R O C K H O U N D I N G I N S O U T H W E S T E R N N E W M E X I C O |
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Casitas de Gila
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CASITAS DE GILA GUESTHOUSES Toll Free: 1-877-923-4827 |
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WHAT'S YOUR INTEREST?
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ONE OF FODOR'S "239 GREAT PLACES TO ESCAPE TO NATURE" — MAY 2006 ONE OF SUNSET MAGAZINE'S "TOP 10 ROMANTIC COTTAGES" — FEBRUARY 2007 |
ROCKHOUNDING & MINERAL COLLECTING OPPORTUNITIES
Grant County, with its county seat in Silver City, lies at the heart of this vast mineralized area and is New Mexico’s richest mineral producing county. Mining began here in 1804, when native copper was extracted by the Spanish at Santa Rita (now the Phelps Dodge Chino Mine), 15 miles east of Silver City, and has continued unabated right up to the present. Over the last 200 years, mining in Grant County has produced more than $4 billion in copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc, plus significant values of molybdenum, tungsten, manganese, nickel, cobalt, fluorspar, uranium, perlite, turquoise, and hematite from Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks and from Tertiary volcanic rocks.
Although many of the old mines have been sealed off by Federal agencies, the rockhound will, while exploring the old mining districts, come across mines and prospect pits that are still open.
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Rocks and Minerals You Might Find …
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Chalcedony |
Chalcedony Roses |
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At Casitas de Gila Guesthouses, our Guests who are Rockhounding Enthusiast will find:
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Rockhounding Excursions in the Area
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Please contact us by telephone, fax or e-mail if you would like more information on Casitas de Gila, on availability, or would like to make a reservation. |
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Casitas de Gila Guesthouses & Art Gallery
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Casitas de Gila Guesthouses is an Inspected and Approved Member of For More Southwestern New Mexico Information, |
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Southwest New Mexico and adjacent southeast Arizona is a paradise for rockhounds and mineral collectors. In Michael’s humble geological opinion, the area enclosed within a 75-mile radius of Casitas de Gila Guesthouses offers the visiting rockhound and mineral enthusiast access to one of the most rewarding and diverse assemblages of collectible rocks, minerals and gemstones found anywhere in North America. Throughout this area, which comprises most of Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, and Luna counties in New Mexico plus portions of Greenlee, Graham, and Cochise counties in Arizona, numerous highly mineralized mining districts were discovered, developed and worked beginning in the early 1800s. During the heyday of this mining, from the 1880s through the 1950s, these areas were some of the richest mining areas in the West. 
Today, almost all of the old mines within the area have closed, with the very notable exception of the large-scale, open-pit copper mining operations of Phelps Dodge Corporation at Santa Rita and Tyrone in Grant County and at Morenci in Greenlee County, Arizona. However, since many of the old mining districts are located on Federal National Forest or Bureau of Land Management lands, the opportunity for rockhounding and mineral collecting remains virtually unlimited because most of this land is open to the public and collecting of rocks and minerals is permitted. Searching the old dumps from these mines can be particularly rewarding. 
Of course, when metallic mineralization is this complex it goes without saying that the accompanying diversity of rocks, minerals and gemstones that would be of interest to the rockhound for collecting or cutting and polishing should be prodigious! And it is! Below is a list of some of many rocks, minerals and gemstones that the rockhound can find in our Southwestern New Mexico area on public lands.
An indication of the exceptional richness of the rockhounding potential of the Southwest New Mexico and Southeast Arizona areas is the areas that have been set aside by government agencies especially for rockhounding, such as 
The Bear Creek drainage basin, with its headwaters in the Piños Altos Mining District, covers approximately 300 square miles of complex Tertiary volcanic and Tertiary and Paleozoic sedimentary rock terrain. This drainage is one of the larger secondary drainage systems in the area as it has been actively down cutting through thick sequences of rock formations of diverse origin and age for several million years. The result of this extensive and ongoing erosion is the diverse hodgepodge of rock types that make up the rocks covering the floodplain of the Bear Creek below your Casita. 
Some of the collectible gemstones and rocks that can be found along Bear Creek on Casitas de Gila’s land are white and pink chalcedony, chalcedony roses, red, brown and yellow jasper, jasper breccia, picture jasper, banded agate, zeolites, geodes, massive hematite, banded rhyolite, andesite, volcanic bombs, scoria, limonite and hematite-banded welded tuff, and lots of really nice colorful rocks! 
rockhounding guidebooks and maps available for purchase
local knowledge of the area
Exceptional rockhounding opportunities can be found throughout the Gila, Coronado, and Apache National Forest lands and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land within a 75 mile radius of Casitas de Gila Guesthouses.
Watch the weather. In the winter snow can be encountered above 6,000 feet; and in the summer flash floods from thunderstorms are common. Current weather forecasts are always available at the Casitas.
