Location
East and west flanks of the Quijotoa Mountains. Tps. 15 and 16 S., R. 2 E. (projected; on Papago Indian Reservation).
Topographic Map
Quijotoa Mountains 15-minute quadrangle.
Geologic Map
Wilson, Moore, and O'Haire, 1960, Geologic map of Pima and Santa Cruz Counties, Arizona, scale 1:375,000.
Access
From Tucson, 82 miles west on State Highway 86 to Quijotoa; dirt roads lead into the mountains.
Extent
The placers in the Quijotoa Mountains apparently are widely distributed, for some reports indicate placers as far south as the international boundary. The deposits have been mined by Papago Indians and Mexicans since 1774, but information regarding the locations of the deposits mined between 1774 and 1849 is lost. Since 1880 most of the placer-mining activity apparently has been concentrated in the area around Quijotoa, Covered Wells (Maish Vaya), and Pozo Blanco (Stoa Vaya).
The specific deposits described in the literature are difficult to locate because the area is within the Papago Indian Reservation and sections are not surveyed and gulch and claim names given to the placer claims by miners have not been retained. Placers were recovered from gravels in the area known as Horseshoe Basin that surrounds the old town of Quijotoa (3 miles west of State Highway 86 and 3 miles south of Covered Wells), from two gulches (Homestake and Midas) in the vicinity of Covered Wells (Maish Vaya), and from an area located 3 miles south of Pozo Blanco (Stoa Vaya) and 1 mile west of the mountains.
Production History
The Quijotoa placers have been worked on a small scale from 1774 to the present. The early production is unknown; since the 1860's many reports indicate that $3,00O-$7,000 per year in placer gold was recovered by Papago Indians and Mexican miners. The gold was recovered from the unconsolidated surface gravels and from the underlying caliche-cemented gravel. The gravels are said to average more than 80 cents per yard.
In 1910 a Quinner pulverizing machine and a Stebbins separator table was used in Horseshoe Basin to recover gold from the gravels, but most of the mining was done by individuals who pulverized the gravels by hand before using drywashers or bateas to separate thegold.
Source
Numerous deposits of vein gold are in the Quijotoa Mountains; erosion of these veins has concentrated the gold in various placers along the flanks of the mountains.
Literature
Allen, 1922: Location; character of gravels; distribution of gold in gravels; placer-mining techniques; placer-mining operations during the period 1905-6 and in 1910.
Blake, 1899: Location; production; general history of placer mining. Browne, 1868: Notes long activity at Quijotoa placers.
Bryan, 1925: Locates Pozo Blanco and Horseshoe.
Burchard, 1885: Placer discovery in 1884; location; extent; length and thickness of auriferous gravels; production.
Elliott, 1884: History; early date of placer-mining activity; extent of placer ground; Quijotoa.
Fickett, 1911: Placer-mining techniques; distribution of gold in gravels and caliche.
Heikes and Yale, 1913: Location; placer-mining operations; character of placer gravels; production from 1903 to 12.
Hinton, 1878: Notes placer occurrence; size of gold.
Mining Journal, 1939c: Reports average value of placer gravel at Mackey Brothers claims; depth of gravels.
1940: Reports nuggets as large as half an ounce in weight. Randolph, 1903: Notes placer-mining activity.
Stephens, 1884: History; early placer mining (1774-1849); placermining activity during the period 1883-84.
Wilson, 1961: Location; history; placer-mining activity (1906, 1910, 1932-33); distribution of placer gold at Pozo Blanco and Horseshoe Basin; average value of placer gravels; source.
