BIRD TAILINGS Volume 34-1 A Monthly Newsletter Published by the RoadRunner Prospectors’ Club January 2020 President’s Corner Happy New Year. I hope everyone was safe over the holidays. Was Santa good to you? Did you get that new metal detector, dry washer, or dredge? No? Me neither. But all my family and I have pretty good health, so there are no complaints from me. If you didn’t make it to the Christmas Lunch you missed out on good food, prizes, and good company. Lots of gold was given away along with the dry washer that the club has been raffling off. Check out this newsletter, our website, and Facebook page for pictures of the winners. Thank you, Chuck and Sheryal, for taking the lead on this and thanks to all the volunteers who worked hard and contributed gifts to make this another great luncheon. One reason I enjoy being a member of this club is seeing how generous my fellow members are. The Board approved a donation of $100 to the homeless veterans. We presented the check from the Roadrunners on behalf of Charlene Wilson, their representative. Seeing this, the hat was passed and members raised another $200 for the cause. What a great club! Thanks to all of you. The club has had a busy year. The Board has worked hard to bring the members some great outings and other events. We introduced a night time dig this year that was a great hit with the members who attended. We are planning another one this year. I hope to also have another equipment demonstration outing this year. Stay tuned for a lot of events. I want to thank Chuck and Sheryal Gentles, George Knecht, and Bill Hunt for being on the Board these past few years. It has been a pleasure working with them. They assured me they will still be around to help when needed. That’s just the way they are. I will miss having them on the Board but look forward to working with the existing Board members Lonny, Tom, Julie, Dusty, Mike, and our new Board members, Ray Bostwick, Les Love, Terry Blood, and new Treasurer Pam Hasey. Good news! We finally got all the legal issues out of the way and members can start using the Golden Nickel claim near Rye. This claim is in the Tonto National Forest so please be good stewards of the land. The map, information page, and the notice of intent (NOI) will be in this month's Bird Tailings. The claim was named for Bill Nickel, a past Board member and secretary for the club. Bill passed on a couple of years ago. Besides being a Board member and officer, he also ran the annual coin hunts along with his wife, Carol. We also have a new NOI for the Sando claims on map 12. We plan on having a dig in October on this claim. Thank you for giving me the honor of leading the Roadrunner Prospectors’ Club this past year. I look for- ward to a new year and some new challenges. God bless everyone. I hope the new year is a prosperous one for you. Les Glover RRPC President January 2020 Page 1 MONTHLY MEETINGS BOARD & OFFICE DIRECTORY General Meetings: 3rd Thursday of the month - 7:00 p.m. @ Arizona American Italian PRESIDENT Club, 7509 N. 12th St., Phoenix, AZ (No meeting in December) Les Glover Monthly Outings: Four organized digs, Coin Hunt, Spring Picnic and Christmas VICE PRESIDENT Party. Please refer to the Event Calendar on the last page. Guests are welcome to attend regular meetings and outings. Board Meeting: SECRETARY Tuesday of the week preceding the monthly meeting - 7:00 p.m. Julie Frink Club Office New Member Orientation: TREASURER Club Office at 9:00 a.m. See calendar for dates. Pam Hasey The Bird Tailings is published as a service to Roadrunner Prospectors’ 2 YEAR BOARD MEMBERS Club, Inc. members. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of Terry Blood Ray Bostwick the management or of its members. Publication of information in this Les Love Dusty Ramsey newsletter constitutes no guarantee of accuracy. Use of any information found in this newsletter is at the sole risk of the user. 1 YEAR BOARD MEMBERS Neither the RRPC, its Board, nor the editor of this publication assume Mike Combs Tom Frink any liability for damages resulting from the use of information found Lonny Wickersheim within the newsletter content. ————————————————————— The contents of this publication may not be reproduced, either in part or Office Manager Membership Manager in whole, without written consent of the Roadrunner Prospectors’ Club. Pete Baker Pete Baker The newsletter encourages submissions of any article mining related, Office Assistant Newsletter Laurel Wickersheim Julie Frink opinion pieces, cartoons, want-ads, sales of items, etc. Website Facebook Roadrunner Prospectors’ Club’s phone numbers: Tom Frink Tom Frink Voice message 602-274-2521 (The club phone is answered weekly, so for a quicker response, please Club Photographers email....see below.) Mike Slater Kevin Hasey Al Riefler Office Fax: 602-274-4335 Dues/Fees: Mailing address: • Annual dues are due by December 1st RRPC P.O. Box 56804 of each year. Phoenix, AZ 85079 • Federal Mining Charge (FMC) = Email: [email protected] ($47.00) due by December 1st of each year. Website: https://roadrunnergold.com/ • Operations Support Fee (OPS) = Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/487177372070802/ ($50.00) due by December 1st of each Year. (09/01/17 memberships) Club Office is located at: 2744 W. Osborn Rd. • $20.00 Map Packet Replacement Fee Phoenix, AZ 85017-5023 (Between Thomas Rd. and Indian School Rd, west of 27th Ave.) • $10.00 badge Replacement Fee Open 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Wednesdays. Mission Statement: Member Address Change Form: The goal of the Roadrunner Prospectors’ Club is Send to: RRPC, P.O. Box 56804, Phoenix, AZ 85079-6804 to educate members and the public in regard to or email: [email protected] recreational prospecting, including governmen- Member Number: ________ tal jurisdictions, environmental issues, and laws Name: ________________________________________ that we are mandated to follow. New Address: __________________________________ Vision Statement: The vision of the Roadrunner Prospectors’ Club __________________________________ is to educate the members and to bestow on fu- Phone Number: _________________________________ ture generations the needed knowledge to con- tinue recreational prospecting in an environmen- Email Address: __________________________________ tally friendly way. January 2020 Page 2 Quotes from the Members Throughout the newsletter, you will find random quotes from our members about what the RRPC means to them. Gold and Mount Ord, Part 2 By Jim Christensen The Mazatazl Mountain range runs from 4 Peaks in the south up to Payson in the north. About halfway between 4 Peaks and Payson is Mount Ord, which sits next to Highway 87. Mount Ord has a long history of both lost gold mines and real gold mines. The lost mines stories revolve around prospectors finding a quartz outcrop on Mount Ord heavily laced with gold only to be killed by Apaches on the way out of the mountains. When the remains of the prospectors were found, only the gold ore remained as silent testimony to their suc- cess. However, there are gold mines on Mount Ord which did have high grade gold ore that fit the descriptions of the lost mine stories. Primary of these is the Little Daisy, supposedly lo- cated in 1865, which fits into the time frame of the existence of nearby Camp Reno. As per Department of Mines documentation, the original glory hole pocket of this mine had gold ore that ran $10,000 to the ton, which at the old price of gold at $20.00 per ounce is 500 ounces of gold per ton of ore and that would be equal to $750,000.00 per ton at today’s price. This bonanza ore fits nicely with the description of the gold ore recovered from the unfortunate prospectors in the lost mine stories. Once the glory hole pocket at the Little Daisy was cleaned out, the remaining adjacent surface ore ran from $2000.00 to $2500.00 per ton ($187,500.00 per ton at today’s price), still bonanza material. In addition to this ore which was located at what would become the main mine shaft, there were several other scat- tered rich locations on the Little Daisy claims, one of which still had the remains of an ar- rastre in place when we visited it in 2003. In 1980, according to the Department of Mines records, the dump material from the vicinity of the arrastre was being processed and it ran 90 ounces to the ton. This high grade 90 ounce ore was discarded by the original arrastre operators as not containing enough gold to justify processing, indicating that there was more than one bonanza glory hole waiting to be found in the same area. Just to make things easy for the original prospectors, the Little Daisy deposits wouldn’t have been difficult to find as they were located on the lower slopes of Mount Ord. No need to climb steep grades or cross endless deserts, here was an area of rich gold deposits await- ing them in easily accessed canyons. Now, the only part of the Little Daisy mine that doesn’t fit the description of the lost mine stories is that it’s located on the south side of Mount Ord, while the lost mine stories put the gold ledges on the north side of the mountain. Maybe there’s still a bonanza gold ledge waiting to the found on the north slopes of Mount Ord! Note: The road into the area of the Little Daisy on the south side of Mount Ord has been locked and gated off by the Forest Service for 10 years.