December 2017 46 ARROW FELLS 1858 Pioneer Miner Earliest Major Gold Strike Snively found gold about 24 miles above the mouth of the Gila River in 1858…five years before the major gold discoveries along the Hassayampa and Rich Hill above Antelope Creek and at Vulture peak in 1863. Snively’s gold discovery above the mouth of the Gila, within two years, had resulted in a major mining camp being built and over one million dollars in gold being taken from the placer strike before it was worked out. The strike was the first to draw miners from California fields into Arizona Territory and came several years before strikes by the Walker Party and the Peeples Party along the Hassayampa caused by an influx of miners into the land of the Yavapai. Indians Defeat New Mexico Claim From his success at Gila City, Snively joined with a party of California miners and discovered another gold strike at Pinos Altos, New Mexico Territory, in May of 1860. The miners tried to work this strike in 1861 and 1862, but the Apaches in the area would have none of their presence and finally drove them out without the development of the strike. By the first week of December in 1862, Snively was in La Paz, Arizona Territory where early gold discoveries had attracted numerous California miners. He chaired a meeting that formed the Castle Dome Mining District, the first mining district in Arizona Territory, and set its boundaries. In the spring of 1863, Snively was elected as secretary and recorder of the Castle Dome District and served in that position until the end of 1864. He lived on claims at Castle Dome, Arizona Territory where the census located him. Snively was 55, single and had been a resident of the Territory for six years including the time he was prospecting in New Mexico Territory. He listed his occupation as recorder. The first Territorial election on July 18, 1864, in La Paz, listed Snively as serving as a judge. Abundant Yuma County Claims Listing his occupation as recorder in the 1864 census was a bit misleading on Snively’s part. Between May of 1863 and March of 1866, less than a three year period, Snively located 76 mining claims in the La Paz, Castle Dome, and Silver Mining Districts. During the same period, he sold interest in 10 of his claims. Interest in those claims brought him a total of $2500. The largest amount was $1000 Snively got from B. Phelps of New York City, who purchased an undivided 300 feet of the “Grand Turk” silver lode in the Castle Dome District. Lost Mine Search in Texas Snively rode to Texas in 1866 to try to locate a lost gold mine. By December of that year, he left Camp Colorado, Texas with a small party for the mountains near the Rio Grande where the lost gold mine was supposed to be. The party did not find the lost mine but did find a band of Indians at the mouth of the Kiowa Creek near the head of the Concho River. The Indians relieved the prospectors of all of their horses and the miners made it back to Eagle Springs afoot, where the venture was abandoned and the group broke up. Jacob Snively was a battle-hardened soldier and miner and one of the first Anglos to prospect a sizeable gold deposit in Arizona territory. It was in Arizona Territory that Snively’s long prospecting career would end at the hands of the Apache. Jack Swilling