Whitlock Valley | |
---|---|
Length | 22 mi (35 km) |
Width | 9 mi (14 km) |
Geography | |
Population centers | Duncan, AZ, Safford, AZ |
Borders on | Whitlock Mountains-W Black Hills (Greenlee County)-N Peloncillo Mountains-E San Simon Valley-SW & S |
Coordinates | 32°33′10″N109°20′7″W / 32.55278°N 109.33528°W Coordinates: 32°33′10″N109°20′7″W / 32.55278°N 109.33528°W |
The Whitlock Valley is a small valley in southeast Graham County, Arizona, southwestern United States, lying between three mountain ranges. The valley lies on the south perimeter region of the White Mountains in eastern Arizona, and lies south of the west-flowing Gila River, and the region transitions south into Cochise County and three large valleys, with some scattered dry lakes. The valley is endorheic, with a small dry lake called Parks Lake, and merges southwest into the north of the San Simon Valley, where the San Simon River has its origins in the flatlands, and surrounding perimeter mountains. The valley was named after Captain James H. Whitlock who commanded during the Battle of Mount Gray in 1864 which was fought near the valley.
The west-flowing Gila River is forced into a NW-West-SW excursion by the small range of the Black Hills (Greenlee County). The Whitlock Valley drains south from the range, and merges into the north of the San Simon Valley, where the San Simon River forms a playa, flatland region, then continues northwest to the Gila River. A water divide creates Parks Lake at the south of the Whitlock Valley.
Whitlock Valley is a mostly north-south 22-mile (35 km) long valley, bordered on the west by the small north-south Whitlock Mountains. The east of the valley is bordered by the north region of the Peloncillo Mountains (Cochise County), a north-south stretch, only about 8 mi wide. The north Peloncillos form the border between Graham County, northwest, and Greenlee County to the east, (extreme southeast county).
Parks Lake is the low point of Whitlock Valley in the south. The southern Whitlock Mountains are to the west, and on the southeast foothills of the Whitlocks lie Whitlock Cienega, at 32°33′10″N109°20′7″W / 32.55278°N 109.33528°W . [1]
In the Parks Lake region, can be found a sedge, Scirpus pungens , ( Schoenoplectus pungens ), [2] as well as other lakebed, and marsh plants. Parks Lake is located at 32°34′04″N109°18′11″W / 32.5678°N 109.3031°W . [3]
The valley lies in a region of southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico called the Madrean Sky Islands; the valley is a northeast drainage to the San Simon Valley, but only in the Whitlock Valley southern region, and the neighboring mountains east and west. The south of the valley forms a water divide to the northeast region of San Simon Creek.
Chiricahua is a band of Apache Native Americans.
The Chiricahua Mountains massif is a large mountain range in southeastern Arizona which is part of the Basin and Range province of the west and southwestern United States and northwest Mexico; the range is part of the Coronado National Forest. The highest point, Chiricahua Peak, rises 9,759 feet (2,975 m) above sea level, approximately 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above the surrounding valleys. The range takes its name from the Chiricahua Apaches native to the region.
Apache Pass, also known by its earlier Spanish name Puerto del Dado, is a historic mountain pass in the U.S. state of Arizona between the Dos Cabezas Mountains and Chiricahua Mountains at an elevation of 5,110 feet (1,560 m). It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) east-southeast of Willcox, Arizona, in Cochise County.
The Boot Heel volcanic field is located in the Bootheel region of southwest New Mexico, adjacent areas of southeastern Arizona, and northwest Mexico. The field covers an area of more than 24,000 km2. The field includes nine volcanic calderas ranging in age from 26.9 to 35.3 Ma. Extrusive products include rhyolitic ignimbrites along with basalt, andesite, and rhyolite lava flows. The major ash flow tuff sheets produced, range in volume from 35 to 650 km3.
Peloncillo National Forest was established as the Peloncillo Forest Reserve in Arizona and New Mexico on November 15, 1906 with 178,977 acres (724.29 km2). It became a National Forest on March 4, 1907. On July 1, 1908 it was combined with the Chiricahua National Forest and the name was discontinued. Its lands presently exist as part of the Coronado National Forest.
The Peloncillo Mountains of Cochise County is a mountain range in northeast Cochise County, Arizona. A northern north–south stretch of the range extends to the southern region of Greenlee County on the northeast, and a southeast region of Graham County on the northwest. The north stretch of the Peloncillo's forms the border between the two counties. It lies east and northeast of the Willcox Playa, and the San Simon Valley.
The San Simon Valley is a broad valley east of the Chiricahua Mountains, in the northeast corner of Cochise County, Arizona and southeastern Graham County, with a small portion near Antelope Pass in Hidalgo County of southwestern New Mexico. The valley trends generally north–south but in its northern portion trends northwest–southeast. The San Simon Valley separates the Chiricahua Mountains, Dos Cabezas Mountains and Pinaleno Mountains on the west from the Peloncillo Mountains and the smaller Whitlock Mountains to the east.
The Peloncillo Mountains of Hidalgo County,, is a major 35-mile (56 km) long mountain range southwest of New Mexico's Hidalgo County, and also part of the New Mexico Bootheel region. The range continues to the northwest into Arizona as the Peloncillo Mountains of Cochise County, Arizona. The extreme southwest corner of the range also lies in Arizona. It is a linear range bordering the linear San Bernardino Valley of southeast Cochise County, Arizona.
The San Bernardino Valley of Arizona is a 35 mi (56 km) northeast-by-southwest trending valley in extreme southeast Cochise County, Arizona. The north end of the valley merges into the northwest-by-southeast trending San Simon Valley; both merge in western perimeter Hidaldgo County, New Mexico. The valley is an asymmetric graben.
The Little Rincon Mountains are a small range of mountains, lying to the east of the Rincon Mountains, at Tucson, of eastern Pima County, Arizona. The range is located in northwest Cochise County and is part of the western border of the San Pedro River and Valley, the major valley and river of western Cochise County. The river is northward flowing to meet the Gila River; its headwaters are south of the US-Mexico border in northern Sonora. A small part of the Little Rincon range's southwest lies in Pima County.
The Black Hills of Greenlee County are a 20 mi (32 km) long mountain range of the extreme northeast Sonoran Desert bordering the south of the White Mountains of eastern Arizona's transition zone.
The Animas Valley is a lengthy and narrow, north–south 85 mi (137 km) long, valley located in western Hidalgo County, New Mexico in the Bootheel Region; the extreme south of the valley lies in Sonora-Chihuahua, in the extreme northwest of the Chihuahuan Desert, the large desert region of the north-central Mexican Plateau and the Rio Grande valley and river system.
San Simon River is an ephemeral river, or stream running through the San Simon Valley in Graham and Cochise County, Arizona and Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Its mouth is at its confluence with the Gila River at Safford in Graham County. Its source is located at 31°51′21″N109°01′27″W.
Stein's Pass, is a gap or mountain pass through the Peloncillo Mountains of Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The pass was named after United States Army Major Enoch Steen, who camped nearby in 1856, as he explored the recently acquired Gadsden Purchase. The pass is in the form of a canyon cut through the mountains through which Steins Creek flows to the west just west of the apex of the pass to the canyon mouth at 32°13′19″N109°01′48″W.
Steins Creek, a stream or arroyo tributary to the San Simon River, that arises within an east–west running canyon, in Hidalgo County, New Mexico with its mouth in Cochise County, Arizona. This canyon provides the gap, called Stein's Pass, through which the railroad and Interstate 10 pass through the Peloncillo Mountains. Steins Creek has its source at 32°14′10″N108°59′43″W, and its mouth in the San Simon Valley, where its waters usually sink into the soil, short of any confluence with the San Simon River.
Cienega of San Simon, was a cienega, an area of springs 13 miles up the San Simon River from San Simon Station, in Cochise County, Arizona.
Tres Alamos Wash, an ephemeral stream tributary to the San Pedro River, in Cochise County, Arizona. It runs southwesterly to meet the San Pedro River, across the river from the former settlement of Tres Alamos, Arizona. Tres Alamos Wash passes east and northeastward between the Little Dragoon Mountains and Johnny Lyon Hills to where it arises in a valley east of those heights and west of Allen Flat and the Steele Hills. It has its source at 32°07′45″N110°02′59″W.
Whitlock Cienega
Parks Lake