Description

Placer Miner

Handwriting on post card photograph says: "Placer Mining. Humboldt, Arizona."

The period of production from 1848 to the 1930s is considered the golden era of mining. During this period the bulk of all the rich gold districts of the West were discovered. These discoveries drove exploration and settlement of the vast American West, a geographic area that was mostly wilderness before this time.

Many gold districts were small and could only support individual prospectors, small camps or towns that lasted just a few years or a decade or two. Other districts were fabulously rich, and great mining cities were built, many of which are still active today.

Silver and copper deposits in Arizona were known to the Indians and Spaniards long before it became a Territory acquired by the United States. 

Mining, placer and lode, had its' drawbacks: due to the inaccessibility of the area, lack of water, and Indian raids, only a small amount of prospecting was done by Americans in the 1850’s, mostly near the old Mexican settlements of Tucson and Tubac, and in the Dome (Gila City) district where rich placers were discovered in 1858.

Little or no lode gold was mined in these early years. During the Civil War, prospectors among the California troops in Arizona organized parties to hunt for gold. In 1862 rich placer deposits were found near the Colorado River at La Paz in western Yuma County, and from 1862 to 1870 other placer deposits were found in Yavapai County. Eventually, placer and lode deposits were discovered in most districts.

Arizona produced over 13 million ounces of gold between 1860 and 1965. While gold mining occurred in many districts during the second half of the 1800s, it was gold as a byproduct of the great copper mines developed after 1900 that contributed significantly to Arizona’s production numbers.