Hassayampa River Preserve

flows mostly underground for a hundred miles to the Gila River near Phoenix. It surfaces most prominently in the preserve. Despite easy access from the adjacent U.S. Route 60, the preserve attracts a relatively modest number of visitors, about 12,000 a year. Birdwatchers comprise nearly a third of them. "It's kind of a secret place," program director Mike Rigney said. "The general public doesn't know a lot about it." Secret or not, the preserve radiates history. It began as a stagecoach way station in the early 1860s, then evolved into the storied Brill Ranch, which produced not only beef but also fruits, vegetables and fish for hungry miners and pioneer families in Wickenburg, Prescott and Phoenix. In 1913, it briefly morphed into the Hollywood-sounding Garden of Allah guest ranch before becoming the winter home of a cereal company executive. From 1925 until 1986, when The Nature Conservancy purchased the property, it again anchored guest ranches. Vestiges of that illustrious history remain, starting with the Waddell Visitor Center, where weary stagecoach travelers once took their ease. Although modified, the basic adobe structure, with its dormers and wooden beamed ceiling, retains its frontier integrity. It now houses the Arthur L. Johnson Interpretive Center-interactive displays involving desert and riparian ecology, plus a bookstore and gift shop. The preserve employs one full-time and one part-time staffer, assisted by 45 volunteers. Down the path from the center stands a kiosk, where the preserve's wellmaintained nature trails converge. Visitors taking the half-mile Palm Lake loop, as I did, pass a small picnic area flanked by a row of giant palm trees, planted from seed by stagecoach passengers a century ago. Farther on, a tangled forest of Fremont cottonwoods and Goodding willows covetously encircles the lake. Many of the untamed trees predate the Civil War. Errant willow branches arch over the trail

and fallen dead trunks like primeval serpents. Visitors might conclude-quite correctlythat nothing is done to thin out dead and dying vegetation. Nature goes its own way, unrestrained, free from the human urge to tidy up. The junglelike thickets provide shelter, food and nesting sites to scores of creatures, including the lowland leopard frog (a river native) and the endangered southwest willow flycatcher.

Along the trail, wooden plaques identify plant life, highlighting the preserve's botanical diversity. I was surprised to find jimson weed, the fabled bovine scourge, and mistletoe, the joyous Christmas plant so parasitic it can strangle willows with a python's efficiency. Here and there, strings of it cling to trees in a deadly embrace.

In addition to the Palm Lake loop trail, the River Ramble trail, which meanders along the Hassayampa for more than a mile, offers visitors the opportunity to observe a river ecosystem at work. When I was there, the warm weather of March had brought a rich green carpet of algae that nearly masked the slow, inexorable movement of the current. At one point, the river narrowed enough to step over, and at another, it widened to the size of a canal. Birds took to the air as I passed, as abundant as the seep willow saplings clustered at water's edge.On leaving the preserve, I regretted personal scheduling had not allowed me to arrive earlier and stay late. According to Rigney, even the midday heat offers rewards. “That's when you get to see the butterflies,” he said. Al

THINGS TO SEE AND DO NEAR WICKENBURG

DESERT CABALLEROS WESTERN MUSEUM See the “West as it was” through exhibits of Western art, cowboy gear, Indian arts and Territorial history; (928) 684-2272.

MASSACRE MONUMENT Established in remembrance of an attack by Indians or bandits in 1871, a mile west of Wickenburg on U.S. Route 60.

VULTURE MINE Explore the most productive gold mine in Arizona history, 12 miles southwest of Wickenburg off Vulture Mine Road; (602) 859-2743.

HISTORIC DOWNTOWN WICKENBURG Stroll through a self-guided walking tour using a chamber of commerce brochure; (928) 684-0977, www.wickenburgchamber.com.

OLD 761 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE After opening the West with runs from Chicago, the old engine rests in Stone Park at Apache and Valentine streets.

VULTURE PEAK Climb the 3,658-foot summit, 10 miles southwest of Wickenburg off Vulture Mine Road, using the chamber of commerce hiking guide.

JOSHUA FOREST PARKWAY Drive through 18 miles of a Mohave Desert forest, 25 miles northwest of Wickenburg on U.S. Route 93 between Mileposts 180 and 162.

WICKENBURG MEMORIAL The monument that stands in Stone Park honors town founder and discoverer of the Vulture Mine, Henry Wickenburg.

ROBSON'S MINING WORLD Step back in time to an 1800s goldmining camp nestled in the Harcuvar Mountains, 25 miles west of Wickenburg off U.S. Route 60. (928) 685-2609.

RANCHO DE LOS CABALLEROS A 20,000-acre historic guest ranch offers guided hikes, bird-watching, horseback riding and hot air balloon rides, 7 miles southwest of Wickenburg off Vulture Mine Road; (928) 684-5484.

Origins of PLACE NAMES Often Reveal MISNOMERS and ODDITIES

PIONEERS AND MILITARY MEN HAVE LEFT their legacy-as well as their names-to today's Arizona, but sometimes this heritage is not so obvious.

For example, in the Bradshaw Mountains west of Cordes, a prominence identified on numerous maps as “Towers Mountain” rises to 7,629 feet. At its crest stand communications towers, including a Prescott National Forest lookout tower. Seeing those structures, many people conclude that the mountain derives its name from these man-made additions.

Long before any structures existed on the mountain, George W. Tower mined there in 1873. The peak is properly identified as “Tower” Mountain.

A WATERWAY FLOWING NORTH OF NACO in Cochise County is marked on some maps as “Greenbush Draw” and on others as “Green Brush Draw.” Most persons assume that the name comes from the desert shrubbery along its banks, but it was named for Green C. Bush, a Cochise County pioneer.

MCDOWELL ROAD, A MAJOR THOROUGHFARE in Phoenix, courses east to west across the Salt River Valley. McDowell also identifies the mountain range northeast of Scottsdale.

Initially, the name McDowell was applied to the military post established in 1865 beside the Verde River north of its confluence with the Salt River. The installation, the mountain range and the road were named for Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell, commander at that time of the U.S. Army region that included Arizona.

McDowell led Union forces in the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas, Virginia, July 21, 1861, the first major engagement of the Civil War, resulting in a rout of Union troops. Relieved of commanding combat units, McDowell transferred to the Department of the Pacific, headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco.

In addition to having his surname applied in Arizona, McDowell left his handle on California, too; his name identifies a roadway at the Presidio, the Fort Mason Officers' Club is in McDowell Hall, and now-abandoned Fort McDowell on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay memorializes the general. ANOTHER LANDSCAPE FEATURE, SOMETIMES called Bald Hill, also got its name from a military officer, William A. Glassford. The barren 6,161-foot mountain rises west of Prescott Valley.

In April 1886, Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles commanded the Department of Arizona, with headquarters at Fort Whipple, Arizona Territory. Gen. Miles tested a communication device called a heliograph that employed mirrors to reflect flashes of sunlight from one mountain to another. The high ground east of the fort served as the site of Station No. 2, transmitting messages from headquarters.

Miles' signal officer, Lt. Glassford, activated the heliograph stations that by August 1886 included 14 in Arizona and 13 in New Mexico. The knoll east of Fort Whipple was named Glassford Hill in honor of the lieutenant.

MANY ARIZONA GEOGRAPHIC NAMES HONOR 19th-century military men. The state's highest mountain, 12,643-foot Humphreys Peak, serves as a Flagstaff backdrop. It commemorates Brig. Gen. Andrew Atkinson Humphreys, a captain with the Corps of Topographical Engineers while surveying the area in 1851.

Mount Ord in Apache County-Arizona's third highest at 11,357 feet-was named for Maj. Gen. V. Edward Otho Cresap Ord, whose name is also on a 7,155-foot mountain on the line of Gila and Maricopa counties.

Kendrick Peak (10,418 feet), along with its Kendrick Spring, and Sitgreaves Mountain (9,388 feet), both in Coconino County, recognize Maj. H. L. Kendrick, the military escort commander for Lt. Lorenzo Sitgreaves' expedition, which mapped a route across northern Arizona in 1851.

Carr Peak (9,214 feet) in Cochise County remembers Col. Eugene Asa Carr. The New York Times erroneously published Col. Carr's obituary after mistakenly reporting his command's annihilation at the Battle of Cibecue Creek on August 30, 1881.

Fort Apache, about 35 miles southeast of Cibecue, came under siege the day after the battle. Signal Corpsman Will C. Barnes voluntarily dashed through hostile territory to send information on the attacking Indians and the approach of Carr's column. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery. Barnes Butte on the Papago Park Military Reservation in Phoenix bears his name. Barnes is best known for editing the first edition of Arizona Place Names, published in 1935.