[Arizona Bob]

Hi there guys and gals. My name is Bob Long and I have been a member of the forum for about a week now. I am 62 years old and have been an active prospector for about 3 years. I am an Arizona native, born in Phoenix in 1947. In 1969 I joined the U.S. army and served this great nation for 20 years. I retired at Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri. I married a beautiful Missouri girl in 1990 and now reside outside of Ft. Wood. I currently work for the Missouri Department of Corrections as a Corrections Officer.
I recently became the owner of an 80 acre placer gold claim in Yavapai County. All the reasearch I have been able to do indicates that this claim is located in a very good area. It is on the East slopes of the Bradshaw Mountains in the Black Canyon District. It is about 5 or 6 miles SSW of Cordes and 5 or 6 miles East of Cleator. I am planning a trip out there sometime in March or April. I would like to hear from anyone who has prospected in that area and might be able to give me any information that you think could be helpful.
Thanks for reading and may all your pans be filled with gold.

[keitharmy]

Fort Wood huh... A good friend of mine was out there last fall going through MP OBC. I had a chance to come out there a few times. Beautiful place. Lots of wonderful places to fish and plenty of wardens to hand out tickets to you if you have the wrong license for your spot.... yes it happened to me, the pictures of me talking to officer Smith were hilarious.

Anyway, welcome

[Rod]

Hey Bob, is the auction URL still live? Or can you post the name of the claim or more info on it? I don't find any persons named Long in Missouri holding claims in AZ in the public records but if it was a recent sale then that makes sense as it takes months sometimes for the government to update information. Once we know where it really is we might be able to provide some insight as 5 or 6 miles SSW of Cordes and 5 or 6 miles East of Cleator does not make a lot of sense as far as placement goes, as Cordes is about 4-5 miles NE of Cleator.

Welcome and thanks for your service to our great nation

[Arizona Bob]

Hi Rod. Accually I have one more payment before the claim can be filed into my name. The name of the claim is the Willow Wash Gold 2 south 1/2. The current owner is Steve Karolyi. The distance I just made a stab at. After looking at the map I would say that as the crow flies, about 1 1/2 miles SSW of Cordes and 1 1/2 miles East of cleator. The South West corner of the claim lies very close to Government Spring Wash. I hope this will help to zero you in a bit better. Nice talking to you and I hope to hear from you soon.

[Lotsa Luck]

IMHO it doesn't look good. Looks like a recent claim called Willow Wash Gold that they are subdividing and selling off. Not that a newly filed claim is always a bad one, but the location for this one is only known for some copper nuggets being found to the NW of it. I know of a little gold found near it but not much and the bedrock in its main drainage is pretty deep. It gets a lot of traffic also being in the fork of the roads. Some good gold below the Hidden Treasure mine downstream from this claim but not much on it that I know of.

I hope I'm wrong for your benefit.

[Gilaoro]

I am afraid that losta luck is right, we have lots of shyesters out here that stake ground just to sell on eBay and other internet sites, hope you didn't pay much for it. It is never a good ideal to buy a claim without testing and local knowledge.

There are people in the business who are geologists, assayers, and mining consulants and they have extensive files on gold bearing properties
and for a nominal fee will give you an opinion, of course the more you ask for the more you pay. A good one will know what properties are available and have an ideal of their worth and will do it all for you from purchasing /claiming to all the plans and permits you need to do your level of operation.

Mostly they deal in high value property but they also know about the smaller stuff too so it don't hurt to ask one in the area of your interest,
I have received some good tips from one that I know and worked out deals with owners of patented and regular claims to prospect them on a precentage basis.

In return I am happy to oblige them when when they need some samples from a particular location, after all its called prospecting !

In my opinion a very high number of claims in the popular winter visitor areas of AZ are not valid claims, a claim even though filed with the county clerk and the managing agency is not valid until all the P & Qs are covered , IE: pruident man rule, proper marking, archeology surveys, etc etc, the list goes on & on and has been covered on the forum many times, most of the eBay claims are "Paper Claims" and very little has been done to them to make them valid, beleive me if one of the big companys comes by and wants your 20 acres you might as well bend over and enjoy it!

The last claims despute I was involved in the signature page had 200 lawyers names on it for their side!!
It is easier and cheaper to just join some of the clubs, check these out and

http://roadrunnergold.com/

http://home.att.net/...t-gold-diggers/

http://www.havasugoldseekers.com/

http://groups.yahoo....yguid=131021912

http://minerscreek.s...g-club/list.htm

http://home.att.net/...old/azclubs.htm

[Rod]

Like Bob said I see the claim on file with the Yavapai county recorder named "Willow Wash Gold" but not "Willow Wash Gold 2". Additionally, "Willow Wash Gold 2" is not listed in the LR2000. It could be a very new claim which is not necessarily bad but it makes you wonder why a claim was staked and then quickly sold? But its not illegal to stake and sell claims, business is business.

If Bob is right and they are sub dividing Willow Wash Gold and selling it then I agree that is not the best area for gold. You would be very lucky to see a half gram a day drywashing but there may be a stray nugget or two there. Its very sandy in parts, lighter material. I held some claims in section 6 NW of there years ago and we found very good gold, nugs up to 1/4 ounce, the patch we found in section 6 yielded several ounces total. Travis Brown also found a patch of nice nugs just off our claims in section 6 around that time on unclaimed ground. He showed me his patch area years ago when a group of us hit the nearby RR claims. I feel comfortable mentioning this as these two patches are long since cleaned out. Might be a crumb or two left but no bonanza and trying to find two old patches in once large section would take a long time to accomplish.

Max makes some good points, for a few hundred bucks you could join a few clubs and have access to proven ground.