We went to Goldfield, an abandoned goldmining town, which was bought and restored so that visitors would have an idea of what an old gold mining town was like. There is a narrow-gauge train that takes you around the area outside of town to see the abandoned mines. Ths saguaro cactus in the centre of the picture is a very slow grower, and does not sprout its arms until it is 100 years old. The house on an angle could have been a bordello...
The mountains in the background are the Superstition Mountains, where the famed Lost Dutchman's mine, supposedly the richest gold mine in the world is located. The Dutchman, Jacob Waltz, took the secret to his grave in 1891 and no one has ever found it since, although many have tried!
If you follow a path between this shack and the water tower, you will find a shed where you can pan for gold in a trough of water, which is the way it was done when there was no running water handy. Don brought hom a small vial of gold flakes and some garnets!
I was trying to show how uphill this town is, but it doesn't show the hill very well. It was interesting wandering through the museum which has old mining artifacts, and information about the various miners who tried to find the Lost Dutchman mine, as well as about the Dutchman, himself, Jacob Waltz.
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