Arizona Names and Places

ARIZONA is a romantic land its history colorful and fascinating. Possessing a background rich with the influence of Old Spain and Mexico; of Indians and Mormon pioneers; of trail blazers of every race and creed -prospectors, trappers and cowboys; the lore and legend of the state has been indelibly imprinted in place names of cities, towns and hamlets; mountains and canyons, rivers and lakes, natural scenic and man-made wonders.To roll back the curtain of time and review a few highlights on Arizona's colorful past reflects a dramatic pageantry bordering on fantasy; a past that has faded with a new day, and for the most part lives only in the fragmentary pages of recorded history and in its place names.

The Indians had names for a great many places in Arizona, and when the early day explorers and prospectors came through this region they were often told the names of places by the Indians. According to the Sixth Report of the United States Geographic Board, "in America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, English spelling was notoriously unsettled and capricious. consequently one cannot expect to find consistency in the spelling of names of American Indian origin as they were transcribed . . .

"Many of the sounds occuring in the vocables of the American Indian languages were strange indeed some sounds common to the native American Indian languages were not apprehended at all, which often became the source of false identification of terms with other quite unrelated words. Hence it is that little uniformity or consistency in the spelling (and pronunciation) of American Indian names is found; nor could it be expected under the circumstances."

Every tenth person living in Arizona today is an Indian. There are fifty thousand of them, representatives of fifteen tribes and living on seventeen reservations. Half of the Indians living in the state are Navajos (nah-vah-hoe) and they call themselves diné, "the people." The Apache (ah-patch-ee), closely related to the Navajo, also call themselves "the people," although the word Apache is said to mean "enemy."

In the Yuman family there are the Havasupai (hav-uh-soo-pie), the "blue or green water people" who live in a beautiful box canyin in a western section of the Grand Canyon. The Hualpai, commonly pronounced, (wall-uh-pie) are known as the "pine tree folk." The Mojave (moe-hah-vee), the Cocopa (koh-kah-paw) and the Maricopa also are of Yuman stock as are the Yavapai (yah-vah-pie), known as the "sun people," and the Yuma (you-mah) translated to mean "son of the captain." The Chemehuevis (shem-ee-who-way-wee), who are southern Paiute, also live along the Colorado River with some of the other tribes.

Another group comprises the Paiute (paheute), the Pima (pea-mah), the Papago (pahpha-go), the latter known as the "bean people," and the Hopi (hoe-pea), the peaceful ones," and the only pueblo Indians in Arizona today.

Another tribe, the Yaqui (yah-kee), living in two villages in Arizona, are not wards of the United States, but are Indians who migrated to this country exiles from their ancestral home in the Republic of Mexico.

Naturally there are a great many places in the Navajo country that have been named by the Navajo Indians, and the reasons for these Indian names and their translations, as well as the information on the other Arizona place names, have been taken from Arizona Place Names, compiled by Will C. Barnes and published by the University of Arizona; Arizona, a Guide to the Youngest State, compiled by the Arizona Writers Project and published by Hastings House, New York; Arizonology, by Elwood Lloyd IV and published by the Coconino Sun; and the Sixth Report of the United States Geographic Board, United States Government Printing Office.

Agathla (Ah-gah-thlah) Peak, is a spectacular volcanic neck at the southern gateway to Monument Valley, with a spire that rises "enemy."

1,255 feet above its sloping base. It stands isolated on the surrounding, almost level plain and is said to have been named from a Navajo word Ag-hu-la, meaning "much wool." It is a place where deer, sheep and antelope rub themselves a scratching place for animals in the spring while they are shedding; thus the name. Dot Klish Canyon, on the Navajo reservation is from a Navajo word meaning "blue clay" or "blue earth." This beautiful canyon is more commonly called Blue Canyon, for its striking color. Canyon de Chelly (shay) is also a Navajo word meaning "among the cliffs." It is a national monument in the far northeastern part of Arizona and includes Canyon de Chelly and its two tributaries, Canyon del Muerto (moo-air-toe) from the Spanish meaning "Canyon of Death," and Monument Canyon. Within the boundaries of the monument lie more than a hundred miles of canyons sheer red walls hundreds of feet in height and paralleling in widths from one-fourth mile to sometimes less than a hundred yards. There are hundreds of cliff dwellings in the walls of the cliffs. The Navajos live in the canyon during the summer, but usually move up on the rim when winter comes.

Chinle (chin-lee), which the Navajo means "a place where water emerges from a canyon's mouth," is a trading post at the gateway to Canyon de Chelly, on Chinle Creek. Tonalea and Kayenta are two important trading posts in the Navajo Country on the road to Monument Valley. Tonalea (tahnuh-lee-uh), Navajo for "big lake" is often called Red Lake, for the large muddy-looking body of water there. Kayenta (kah-ehn-táy) is said to be a Navajo word meaning "where the springs come out of the side of a hill." Another version is that it comes from the word tye-nde, meaning "at the pits where animals fall in." It is said that the post office here is the furthest removed from a railroad station of any in the United States.

Strange as it may seem, the Hopi Indian Reservation is entirely within the expansive Navajo reservation. On three high rocky mesas are the nine present day villages of the Hopi Indians. Hano (hah-no), at the head of First Mesa, is a Hopi word meaning "Eastern people." These Indians at Hano are not Hopi however, but are Tewa (tah-wah) Indians from the Rio Grande, who according to tradition came to help defend the Hopi of Walpi village from Their enemies, and were given land and permitted to settle there as a reward. Walpi (wall-pea) is from the Hopi word meaning "notch in the cliff." The village is perched precariously on the narrow tip of steep rocky First Mesa, overlooking the Painted Desert region. The houses in this village are two and three stories high and are staggered and crowded so close together they appear as one huge jumbled castle-like structure. On the Third Mesa is Oraibi (oh-rye-bee), after a Hopi word said to mean "eagle traps." Oraibi, according to many accounts, is the oldest continually inhabited community in the United States, having been in existence in 1370. Four hundred years later, Father Garces, Franciscan priest, visited Oraibi. Although it was once the largest of the Hopi towns, many of the Indians have left this site for other places, principally Hotevilla and Bakabi not so far distant.

Kaibab (k-eye-bab) is a Paiute word meaning "on the mountain" or "mountain lying down." In Arizona the word Kaibab is quite prominent, being the name of a national forest, a plateau, a geologic formation, and a species of squirrel. The forest, second largest in Arizona, extends above and below the Grand Canyon. The Kaibab plateau is directly north of the Grand Canyon. The Kaibab limestone forms the surface layer of the Kaibab plateau, and the Kaibab squirrel, an unusual species with a brown body, black breast, tasseled ears and a bushy white tail. Included too could be the Kaibab Trail, which leads from the South Rim to the depth of the Grand Canyon, and the Kaibab Suspension Bridge, which spans the river. The bridge which was completed in 1928, was constructed under great handicaps. Its steel sections were packed down from the rim on mules and the ten cables which support the bridge were carried down the trail on the shoulders of Indians.

Gila (Hee-lah) is a name of quite old and very common in the realm of Arizona place names. The Gila River, however, perhaps outdates all other Gilas and this river has been longer known than the Colorado or any other river in Arizona. The name is said to be of YumaApache origin, derived from a phrase meaning "flowing water that is salt." The Gila, ex-reptile rarely found elsewhere, the Gila Monster. Far from being a monster in size, it is a fat, sluggish reptile like a lizard, about fourteen inches long with an orange and black coat of bead scales.

Another river in Arizona very prominent in lore and legend is the Hassayampa, which rises in Yavapai county and enters the Gila in Maricopa county. The name is undoubtedly of Yuman origin from a word meaning "Water that is hidden" or "water that is in a dry bed." The effect of drinking the Hassayampa's water is the subject of many legends variously attributed to the Indians, the cowboys, and the pioneers. One of the more common ones is "He who drinks above the ford is ever truthful, while he who drinks below is lost to truth."

There are a great many names of places in Arizona reflecting the Spanish influence the state has inherited some of them very old; others more recent. Of the older names, perhaps one of the better known landmarks are the mountains San Francisco Mountains, more commonly called San Francisco Peaks, north of Flagstaff, are of Spanish origin. These mountains were probably named by Marcos de Niza (Nee-zah) when he passed this way in 1539, in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola (See-boh-lah). San Francisco is the Spanish for Saint Francis. The Hopis called the mountains "the high place of snow," as snow is usually seen capping the peaks throughout the year. One of the San Francisco Peaks is the highest in Arizona. It is Humphreys Peak, named for the early day surveyor by that name. It is 12,611 feet high. The second highest peak in the group, Agassiz Peak, is 12,340 feet high and was named for a scientist; and the third is Fremont Peak, 11,940 feet high which was named for Governor Fremont of Arizona Territory.

Agua Caliente (ah-wah cal-ee-en-tah) is the Spanish for "hot water" and was visited by Father Kino (kee-no), Jesuit missionary, in 1699. These hot springs are now the site of a health resort. Agua Caliente is on the Maricopa-Yuma county border near the Gila River Canyon Diablo (dee-ah-blow), between Flagstaff and Winslow is from the Spanish, "Canyon of the devil" or "devil's canyon." Shading from a yellow to a salmon color, the canyon is 225 feet deep and 500 feet wide, and was so named because travelers experienced great difficulty in crossing it in the early days before the bridge and highway had been constructed. The Mogollon (moh-gee-yohn) Rim is a vast escarpment a natural barrier stretching across northern Arizona for some 200 miles in the great national forest regions. Mogollon is a Spanish word meaning "hanger-on," or "parasite" and was named in honor of the first governor of New Mexico.

Picacho (pee-cah-cho) Peak, Spanish for "top" or "summit," is located near Picacho Pass between Phoenix and Tucson. In 1862 the only skirmish of the Civil War fought on Arizona soil took place in Picacho Pass. A small detachment of Union soldiers encountered the Confederates here in a battle which claimed the lives of three Union soldiers.

For many years during the pioneer days in Arizona the Apache Indians were the scourge to civilization. They raided and killed and the reign of Apache terror did not cease until the surrender of the renegade Geronimo in 1886. Many sites of pillage and massacre have been named by pioneers as mute evidence of those hectic days.

Apache Leap, is a high red-streaked escarpment visible from the highway west of Superior, where a number of Apache Indians, being pursued by cavalrymen from Camp Pinal, were said to have been driven to the edge of the cliff where they plunged to their death on the rocks below rather than surrender.

Apache Pass is a narrow defile between two mountains near Old Fort Bowie in Cochise county. In the early days this pass was used generally by travelers through southern Arizona and had become the grave of so many soldiers, prospectors and immigrants that triple pay was offered to men who would make the stagecoach run through it in the years from 1861 to 1874 when Chief Cochise was rampant, but few drivers lived to collect it. The most important battle on Arizona soil between whites and Indians occurred here in 1862 when eleven companies of Union infantry, two companies of cavalry, and two batteries of artillery, on their way from Tucson to New Mexico, faced a surprise attack in Apache Pass by Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, and their Apache warriers. The soldiers soon brought their howitzers into action and the Apaches fled from the scene.

Bloody Basin is a large and rough so-called basin in Yavapai county said to have been named because of the many battles with the Indians that took place in this region.

Bloody Tanks in Gila county, near the present site of the town of Miami, was so named from a fight in the winter of 1863-64 between whites and Maricopa Indians on one side, and Apaches, who were greatly outnumbered, on the other side. Colonel King S. Woolsey, a veteran of Indian wars was captain of the whites and their Indian allies. It is said that 19 Apaches were fatally shot, and that when they crawled through the brush and rock to reach water, blood from their wounds colored the holes red. Woolsey lost a single man. The fight took place at a peace parley to which both sides took weapons against prior agreement. This engagement is often referred to as the "Pinole Treaty" because Woolsey offered the Apaches a feast of pinole (Apache corn) before the fight as a token of friendship, and, as the rumors have it, Woolsey had put strychnine in the pinole.

Chiricahua (cheer-ik-kah-wah) is an important division of the Apache Indians and numerous places have been named after them. One of the most prominent is the Chiricahua National Monument in Cochise county, generally called cherry-cow by local persons. This great area of grotesque rock formations-pillars, cliffs, balanced masses and solitary figures, is the result of a billion years of geologic changes. This region is also called "Wonderland of Rocks."

Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon mountains of Cochise county was the hiding place of the Apache Chief Cochise who for many years led his warriers in raids on immigrant trains, coaches, ranches and settlements. Cochise died here in 1874 and was buried at the mouth of the canyon. After burial the Apaches were said to have ridden their ponies back and forth over the area above the grave, completely obliterating it, and as legend has it, no one ever was able to locate the spot where this great chief was buried.

Skeleton Canyon in Cochise county, which winds through the wildest part of the Peloncillo mountains from Animas valley in New Mexico to San Simon valley in Arizona is said to have been the scene of a fight in 1881 or 1882 when Curley Bill and other "bad men" waylaid a band of Mexican smugglers who were raiding the country. Several were killed and their bodies left where they fell. For years these grisley relics made the ground white at the site.

Skull Valley in Yavapai county is named for a somewhat similar reason-supposedly a fight between soldiers and Apaches, several being killed and their bones and skulls were found by emigrants passing.

Fort Huachuca (wa-chu-kah) is a military post twelve miles above the Mexican line at the northern end of the Huachuca mountains. It was first occupied by United States troops in 1877 to protect settlers and travelers from the Apaches. The fort is now greatly enlarged and is garrisoned with negro troops.

During the 1860's and 1870's Mormon colonizers began their trek into Arizona from the north, and as they made their way south through Arizona's vast frontier, they settled and have recorded for posterity many records of their accomplishments in the names of many towns and landmarks.

Jacob lake is a ranger station and camp ground at the junction of the highway leading to the North Rim of Grand Canyon. A shallow pond here was named for Jacob Hamblin, fearless Mormon trail blazer and friend of Brigham Young, who explored the Grand Canyon country in the sixties and seventies looking for possible farm and town sites for the Mormons.

Lee Ferry, about six miles from the present Navajo Bridge over Marble Canyon in northern Arizona, was from 1872 until the completion of this bridge, the only possible crossing of the Colorado for many miles. It was established by and named for John D. Lee, a Mormon pioneer who located there and acquired ferry rights.

Mesa (maysuh) is from the Spanish word meaning "table," so called because it was located on a mesa somewhat above the surrounding valley. Mesa, sixteen miles east of Phoenix, was established by Mormon colonists from Salt Lake City in 1878. Located here is one of the seven Mormon Temples, and the Mesa Temple, one of the finest examples of classic architecture in the United States, is one of the five in this nation.

Snowflake is a farming community founded by two Mormon pioneers, William J. Flake, and his friend Erastus Snow. In the autumn (Continued on Page Forty-eight)