Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-17
LA PAZ MAKES HEADWAY
ON YUMA COUNTY PLACER
Rich Region Near Colorado River
Enters Era of Second
Golden Development

The New La Paz Gold Mining com
pany, 3O4-3O7 Merchants Trust build
ing. is reported to be making head
way toward developing its placer prop
erty, located in Yuma county, Ariz,
twelve miles from Eherenberg and four
miles from La Paz., both on the Colo
RADIO river.
This is one of the old gold properties
of that rich placer region, which has
attracted wide attention the past sew
eral months.
In a report submitted by r. A. Ra-
sar. civil and mining engineer, he says
Gold was first discovered in the La
Paz district in 1862, and these gulches
were vigorously worked up until 1863,
during which time there was, from best
accounts. $500, 900 worth of coarse gold
taken out of the gulch which is now
the company's property; also S1,200,OOO
taken from an adjoining gulch.
"The gold found Is very coarse and
in all probability is derived principally
from the small stringer of rich ore in
the schist which forms the major por-
tion of the country rock. Heavy gold
is also found on the hillside, where no
gravel exists.
"The property of the New La Paz
Gold Mining company consists of two
40-acre claims and one 26-acre claim,
in and near the head of Goodman
gulch. and adjoins the Goodman quartz
mine in the east Also two 160-acre
claims extending west towards the
Colorado river The first are known as
the Valasco Arizona and La Dura
mining claims. The others are called
the Esther and the La Paz.
early in the summer of 1859 all the
Inhabitants of La Paz, and miners in
the district. were ordered off by the
government, as ii was found to be on
the Indian reserve. and the town, then
being the county seat of Yuma county,
was removed to the present site of
Yuma, at that time called Arizona
City. Since then the ground has lain
idle until last March when new line
to the reserve was established, cutting
out the mining ground and throwing
1t open to prospectors.
TWO COMPANIES AT WORK
already there are two large COM
panies organized and at work recoV-
ering gold from these gravel beds which
were Immediately taken up after the
new line was established Large plants
have been installed and are using the
dry wash method, about four miles to
the east of the La Paz company's
holdings.
Your idea of working the property
with water instead of the dry process
may be accomplished in the following
manner:
by placing a pump station at the
river and forcing the water through a
pipe line to an elevation of 200 feet
above the gravel beds, then using it
by gravity, -, ..,-
the distance from available water to
the property to be Az miles, and an
elevation of $50 feet to be overcome,
in order to raise the water 200 feet
above the gravel beds. I would recon-
mend the installation of plant cap
able of lifting 70 inches of water to the
hills above the gulch, when 1t would
be received in a storage reservoir. The
reservoir should be of such capacity
that about 200 inches of water could
be used for eight hours continuous
run, and the pumping station kept
running continuously. That amount
of water would give eight hours run
and would handle from 500 to 1000 yards
of gravel per day.
From lack of facilities our pros
pecting was somewhat limited, but
after taking samples from thirty diff
ferent places. one cubic foot each of
gravel on the upper claims, we found
the gravel to contain $3.50 worth of
gold per cubic yard, and from measure
ments | estimate 100000 yards of
gravel on the upper claims alone.
"Freight may be brought into the
camp by wagons from Parker, which is
on the Santa Fe railroad, a distance
of 35 miles to the north, or brought
down the river on boats from the same
place. The climate is quite pleasant
for about eight onths of the year, but
during the hot summer months, almost
unbearable."