Mining the Chinle Shale

Lees Ferry River Trail Scenery

NPS/ Amanda Rich

Quick Facts

Location:

Lees Ferry, AZ

Significance:

Historic River Trail

Amenities

1 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Charles clay. Spencer. Spencer’s second gold mining site

1910-11

Spencer moved the boiler here to extract gold from the colorful hills before you. He blasted water at the cliffs in high pressure hoses, washing sediments down a wooden flume to an amalgamator. This experiment failed too, as the gold could not be efficiently separated from the clay. Spencer used an amalgamator reliant on mercury to pull gold from the clay. Test recovered a little gold, but also some other metal, exhausting the mercury supply. Years later the mystery substance was identified as rhenium- now valuable, but useless at the time.