Bluff — SAN JUAN County

Source: Tom Ashworth's Prospectors Cache (tomashworth.com / Tom Ashworth). Author: Tom Ashworth. Original page: san_juan_ut.shtml. Area: Bluff. Map coordinates refined from text (area: "Bluff, SAN JUAN County, Utah, USA"). Still approximate — verify on the ground. In 1892 some 1,200 prospectors arrived but went away empty handed from this location. The regional placer gold is in all watercourse gravels, but it is so fine it is hard to recover. At the mouth of Montezuma Creek there was extensive placer operations. Below the mouth of Nakai Canyon at Zana Camp, about 20 miles above the junction of the San Juan and Colorado Rivers there was also extensive placer work done. The Spencer Camp, in the Great Bend of the San Juan, 6 miles below Zana Camp there was also extensive work done. Below Nakai Canyon there is placer gold too fine for recovery, but much heavy equipment was brought into these areas. Much of the area has been covered by Lake Powell at this time.