Uncle Sam Mine

Eight members of the Skyliners Hiking Group hiked to Uncle Sam Mine on 22 February 2014. From Cottonwood we drove east on Hwy 260 to I-17 and then south to Hwy 169 which we followed for 10.3 miles before turning right onto Old Cherry Road. We followed Old Cherry Road 1.7 miles, turned left onto Forest Road 531 and drove for 3.6 miles to the intersection with FR 519 (right) where we parked to start our hike.

Once through the gate on FR 519, we stopped for a group photograph.

Left to right: Robert Wakefield, Collene Maktenieks, Ruth Frazier, Connie Woolard, Lila Wright, Jim Manning and the author – photograph by Name Withheld

We found ourselves hiking along a forest road that was, at first, essentially level and in good condition; however, it soon became a little steeper and fairly rough, requiring a high clearance, preferably 4-wheel drive, vehicle.

Then about 1.2 miles from FR 531 we came to a spot in the road that would would certainly have deterred me from driving my 4-wheel drive pickup any further. A section of one side of the road (left) had collapsed where it had been undermined by erosion, and to pass it would place a full-size vehicle in a very precarious position that might cause it to topple into the wash alongside the road.

Another 0.3 miles brought us to an old corral and a gate that apparently divided an upper pasture from the lower one.

Site of old corral and gated fence

Although I am sure that FR 519 must originally have gone all the way to Uncle Sam Mine, it now ends at this gate, about 0.2 miles below the mine. The trail runs through the gate and between two posts (right) beside the wash.

After passing between the posts, the trail enters the wash and follows it all the way to the mine site. Do not turn to the right at a side wash; just follow the main wash straight ahead and you will soon see the mine tailings on the right. Although one can reach the mine by way of the side wash, the route is much more difficult.

Mine tailings at Uncle Sam Mine

There are several vertical shafts located above the tailings, one with a tower mounted in it, possibly to lift ore.

Windmill mounted in vertical mining shaft photograph taken 04 April 2009

There was also a concrete pad near the shaft containing the windmill that might have had a motor mounted on it. We decided that a motor was probably for use when the wind did not blow. A small smelter pot (above left) was also located at the rim of the shaft and we found an old ore bucket (above right) nearby. Although the windmill might have been placed there at a later date for pumping water, rather than lifting ore, we saw no piping remains or tanks nearby.

Information obtained from the Arizona Department of Mines and Minerals indicates that the primary name for this mining site is Uncle Sam, but it also provides the following alternate names: Black Chief, Black Warrior Prospect and Black Chief Copper. The current status is given as “past producer” and the listed commodities are: Iron Magnetite, Iron Hematite, Manganese, Silicon and Copper.¹

It was still early for lunch, so we decided to travel on up the wash to eat at the spot where we had ended an April 2009 hike before turning back. From the top of the slag pile we could see that there was a well-worn cattle path (left) that we could follow.

The hills on both sides of the wash we followed were covered with a mixture of juniper, scrub oak and manzanita. Our path was easy, with a sandy bottom and a gentle slope. By a little after 1100 we reached the spot where we had paused for lunch on a 04 April 2009 hike and decided to stop for lunch.

We stopped for lunch in this very pleasant spot

We all stopped along the way up the wash to admire the many colorful rocks scattered about. Shown here (right) is a photograph of rocks we saw in the same area during our 2009 hike.

Following a leisurely lunch and my customary nap, we headed back down the trail. After we had passed the old corral and climbed up the ridge between there and where we parked, Jim decided that he wanted to make a detour down into a wash that we had crossed on a recent scouting hike, follow it downstream to Medlar Spring Trail and return by that trail to FS 531. He wanted to see whether he could again find a unique rock he had noted on the scouting hike. I joined him and we detoured through the cat claw, manzanita and scrub oak down to the wash, entering it at exactly the same place we had entered on the scouting hike. The rock was located in the stream bed, so we felt sure that we would find it by just following the wash downstream. Unfortunately, the stream had cut more than one stream bed and we followed the wrong one part of the way, missing the rock entirely. In the map below, our detour is in blue and the pertinent section of the scouting hike is in green. The rock must have been along the circled section of green track in the lower right quarter.

Map showing detour from hike

The round trip hike to our lunch stop was about 4.4 miles, the elevation change was about 446 feet and the maximum elevation was 5701 feet. The track is shown in red on the included map (next page).

1 http://services.azgs.az.gov/OnlineAccessMineFiles/S-Z/StlouisYavapai369a.pdf