Arizona desert plains and mountain ranges used to be rich resources of gold deposits.
Miners depleted most of the gold in Maricopa County, Arizona before 1900, although the southwestern county remains Arizona's fifth largest gold producer. During expeditions in the mid-19th century to mid-20th century, several districts hit the "mother lode" producing about 428,000 ounces of the rare deposit, mostly through lode mining. Lode gold occurs within solid rock unlike unconsolidated placer gold, which prospectors pan for in river and stream sediment. Finding placer and lode gold in Maricopa County is rare. A tourist's best bet is the San Domingo district in the South Wickenburg Mountains where half the fun is still the thrill of the hunt.
Instructions
1. Travel northeast of San Domingo district's Hassayampa River to townships 6S and 7S, Range 4W in the Wickenburg Mountains. For the layman, take Grand Avenue or I-60 northwest out of Phoenix to Morristown (27 miles). San Domingo Wash is just shy of nine miles northeast of Morristown (see Resources).
2. Scour the San Domingo Wash, nearby washes and tributaries as well as hilltops and slopes to find much of the district's gold placers. Washes are arroyo or canyon areas that are streambeds fed with intermittent rainfall. Red Picacho's 7.5 minute quadrangles (1:24,000 scale topographic maps) pinpoint the county's most productive placer deposits.
3. Pan for placers by sifting sediment through a placer or miner's pan. Wet panning in streams and rivers as well as dry panning through land sediment and washes commonly yield ounce-size nuggets. A gold nugget weighing one ounce is about the size of a quarter, depending on its shape.
4. Hone in on the precious metal with a metal detector if panning is not your thing. Finding ounce-size nuggets isn't uncommon.
Tags: Maricopa County, County Arizona, Domingo district, Domingo Wash, gold Maricopa, gold Maricopa County
