Show MOHAVE COUNTY ARIZONA FROM THE KINGMAN MINER the pursuit of the golden treasures of earth has drawn mankind far afield since the dawn of life on this old earth and will continue to attract the hardy adventurer into its farthermost corners for all time it was the quest of gold that brought to the new world the hardy voyageurs voya geurs of old spain and their lust of the yellow metal led them into the desert regions in search of the mines of montezuma of which they had heard fabulous stories it was while searching for the source of the aztec wealth that many of the wonderful mines of mexico were discovered but the conquered indians never would reveal the whereabouts of the mines was waged between the dons and the savages until the latin race was practically wiped out north of the present line of mexico among all the writings of the early explorers of this country the impression is given that here would be found the great mines of gold and silver and later research has bourne this out in the early sixties the first extensive and at the same time methodical explorations we were re made in what is now the county of mohave and the region contiguous thereto by white men fresh from the gold mines of california these men made discoveries of wonderful rich mines of gold in the moun N 2 Q sw 71 ay iy pine timber on Wall apai mountain arizona courtay ICing maii of gold and silver from which their vast hoards were taken the pioneer of explorers in arizona new mexico and california father marco de nito says that the wealth of the aztecs azteca was taken from the mines west of the great forest section of what is now called san francisco plateau between juniper mountains and the great desert of california in support of this alarcon the discoverer of the colorado river found evidence of the work of the indians in the mountains contiguous to the river and spread the belief among his people that wonderful mines were to be found in the great stretches of desert lying on each side of that turbid stream in the search for this treasure land thousands of the adventurous sons of old spain died by desert thirst and at atthe the hands of the savage indians for decades de cades a war of extermination bains on the east side of the colorado river and now known officially on the maps as the blue ridge range the mines then found were called the moss and california moss after the discoverer from the moss ore was sent to san francisco that netted more than to the ton the finding of this great vein brought a rush to that section and in the years following explorations were carried into the mountains to the east and west by prospectors from california and nevada owing to the hostility of the Wall apai and kahute indians explorations were confined to the BI blue u e ridge and cerbat carbat ranges but in the ear early ly seventies the inrush from nevada overawed over awed the savage tribes and made the life of the hardy pioneer more safe although many was the lone searcher after wealth whose bones were left to bleach on the mountain sides of the county in 1872 hundreds of men came in from pioche and the gold counties of california and the rich veins of the cerbat carbat and walla pai nai mountains were discovered the ores from these mines were so rich that big profits were returned from them although the expense of freight and treatment ran into tile the hundreds of dollars per ton owing to tile the fact that ores had to be packed ion long I 1 distance on burros there being no roads in the county at the time to the colorado river thence by river steamer to port isabel down the gulf to pt arena and up the coast to san francisco from which point it was later shipped to england for treatment although one small custom mill was erected a at t mineral park in the later seventies this was the method of marketing ores until the advent of the railroad in 1882 during all the years from 1862 to 1882 the hardy miner braved the hardship of the desert living on the roughest of fare facing the danger of hostile and treacherous indians and blazed the way for a future civilization chloride and its mines chloride is a typical mining camp the western railway of arizona has located its northern terminal about three fourths of a mile south of the town and an attempt was made build up a town at that point a f few ew years ago but the old town was too solidly in trenched near the mines to be moved by any new excitement now the main street of the town is by buildings for nearly a mile while the balance of the town is spreading out of all anticipation of the original locators A patent to the townsite was recently granted the citizens of the town which effectually prevents the locating of wildcat claims and the muddling up of tittles to town lots on all sides of chloride are mineral locations three large concentrating works have been erected on the tennessee elkhart and minnesota connor mines but they are not run to their full capacity at the present time the ta connor is shipping about two carloads carload s of finished angshed product weekly to the smelter while the tennessee is sending out two carloads of zinc to the eastern zinc works weekly many of the other mines are making good weekly shipments to the smelters shelters sm elters without cleaning the ores in the mills the future of the camp is far brighter than any other camp in there and many of the big veins will soon be worked to the west of chloride is the weaver and minnesota districts with their big veins of gold bearing ores while to the north is famous white hills mines only twenty three miles up the range there is one general merchandise establishment lish ment one drugstore blacksmith shop three lodging houses three or four restaurants and boarding houses at each of the working mines lour jour saloons and several small business houses in the town A hand some building with a daily dal attend nd ance e of nearly one hundred pupils is one of the progressive features of the town white hills white hills is now almost a deserted village hut but since the discovery of the camp I 1 m n 1892 it has produced many millions of dollars the ores have been wonderfully rich in in silver one carload of otin nineteen eteen tons shipped to the smelter under the root reg I 1 me ime contained over ounces silver and 64 ounces gold prior to the purchase of the mines by the white hills Rills company many leasers leaders made fortunes ranging from to each from leases on the surface of the mines the company built a forty stamp mill on the property but it was never worked to its full capacity and owing to litigation has been idle a number of years bad management man gement and wasteful expenditure of money was the prime cause of the closing down of the mines and the attendant litigation mineral park mineral park is one of the old towns of the county and the basin in which it is situated has been one of the biggest shippers of rich gold and silver ores of any of the camps in the range there is here a general store and one saloon the town is picturesquely situated in a semi circular basin in the hills beneath the towering peaks of the high cerbatos bats from mineral park south through the range can be found the cabin odthe industrious miner and prospector to the point where the great volcanic flow covered and effaced all of mineral layne springs is one of the first places reached and here are located two or three wonderful mineral bearing veins the rip van winkle nighthawk and alpha it is not our object to give any lengthy sketch of the mines in this article but in later issues will devote considerable sid erable attention to them cerbat carbat is the last of the ore bearing zone on the south end of the cerbat carbat mountains the lava flow covering the granite a few miles south of that town the town lies in the heart of the mount mountains ains and the hills and ribbed with seamed round about are mineral veins stockton hill lies to the east of half miles and eleven mile bat one and one north of kingman this camp has produced from the grassroots to im immensely densely rich ores a depth of several hundred feet noghera found a mountain so 90 be in the world can veins there is interlaced with mineral ground d in that scarcely fifty square feet of aroun of veins for years region that is barren of the dependence the camp was the sole to the employment county its mines gave when no othel handed sons of toil horny entire country were operated mines in the made many men shipments of ores its two mines on the wealthy and yet only depth than i greater nil hill I 1 have attained a feet the cupel and de la fountaine the cupel is feet on the incline and the other mine has reached the same depth to the north of this camp but embraced in what is known hs as stockton hill is the C 0 D which property is one of the richest and at the same time the largest single producer in the county the mine is opened to a depth of feet on the incline or about feet perpendicular |