Location
Flanks of the Dripping Spring Mountains, T. 3 S., R. 15 E.; T. 4 S., R. 16 E.
Topographic Maps
El Capitan and Hayden 7 1/2-minute quadrangles; Christmas 15-minute quadrangle.
Geologic Maps
Ransome, 1923a, Geologic map of the Ray quadrangle, scale 1:12,500. Willden, 1964, Geologic map and sections of the Christmas quadrangle, Arizona (pi. 1), scale 1:62,500.
Access
Jeep trails lead 1-2 miles south to placer area from Dripping Spring Road at a point about 3 miles west of the junction with State Highway 77, 18 miles south of Globe.
Extent
Placers are found on the southwest and northeast flanks of the Dripping Spring Mountains.
The Barbarossa placer, in the old Troy district, is in the SW. cor. sec. 31, T. 3 S., R. 15 E., (Hayden quadrangle) between two forks of Steamboat Wash on the southwest flank of the Dripping Spring Mountains. The deposit consists of soil and loose detritus developed on Troy Quartzite.
The Dripping Spring placers are in the Dripping Spring district near the Cowboy mine on the northeast flank of the Dripping Spring Mountains in the NW. cor. sec. 30, T. 3 S., R. 15 E. (El Capitan quadrangle). These deposits are found in pediment gravels resting on Gila Conglomerate.
Other placers are reported to occur in the southern end of the Dripping Spring Valley north of Christmas in sec. 17, T. 4 S., R. 16 E. (Christmas quadrangle), about 8 miles southeast of the Dripping Spring placers. These deposits (properly in the Banner district) are found in alluvium in gulches that drain northeast to Dripping Spring Valley.
Production History
The Barbarossa placer was discovered in 1907 — the recorded production (1907-13) from this placer is credited to the Riverside district on the Southwest flank of the Dripping Spring Mountains (Pinal County) by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Apparently, only part of the gold recovered from placers on the south flank of the Dripping Spring Mountains has been reported, for an estimate of gold recovery as high as $2,000-$3,000, including one nugget weighing 22 ounces, was made before 1923, and a few prospectors worked the gravels intermittently until recent years.
The placers on the northeast flank of the Dripping Spring Mountains have been worked intermittently for years; production records frequently group the Dripping Spring district and the Banner district, making it difficult to differentiate the two localities. The placers near the Cowboy mine are in gravels 20-30 feet thick and were worked from shafts, tunnels, and underground stopes; about 10 percent of the gold recovered was finer than 100 mesh, but nuggets weighing as much as half an ounce were found. Placer gold worth $3,000 reportedly was recovered from these deposits in 1927, but this amount was not reported to the U.S. Bureau of Mines and is not included in the production table.
The placers in the southern part of the Dripping Spring Valley have been worked within the past 30 years and apparently were worked by a dryland dredge in 1940. This ground was known as the Bywater claim; Mr. Bywater also owned the placer ground in the Dripping Spring district.
Source
The Troy district, near the crest of the Dripping Spring Mountains T. 3 S., R. 14 E., was intensely prospected in the early years of this century, but no large commercial ore bodies were found. The free gold in the Barbarossa placer was probably derived from gold localized near the contact between the Devonian Martin Formation and the Cambrian Abrigo Formation (N. G. Banks, oral commun., 1969).
The placers in the Dripping Spring area near the Cowboy mine may have been derived from erosion of the gold-silver vein material of the mine. Free gold was reported from bunches of ore near the surface of the vein.
The origin of the placers farther south in the Dripping Spring Valley is unknown.
Literature
Mining and Scientific Press, 1907: Barbarossa placer—Reports discovery of placer gold near head of Steamboat Springs Canyon.
Ransome, 1923a: Barbarossa placer—location; production; type of placer gravels.
U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1940: Dripping Spring placer—production;mining operation located.
Wilson, 1961: Barbarossa placer—virtually repeats Ransome (1923); reports elevation of placer; production. Dripping Spring placerlocation; type of placer gravels; mining operations (1931-33); size of gold particles; production; source.
