Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the ridges and washes around Cyclopic, with pale mine scars trending northwest across the center

Gold mining town

Cyclopic

The camp of a low-grade gold mine worked on and off from the 1880s to 1940. Its post office lasted three years, and its wash has been drilled for gold again.

35°46′58″N 114°14′46″W · ≈4,330 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

Mine workings · 2026 report

Cyclopic is on BLM land inside an active gold exploration project. The company's May 2026 filing lists hundreds of unpatented mining claims, 2022 drilling at Cyclopic and more than 230 small historic workings in the project area. We couldn't confirm whether the company limits access around its drill sites, and the only list of remains we found is undated. The area is full of old shafts and pits. Stay out of workings, and leave claim markers and equipment alone.

Overview

A cyanide mill in a dry wash

Cyclopic sits near the head of Cyclopic Wash in the Gold Basin mining district, in the high desert between the White Hills and Hualapai Wash. Prospectors named Patterson, Rowe and Glen found gold here in the early 1880s. The ore was low grade, iron-stained breccia worth seven or eight dollars a ton, but there was a lot of it and it took cyanide well.

The mine changed hands often. A Seattle company leased it around 1896, Robbins & Walker of Minneapolis bought it in 1901, and the Cyclopic Gold Mining Company of Denver owned it from 1904. A USGS report published in 1909 found an office and other buildings on a ridge above the wash, an Ellspass mill run by a 26-horsepower engine, a cyanide plant, and water pumped from the west side of the range several miles away. The nearest railroad was at Hackberry, 40 miles south by stage. Most of the workings were less than 30 feet deep.

Work came and went into 1940. A post office named Cycloptic ran from 1914 to 1917. By 1960 the USGS labeled the spot a site. A mining company drilled the Cyclopic deposit in 2022 and holds hundreds of claims around it.

Timeline

Seventy years on and off

Cyclopic on the 1942 USGS sheet, where the roads from White Hills and Gold Basin meet
Cyclopic on the 1942 USGS sheet, where the roads from White Hills and Gold Basin meet · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
  1. Prospectors find gold in the Gold Basin district, by the USGS account.
  2. Patterson, Rowe and Glen discover the Cyclopic deposit near the head of Cyclopic Wash.
  3. The mine is leased to a Seattle company.
  4. Robbins & Walker of Minneapolis buy the Cyclopic and the nearby Golden Rule mine and mill some ore.
  5. The Cyclopic Gold Mining Company of Denver takes over the mine.
  6. A USGS report describes an Ellspass mill, a cyanide plant and water pumped from the far side of the range.
  7. A post office runs under the name Cycloptic. An undated listing dates the first office to 1905.
  8. The mine is worked again. The Gold Basin Exploration Company owns it after early 1923.
  9. Work goes on and off, in 1932–34 and 1936–40. Manta de Oro Mines owns the property from 1936.
  10. The USGS Garnet Mtn sheet labels the spot "Cyclopic (Site)."
  11. Gold Basin Resources drills the Cyclopic deposit as part of a district-wide exploration project.
  12. The company's shareholder circular describes 332 unpatented mining claims and a proposed deal with CANEX Metals.

The Cyclopic mine

Low-grade gold in a broad wash

F. C. Schrader of the USGS described the mine in a 1909 bulletin on Mohave County. The gold sat in iron-stained breccia and quartz sand, cemented by silica, in a band about three-quarters of a mile long and 200 feet or more wide running northwest up the wash from the mill. Prominent reefs of this rock stood a few feet above the ground.

The workings were shallow inclined shafts, drifts and crosscuts, about 1,000 feet in all, and few went below 30 feet. Because the mine sat in a broad wash, floods sometimes filled the workings with debris. The company reported about a million tons of ore in sight, and coarse tailings left from Robbins & Walker's milling were said to hold about seven dollars of gold a ton.

Water was the hard part. The mine pumped it from the west side of the range, and the Golden Rule mine nearby hauled its water from Cyclopic.

Mindat's summary of later records calls the Cyclopic one of the oldest and most productive mines in the district. A 1986 estimate put the remaining resource at about 31,000 metric tons of ore. The modern exploration company's 2026 filing says a laser survey found more than 230 small historic workings in its project area, about 125 of them in a two-kilometer block east and northeast of Cyclopic.

What's left

Tailings, tanks and scars

An undated listing names tailings, metal tanks and foundations. The aerial below shows a pale band of pits, trenches and tracks running northwest along the wash, as Schrader described the deposit. The 1989 USGS sheet marks the mine in a shaded zone of disturbed ground, with a water tank, four-wheel-drive roads, prospects and adits nearby. We found no dated description of buildings.

  • Tailings
  • Metal tanks
  • Foundations
  • Pits, trenches and shallow shafts
  • Prospects and adits nearby
USGS topographic map of Cyclopic with dirt roads meeting at the townsite
USGS The National Map, topo. Several dirt tracks meet at the townsite near the head of the wash.
Aerial view of Cyclopic: a pale band of pits, trenches and tracks running northwest through brown hills
Aerial imagery, same area. The pale scars of the workings run northwest along the wash.

The historic maps below start in 1886, when the sheet shows a Patterson Mine and Gold Spring in the basin but no Cyclopic. By 1942 Cyclopic is a named place where roads from White Hills and Gold Basin meet. The 1960 sheet calls it a site, with a water source and mine symbols, and the 1989 sheet adds the disturbed ground.

Historic maps

Cyclopic on USGS maps, 1886–1989

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Cyclopic, 1886
Camp Mohave sheet, 1886, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Kingman is the closest city. The route below follows US 93 and White Hills Road, then about seven miles of unpaved subdivision roads and desert tracks. The mining company's 2026 filing describes another approach, from Pierce Ferry Road west on BLM Road 9748, which it calls well used but largely unimproved gravel. An undated listing also gives a Pierce Ferry Road approach. We haven't driven either.

USGS topographic map between Kingman and Cyclopic with the route up US 93 and White Hills Road drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Kingman59.0 miabout 2 h 11 min
  1. From downtown Kingman, take East Beale Street to US 93.2 mi
  2. Follow US 93, the Hoover Dam–Kingman Highway, north.41.3 mi
  3. Turn right on White Hills Road (County Road 145). OpenStreetMap shows it paved to its east end.8.8 mi
  4. Where the pavement ends, jog left on Silver Eagle Drive, right on Rolling Ridge Drive and left on Santa Cruz Drive.0.7 mi
  5. Turn left on Cyclopic, which becomes Cyclopic Way. Both are unpaved.3.9 mi
  6. Turn right on an unnamed dirt track and follow it northeast.1.8 mi
  7. Turn right twice more on short tracks to the townsite.0.5 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • OpenStreetMap shows White Hills Road paved to its east end. Everything past that is unpaved: subdivision roads first, then desert tracks.
  • An undated listing rates the road 2WD, and the mining company calls most local roads suitable for two-wheel drive. It also says late-summer floods can close them for short periods.
  • This is an active exploration area on BLM land under mining claims. You may meet drill sites and company traffic. Don't disturb claim markers or equipment.
  • Old shafts, adits and pits are everywhere in this district. Stay out of them and keep children and dogs close.
  • Carry water and a full tank from Kingman or Las Vegas. Summers are hot.

Photos

Have photos of Cyclopic?

We haven’t added more photographs of Cyclopic yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Cyclopic?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Cyclopic

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Cyclopic": fact sheet fields (county, roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office dates, the Pierce Ferry Road approach).
  2. Wikipedia, "Cyclopic, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: coordinates and elevation (GNIS).
  3. F. C. Schrader, Mineral Deposits of the Cerbat Range, Black Mountains, and Grand Wash Cliffs, Mohave County, Arizona, USGS Bulletin 397 (1909), pp. 118–126: district history, discovery, owners, mill, water supply, workings and ore.
  4. Mindat, "Cyclopic Mine" (archived 2024): location, later owners and working periods, 1986 resource estimate.
  5. Jim Forte Postal History, Mohave County post offices: Cycloptic, 1914–1917.
  6. Gold Basin Resources Corporation, management information circular (May 14, 2026, filed with the SEC): unpatented claims, 2022 drilling at Cyclopic, historic workings, access by Pierce Ferry Road and BLM Roads 9748 and 9761, flood closures, the proposed CANEX Metals deal.
  7. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection: Camp Mohave 1886 and 1942, Garnet Mtn 1960, Gold Basin 1989.
  8. BLM Surface Management Agency map service, queried October 2026: BLM land at the townsite.
  9. Explore Kingman, "Day trip: Chloride" (Kingman Office of Tourism), checked October 2026: Chloride as a place to stop.
  10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Road surfaces: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

Record6 of 10
  • Coordinates
  • Mine history, 1880s–1940
  • Post office dates
  • Historic maps, 1886–1989
  • Land status (BLM records)
  • Current claims (2026 filing)
  • Dated list of remains
  • Population
  • Access rules near drill sites
  • Licensed photos
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.