Anyone Familiar W/ The Eureka District, Arizona?

[BagdadAz]

Greetings everyone. I'm new to the forum here. Living in Bagdad AZ, I've spent some time detecting the surrounding hills and washes of the Eureka District. Although the district is primarily a base metal area (Cu/Mo) there are a number of small inactive mines scattered around the outskirts of the district. Researching online, I can see that some of these mines were relatively small scale gold producers most likely operating prior to WW2. Present day there area good many private claims scattered about the general area and in the area encompassing Zannerapolis (also primarily base metal) district and over toward Burro Creek. As I've not had very good success detecting in this area, I'm just wondering what other forum users experience has been with the area? I will add that I've had better success detecting over in the Bradshaws, finding enough gold to pay for my gpx 5000. So in general,  is the district and surrounding area good for detecting...opinions? 

[Clay Diggins]

Not all gold districts have detectable gold. You can have a boatload of fine gold under your feet and nary a peep from your detector with many gold deposits.

There is free information that will help answer you question but most folks aren't going to give you a pointy finger to a personal patch.

Below is a link to download Placer Gold Deposits of Arizona. It is the best quick reference guide for Arizona placer deposits. Everyone who intends to placer in Arizona should have a copy.

http://www.mylandmatters.org/Library/Item=8193

The book is free as are all the other resources in the Land Matters library. Just poke around in there and you are bound to find something useful.

[Steve Herschbach]

On 5/25/2022 at 8:01 AM, Clay Diggins said:

There is free information that will help answer you question but most folks aren't going to give you a pointy finger to a personal patch.

The guy is asking for general opinions, not a pointy finger to somebody’s personal honey hole.

[GotAU?]

And there certainly are lot of helpful people here, that’s what is so good about it!

I’d also try local clubs who may have claims in that area- the members may have better local knowledge.

[aerospace guy]

Steve H...I agree! I personally posted what club claim I found several nuggets on in the El Paso mountains. I had gone over and over the claims and did share the info. I even took a several friends in the club there. If they can be successful then I'm happy for them and would like to bring a big smile to their faces. One person had a GPX6000 and I knew he could get deeper than I could with my EQ800...so unless and until I pull the trigger on a 6000..best of luck to him. I have to say though that most times in life..not always, that I find how you treat people is reciprocated. The 6000 owner offered to split everything he found. he was not successful but he offered to go out together and let me get some hands-on-time with his 6000 and I am going to take him up on it.

[jasong]

Just as a general idea, there is detectable gold in the wider Bagdad area, if that helps keep the spirits up for a little more exploration closer to home. 

I've had absolutely horrible and entirely regretable experience sharing specific areas with some people in Arizona, leaving a lot of areas I loved completely and utterly decimated. It's happened to others too, and there are a lot of people highly guarded about discussing areas in Arizona as a result of it. It's a shame because there are some amazing finds in the state that just never get seen at all now because of it all.

[Swegin]

2 minutes ago, jasong said:

It's a shame because there are some amazing finds in the state that just never get seen at all now because of it all.

Yep.  I was blessed this past weekend to see and hold some very nice multi ounce pieces that were found by a friend with a 7000.  You will never see these on any forum.

 

[BagdadAz]

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The guy is asking for general opinions, not a pointy finger to somebody’s personal honey hole.

Correct Steve, perhaps I should have been more clear on that point so thanks for pointing that out.

[BagdadAz]

1 hour ago, jasong said:

Just as a general idea, there is detectable gold in the wider Bagdad area, if that helps keep the spirits up for a little more exploration closer to home. 

I've had absolutely horrible and entirely regretable experience sharing specific areas with some people in Arizona, leaving a lot of areas I loved completely and utterly decimated. It's happened to others too, and there are a lot of people highly guarded about discussing areas in Arizona as a result of it. It's a shame because there are some amazing finds in the state that just never get seen at all now because of it all.

That's definitely a shame so I get your reluctance to share information on hard won areas after putting in the time and legwork to discovery. I wouldn't be surprised to find that attitude prevalent in other areas as well. 

[BagdadAz]

6 hours ago, aerospace guy said:

Steve H...I agree! I personally posted what club claim I found several nuggets on in the El Paso mountains. I had gone over and over the claims and did share the info. I even took a several friends in the club there. If they can be successful then I'm happy for them and would like to bring a big smile to their faces. One person had a GPX6000 and I knew he could get deeper than I could with my EQ800...so unless and until I pull the trigger on a 6000..best of luck to him. I have to say though that most times in life..not always, that I find how you treat people is reciprocated. The 6000 owner offered to split everything he found. he was not successful but he offered to go out together and let me get some hands-on-time with his 6000 and I am going to take him up on it.

That sounds like a win-win for both of you guys. I was thinking of doing something similar as I  have pretty much exhausted a small patch in the Bradshaws using my 5000. Having someone else go over the same ground with either a 6000 or a 7000 could be interesting and might convince me to upgrade at least to the 6000. Incidently I've had some success here with a drywasher and another operator has recovered a fair amount of fine gold using a GB2.

I have never done any prospecting in the El Paso mountains although I've passed through Randsburg  a time or two.  Sure seems like a hot (good) area to prospect so maybe one of these days.