County: Yavapai
Mining Districts: Turkey Creek, Black Canyon, Peck, Big Bug
Quadrangles: The East Bradshaw FootPrint includes portions of the following Quads;
Mayer, Poland Junction, Groom Creek, Battle Flat, Battleship Butte, Cleator, Bumble Bee, Crown King
Extent:
The East Bradshaw FootPrint covers approximately 205 square miles. This FootPrint
maps a portion of the Bradshaw Mountains that is defined by a triangle that
begins near Walker in the northwest, Mayer in the northeast then south along
the I-17 freeway almost to Black Canyon City.
It covers the well-known mining areas of Bumblebee, Mayer, Cleator, Black Canyon, Arrastre Creek, Wolf Creek, Mineral Creek, Mexican Gulch, Crooks Canyon, Palace Station, Goodwin, Pine Flat and Mayer.
Placer Information
This information is taken directly from US Geological Survey Bulletin 1355, Placer Gold Deposits of Arizona, by Maureen G. Johnson, 1972
Turkey Creek Drainage
Location: East flank of the Bradshaw Mountains. T11N R1E
Access: About 2 miles south of Mayer, a light-duty road leads south from State Highway 69 about 8 miles to the Turkey Creek area; about 11 miles south of Mayer, the road to Cleator leads west about 3 miles from State Highway 69 and a dirt road leads north to Turkey Creek area.
Extent: Small placer deposits near Turkey Creek Station (once located 1 mile north of Cleator, sec. 35, T11N R. 1E., unsurveyed) were drywashed for many years; placers are said to occur in the vicinity of Pine Flat, along the upper part of Turkey Creek near the Cunningham mine (approximately sec. 5, T11 N R1W., unsurveyed, Mount Union quadrangle). Two small placers are located on Turkey Creek, midway between the two placers mentioned above, which are about 1.6 and 2.9 miles upstream from Turkey Creek Station (unsurveyed area, SE 1/4, Mount Union quadrangle). Placers were also worked in terrace gravels along Turkey Creek downstream from the Golden Turkey mine (approximately sec. 12, T10N., R1E, unsurveyed).
History: The placers in Turkey Creek were worked intermittently between 1908 and 1941, and small amounts of gold recovered. The placer gold credited to the Peck district by the U.S. Bureau of Mines probably comes from this area.
Source: The placers in the Turkey Creek drainage probably were derived from gold veins in close proximity to the various small placers. Lindgren (1926, p. 156) states that Precambrian gold veins at Turkey Creek Station are the source of the gold in the shallow placers on the flat below the veins.
Black Canyon Drainage
Location: East flank of the Bradshaw Mountains, Tps. 9.5N to 10N .R1E and 2E.
Access: State Highway 69 parallels Black Canyon between Bumble Bee and Arrastre Creek.
Extent: Placers occur along the Black Canyon segment of Turkey Creek between Arrastre Creek and Poland Creek and have been worked upstream to the vicinity of Cleator. Placers were also mined in American and Mexican Gulches where Bumble Bee Creek enters Black. Canyon.
Placers were worked in Black Canyon below Howard's Copper mine (sec. 51, T10N, R.2E, Bumble Bee quadrangle), where before 1922, one man reportedly produced about $20,000 in gold, probably at a spot about 1 mile downstream from the mine. Gold was also recovered from a gravel bar in Black Canyon about 5 miles south of Bumble Bee (probably sec. 32, T9.5N, R.2E, Bumble Bee quadrangle).
History: The placers in the Black Canyon area have been worked intermittently since the latter part of the 1800's. The amount of gold recovered from the Black Canyon placers was not large compared with other placers in Yavapai County but was appreciably more than that recovered along the upper part of Turkey Creek.
Source: The placers in the Black Canyon drainage were derived from gold veins that are apparently of both Precambrian and Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary (Laramide) age. Precambrian gold veins occur in the vicinity of Bumble Bee (on Bland Hill and at the Gillespie mine), and "Laramide" veins occur throughout the district, in particular, at the Thunderbolt mine in Black. Canyon.