User:Tillman/Castle Dome Mountains



The Castle Dome Mountains are a mountain range in Yuma County, Arizona, within the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Castle Dome peak, the high point of the range, is a prominent and distinctive landmark. The peak is 3788 feet (1155 meters) high, and at coordinates 33.084695 N, 114.14348 W. Castle Dome was named by American soldiers at old Fort Yuma in the 1880's. Early Spanish explorers called the same peak Cabeza de Gigante, "Giant's Head."

The Castle Dome mining district is a popular district for mineral collectors. The Hull and Puzzler mines have produced attractive combinations of barite, cerussite, fluorite, unusual green vanadinite, yellow wulfenite and green mimetite. Castle Dome, Arizona was a small mining settlement which first produced silver and later lead. The post office opened in 1875 and closed in 1876. Castle Dome ghost town is now a museum site, with twenty or so restored period buildings.

Castle Dome Landing was the port and supply point nearby on the Colorado River. The townsite is now submerged beneath the Imperial Dam reservoir.