Location
Chemehuevis Mountains (also known as the Mohave Mountains) east of the Colorado River, Tps. 14 and 15 N., Rs. 19 and 20 W.
Topographic Maps
Topock 15-minute quadrangle; Needles 2-degree sheet, Army Map Service.
Geologic Map
Wilson and Moore, 1959a, Geologic map of Mohave County, scale 1:375,000.
Access
State Highway 95, 9 miles east of Topock, leads south about 15 miles to the vicinity of the Chemehuevis Mountains, about 10 miles north of Lake Havasu City. Dirt roads lead to various placer areas.
Extent
Placer deposits have been worked at many localities in the Chemehuevis Mountains, but the deposits cannot be accurately located on topographic maps of the area because mapping of the Buck Mountain quadrangle is incomplete.
From the description of the deposits, it would seem that most of the placer-mining activity was concentrated on the southwestern flank of the mountains in the area east of the Colorado River. One of the deposits, known as the Calizona placer channel, is 1 mile wide and 3-5 miles long and trends northwest toward the Colorado River. The auriferous gravel is found in a bed of conglomerate or fanglomerate 10-30 feet thick, probably located in or near sees. 26-28, T. 15 N., R. 20 W. (Topock quadrangle).
Placers were mined in the Mexican or Spanish diggings in the vicinity of the Red Hills approximately T. 14 N., R. 20 W., Topock quadrangle). In the early 1930's placers were mined on the northeastern side of the mountains in Dutch and Printers Gulches (approximately T. 15 N., R. 9 W., Needles quadrangle).
Production History
The Chemehuevis placers reportedly were discovered in 1857 and have been worked on a small scale since the early 1860's, when many miners drywashed the gravels in the Calizona placer on the southwest side of the mountains. Many of these early miners are said to have recovered as much as $500 per day. Tests of the Calizona placer ground made in 1909, indicated a working average of $3.40 per cubic yard.
Gold was recovered from the Fisher Diggings, Silver Creek, the 49, Chief, and Prentice Gulch properties; the location of these claims is unknown. Tests at the Fisher Diggings made during 1932, reportedly indicated an average of $1.15 per cubic yard.
Source
The lode deposits of the Chemehuevis district are found in quartz veins in Precambrian schist. These veins only locally contain high gold values associated with pyrite and galena, and, apparently, are relatively unoxidized near the surface. The placers are presumably derived from these veins.
Literature
Blake, 1899: Notes presence of placer gold.
Hedburg, 1909: Location; extent and depth of placer gravels; placermining operations; results of sampling; average value of placer ground; size of gold particles.
Mining Journal, 1932c: Placer-mining operations; average grade of gravel at the Fisher diggings.
Moore, 1969: Date of placer discovery.
Randolph, 1901: Notes presence of placer gold.
Wilson, 1961: Location; type of placer gravels; placer operations during the period 1932-33.
Wilson, Cunningham, and Butler, 1934: Describes lode mines in the Chemehuevis district which may be source of placer gold.
