Rich Hill is aptly named. Located in Yavapai County, it has a long and rich gold mining history. The first prospectors in the area showed up in the 1860s, and it quickly drew attention from miners throughout the region. Early Gold Discoveries A prospector named Pauline Weaver discovered gold in this area in […]
The mining town of Wickenburg has a fascinating history of difficult times, trials and tribulations. Stories of adventurous men, Native American attacks, gold thefts and lost gold treasures. And of course the rich Vulture Mine in the nearby desert that started it all. Wickenburg has weathered countless Indian raids, the boom-and-bust of mining, harsh droughts […]
Nevada is the leading state for precious metal production. Both gold and silver continue to be mined here at a scale far beyond anywhere else in our country. Most of that mining is taking place in Northern Nevada. The southern part of the state has produced considerably less metals. Yet there are still several places […]
Gold Basin is located roughly 10 miles south of the Colorado River (Lake Mead) in Mohave County, Arizona. It is situated between Meadview and Dolan Springs. This is a fairly popular gold prospecting area that has been known to produce some very large gold nuggets over the years. Plenty of prospectors from Las Vegas explore […]
The dry desert washes around Quartzsite have been producing gold since the first miners discovered gold in this area well over 150 years ago. Considerable mining has taken place in this part of Arizona. In the early days, miners struggled to work the auriferous gravels effectively. Water was hard to come by (to say the […]
Located in northern Arizona’s Black Mountains, Oatman was once a thriving gold mining town and a highly populated town of Mohave County. Its peak period was in the early 1900s when it struck gold worth millions of dollars and boasted of a population of 10,000. Although you will find Oatman in the list of ghost […]
Mining has been one of America’s most significant drivers of growth—the many thriving towns and cities of today are a testament to how the industry has transformed the American landscape. One example of these boom-towns is Miami, a former copper-mining town in Central Arizona that saw rapid development at the turn of the 20th century. […]
The goldfields of Arizona are some of the most widespread of any state. Many of the places where people find gold are in creeks and rivers, but the arid desert of Arizona means that you will also find gold in countless dry gulches and vast desert expanses. But how do you actually find a place […]
The Sonoran Desert covers huge parts of Southern California, Southwest Arizona, and Mexico. This is a harsh desert that has been known to have gold long before the discovery at Sutter’s Mill. The summer climate is simply to harsh for most gold prospectors. That changes during the winter months when many gold prospectors move into […]
Greaterville is a little mining town located in the southern part of Arizona, about 45 miles southeast of Tucson, in the mountains of Santa Rita’s east slope. The mining area that came to be known as Greaterville came into existence when placer gold deposits were discovered in the region in 1874 by A. Smith. It […]