Eureka!

Stanton, Arizona, is a ghost town that seems to center around hobby gold mining. It is about 30 miles north of Wickenburg (which is about 30 miles northwest of Phoenix). People are bustling about on ATVs, pickups or jeeps on the rough roads, swinging metal detectors or throwing dirt into a dry washer. The cow in this picture seems content enough, but when we first arrived there wasn’t enough grass so the cows were throwing their heads into the air, trying to swallow the prickly pear cactus, spines and all! Here is a picture of the demolished cactus. I hiked to this cross erected on the top of one of Rich Hill’s shoulders, supposedly by the Spanish conquistadors, as one of our neighbors told me. However, it turned out to have steel cables holding it up and white peeling paint, which makes me think it is 1930’s or 1950’s vintage. We stayed by Octave, actually a flat area with a lot of junk left from the residents of the 1880’s, but no buildings left. One of the barrel cactus started blooming before we left, a bright red with yellow stamens that almost looked plastic! White daisy-like plants are everywhere, just covered with blossoms. Next we decided to check out the gold claims in the Black Canyon, straight north of Phoenix about 30 miles. Of course, this big Gila Monster lives right by our trailer, along with a not-so-friendly rattlesnake that I met about ¼ mile away. The area is filled with mines and flowers – here’s a view. Ron and I took on a very rugged ride on the ATV; this stretch really was a challenge, but we made it (we ended up getting off and I pushed while Ron walked alongside and ran the accelerator). I don’t know what this white flower is, but it was so pretty down by the stream in the desert! So yesterday I decided to dig in the bedrock crevices by the stream, and lo and behold, my first good-sized nugget! Here I am with my gold and here it is – very flat! I am excited, it was so fun to see it appear as I panned the material away from it. Finally – gold!