Wendell Thatcher
Deer Creek is dry but not without fire agate. I mean that there has been little rain, which fills the tanks and ponds that are near the mines. Water would have to be trucked in on a mean road, at certain expense, in order for any operation to produce fresh material. It has been mined a great deal over the years, but there are yet beds of material that await excavation. As for Slaughter Mountain. It probably has the largest untouched reserves, due to the fact the Apache tribe does not allow large scale mining operations. Most all of the work is done with small electric hammers and a generator. To my knowledge no one has actually core drilled the area and so the reserves are unknown. Only tribal members are allowed to collect on the reservation.
