This blog is brought to you by Peggy, Ray, Judy and Gary. We have traveled to the western middle part of Arizona to Wickenberg and joined up with Peggy and Ray Derrick. This is the story of our visit to the historic Vulture Gold Mine near Wickenberg Arizona. Before we start I need to introduce Peggy and Ray. We used to work together at the Boise Cascade Paper mill in St. Helens Oregon. They retired shortly after Gary did, and have moved to the Escapee’s park in Congress AZ. This is where we came to meet them.
This mine has everything. A Glory Hole, a 3,000 foot deep mine shaft half full of water, tumbledown buildings, cyanide laced tailings, rattlesnakes, scorpions, ghosts and a hanging tree. Apparently the mine closed at the beginning of World War II. Everyone just walked away from the mine and the buildings were just left to tumble down. The big equipment has mostly been stripped out, but the cookhouse still has a huge wood or coal fired stove in it. The five door ice box stands open and dishes are drying on the drain board. The Assay office reminded us of the lab at Boise Cascade in St. Helens. There were pipettes, burettes and crucibles scattered about the work benches. This building is built from some of the same rock that was mined, and is rumored to contain near a million dollars worth of gold and silver. The mine produced over $200 million in gold and silver before it was shut down in 1942. They estimate there are two or three times that much left in the mine. Anyone want to buy a gold mine, I hear tell it is for sale. Some of the buildings at the mine were built in 1884, but they don’t look a day over a hundred years old. We cautiously ventured into some of the buildings, but often the rafters were sagging and the floor boards were loose or missing. There is a huge ironwood tree in front of the ruins of Henry Wickenburg’s house. This is the infamous hanging tree where eighteen men were rumored to have been hung for “high-grading ore.” Apparently the owners didn’t take kindly to the workers helping their selves to the good stuff.
The Glory Hole deserves some special comments. This was a cavernous mine, apparently hand dug. It was mostly a large room and the original miners left large central columns to support the roof. In later years seven men and their mules were in the Glory Hole chipping away at the high grade ore that made up the columns. They calculated a little too close and the whole shebang caved in on them. Their bones are still under the rubble with their mules.
One has to speculate, are the ghosts from the eighteen hanged men or the seven foolish miners and their mules? We didn’t stick around after sundown to check out this part of the mine ledgends.
This site is also used for filming movies of the old west and occasionally for centerfold photo shoots. If you go to our website you will see our version of a centerfold. www.dinsmore-enterprises.com/20060110.html
From Arizona we all send our love and greetings – Peggy, Ray, Judy and Gary.
