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Western mineshaft at Cave Creek Museum’s Arizona Gold Mining Experience
April 12 @ 10:00 am - April 26 @ 3:00 pm MST
Arizona Gold Mining Experience features a mine tunnel and shaft that showcases miners’ challenges from long ago.
According to Dan Cornette, a gold miner and stamp mill expert for the museum, the Experience’s mineshaft is a multi-pronged, interactive exhibit filled with historical significance.
“The mine shaft explodes with sights and sounds,” says Cornette. “Visitors see and feel a hard rock blast with flashing lights, smoke and shaking earth as we replicate sequential dynamite explosions. Guests will learn how the introduction of dynamite and compressed air rock drills increased a mine’s output making it more productive and a little more dangerous for Arizona’s gold miners.”
The popular Arizona Gold Mining Experience (AZGME) opens to the public on Saturday, April 12 & 26, 2025. The massive working mining exhibit comes to life from 10-11:30 AM and be followed by the Gold Fever gold mine tour on April 12 at 1 PM.
The excitement builds with the arrastre, a primitive mill for grinding and pulverizing gold or silver ore. Visitors then witness the amazing Golden Reef Stamp Mill and Tramway, Arizona’s only fully operational ten-stamp ore crushing mill at work. The 10, 1,000-lb. stamps slam down in synchronized motion to pound ore removed from the mine into fine gravel. The stamp mill was brought from its former location at the Golden Reef Mine on Continental Mountain to Cave Creek Museum, which has the only fully operational mining stamp mill in its original mining district in Arizona; it is located just five miles from its site on the mountain. The giant stamp mill also is connected to a working tramway and ore carts that carry the ore to be pulverized to the stamp mill.
The experience continues as guests peer into a mineshaft to show the blasting techniques used by hard rock miners. Next, onto the blacksmith shop for a demonstration of the many skills used when parts and tools had to be fabricated onsite. Guests also will witness a hard rock Arizona gold mine come to life as lights flash and the earth shakes to replicate sequential dynamite explosions. Visitors will learn how the introduction of dynamite and compressed air rock drills increased a mine’s output making it far more dangerous for Arizona miners at the time.
Guests then are encouraged to try their luck at the gold panning station, where museum volunteers show visitors how to pan for ore and minerals just like the prospectors did. Admission is $15 for adults and children under 12 are free.
Gold Fever participants head out for a three-hour gold mine tour in a unique 10-passenger 4WD Jeep, which will travel takes them into the Tonto National Forest and the patented Ft. Worth Gold Mine. The tour ascends them to the Mountain Chaparral vegetation zone with breathtaking views up to a 4,500-foot elevation.
Reserve tickets online at cavecreekmuseum.org as there is a limit. Visitors can check in at 9 AM. Following the Arizona Gold Mining Experience, guests interested in the gold mine tour pay an additional $145 per person for the three-hour tour (no special senior or child pricing), which starts at 1 PM and departs from the museum; participants must be onsite by 12:45 PM. The mine tour helps cover costs for the museum’s Arizona Gold Mining Experience (which is held each month). Reservations are required for the experience and the mine tour.
The 54-year-old museum’s mission is to preserve the artifacts of the prehistory, history, culture and legacy of the Cave Creek Mining District and the Cave Creek/Carefree foothills area through education, research, and interpretive exhibits. The Cave Creek Museum is located at 6140 E. Skyline Drive in Cave Creek, Ariz., 480.488.2764. Open October through May.