Patterson Well, Mohave County, AZ
Water has always been an important commodity in Mohave County. It controlled the location of ranches, mining mills and towns. If the location of water wasn’t where it was needed, there was little the pioneers could do except in rare occasions. Patterson’s well was one of those situations.
Patterson Well is located about a mile and a half northwest of Iron Mountain and south of the road to the Skywalk, in T29N, R17W, Sec 36, Mohave County, Arizona. This was an important source of water in pioneer days but it wasn’t in a convenient place. There weren’t mines in the area and most of the ranches were in the White Hills or Gold Basin area.
The mines in Gold Basin needed water to process their ore but there’s little surface water in that basin. Attempts were made to find underground water near the mines but after two failed attempts where no water was hit after drilling 500 and 750 feet, they gave up and had to build the mills near water. The largest producers were the Eldorado, Excelsior, Never-Get-Left, O.K, and Cyclopic mines.
The first stamp mill, a cooperative venture by the miners, was built about 1880 at ''Grass Springs" near the 1986 headquarters of the Diamond Bar Ranch. It had 5 stamps - those metal plungers that were raised and dropped on the ore to pound the rock to a powder. A second mill was built in 1881, at “Red Willow Spring” just south of the Cyclopic mine. A third mill was built in 1886 next to Hualapai Wash to service all the mines in the district.
Luckily, Patterson Well is at a higher elevation than Gold Basin so the most logical solution, at that time, was to pipe water using gravity from Patterson Well to the valley. This plan worked and a small town grew up around the mill. Two graves still remain near the old townsite located near the mill along Gregg’s Hideout Road.
Of interest is how Burnt Mill got its name. It was first called the Gold Basin Mill. Because water was scarce, fire was a constant threat to a mill. A fire had to be constantly maintained to heat the boilers that furnished steam for the steam powered machinery. So, there was always a fire burning. If sparks started a fire, there was little water to fight it so many times a mill would burn to the ground. Burnt Mill burned so many times that everyone just called it Burnt Mill and the name stuck.
In those days, the most common type of water pipe was made of wood slats held together by wire wound around the slates, holding them in the form of a pipe. This pipe was called a “wooden stave pipe.”
Wooden pipe on display at the Mohave Museum of History and Arts, Kingman, AZ.
Just imagine, a wooden pipeline from Patterson Well to Burnt Mill, a distance of approximately 7 miles. That was quite an accomplishment for its time. The sun would dry out the wood and cause leaks so the pipeline had to be constantly maintained.
The largest producer in the area was the Cyclopic Mine and today, the Gold Basin Resources Corporation (Home | Gold Basin Resources Corporation (goldbasincorp.com) is attempting to reopen the mine. They report significant oxide resources along flat lying structures. Mining would be by open pit methods and the ore would be treated by heap leaching.
Bringing this mining district back to life with high paying jobs would be an economic boom to the area. I have worked in the Burnt Mill area on water studies of Hualapai Basin and found scattered, thin wood slats and wire similar to thick bailing wire. Both looked very old and I believe they are remnants of the pipeline. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what was happening in the 1800s. The rhythmic thump, thump, thump of the stamps pounding the ore to a fine powder, the pungent smoke of boiler fires keeping the steam powered equipment humming, crews maintaining the pipeline and water flowing from Patterson Well. It must have been exciting times in the harsh desert community of Gold Basin.
