The town of
Nelson lies in the upper reach of the canyon. Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours operates mid way in the canyon at the
Techatticup Mine one of the oldest and most productive mines in the canyon.
History
Prospecting and mining in the El Dorado Canyon started by 1857, if not earlier.[4]: 13, note 27 [5] But in April 1861, as the
American Civil War began, word got out that
silver and some
gold and
copper lodes had been discovered by
John Moss and others in what became known as El Dorado Canyon, in
New Mexico Territory, now
Nevada. The canyon was on the west side of the river sixty five miles (104.6 km) above
Fort Mohave at what was then considered the limit of navigation of the river. George A. Johnson came up river and made a deal to supply the mines with his steamboats at a lower price than that provided overland across the
Mohave Desert from
Los Angeles. That fall, news of the strikes in the
Colorado Mining District (by 1864 also called the Eldorado Canyon District), brought a flood of miners to the canyon.[6]
Several mining camps were founded in the canyon over the years. At the beginning
San Juan, or Upper Camp, was at the top of the canyon miles from the river near the modern town of Nelson. Midway down the canyon near the
Techatticup Mine were Alturas and
Louisville. At the mouth of the canyon was the boat landing of
Colorado City.[7]: 33, 35
During the time of the
American Civil War, three new mining camps developed in the middle canyon. In 1862,
Lucky Jim Camp was formed along Eldorado Canyon above
January Wash, south of the Techatticup Mine.[8] Lucky Jim Camp was the home of miners sympathetic to the
Confederate cause. A mile (1.6 km) up the canyon was a camp with
Union sympathies called
Buster Falls.[4]: 15, and Note 33 [9]: 611
In late 1863, Col.
John R. Vineyard, at the time a
California State Senator for
Los Angeles, completed a ten stamp mill the first in the canyon, on its north side just below Lucky Jim Camp, at what soon became
El Dorado City.[10] Vineyard's mill, assembled from mill parts salvaged from abandoned works in the Mother Lode country of California, processed the ore of its mines and cut out the cost of shipping the ore out to San Francisco for such processing, cutting costs in half.
George Alonzo Johnson's steamboat company losing this downstream ore trade and making fewer trips up to the Canyon responded by raising its freight rates.[7]: 33, 35
In 1867, to secure the riverboat traffic and protect miners in the canyon from Paiute attacks the U.S. Army established
Camp El Dorado, an outpost at the mouth of El Dorado Canyon that remained until it was abandoned in 1869. From 1870 the mines again were active to the point where from 1879 to 1907 El Dorado Canyon again had a post office, now in Clark County, Nevada.[12]
The mines continued to produce ore until World War II.[13]
^Angel, Myron, History of Nevada, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Thompson and West, Oakland, Cal., 1881, p. 476, "In 1852 the Mormons obtained the contract for carrying the mail over the route which Congress had that year established from Salt Lake to San Bernardino. A station was established at Las Vegas, and Brigham Young located a settlement at that point, partly for protection to the route, and partly for smelting lead from the Potosi mines nearby. The Mormons occupied this place till the time of the Mountain Meadow massacre in 1857, after which they sold out to parties from El Dorado Canon, and returned to Utah."
Photos from El Dorado Canyon, 1880s - 1890s from The Otis Marston Colorado River Collection, Huntington Digital Library, hdl.huntington.org accessed June 22, 2015.
Dredge below Eldorado Canyon. 1907 from The Otis Marston Colorado River Collection, Huntington Digital Library, hdl.huntington.org accessed June 22, 2015. If this is the dredge North Dakota, then the date of the photo is wrong. It should be 1909. It was constructed between March and June, 1909, then used from June to November, 1909, with no success. It swamped and sank in a flood surge of the river on January 2, 1910. See Lingenfelter, Steamboats of the Colorado, p. 100.