Camel Tank Gold

[Shadowed_Blue]

I am sure most of you know the story so I will just give the quick version here (copied from therockerbox.com).

Somewhere in the Tank Mountains, north of Yuma, is said to be Camel Tank, a tank of natural water that had gold nuggets laying around the tank. It was found by John Gordon and Juan Perea, who took a load from the site, but could never relocate the tank again.

Well, we found the tank but try as I might we couldn't find any gold. That is not to say that there isn't any gold there because I am new to this treasure hunting stuff and pretty green with a metal detector. I have included a picture here that shows the principle feature that gives the tank it's name. There are some shadows on the nose of the camel head in the picture so it doesn't do it justice, but the nose has the classic camel appearance of a horizontal slit and a vertical cleft. The tank at the base of the hill is generally dry but has water for 2-3 weeks after a heavy rain.

There are some old mines in the area which probably were dug after the legendary story took place, so maybe somebody already found the gold that was there.

There was also a very unusual feature found near this spot. In the early morning when looking up at the rocky hillside we could see what appeared to be a large X spray painted in black on the rocky slope. I climbed up to have a look and when I got up there I couldn't find or see any trace of the X. My partner, who was still down below, could still see the X and guided me to the spot. All I could find was some cracks in the cap rock, maybe man made but I don't know for sure. By afternoon time the X was no longer visible from any angle. Maybe one of you mine marker experts will know what this could mean. I will try and get a picture the next time we are in there hunting quail.

 

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[djui5]

whoa!
Are you sure it's spray paint?

all the gold might have been found

 

[Shadowed_Blue]

The strange thing about the X was that it definitly wasn't paint!! I climbed up to the place where it was and there was no paint and I couldn't even see the X, but from the canyon floor the X was big and bold (looked to be about 1.5 x 1.5 feet with 3-4 inch wide lines). At first we thought it had been painted there because that is what it looked like from below. Might just be early morning shadows in some natural cracks, but the cracks sure made a symetrically perfect X.

I'll try and get some close up pics this fall and some of the rock experts on here can give their opinion.

Shadowed_Blue

 

[Oroblanco]

Greetings Shadowed_blue and everyone,
I do not wish to irritate you, but what evidence makes you certain that this is "the" Camel tank that had the gold nuggets? If you found NO gold, then it seems likely that you simply found a different natural water tank. There are natural water tanks dotted all over the southwest that do not show on any kind of maps, and are not a dependable source of water since they only get filled by the occasional rainfall. If I found no indication of any gold, I would naturally assume that this was NOT the famous Camel Tank; for even if someone else had been there before you and removed all the gold nuggets with a metal detector, there would almost certainly be fine gold that was missed because (so far) no metal detector is sensitive enough to pick up the specks and sand-grain size particles of gold that will also occur where gold nuggets are found. If I were you, I would not be discouraged at finding no gold at what you thought might be the Camel Tank, rather you can rest assured that this is not the right natural tank. Knowing where there is a natural tank of water is a great asset for when you are out there prospecting and detecting, you can use that as a sort of "base" to search even larger areas.

Of course you are free to be convinced that this is THE Camel Tank, and that someone else has already removed ALL the gold, (a difficult task) in which case you will be one less competitor out searching for that famous bonanza! I have prospected in the Tank mountains 20+ years ago and (just an opinion here) did not find a lot of indications of gold in those mountains, so you won't be tripping over me . A small deposit though is easily missed, and to make the search even more interesting for you - it is possible that the natural tank found by Gordon and Perea no longer even holds any water! (In fact more likely than not!) As you probably already know, small ponds and catch-ments in desert regions fill in with washed-in sand and clays so quickly that it is amazing. My neighbor, for instance, has a tank that four years ago was six or seven feet deep when full, now only four years later it is full alright, full of SAND. Unless the natural tank is positioned so that no loose soils or dirt can wash into it, or that tremendous flows of water scour it clean of debris every so often from heavy rains, it WILL fill in with dirt and debris and no longer be a natural tank - you will be able to walk across it and scarcely notice the spot as it will be nearly level ground. Considering how long ago this report happened, the natural water tank may not be the best clue to finding it.

As for someone removing ALL the gold, even if they carefully searched the ground over and methodically cross-searched the ground, the way a search field is actually projected into the ground is in the shape of a "cone". (The Minelabs supposedly cast a "dome" shaped search field, which would be very tough to prove in my opinion) this "cone" shaped search field means that it only reaches the maximum depth at the very center of the search coil, and less deep in a slope to the edge of the coil. So what right? Well as a person operating the detector sweeps the coil back and forth, walking forward, the deep part of the field is only covering an area about TWO INCHES wide! Anything that is a bit too deep for the edges of the coil WILL be missed, unless the searcher is moving forward in a matter of two inches or so each step! I don't know any treasure hunter who is patient enough to thoroughly search the ground in this manner, as you can guess it takes a tremendous amount of time to cover a relatively small area, moving forward only two inches at a stride! So even if they went over the ground in a nice cross-hatch pattern (recommended for promising ground) they will miss an amazing amount, that is actually not buried too deep for the detector to find at its maximum range, but missed because of the actual shape of the magnetic field being projected into the ground. So even if some lucky doofus went and found the famous Camel Tank, removed sacks of gold nuggets and could not find any more, and tells you not to waste your time - don't believe it - you can go in and find more! Even better, with the way soils are eroded with each rainfall, nuggets that were too deeply buried to be detected even a year or two ago may well have been made less deep in the soil by the soil eroding away! The original source of the nuggets could also be adding to the deposit, for that matter.

Anyway neat find, and the huge X may just be a marker for someone to find the WATER, not that this is the famous Camel Tank. As you know only too well, water is precious in the desert! If I were you, I would keep on searching.

Oroblanco

"Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you . For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest." Gospel of Thomas 5

 

[djui5]

Anyway neat find, and the huge X may just be a marker for someone to find the WATER, not that this is the famous Camel Tank. As you know only too well, water is precious in the desert! If I were you, I would keep on searching.

This is a good point, and either they made the X to be seen from where the water is, or the X is natural and a crazy coincidence, or the X is a maker for the gold.

I gotta say, that rock really looks like a camel nose in the picture. I'm not sure this one though, but it's a facinating thread

 

[gollum]

I tend to agree.

There are a lot of gold in the tank stories. One is on Picacho Peak on the Az side of the CA/AZ Border. In the 30's some kids went up to the peak to play around. They happened on the tank. It was too high for most of the girls to climb, but one went up, and was soaking her feet in the water, She picked up some shiny pebbles. When they got home, she showed the pebbles to her dad. He flipped, because, yep, that's right, they were gold nuggets. Went back several times, but could never find the tank again. She said the whole bottom of the tank was covered in those pebbles. The one clue was an arch near the tank. There are two old arches that went down years ago in an earthquake, but few people now can remember where they were.

Mike

 

[Oroblanco]

By the version I heard a while back, the name Camel Tank was because of the wild camels that lived around it and used it as a water source, not for a particular rock formation but of course this could be mistaken.

Any more details you can recall on that Picacho Peak report Gollum? That is another new one for me, always interested in any new leads!
Oroblanco

 

[Shadowed_Blue]

Interesting and informative responses, thanks for the very in depth and well written analysis Oroblanco.

Yes, it very well may be true that this is not the legendary Camel Tank as I have no absolute proof (gold for instance). However, I have been all through the mountains of the area and know most of the natural tanks that hold water and which ones are typically dry and which are generally wet. I am generally hunting things that need that water and fly instead of shine . This tank is the only one of the hundreds that are out there that has a very discernible rock formation that resembles a camel's head so well that one might think it had been sculptured that way on the slope above the tank.

I too have heard the version of the story that linked the appearance of some of Hi Jolly's wandering camels to the name of the tank and that may be the case as this is certainly the area the camels would be in and around. I was under the impression, however, that Gordon and Perea were in the area prior to 1857 which would put them there prior to the release of the camels. I'm thinking that lacking the knowledge of the rock formation, story tellers have attached a plausible explanation as to the origin of the tank's name. Maybe I'm totally wrong in this, but that camel head rock formation right above a tank sure is compelling evidence to me.

As for the remaining traces of gold that should still be there, maybe there is. As I said I am not very experienced in gold hunting and probably wouldn't recognize it unless I saw it in the form of a coin. I do know that the area around the tank did at one time produce a large quantity of gold due to the few abandoned mines in the area, one of which is documented as a large producer. Maybe one of these days I can get one of you gold/detector experts to accompany me into the spot and you can check the area for remnants.

That X could very well be a marker for the water. That is certainly a good explanation and often water is more valuable than gold. Only problem with this is that when you are in the position to be able to see the X you are already at the water tank!! Not a very good marker if you need to get there before you can see it. Who knows and maybe it's my overly active imagination, but fun to throw ideas around anyway.

Mike....I'll probably be in and around little picacho peak sometime this fall looking for quail so if I see any sign of those arches (collapsed or otherwise) I'll let you know.

Again, thanks for the great responses!!

Shadowed_Blue

 

[Oroblanco]

The report dates to 1857 - hmm and we find that the "death knell" sounded for the US Army Camel Corps coincidentally in 1857. (extract:
When James Buchanan took office as President in 1857, he appointed a new Secretary of War, John B. Floyd. Although Floyd himself was a proponent of the Camel Corps, his commander of the Army in Texas, Major General David E. Twiggs, was not. In fact, Twiggs, "was outraged when he discovered a herd of camels under his command" (Yancey, p. 47). ) from one of several identical histories of the strange camel unit online, one is at:
http://www.drumbarracks.org/original website/Camel Corps.html

So I would think this does not dismiss the source of the name of Camel Tank as having originated with the actual camels rather than a rock formation. It does not PROVE it either, so...can't say one way or the other at this point. The fact that you found no gold around the tank would however lend credence to the idea that it cannot be the same tank found in the original report - for no matter how thorough some other THer had gone over it, there ought to be some gold left to find. Even in old tailings piles from the biggest and most efficient of gold mines you can find some trace of gold left. You can do your own testing too, just bring along a gold pan with you the next time you visit the spot. If you can pan out some fine gold there, that would tend to support the idea that it is Camel Tank, but is not conclusive proof - did you find any remnants of someone else having been there (old junk, campfire rings, etc) besides the X? Perhaps the "X" is a marker to find something else, like a buried cache? Sure worth a return visit, in my opinion.
Oroblanco

 

[Oroblanco]

Hey I found a source for the story, (Penfield, "Dig Here") he writes that John gordon and Juan Perea were sitting in the shade of a huge boulder wondering where they found find water and expecting death when they spotted a wandering camel so followed the camel to the tank of water. No mention of a camel-shaped rock or X just a natural tank of water in a canyon, that had a lot of gold nuggets visible on the surface. Not much help I know, but at least you don't have to search for a special shaped boulder or rock formation.
Oroblanco