Desert Messenger

February 19, 2014 www.DesertMessenger.com 21 Registra� on BEGINS for The GRAND Gathering ON MONDAY FEBRUARY 10TH! Pick up your Offi cial T-Shirts and Lapel Pins 9am - noon Monday through Friday at QIA Offi ce. Quartzsite Improvement Assoc. 235 E. Ironwood. Be Part of History! REGISTRATION PACKAGES GUINNESS WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST HUMAN LETTER "Q" takes place SUN. MARCH 9TH at 2pm. Par� cipants must wear sky blue (or Offi cial The GRAND Gathering T-Shirts) www.TheGrand Gathering .com Open to all ages! QIA: 928-927-6325 Dome Rock Mountain Mine Excerpts from " In the Shadow of Saguaros " by Rosalee Oldham Wheeler Voices from The Past in Quartzsite, AZ Treasure seekers from all around the world came to what is now known as Southwestern Arizona in search gold, silver, copper, and many other valuable minerals. First, it was the Spanish Conquis- tadors, followed by dreamers of for- tune from England, Wales, France, Scotland, and Germany, among others. For centuries the amazing variety of minerals found here was the magnet that lured these intrepid entrepreneurs across the oceans, up the Sea of Cortez and Colorado Riv- er, and then on out into the desert hills in search of a glory hole. Still today there are scores of seekers la- boring in the mineral rich mountains of La Paz County working claims with an undauntable conviction that tomorrow they too will strike their own fabulous bonanza. Much of Arizona's fame and for- tune rests on the billions of dollars that have come from its mines and it was these early miners that paid the heavy price of loneliness, lack of adequate provisions, thieves, and swindlers. In 1862, Indian acquaintances of Paulino Weaver gave him a few specimens of pure gold. Weaver asked the Indians to show him the source of the gold, whereupon Weav- er worked the rich gold-bearing gravels fi nding many more similar speci- mens. Word spread like wildfi re and within days La Paz became the latest gold strike. Thir- teen years earlier, prospectors who later were known as "Forty-niners," had raced to pass over La Paz on their way to the big strike at Sutter's Mill in Northern California. But now that Sutter's Mill was playing out many Forty-niners rushed back to the La Paz Mining District. By the summer of 1863, Los Ange- les newspapers were printing stories on the rich gold fi elds of La Paz and the surrounding area where over 150 Americans, 500 Mexicans, and 2,000 Indians worked the diggings for gold. During the fi rst year of the new gold rush, gold nuggets were found as large as 47 ounces although the major- ity of nuggets ranged between one and 20 ounces. In 1863, gold was selling for $18.50 a troy ounce at an assay offi ce in San Francisco. As the high-grade La Paz gold placers started to diminish, miners began to spread out, some came over to the east side of the Dome Rock Mountains in search of gold on the SEE MINE PAGE 26 Dome Rock Mountain R&B ENTERPRISES 50 E. Kuehn • Space #27 • Quartzsite Marketplace LIQUIDATION SALE EVERYTHING MUST GO! • Solar Panels - 140 st. $ 275 00 ea. "Meet or Beat All Prices!" • Solar Accessories • Controllers • LED Lights - Buy 2 Get 1 FREE! • Mats 8x12 - $ 19 95 • 8x16 - $ 29 95 • SOLAR PANEL LIFT! Raise and lower your panels from within your RV and increase output by 80%! No more crawling on your roof! * * UP TO 50% OFF * * I Wish to Thank all my Customers ~Ray CALL 360-471-3-4396 * Sale ends February 28, 2014

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