Bonanza Mine - LA Paz County
Where: La Paz County Near Harquahala Mountain South of Salome Arizona about 1800 feet elevation.
Travel Conditions: 2WD high clearance vehicle
Operation Dates: Discovered in 1888 and worked through 1918. It was worked intermittently on a small scale by reworking the tailings to 1964.
Description: Harquahala's post office was established March 5, 1891 and discontinued December 31, 1932. The Bonanza and Gold Eagle veins that were responsible for Harquahala's existence were discovered in November 1888. Harqua Hala sprang into existence immediately and even sported its own newspaper, the "Harquahala Miner". A 20 stamp mill was erected and gold was cast into 400 lb ingots. This proved to be a problem as they sometimes broke through the transport wagon's floor unbeknownst to the drivers. There was rumored to be a lot of high grading in Harquahala. Children would sing loudly while their fathers scrapped the arrastra beds for residual gold. Today there are only a few ruins left. (ghostowns.com)
Harqua Hala (often spelled this way in early days) was the town that served the miners and their families for the Harquahala Mine located just south of the community.
In the Mojave tongue, Harquahala means running water high up.
Spanish explorers in the Harquahala Mountains discovered gold in the 1760’s. Attempts to recover the gold deemed unsuccessful at that time, then once again failure in 1814. Pima Indians were hostile and drive off the prospectors during that era.
Herman Ehrenburg in 1863 discussed with Henry Wickenburg that he had found a promising location in the Little Harquahala Mountains. After Wickenburg explored the area he agreed it had potential for riches. Wickenburg upon his return trip from Little Harquahalas, discovered an even richer vain "The Vulture Mine" and Henry Wickenburg forgot all about Little Harquahala potential.
In the early days the Harquahala area mines produced very rich gold ore and continued for a number of years to produce ore in vast quantities. This abundance of gold was certain to make the poorly paid miners greedy. Highgrading, the practice of miners stealing highgrade ore from the mine owners, could be easily done in a working arrastra that was used for crushing highgrade ore, by scraping out the gold that had been liberated from the ore or by pocketing the ore that contained visible gold.
Typically most of these mines only produced highgrade ore for a few years and as the values fell they were forced to cyanide the ore to keep the mine in operation.
All good things must come to an end and mining ceased operations at the Harquahala Mine in 1907. (Arizona Pioneer and Cemetery Research Project)
Workings include an inclined shaft and many hundreds of feet of drifts on 7 levels, to a depth of 182.88 meters. Workings involve the Bonanza shaft: 600 feet deep with levels at 110, 200 and 500 feet; other workings include the Mollina shaft (110 feet); the Roy shaft (65 feet deep with a 70 foot crosscut); the Roy shaft No. 2 (50 feet deep); the New Deal Claim shaft (100 feet deep); the Summit shaft (100 feet deep); the Roy tunnel (300 feet long); the Summit Lower tunnel (175 feet long); and, the Summit Upper tunnel (125 feet long). During the 1984-1986 period, Peter Kiewit Inc. performed a geologic evaluation and surface drilling project here. (mindat)
What you will see today: Today there are a few adobe buildings standing and the cemetery alongside the rode. There are a few mine shafts in the area which have been covered or collapsed.
Comments: It is one of the locations that can be reached with a 2WD vehicle with some interesting history. Several graves are marked in the cemetery alongside the rode.
Minerals Mined: Primary mineral was gold with secondary minerals being silver, copper, and lead.
Acknowledgement: Arizona Pioneer and Cemetery Research Project, ghostowns.com