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| no partners | | What an amazing destination! This place is literally in the middle of nowhere. The drive down into the canyon is so cool and the creek was full of small fish. Large lush sycamores were everywhere. Regretfully, the original cabins were nowhere to be found, however the beautiful river canyon quickly diverted my attention. I was like a kid in a candy store. The mine is located a little over a quarter mile upstream from the original cabin site on a hillside along the west side of the creek. Access is via an elaborate man made trail. The mine access route is a wide elevated path with a well-built stone retention wall. This mine must have been quite a site when it was in operation. I love to picture in my mind how the original structures and equipment must have looked like. If old sycamores trees could talk...
The combination of the overall remoteness, limited visitors, pioneer history, and the beautiful river canyon pushed this destination high on my list of favorite places to visit. Spring Creek Mine is great 4x4 day trip or weekend campout! Most stock four-wheel drive vehicles are sufficient for reaching this destination. Compact/midsize vehicles are recommended. 
Mindat.org statement...
A former underground Au-Pb-Ag-Cu mine located in the NE1/4 SW1/4 sec. 36, T9N, R12E, 7 miles SW of Young, located along Spring Creek, 1 1/4 mile SW of Mail Box Mesa, on National Forest land. Produced 1926-1931. The property was comprised of 12 unpatented claims in 1981. Owned by Mr. Lee Folks, Young, AZ, and Mr. Evart Bunger, Globe, AZ (1981). Operated by the Silver Bullet Co. of Young, AZ (1981). Past operators included John Carolan; M. McAuliffe; and Spring Creek Leasing. A Mr. Mankins operated the mine for gold previous to 1926.
Mineralization is a vein deposit with ore in lenses, stringers, and mainly lenticular bodies, hosted in Precambrian Pinal Schist. The ore zone is 365.76 meters long, 0.91 meters wide, striking N60E, and dipping 80S to vertical. The vein ranges in size from stringers to 3 feet locally, but averages a few inches wide. Ore concentration was secondary mineralization and mesothermal from pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena.
Area structures include the scistosity of the Precambrian Pinal Schist, which generally trends N40-60E. The shcist is overlain by Scanlon Conglomerate about 100 feet thick. Unconformably above is a Tertiary basalt flow. South of the deposit is a mass of Precambrian quartz porphyry. Precambrian Apache Group is exposed in the region, but is missing near the mine. Veins are structurally undisturbed locally, although there may be a fault along Spring Creek.
1981 plans were to clean up old workings and produce ore from a small block. |
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| MATTHEW 11:28-30 / PSALM 84:1-2 |
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