It was generally held that Native Americans had engaged in mining in the Castle Dome Mountains some years before and backpacked the ore 18 miles (29 km) south to a processing site on the banks of the Gila River, where remnants of adobe furnaces were found.

Heading north from Yuma, prospectors staked gold and silver claims along the river and in the surrounding mountains.

[3][4][5] Though prospecting and planning commenced years earlier, modern mining in the area didn't begin in earnest until 1869 due to hostilities with Native Americans.

[2] While the mining camp itself went into decline, the nearby riverside landing established some years earlier for steamboats of the Colorado River began to thrive.

[3] After World War II, the demand for lead decreased, and the town again went into decline,[7] though mining activity continued for some years in the area.

[7][8] The remains of Castle Dome Landing, once on the banks of the Colorado River, are now submerged beneath the Imperial Dam reservoir in Martinez Lake.

[9] The museum site houses over 50 restored and recreated buildings — seven original to the town, and the rest are period representations built mostly from locally scavenged materials.

The region is known for striking combinations of cerussite, fluorite, vanadinite, wulfenite, barite, and mimetite, as well as galenite and anglesite.