Ref.: Wilson, E.D., et al (1934), Arizona Bureau of Mines Bull. 137: 182-185.
This is a gold-copper mining area located around Payson in northern Gila County. It was started in 1875 and worked until 1886, and intermittently thereafter.
This district is near the northern limit of the Mountain Region, within a few miles of the Mogollon escarpment that here marks the southern border of the Plateau Region. Elevation ranges from 3,400 to more than 5,000 feet. The district features broad valleys floored with Pre-Cambrian granite rocks that alternate with mesas capped by lower Paleozoic sandstone, which farther North, continues under the Paleozoic rocks of the plateau. South and West of Payson dissected slopes descend steeply to the valleys of Tonto Creek and the East Verde River. These slopes, which are floored with a faulted complex of schist and diorite, contain the principal gold-bearing quartz veins of the district.
Veins occur within fault zones that generally range in strike from N 15º W to 65º W and dip northeastward. Oxidized portions of veins consist of rather cellular quartz with considerable hematite and limonite. Locally bunches of oxidized copper minerals, accompanied by free gold, are present.
Wall rocks, which are generally diorite, show alteration for several feet on either side of the veins to chlorite, sericite, and secondary quartz. In places kaolinite, probably derived from the sericite, is abundant.
