Flooding of the Gila River in the Great Flood of 1862 destroyed the remnants of the town , and the post office was discontinued on July 14 , 1863 . Most of the population had already moved on to the new gold rush at La Paz . The best of the placers continued to be worked on a reduced scale until 1865 , all the known productive ground was worked over at least once since then . A few large-scale operations were later attempted over the years , but these were unsuccessful
Great Flood of 1862
Great Flood of 1862
Gila City, Arizona