hasn’t traveled very far), I also have found host material on a few of the pickers I got (that match the surrounding rock) - Secondly, once you’ve been there a few times and looked at GOOGLE EARTH, etc., it’s obvious the gold came from Mud Hills above and other worn down mountains around that location. People I know about have metal detected and found larger nuggets in Mud Hills. It’s not rocket science people - Bigger pieces in mountains (closer to the source) smaller pieces down the slopes (alluvial fans) -
I usually like to prospect in warm places when it’s cooler and prospect in cool areas (rivers and streams) in the summer time when it’s hot.
COOLGARDIE - History/Background:
Gold was first discovered in easily obtainable deposits in the Mojave Desert around 1900, and a small settlement of several hundred miners soon sprang up. Coolgardie was named after the rich western Australian mining town that became large and famous both for its wealth and rough nature. Mexican miners coming from the Gold Rush up north worked this area for a while and then it was worked again during the Great Depression. California’s Coolgardie never reached the same status, although it was one of the few placer mining districts in the desert. When the gold ran out after just a few short years, there was nothing in this desolate place to entice its residents to stay. Gradually the wooden structures crumbled, and today little remains except some rusted cans and piles of lumber where buildings used to stand. Coolgardie is 19 miles north of Barstow, and it is necessary to drive along a narrow dirt road to reach it. Visitors should exercise extreme caution because many mining shafts have not been filled in and a fall would leave a victim stranded in the middle of the desert.
GPS COORDINATES: N35degrees06.03’ W117 degrees03.12’ (approximately)
NEAREST TRAIL: Desert #21: Black Canyon Road
The road will lead you through an area known as Coolgardie Camp, which is a mining area that was actually started by Chinese laborers from nearby Calico, who weren't allowed to prospect for themselves in that silver rich area. Instead of just accepting a life of cooking and doing laundry for the predominantly white miners, many of the Chinese set up camp on this area in the late 1800's and began to dig for their own riches.
One of the most interesting things about Coolgardie Camp is that it is still being prospected to this day. As you enter the prospecting zone, you will find claim markers, signs and rocks defining a large number of claims. You may also find several groups in the area prospecting for rare and valuable minerals. Most of these claims are now controlled by a prospecting organization whose members are allowed to work these claims by virtue of their membership. The Grave of Donald D. Kenney, the last full-time resident of Coolgardie Camp is still there (died in 1995).
There are also a couple of recently abandoned miner's cabins, the larger of which also contains a well maintained grave that is of a miner who spent his final years eking out an existence in this area. To my knowledge he was the last permanent resident of Coolgardie Camp. His name was Donald D. Kenney and he died here in 1995. Explore this area carefully, respect the Private Property and Keep Out signs, and keep a close eye out for mineshafts. The entire area of Coolgardie Camp is full of mine shafts and holes.
The road through Coolgardie Camp is cris-crossed by other short roads leading off to mining claims and a couple of longer roads that lead off to the Northwest. To get to Black Mountain you will need to stay on the main road, or the road most traveled. This road will eventually lead you into a sandy wash that curves towards the Southwest.
Eventually you will intersect with a wider road that is very straight and heads back towards Hinkley. Stay on this road until you come to a major crossroads. This crossroads is Fossil Bed Road, which leads back to Fort Irwin Road to the east. To get to Black Mountain, you will want to go west on Fossil Bed Road.
GOLD DEPOSITS:
This is a dry-placer mining district in western San Bernardino County about 19 miles north (more like Nortnwest) of Barstow. The area was mined intermittently from around 1900 to 1915, with a total output valued at about $100,000. The principal operator was the Cool Gardie Mining Company, which operated a battery of gasoline-powered dry washers. Several two-man operations employed single dry washers or rockers. Minor prospecting was done in the district during the 1920s and 1930s. The deposits are in a broad valley; the gold apparently was derived from veins in granitic rocks that are to the east and northeast.







This is one of my favorite old photos of this area - At the old Coolgardie Camp. Drywashing for gold - Circa 1919

Some of the gold I get in this area! It’s one of my favorite types of gold! Real bright buttery yellow! Pretty stuff! Typical of desert placer areas.



Barstow is a very interesting old town with a lot of history!


* First photos will be of entering into the town of Barstow - There is a lot of history here (which you can research on your own) and the old Route 66 went through here!

There are a few museums in the area that I’ve been to (and taken friends on more than one occasion to two of them.) The photos below are of the first one - The Route 66 Museum. It’s a cool museum and even has old original trains outside to view! Both museums have some cool mining related stuff to see and books to buy.

Entrance





You can sit and watch a little video



Outside the museum checking out the old original trains!








Old switch board









Speaking of trains, here comes some now!
Below is the Mojave River Valley Museum - This place is also very interesting. They even give a different mineral every month (very attractive stones) donated by a local company

Entrance


Cool old drywasher the old timers used to get the gold

Ore Carts

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Mojave Minerals



Native American artifacts
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The ‘Mojave Green’ Rattle Snake

More ore carts

Mining relics outside of the building
The following photos are us leaving town to head for the hills! Don’t worry, the prospecting pics are coming!




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Here’s the bridge coming out of town from First St.

Coming over the bridge (the Route 66 Museum is the building on the right)

Right next to it is the Railroad Museum

First St. & Irwin Rd. (Turn left on Irwin Rd)



Driving North up Irwin
The sign says “Fort Iwin” & “Mojave/Bakersfied”
A few miles when you leave town Turn left on Copper City Rd from Irwin Rd - (It’s a dirt road)


Heading up Copper City (dirt) Rd to the gold hills! “There’s gold in them thar hills!”
Luis, holding an old relic
Looking back down the hill from where we came - what a beautiful view!


Just now turning on Coolgardie Rd



It won’t be long now! When you begin to see this rockier type of bedrock as you’re approaching the top you know you’ll be turning left to a dirt path soon. After you past this rocky stuff over the hill (as it starts to go down) you will pass one dirt path and as you come to the second dirt path - that’s the old ‘Coolgardie Road’ (I finally figured it out after 3 times of coming here - and even after you turn left it gets kind of confusing unless you know where you’re going)


I love Joshua Trees (they’re a protected tree) The desert has it’s own beauty!


After a long bumpy ride, you’ll see Mud Mountain on the left side and another small tall mountain on the right - you’ll also start to see mine shafts (like this one here with bob wire around it)
Now entering the gold fields - you know you are in the area when you begin to see Claim Signs, Tailing Piles and Mine Shafts. Also, you start to see black rocks, etc., after about 20 minutes of driving along the old road.


Valley Prospectors and West End Prospectors club signs marking the way to the claims!


Valley Prospector members digging away for gold! They have outings throughout the year!






Valley Prospectors campers - at night they’ll have a nice bonfire, potluck dinner, raffle, etc!
Some nice gold I got!
Oro Rico claim marker - found some good gold on this claim (Belongs to the Valley Prospectors)


High Desert Gold Diggers club sign - I’ve found good gold on these claims also (I belong to 7 clubs - they are cheap to join)

High Desert Gold Digger club members camping out!

Carlos and his boys
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Some more good gold I’ve found in the area!
Lady miner ‘Arlene’ (my wife) with a pretty smile! :)
Photos below are remnants of the old Coolgardie Mining Camp, including old Don Kennedy’s home!




Below are Claim Markers - Many claims are in the area and you need to either own the claim or join a club, which is easy and cheap to do (GPAA, VALLEY PROSPECTORS, WEPC, DESERT GOLD DIGGERS, to name a few) This is a neat historical area and it’s fun to dig for gold here!






Barstow Bob

He used to cover areas with plastic tarps so if it rained he could still work the area!

Barstow Bob’s handmade Drywasher - He use to use the Keene 151, but it got a bit much for him to handle as he got more frail. Too much drinking and smoking I surmise
* Short video clip of Barstow Bob
* Another short video clip of us working this area (Roy was working my little wooden blower drywasher)
Below - R.I.P. Barstow Bob! He got on people’s nerves but he knew how to get gold! And even though he ticked me off a few times, I learned some things from him. He would meticulously sweep and clean off the caliche to get the gold, (you don’t need to dig deep here) and when I seen his gold at the end of the day, it was very good indeed! He was one of the old school Latino miners who lived in Barstow but lived more in his trailer and spending the nights on the claims here - I seen him here almost every time!

More good gold I got drywashing
It was overcast with a few sprinkles that’s why I had the tent - the soil has to be dry for the drywasher’s to work





Short video clip for beginners who do not understand how a Drywasher works
Johnny having fun for his first time!
Heavenly natural beauty!
I got some good gold here, Including a little nugget


My first little nugget from this area!

Mr Tarantula came out for a visit (the males come out in the summertime searching for females) Don’t worry they are harmless and don’t usually bite (it’s like a bee sting if they did bite)
Nice old fellow miner guy who helped me get my motor working again




Same guy using his wooden Drywasher

Tommy digging away!
Found this little Desert Pocket Mouse sick - Nursed him back to health to let him go!

Dwayne and Ernie in the area to do some prospecting - Customers at first but now prospecting friends


Carlos and sons
How did I get such good gold? I did everything you're not supposed to do! (See photos below) I purposely ran the material slightly damp and clumpy AND I ran the drywasher at a super steep angle, ran it fast and got some of my best gold that day! I have a witness (Luis). I know the Keene blower helps somewhat by drying the dirt as it’s going through the sluice, but I got this gold after one ‘run’. I ran the tailings again and didn’t get that much lost gold! - GO FIGURE! LOL! Probably, this spot just happen to have chunky gold, who knows!?
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METEOR SHOWER/NIGHT GOLD MINING!
The pictures below brings back good memories! This was one of my favorite trips out there! We decided to kill two birds with one stone - That night the news said there would be meteor showers in the sky! So I got the idea to do night prospecting while watching the ‘night show’. Four carloads of us went out there and rigged up lights and had a blast - got good gold too!

“Wow! Did you see that?!”





Setting up a Keene Puffer and a Keene 151 Drywasher




Robert, Ezra & Marco working away!



Panning to see what we got
Giving panning lessons
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Seeing the gold showing
Wow! Good gold!
Drawing sticks for the little nugget that was found!

Robert won (and he got a prize to!)

Yeah baby!

Carlos setting up his new mini Gold Buddy drywasher
Arlene getting a little nervous over a big tarantula wandering through the area! Lol!
Short video clip of Tommy and me at the end of the day after digging a big hole and using my KEENE 151 Drywasher
One of my favorite days drywashing for gold! Everybody was happy in the sunshine!


Walter
Me
Ivan

Monique
Arlene

Carlos
Fellow club members digging for gold!
Ready to start drywashing
Good gold at the end of the day!

My homemade recirculating system - worked awesome!




Tim
Tom
Some new miner friends we met!
Barstow and the bridge we crossed to head up to the hills
Tommy who just met another fellow miner
I know that there is a lot of stuff to look at on this page but I’ve had so much fun with this hobby I want to share it with everyone! The videos were made at the spur of the moment thing by us amateurs and not too good, but it gives you an idea of the area, gold, etc. Thanks!
Another good day of gold mining with friends and family (some years ago!) Although it was windy and cold, we had fun and found nice gold! I set up a: recirculating system using a highbanker and 2 drywashers! Click below for short video clips (Sorry for the bad video quality)
Found gold!


Barstow Bob had a very efficient way of mining, he’d meticulously clean off (and rake) only to the caliche and then he’d cover it with a tarp - the ground he wanted to work later (in case it rained)
Barstow Bob
Bob carefully arranges his gold at the end of the day!


More nice gold Luis got!



Arlene taking a break
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Marco and I
Some Tidbits Of Southern California Mining History Early 1900's Coolgardie/Bartsow Mining Article
For those of you who enjoy the fruits of research, you may wish to Google
“Desert Fever, An Overview of Mining History of the California Desert
Conservation Area, San Bernardino County”. The following quoted materials are pertinent to PCSC’s Desert Queen Bee claim and the nearby open areas:
“William's Well, not far from Coolgardie, was the site of a placer operation that had probably been going on since the excitement in 1900. In 1910, four men were working the gravel there and making good wages. This well probably was dug in late 1909 by M. W. H. Williams, a resident of Redlands since about 1898. He and his associates spent a number of months in 1909 examining mining property north of Barstow. By digging the well, they enabled many new prospectors to work near there, since water was scarce. The dry placer operations are still worked from time to time.”
]“About May, 1900, placer gold was discovered in shallow gravel 20 miles north of Barstow by Dick Duncan. Duncan was one of the co-discoverers of gold at Kramer about this same time. He named his discovery the Black Nugget after a famous mine in South Africa. Another claim, the Coolgardie, was named after a famous Australian gold camp. In August, 1900, ten men were operating 2 dry-placer machines at Black Nugget Camp, and the Engineering and Mining Journal reported that, “The whole country is said to be located from Coolgardie to Lane's
mill, both west and south of Camp Vera.”
“Dry-placer machines do not work with wet sand, thus during the winter of 1900-1901, the camp was shut down. In June, 1901, they began again. Northing more is heard from the placers at Coolgardie until 1908. In October, the Coolgardie Mining Company, which had devised a dry washer capable of treating 100 tons of gravel a day, was working here. In 1909, Coolgardie was described as
“a small mining settlement, the cabins of the miners scattered over several square miles of dry-placer workings.” In 1911, it was stated $100,000 in gold had been taken from the rich placers at Coolgardie.”
This is a dry-placer mining district in western San Bernardino County about 15 miles northwest of Barstow. The principal operator was the Cool Gardie Mining Company, which operated a a battery of gasoline- powered dry washers. Several two-man operations employed single dry washers or rockers.
Coolgardie gold placers shows that they are richer and of greater area than they generally assumed, a gentleman who arrived In Los Angeles this week and who has just been all over the Coolgardie informing the Mining Review that less than one third of the placer ground had been located. Every foot of the 10,000 acres is as rich as the ground which is now being worked, and has produced $6000 in the last few months. If sluiced all the fine gold, which Is mostly lost In dry washing could be saved. If water could obtained for sluicing it is evident from the gold now being taken out by dry washing.
Los Angeles Herald, Volume XXVIII, 1900
Initial mining was for placer gold that was washed down from the lode mines and was primarily done in small groups or individuals with claims along the stream beds. Mining continued until the L-208 Act.