I looked back at it and my description of Yucca was'almost' right LOL T'was Gold they were after and I thought it was Silver -
LOL - last time I was there, Yucca consisted of a automobile test track outside of town, a VERY General store/hotel and about 8 or 9 houses. That General Store sold hay for mules, even had a stable and blacksmith, provided assay service for the miners, sold provisions, bar, meals, and even had a number of Comfort Girls who provided for the needs of the silver prospectors. I really liked to see their converted farm wagons which had a back porch that they loaded with hay, had their bed, kitchen, food storage, everything! All pulled by a pair of mules. They would go out prospecting and bring their gleanings in to the store - have it assayed and sell it - bought their provisions for the next trip and then blew the remaining money at the bar and with their temporary partners. When it was gone, they would hitch up their mules and go trailing off into the distance in their search.
You were certainly right as to where the prospectors went - I remember them trailing off toward the West - toward a mountain range that was East of the Colorado river boundry with California.
The wagons they had reminded me of the Gypsy wagons I'd seen pictures of in Romania or Hungary.
Some place in those mountains, there is a vein of pure gold.
A prospector, brought in samples to Needles, Calif.
Later the prospector got caught in a storm, but 2 of his burros were found tangled reins hooked on a tree and the back packs full of pure gold.
No one has ever found them.
I found one canyon that had been worked, rough and beautiful, but most of the work was the surface soil.
To the east of Yucca, is silver and southeast is copper.
You would enjoy a book by NeLL Murbarger [sp?] the name of the book is “Ghosts of the Adobe Walls”.....a lot of it is around Yucca and the photos of the Signal Canteen, is where I took clients to camp for a weekend.
They had sold their riding stable and moved to Kingman, and brought the dogs with them.
We were sitting around the campfire, talking and Joyce said
“You don’t suppose those dogs found a horse do you?”
LOL, they were working dogs and went out into the brush and rounded up all the ranchers horses, wild horses and burros and brought them to the camp.
The ore from the Alsea mine was shipped to Wales for processing, it is beautiful country and I never had a chance to fully explore it.
I have long laughed at the “campers” for trucks, for they are indeed the Gypsy wagons, the Chuck wagons and the Covered wagons that are so much a part of our history.