A booming gold camp, Gila City developed nearly overnight as prospectors rushed to the site.

The Butterfield Overland Mail route passed through the boom town and one of its stations, Swivelers lay a mile to the east at the eastern edge of the placer deposits where a post office was established for Gila City on December 24, 1858.

They worked the plateaus and canyons nearby, panning out $20 to $125 a day in gold dust, and nuggets weighing up to 22 ounces each were deposited at the Wells Fargo office in Los Angeles.

In March 1859, the Gila Mining and Transportation Company sent a cargo to Robinson's Landing, in the schooner Arno.

[4][5][6][7]: 31, 33 In 1859 Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry, reported about 100 men and several families working the gravels at Gila City and saw more than $20 washed from 8 shovelfuls of dirt.