Return to Hayden/Winkelman, Arizona in Search of Other Old Mine Sites

In 2006, I revisited some of the old mines that I had been to while growing up in the Hayden/Winkelman area of Central Arizona. In February of 2007, I went out to several others.

The first two mines are located in sand washes that drain into the Gila River southwest of Winkelman.These mines are east of the Manriquez Claims that I described in my wanderings of 2006.

There are roads up to the old mines. But they may be more suitable for ATV's than full-sized vehicles. I was out for a walk and so parked my truck while the going was still pretty good and did a 4 mile loop to connect the two sites.

Click on Photos to Enlarge.

Mine Site 1:

Mine Site 2:

The attraction for this site was that years ago, there was still an ore car back in a haulage tunnel. It was on the other side of a winze and so maybe it was still there. Well the collapse of the tunnel and the buzzings of a Mr. Rattlesnake kept me from really getting too close on this trip. So the ore car may still be there.

Mine Site 3:

West of the Manriquez Claims in Hackberry Wash is the Hackberry Mine. It consists of a flooded tunnel, a stone building that once housed an old Ingersoll Rand Compress, and a tin storage building. No one that I know, knows of any production from this old mine.

Mine Sites 4, 5 and 6:

I also returned to the Dripping Spring Mountains in February. This time I walked into the south side of the range from Kane Spring Canyon west of Kearny. My route took me up and over Tiger Mountain, down to the Buckeye Mine, west to the Alice Mine and back to my truck through Hackberry Canyon. Kane Spring Canyon was once part of the stagecoach route from Globe to Florence.

Just north of Tiger Mountain, I found the dumps and smelter site associated with the Buckeye Mine that was in operation from about 1903-1951. It was a copper, silver and gold producer. There isn't a lot left laying around the old mine area except for piles of unused crushed limestone and coke that was probably used to fire the smelter. There were also several piles of used firebrick from the furnace linings that were marked "LAPBCo". Those were apparently made by the Los Angeles Pressed Brick Company, a California company that was in business through the 1920's in California.

Southwest of the Buckeye Mine at the end of an old road is the Alice Mine which was also an early producer. The dump is grown over with mesquite trees and the tunnel with its mine rail is flooded. About the only materials laying around was some light duty piping that was probably used for ventilation air. It had taken some effort to construct the road down to the Alice Mine.

After visiting the Alice Mine, I decided to head down the canyon until I cleared the main mountain mass and then I would turn east back to my truck. I expected the walking to be strictly bushwhacking, but was surprised to stumble onto a pretty clear trail. The trail passed several cottonwood trees and continued to a couple of adits, a rock ruin, the remains of a very ornate cook stove, and several old shovels and a windlass handle. The mine area was not marked on the map and I do not know its identity.