A party of 30 prospectors from California, led by ex-mountain man, Joseph Rutherford Walker, arrived in the Bradshaw Mountains near Prescott, AZ. One of the creeks where they found gold was Big Bug Creek. They also found gold at Lynx and Groom Creek.They laid out a mining district by building corrals and establishing claims. A drawing was held with each man receiving two claims of 100 yards each on either side of the creek.
Mexicans and Chinese were prohibited from mining there by laws they drew up. The resolution originally read,
“no Mexican shall have the right to buy, take up, or pre-empt a claim on this river for a term of six months to date from the first day of June, 1863 to December 1, 1863,”
and it was changed a month later to keep out Chinese from working any part of this mining district, too.
