Gila Bend - Rowley Mine

**Field Collecting: Gila Bend, AZ**
Lake Pleasant Geodes Maricopa County Arizona
[2006] Painted Rock Reservoir, Painted Rock, Arizona. While your making a visit to the Rowley mine, take a short drive down to the Painted Rock reservoir. This is a great place to visit for bird watching and, maybe, a picnic lunch. Unfortunately, they have closed off the road to the old camp sites, picnic tables, and boat launch to vehicles. You will have to walk about a mile to the spillway from the gravel parking area. The road to the spillway is paved.
[2006]
[2006] The spillway at the end of the road at Painted Rock reservoir.
ROWLEY MINE (Wulfenite, Mimetite, Silicated Chrysocolla)
View of the mine shaft opening in the ground. This mine was originally operated as a gold mine but , when that didn't pan out, it was closed for many years until Bill Jaeger and two other investors bought the property as a specimen mine. For current access information to the Rawley mine: Bill Jaeger, 3441 E. Astro Dr., Hereford, AZ 85615 (520) 803-6590
[2006] Bill is giving us "The safety talk". Evidently, some of us are more interested in what was lying on the ground than hearing about safety.
[2006] The first group of miners ready to enter the mine. We were limited to groups of 10-12 miners in the mine at one time.
[2006] Here we go. . . Notice the fan to bring in some fresh air and the a-frame hoist above the orange cone. We used the hoist to bring up our filled specimen buckets and tools. After about a half hour of busting material off of the mine walls, the large amount of dust we stirred up made it difficult to see what we were pounding on. Also, all those bodies in the mine shaft started to gererate a lot of extra heat!
Highly mineralized walls. There are some small Wulfenite crystals in this picture but most of the yellow material is Mimetite.
Wulfenite specimen from the Rowley mine wall in the previous picture.
Chrysocolla
Silicated Chrysocolla

Wulfenite/Chrysocolla
Art Mott - President of the Gem & Mineral Society of Louisiana
Darell Young in the foreground.
Faye Burke - of Gatlinburg, TN and a member of the Georgia Mineral Society
Ron and Faye Burke
Working the tailings for Wulfenite, Mimetite, and Silicated Chrysocolla.
Bob looks like he found a treasure!

Field Collecting: Gila Bend, AZ

Lake Pleasant Geodes
Maricopa County Arizona

[2006]

Painted Rock Reservoir, Painted Rock, Arizona. While your making a visit to the Rowley mine, take a short drive down to the Painted Rock reservoir. This is a great place to visit for bird watching and, maybe, a picnic lunch. Unfortunately, they have closed off the road to the old camp sites, picnic tables, and boat launch to vehicles. You will have to walk about a mile to the spillway from the gravel parking area. The road to the spillway is paved.

[2006]

[2006]

The spillway at the end of the road at Painted Rock reservoir.

ROWLEY MINE
(Wulfenite, Mimetite, Silicated Chrysocolla)

View of the mine shaft opening in the ground. This mine was originally operated as a gold mine but , when that didn't pan out, it was closed for many years until Bill Jaeger and two other investors bought the property as a specimen mine.

For current access information to the Rawley mine:
Bill Jaeger, 3441 E. Astro Dr., Hereford, AZ 85615 (520) 803-6590

[2006]

Bill is giving us "The safety talk".
Evidently, some of us are more interested in what was lying on the ground than hearing about safety.

[2006]

The first group of miners ready to enter the mine.
We were limited to groups of 10-12 miners in the mine at one time.

[2006]

Here we go. . .

Notice the fan to bring in some fresh air and the a-frame hoist above the orange cone. We used the hoist to bring up our filled specimen buckets and tools. After about a half hour of busting material off of the mine walls, the large amount of dust we stirred up made it difficult to see what we were pounding on. Also, all those bodies in the mine shaft started to gererate a lot of extra heat!