Indian Placer Gold in Salome

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Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Desert Cruiser »

Now this whole story was given to me by the now deceased George Campbell. He was an old miner, prospector from the old days. He had (his wife Norma's now) over 50 claims in the Harquahala Mts. in Arizona Southeast of the town of Salome, Arizona. This is a fairly noteworthy town with an old restaurant, bar called the Cactus Bar. It used to be a garage back in the 50's. We had a good time talking to George for 2 days and roaming around in the mountains with him (he was carrying an oxygen bottle with him because of miners lung disease) pointing out where this was and that was. Several old stories I'll relate later. Like the old Spanish Iron Door Mine.

George's great grandfather owned the only store in Salome and George spent time there when he was just a little kid. His great grandfather used to trade goods (blankets, whiskey mostly) to the Indians for placer gold. Of course they didn't know how the scale worked so he would cheat them a little. Finally one day the Indians came up short and needed more gold. So they sent a young buck out to get more, and sure enough within one day he returned with a lot more. Now this got them thinking --- if they told the Indians they didn't have enough and had friends hide up in the North (which is the way the young buck went) in the mountains waiting to see where the Indian went then they'd find the placer deposit. So they got set up with look outs and sure enough they got them to send one of them back for more. Of course the Indian was too fast and sly. He went directly North of town and they lost him in the mountains. Try as many times as they did it was to no avail. Finally the Indians got wise and stopped coming back to their trusted friend at the store.

Here's a topo of the area with Salome shown, and some other places of interest. Now maybe one of the mines shown is where they got the gold, There is a lot of gold bearing rock in this area of Arizona.
Image

Inside the Cactus Bar with all the relics and photo of Dick Wick Hall a town celebrity:
Image

Very near to Salome are some rocks with petroglyphs, does the cross look familiar?
Image

The mountains are pretty rugged in places and also pretty unusual:
Image

For example in this photo in the rocks are some pretty extensive caves with a lot of off shoots:
Image

And if that's not bad enough --- this area gets more water than some desert areas:
Image

This is looking down the trail thru Tank Pass:
Image

There are a lot of washes that run East out of the mountains and they should be investigated with a metal detector -- we haven't had a chance yet. And on the West side of the mountains there are some big canyons with washes that are worth looking at too! Tank Pass is passable, Cottonwood Canyon is only passable to smaller vehicles, our Cruiser wouldn't make it -- too narrow. George gave us a lot of info because all his old friends were gone or dead and he wanted to pass some of his knowledge along to us. Several of the things he told us turned out to be right where and how he said they'd be. Good man.

Don....
Last edited by Desert Cruiser on Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jim Hatt

Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Jim Hatt »

Nice story Don,

When I first came to Arizona, I lived in Tonopah, Az. for two years. It was in the Harquahala Valley where I perfected my metal detecting skills on pull tabs, lead bullets and spent cartridges. LOL

Your story and photos bring back fond memories of those days!

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Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Plays In The Dirt »

Jim Hatt wrote:Nice story Don,

Your story and photos bring back fond memories of those days!

Jim Hatt
And I'd like to add, very nice Photos indeed, Don.
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Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Desert Cruiser »

Hey thanks guys.

Gregg glad you like them, and I really think there is a lot of gold still in some of the washes there.

Jim: I know where Tonopah is but don't know where Harquahala Valley is. Just out of curiosity did you ever hear of Courthouse Rock? It's near Tonopah.

Don....
Jim Hatt

Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Jim Hatt »

re: Harquahala Valley

Don,

It may not be on any maps by that name. The ole' timer that took me there called it by that name tho.

It is the area north of Saddle Mountain, South of Hwy 10 and West of Tonopah, Az.
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Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Oropan »

I have covered a lot of that area over the years and it was interesting to read your story. This is an interesting area and I would also include the Granite Wash mountains right to the West. There are petroglyphs all through this area and it appears the area was much wetter many many years ago. Big water comes down those washes during heavy thunderstorms and Wenden had a big flood a few years ago. There is also a very large old mine south of Salome that is interesting to check out. The area north of Salome had manganese mining during the wars and there is still an old ore pile on the north side of Hwy 60 east of Wenden. The old mag mine is a tough trip far to the north almost to Lake Alamo and it takes a good 4wd to get there. Another interesting trip is to the old 1920's observatory site atop Harklahala mountain south of hwy 60. BTW, Tank Pass was in very poor shape the last time I was there and even ATV's had a hard time getting through it. It was named Tank Pass because of Patton training his tank corp in this area during WWII. The cross in your picture looks like a Spanish cross. I assume that picture was taken just east of Black Cat pass on the south side of 60. There is also a mine up near Cottonwood Pass where prisonors quarried rocks many years ago.
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Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Desert Cruiser »

Yep that's the area, but I think you have the Tanks pass mixed up with the Cottonwood pass, The old prisoner site is at Tanks pass which is the Southern most pass and cottonwood is to the north and is the harder one to get through.

The old man I got the info from still has his wife living right in Salome and has been a friend for years. She owns the claims that he worked int he Harquahala Mts. A lot of claims and another good gold story abounds there that he found once just before he got really sick. For another time maybe.

As for Harquahala Mt. and the road to the top. Here is a link to that story -------------

http://www.dustb-gone.com/trips/harquahala.html

Great area to do research in, and finding the old man there and helping him with his mine years ago was a landfall for information in the area. Next time your in Salome stop at the restaurant and ask for Norma Campbell. She loves to talk to people about all the goings on there.

Don....
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Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Oropan »

Here is the manganese mine to the north that I mentioned;
http://www.mindat.org/loc-33262.html

The gold mine I mentioned south of Salome is this one:
http://www.mindat.org/loc-33508.html

The Saddle Mtn mention by the other poster is a famous fire agate site. It is located south of I 10 to the east.
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Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Oropan »

You are right on the prisonor site but I still think Tank Pass is the rough one. As I remember it there are big boulders and very difficult. If you try to get to the Sheba Mine off tthe east side of the Cottonwood Pass trail, that is very rough.
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Re: Indian Placer Gold in Salome

Post by Desert Cruiser »

Well the gold mine you put a link too is by far not the biggest producing one in the area. The Harquahala mine when first found --- they picked pieces of gold as big as your hand and as thick as your hand out of the cracks in the boulders, then mined more gold till just recently. There are a lot of active claims in the area! Then there is one that nobody knows about as it's owner kept it secret --- The Hidden Treasure Mine Southeast of Soccoro Peak. which is almost directly East of Salome and is next to the Mine properties that our friend has there. The owner found a large room about 6ft in diameter lined with gold about a 1/2 to 1 inches thick, on the last day he worked the mine. The old man I talked about above helped him take out the gold. Very unusual find but also very rich. I mention these to show that the area is a rich producer of gold ore, and placer gold. The Harquahala Mine is well documented, the other is not. This spring when we were in the area of the story listed above, which I did the write-up for, Tank Pass wasn't that bad and as usual we couldn't go thru Cottonwood pass because it's too narrow for the cruiser.

Look at the topo map provided above and don't confuse the Golden Treasure mine with the Hidden Treasure Mine.

Don....
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