Featured Site:GILA CITY (DOME) PLACERS
Yuma County, AZ
Location: North end of the Gila Mountains; South bank of the Gila River, T. 8 S., R. 21 W.
Topographic Maps: Laguna Dam and Dome 7.5 minute quadrangles. Click Here For Topographic Map Of The Gila City Placer District
Access: From Yuma, about 13 miles East on HWY 95 to a light duty road that paralles the RR tracks 7 miles to Dome.
Extent: The Gila City Placers occur on the narrow gravel-mantled pediment at the North end of the Gila Mountains formed on a bedrock of Tertiary sedimentary rocks that are faulted against the schist of the main mountain mass. Gold has been found in gulch and bench gravels of Quaternary age that mantle the Tertiary sediments to depths of 15 feet. The area of gold-bearing gravel extends from 1/4 mile east of Dome to 3 miles west of Dome, but most placer mining is centered around Monitor Gulch, 1 1/2 miles west of Dome (sec. 11, T. 8 S., R. 21 W., Laguna Dam quadrangle). Most of the gold in the gravels was found at or near bedrock in gulches, but much gold was recovered from bench gravels in the area. Gravels more than 15 feet above bedrock have not been profitable.
Production history: The Gila City placers were discovered in September 1858 by Colonel Jacob Snively and were actively worked by hundreds to thousands of men until about 1865, when the richest gravels were depleted. Gila City, a placer boom town that lived only 4 years, was near the mouth of Monitor Gulch adjacent to the Southern Pacific (NW 1/4 sec. 11, T. 8 S., R. 21 W.). Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry, a noted Arizona miner and pioneer, visited the placers in November 1858 and reported that men were recovering $30 to $215 per day; he witnessed $20 in gold washed from eight shovelfuls of dirt by an unexperienced placer miner.
After the initial boom period, mining continued in the district on a much reduced scale; all the known productive ground is said to have been worked over at least once. Most of the gold was recovered by first drywashing, then by wetwashing the dry-panned concentrates at the Gila River. A few large-scale operations have been attempted, but these were unsuccessful.
Source: Wilson states that the gold in the Gila City placers probably came from many pockety or small low-grade gold veins in the northern end of the Gila Mountains. No high-grade gold veins are found in the vicinity of the placers.
Tips: Get off the main roads and into the tributaries, look for evidence of old workings. Move slowly and dig ALL TARGETS. Always make sure you have a topo map of the area you wish to hunt. Remember to stay off marked claims and please remember to FILL ALL HOLES!!
Metal detecting at the Dome Placer area allot of fun and can be productive for the crafty nugget shooter. I look for areas with old drywash tailing piles and these can be found in washes as well as on the tops of the small hills. The ground is fairly mild making it a good place for both PI and VLF users. There are allot of small nuggets here so work slow and careful...
Good hunting.
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