Placerita Arizona

Thursday afternoon we took a little drive into the eastern Weaver Mountains where Mike showed me the old town site of Placerita.

Placerita Gulch, located east of Kirkland Junction, was the site of gold for many early prospectors.

The area was and still is used for goat and cattle grazing.

After about an hour drive on well graded roads we parked, backed into a dry wash which was probably also the original road into town.

Gold was first discovered here by Mexican Placeros in 1863 then abandoned after the surface gold was taken.

There is evidence of the old mill used in this hard rock mining operation opened in the 1880s by “Grizzly” Callen.

And loads of rusty stuff, mostly tin cans.

Yet the only remaining building, or at least partially, was the combination post office, church and community building.

Mike says the front wall wasn’t missing when he visited over a year ago.

Placerita’s post office was established Feb 1, 1896 and discontinued August 15, 1910. A population of 30 was reported in 1905.

We wandered down the wash and found a trail leading to a mine shaft portal.

Although there’s a claim sign on the locked door into the mine it doesn’t look like anybody’s been there in a long while.

The area is littered with milky white quartz veined with iron. Oh, and that’s mica on the top all shiny.

Yet the primary rock in the area is Precambrian granite, gneiss and schist, and Cenozoic basalt and other volcanic rocks.  We found no gold but had a great time exploring.