Getting Your Gold
Best place to find gold is where its already been found like they say
And joining one of the local clubs assures this there all on the best ground out here in arizona ,Also remember most of these areas has been worked in the past for over  80 years first by early miners then by the mexican miners then by club members all these years theres plenty of gold left its just harder to find and in far less amounts than the old timers got back in the day thats for sure .So you really have to work hard to get some good amounts . Find a promising spot on a claim I like to look for really heavy mineralized soils as far as black sand goes
that  is not as intuitive out here in arizona as other places black sand is everywhere out here I look for good wash areas and dig out behind under boulders down to a solid bedrock caliache a cement like material that forms here or hard clay bottom here the small gold sits in all the little  cracks and crevices a paint bush out here is just as important as a shovel get in and brush the material out of those cracks theres where you going to get your gold .

History Of Rich Hill Arizona Gold mining and Pauline Weaver
in may 1863 legendary mountain man guide trapper led a prospecting expedition up the hassayampa river to the weaver mountains.While in the area scouting a pack animal was lost and during a an attempt to find it gold was discovered in large amounts setting off a Rush and mining boom towns of weaver stanton octave where born after  the discovery on rich hills flat top. One of the biggest and richest strikes  some of the exposed nuggets
where the size of potatoes hence since ever known as the potatoe patch till this day the name stuck forever.
Pauline Weaver the son of white father and Cherokee
mother had worked for the legendary hudson bay company in canada where he ended up from his work with hudson bay in the rockies and then arizona where he lived out the last of his life .

Wickenburg is the closest town to the gold fields with full services motels ect.
Its about twenty minutes away. Equipment your going to need most up here use dry washers I prefer a recirculating mini high banker that runs on 8 gals of water I haul in water is and water always is the most efficient way of getting gold out of the dirt and it will do it with the material  wet or dry however in a dry washer the dirt must be dry or you will loose gold right out the end a matter of fact  someone else running your tailings can get more gold than you did if you ran damp dirt if he ran your dirt after it dried .All this equipment just allows you to run more dirt  faster than if you had to pan it all .So you would run dirt for a few hours then clean out your dry washer or sluice pan out the heavies . Really all you need is a gold pan if you want to go basic all this extra stuff increases the amount of dirt you can process that is all to that respect the desert and it will take care of you I live pretty much in it the picture above is the other side of our driveway I walk in it its full of life . Next post we can get into the history of Rich hill Stanton and San Domingo wash. I will be go to get some photos and do little mining so I can post those Next post

Come on Out if your coming out prospecting here find a local club and join .
It its your best bet for success and a good trip you can camp on it while your here also its BLM land prices can be cheap to join it ranges from 75.00 a year most are 150.00 up and weaver has three day passes for 15.00  dollars  I think its your best bet they have the best claims in these areas and then your legal and have a right to mine these claims I  would not  come out thinking your just going to get out of the car and start digging just about all of the land around these areas is claimed and active Its a felony to mine on claimed property without rights  here in Arizona .Its legal to shoot at someone on your claim here too. And guys get tired of excuses fast around here .My advice join a club dont get in trouble they will prosecute you for claim jumping Here is a list of the local clubs who have claims in  the rich hill area and the San Domingo wash. weaver mining Road Runners and weaver have great claims Road Runners and in the San Domingo Wash Area Arizona Gold Prospectors  

Jan 1 2016 Hello welcome to Arizona gold adventures a blog for any one interested in gold ,prospecting ,places to prospect ,what to bring and where to go and a little about mining history here in Arizona .I was from New England originally born and raised there of course there is some gold in New England all pretty much glacial deposited and limited to very fine. Unless your up in far northern new England Vermont Maine where you can find a picker or a small nugget.I did enjoy panning the crystal clear streams up there for hours at a time but seemed like I was mining more and  sunshine and fresh air than anything else and that was great but getting some gold be nice too so of course moved here to arizona. I started to read as much about the area and the gold fields here but really your going to learn truthfully
a lot more out there in the  gold fields the hard way. The gold here is not deposited by water here much even in the washes I have dug down and found gold on bedrock in a wash move a few feet and nothing its tricky and almost bet on taking a while to find it I had few trips with nothing to show when i first started out kept at it just kept plugging away and learning and found my spot after a few trips out.  Now I get a little out of that spot every time out now but had to pay my dues to find it that is ok with me got an education and that is the way its supposed to be.I prospect on weaver mining claim anybody can pay 75.00 there and prospect there its in congress az I will  get into that a little later.
Stanton az is out miles out on a dirt road its really out there lots of wildlife its secluded you can see for miles .Just a nice place right now this time a year is perfect its cool .Summer well thats another story 110 is regular thing here I started prospecting in july of course at 530 am, morning and jump in the jeep and get out of there by 9.00am when its already 95-100 degrees
just those two months of july -aug are quite dangerous after 9am.


    I had read before I came out here about many a eastern stream miner  had gone to rich hill or out here in Arizona for some desert prospecting.Well Im saying the same thing  its not the same here in the desert I read up on and learned as much as i could about Desert mining some have a rough time out here the heat the critters and the mining is to say oct -early june is best I go early pre dawn pack up and  head out by 9am in the summer just too dangerous the heat even if you where to break down with you car your in trouble out there on that road also once you step out of the vehicle up there just be alert there is plenty of rattlesnakes in the prickley pear not much to worry about if look where your going watch where your feet and hands are you certainly better stay awake out there ! next post coming soon
                               

A lot of  hard work for this hard earned clean out and a hell of  lot
of five gallon buckets of material  to get this and it took some time to find it with some slim pickings until I did

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