Gold Bar Mine - Yavapai County

 

Where: North of Wickenburg Arizona along Constellation Road

 

Travel Conditions: Constellation Road is a dirt road which can be traveled with a high clearance 2WD vehicle.

 

Operation Dates:  Discovered in 1877 with production declining in 1934

 

Description:  GOLD BAR OR O'BRIEN MINE - The Gold Bar or O'Brien mine is 15 miles by road northeast of Wickenburg and 2.7 miles northeast of Constellation.  This deposit was located in 1888 by J. Mahoney. About 1901, the Saginaw Lumber Company erected a 10-stamp mill on the property and is reported to have treated 4,000 tons of ore that yielded about $60,000. In 1907-1908, the Interior Mining and Trust Company is reported to have mined the ore body from the surface to the 385-foot level on the incline. This company erected a 100-ton mill, equipped with stamps, amalgamation plates, tables, and vanners. Heikes states that the 1907 production amounted to $33,402 in bullion and concentrates. These concentrates averaged, per ton, 2 ounces of gold, 3 ounces of silver, 49 per cent of iron, 15 per cent of silica, and 15 per cent of sulphur. He also states that, in 1908, $91,749 worth of gold came from the Black Rock district of which the largest producer was the Interior Mining and Trust Company. About 1915, the company was reorganized as the Gold Bar Mining Company and a vertical shaft was sunk to the 700-foot level. In February, 1934, the property was under the trusteeship of the Commonwealth Trust Company, of Pittsburg, and was being worked in a small way by lessees.  This region has been deeply dissected by northward-flowing tributaries of Hassayampa Creek. The principal rock is medium grained granite, with some inclusions of schist. It is intruded by pegmatite, granite-porphyry, and basic dikes. Fissuring in N. 70° E. and S. 30° E. directions is evident. The vein, which outcrops on the western side of O'Brien Gulch, at an altitude of 3,400 feet, occurs within a fissure zone that strikes N. 70° E. and dips 30° NW. Its filling consists of coarsely crystalline, glassy, grayish-white quartz. In places, the quartz from the oxidized zone is rather cellular with cavities that contain abundant hematite and limonite formed from pyrite. Pyrite is present in the deeper workings. The gold occurs as fine to mediumly coarse particles, both in the quartz and with the iron minerals. The wall rock shows intense sericitization.   The mine workings indicate that the ore shoot was a chimney that measured about 40 by 50 feet in cross-section at the surface and plunged 30° SW. (www.azgs.az.gov)

 

The Gold Bar Mine According to O'Brien and Hutchinson family records F. X. O'Brien was born in St. Louis in late 1848. He came west as a young man and along with, James Mahoney discovered the Gold Bar Mine in 1877. O'Brien apparently spent time in the Wickenburg area, however his primary residence was Leadville, Colorado in the 1870's and 80's where he owned mining interests and a gambling establishment (The Board of Trade). He was an associate of Horace Tabor. In 1888, he returned to Wickenburg and married Patricia Hutchinson daughter of W. T. Hutchinson, an engineer at the Vulture Mine. The O'Brien family settled in Wickenburg, purchased Henry Wickenburg's home, and after F. X.'s death, Patricia turned it into Wickenburg's first dude ranch. O'Brien held other mining properties including the Camp-B and Consolidated Union Grande Mining Companies. He was an officer in the Interior Mining and Trust Company that owned the Gold Bar, and managed it for the corporation. Business associates were a Mr. Twitchell and John Fisher. Both Fischer's and O'Brien's signatures can be seen on the 1907 Interior Mining and Trust stock certificate. A family photograph shows F. X. with his crew at the mine. The date is uncertain, and the quality of this photograph poor, but Mr. O'Brien can be seen on the far left. Later, he sold his interest in the mine. He died early in 1926 and is buried in Phoenix. - Karl Schiller (http://www.ghosttowns.com)

 

What you will see today:  At the Gold Bar Mine there is a head frame standing above the main shaft.  There is metal building that houses the old winch for lowering ore cars and miners into the mine shaft.  The motor to the winch is no longer present at the site.  There is a second smaller building off to the side of the head frame.  Just across from the head frame the old mill foundation can be seen and a couple of water tanks.  

 

Comments: There are several mining locations along Constellation road and the old town of Constellation.  The drive down this road is worth the time if you have interest in old mining history in Arizona.  The Gold Bar Mine provides a glimpse into the mining history with the old head frame and winch building.

 

This is in a desert location and the temperatures can be extreme.  Go prepared for the high temperatures of visit during the winter months.

 

Minerals Mined: Gold was the primary mineral mined at the Gold Bar Mine with secondary minerals of silver and copper.

 

Acknowledgement: www.azgs.az.gov, www.ghosttowns.com