The Tonto

HEARTLAND STREAM OF ARIZONA The TONTO

Few streams figure so prominently in Arizona history as Tonto Creek. Once the proud seat of a great Indian culture, its piney forests, treacherous canyons and fertile valleys were fought over by cavalry troops and Apache warriors and later by feuding cattle barons. The stream bursts from springs hidden “Under the Tonto Rim” — a land steeped in the romance of some seven Zane Grey's western novels. For the first few miles it slices into a heavily wooded summer playground that rings with laughter of rollicking kids. But soon the Tonto eludes its followers in a wide plunge through a sheer-walled canyon, appropriately named “Hell's Gate.” When it emerges from this wilderness, the stream's muscle has been expended and it flows lazily through the rolling meadowland of Tonto Basin toward a juncture with the Salt River and Roosevelt Lake. Although reservoirs trap its entire resource for desert irrigation needs, the topographic drainage route of Tonto Creek continues down the Salt River to the dusty Gila, and ultimately into the Colorado for a final run into the Gulf of California. Tonto Creek is a gusher by Arizona standards. Its seventy-five-mile flow can be relied upon even in driest years, but the stream also is capable of a savage tempo that can rip away everything in its path. Spring brings melting snows, and the Tonto builds strength from each new tributary until its lower canyons echo the resounding roar of spring runoff. Summer adds a busy kind of relaxation to Tontoland as city dwellers swarm up Hartline Highway in a mass exodus to escape the desert heat.

Ask a native around Kohl's Ranch or Gisela and he likely will say that Tonto Creek is never lovelier than during fall. At this time of year, flame-red sumac blends with the brilliant yellow of oak and cottonwood to transform surrounding hills into a melting pot of color. Also, big trout bite best during autumn months. With school in session and the vacation throngs departed, wildlife again ventures forth to wander through deserted campgrounds and stroll leaf-strewn hiking trails. Later, hunters arrive to send turkey, mule deer, elk, tasseleared squirrels and other wild game scurrying back to forest sanctuaries. Tonto Creek was named by early settlers who called the local Indians inhabiting the scenic Rim Country “Tonto Apaches” — Tonto being the Spanish word for fool. The name apparently was pinned on the Apaches because pioneers were amused by their strange antics. Not only was Tonto Creek important to early white settlers who favored settling near this perennially flowing stream but it also figured strongly in prehistoric Indian culture. In lower elevations, archeologists find evidence of the Hohokams — a prehistoric group with amazing engineering talents. It was the Hohokams who built the intricate system of irrigation canals around Phoenix, which were so well designed that some of their routes are still in use today by the Salt River Project.

"Trout Farm-Tonto Hatchery" Modern hatchery operations are models of clinical propagation processes.

During this same era, the Game and Fish Department began putting less emphasis on warmwater fish stocking, letting bass and panfish reproduce naturally in the state's fertile lowland impoundments.

Tonto hatchery wasn't the first such facility to be constructed "under the Tonto Rim." In 1928, pressured by local trout enthusiasts, a small hatchery building and nursing troughs were built at the headwaters of Horton Creek, a major tributary flowing into the Tonto. The Horton Creek hatchery was damaged in 1932, however, after a severe washout. It was never rebuilt because the spring flow had proven too erratic and unreliable for expanded hatchery use.

Rim Country streams were served by rearing ponds at Indian Gardens between Kohl's Ranch and Payson for the next five years, when Tonto hatchery was completed.

Trout production has continued uninterrupted at Tonto since 1938, with several important expansion programs increasing its trout-rearing capabilities. The most recent program is designed to ultimately replace all the old circular ponds with sleek new raceways.

Al Fuller, his wife and ten-year-old Boston terrier share a comfortable home barely a stone's throw from the hatchery ponds. Assistant fish culturists Bob Daymude and Wendell Russell also live in dwellings on the hatchery grounds, where they keep a watchful eye on their brood.

The daily routine of feeding and caring for fragile young trout goes on seven days a week, twelve months out of the year. It's hard work at times, and demanding of time and effort. Sometimes the hatchery overseers must slog through mud or shovel four-foot drifts to reach the rearing ponds.

Hatchery operation can be lonely, but also is rewarding. It's all worth while, says a beaming Al Fuller, when the first hatchery truck pulls out in late spring past rapidly filling campgrounds loaded with happy anglers.

Along the upper reaches of Tonto Creek lived the Anasazi strain of pueblo people. Both the Hohokam and Anasazi tribes crowded together in sprawling community pueblos fashioned from mud and stone. Both groups were farming oriented rather than warlike.

There also were the Salado people who probably migrated into the lower Tonto around 1100 A. D. to build the classic cliff dwellings that today are preserved within Tonto National Monument. The large structures located here have contributed greatly to the study of polychrome pottery and the expertly woven textiles of this period.

Indian ruins are sprinkled along many ridges and hills on both sides of Tonto Creek. And even today boaters on popular Roosevelt Lake occasionally look down into crystal-clear water to find beautiful pottery shards and arrowheads that have been washed loose by wave action from what once were bluffs overlooking Tonto Creek.

Tonto Creek begins its exciting odyssey in a heavily wooded glen beneath impressive Promontory Butte-a After Grey stopped coming to Arizona due to a falling out with the Game and Fish Department, the abandoned cabin became a target for souvenir hunters and vandals. Then, in 1963, Bill Goettl of Phoenix stepped in to buy the cabin and restore it to the golden years of the 1920's. Goettl admired the great sportsman-author and he decided to save the cabin before it decayed even further.

The result has been a near-perfect reconstruction of the Grey home, with some nearby log structures still preserved in their original state. Arizonans long will be indebted to Bill Goettl for his zeal in preserving the saga of one of our best-loved citizens.

Caretaker at the old homestead is Henry Haught, who knew the author personally and even helped to inspire some of the colorful characters in Grey's novels.

Grey owned another ranch built by Jim Roberts, where he kept horses, but he rarely stayed at this place. Instead, he hired Ed Haught, one of his favorite hunting guides, to watch over the property and care for his mounts. This ranch generally is referred to as the "Collins Place," and is difficult to reach except by pickup truck or fourwheel drive vehicle. The place is most significant because it is one of the few Rim cabins still in original good condition. The spacious barn was designed by Zane Grey and is considered a Rim Country classic.

Thumb-like bulge in the craggy Mogollon Rim. At 6,600 feet elevation, the spring is shaded by giant Ponderosa pine, with ferns and columbines carpeting the forest floor.

The water temperature at Tonto Spring is consistently frigid, winter and summer. This characteristic made it an ideal spot for a trout hatchery, which the state established at the headwaters in 1937.

The hatchery at first consisted only of small impoundments in the stream channel, but flash floods continually threatened the operation. To solve the problem, new circular ponds and raceways were constructed on higher ground, with fresh stream water pumped into them.

Tonto Hatchery is a popular spot for summer crowds who enjoy feeding the fish and seeing the king-size brutes that hatchery manager Al Fuller keeps around to tantalize visiting anglers.

The birthplace of this Tonto Forest stream is easily reached by taking Arizona 87 from Phoenix to Payson, a distance of eighty miles, then turning northeasterly on Arizona 160 about seventeen miles to Kohl's Ranch. Here, a Forest Service side road leads through TontoHorton Campground and on for five more miles paralleling the stream until reaching the fish hatchery. At the hatchery, Al Fuller will direct you to the foot trail that winds several hundred yards through a primeval forest to the spring.

As you drive up the main hatchery road, you will see a forest of blackened tree stubs to your left. This is the site of the man-caused Roberts fire of 1961, which destroyed 2,500 acres of prime forest land and caused the death of three aerial firefighters.

Soon, a road spurs off to the left. As the sign indicates, this one takes you to famous Zane Grey cabin. It was in this wilderness cabin with the panoramic forest-window view where the prolific author wrote many of his greatest adventure stories - To the Last Man, Call of the Canyon, Under the Tonto Rim, Stranger from the Tonto, Riders of the Purple Sage, to name a few.

Grey spent much time at his beloved cabin during the years between 1923 and 1931. He loved the rugged mountains, for here he could write undisturbed, with nothing more upsetting than the scream of a lion or the squawk of a jay.

Hub of excitement for upper Tonto is Kohl's Ranch.

This famous "watering stop" is located at the stream's only highway bridge crossing. The ranch has a colorful history dating back to the 1880's when it played a role in the bushwacking days of the Pleasant Valley War.

But Kohl's Ranch rose to its greatest heights as the first Model "T"s" began struggling up the new dirt road from Phoenix to Tontoland. It rapidly became popular among tourists and trout fishermen alike.

Actually, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Kohl didn't buy the ranch until 1927, when they immediately turned it into the swingingest spot below the Rim. Floor-stomping fiddlers drew cowboys from a hundred miles away to Satur day night dances, which were apt to end in a free-for-all.

But times have changed at Kohl's Ranch. Mr. and Mrs. Michael Mikol are the present owners, and they have added a deluxe atmosphere with $400,000 in improvements. The ranch now features a new lodge, restaurant, sauna baths, heated swimming pool and a whopping thirty-five-foot bar!

Immediately below the ranch are a string of private cabins on leased Forest Service land. However, district ranger Andy Lindquist cautions visitors that no more streamside cabin sites will be available. In fact, the new policy is to keep such lands in public ownership and not renew special use permits as they expire. To spend a night beside the Tonto these days, you must rush up Friday night and compete with hundreds of others for space in popular Tonto-Horton Campground. The well-developed area features fifty-eight improved campsites (fireplace and table) and over one hundred overflow tent spaces. Nevertheless, most spots are taken by late Friday evening.

Generally passed up by visiting anglers is a dry wash tributary that enters the Tonto in the heart of the campground area. Although no sane fisherman would give the dusty channel a second thought, a beautiful trout stream is located less than one mile above its confluence with Tonto Creek. The stream is fast-flowing Horton Creek, which pulls a mysterious disappearing act and thus is missed by nonhikers.

Horton gushes for about four miles through a series of fast-water riffles and shallow pools that hold both rainbow and brown trout. Since it is relatively inaccessible (a streamside road is kept closed by the Forest Service to prevent erosion damage), Horton Creek gets little angling pressure.

Continuing down past Kohl's Ranch and "Camp Tontozona - where Arizona State University's football "Sun Devils" carry on preseason drills, you come upon some of the prettiest pools and waterfalls on Tonto Creek. With the fishing herd amassed farther upstream in bustling Tonto-Horton Campground, more adventurous anglers can hike a short distance downstream from here and catch nice browns and rainbows from unmolested waters. The farther you go the more secluded the fishing, until you eventually come out four miles below, in the Bear Flat summer home area.

This stretch of stream makes a picturesque one-day hike that works best if someone meets you with a car at Bear Flat.

Midway down from Kohl's Ranch, Christopher Creek blends its tributary waters into Tonto Creek. Christopher Creek was named for its original homesteader, Isadore Christopher, who settled on its banks in 1882. His cabins were burned soon after by marauding Apaches.

Tonto Creek's next stop is at Bear Flat. If you prefer driving to hiking, you can reach this mountain-rimmed valley by automobile on a narrow road starting out near Green Valley that winds through a dense pine forest filled with deer, bear and turkey. The gravel road tracks through generally flat terrain until coming to the brink of Tonto Canyon, where it plunges down a steep grade to the summer home area.

Bear Flat has long been popular as a retreat for overheated Phoenicians, but here, too, the Forest Service isn't leasing any more land for private homesites.

The old "Bootleg Trail" is used to cut through this region connecting Green and Pleasant Valleys. During prohibition days, the upper Tonto blossomed with whiskey stills that were continually being moved to elude government agents. Oldtimers can show you "Whiskey Rock," where countless bottles were smashed as horses squeezed through a narrow defile on the trail.

After being harrassed off and on for ten miles by splashing kids, pop bottles, and paper plates, Tonto Creek finally makes its escape below Bear Flat into some of the wildest country left in Arizona.

As Ponderosas diminish, scraggly juniper and piñon take their place, struggling for life in the rocky terrain. Following the stream becomes more and more difficult as you encounter repeated boxes that require climbing a hundred feet or more to reach the next pool.

A faint trail follows the western ridge along this portion of the creek, but it soon disappears among rock slides and mesquite patches. Manzanita bushes grope from everywhere to tear at your clothing, but anglers claim that it's worth the struggle.

Five miles below Bear Flat, Tonto Creek enters Hell's Gate Canyon. The walls of this mighty gorge tower 1,500 feet above foaming falls and emerald pools that are famous for trophy trout. Most fishermen avoid the canyon for fear of breaking a leg and never getting out. Yet, each year, a few anglers answer the roaring challenge of Hell's Gate by driving to the lip of the precipitous canyon in four-wheel drive vehicles, then dropping over the side with ultralight backpacking gear. The five-mile Hell's Gate trail starts out near Green Valley. I've made the plunge three times at various points, but never along the horse trail that makes a switchback descent down and back up the opposite side. This trail dates back to frontier days, when it was a key route connecting Payson with Pleasant Valley.

Hell's Gate can be a treacherous place to be when upstream rains decide to send a flash flood churning down the canyon. I recall a backpacking trip of several years ago with Jim Perry, Dale Fant and a group of other Phoenicians when a wall of water roared - yes, roared down upon us.

It came so fast we barely had time to save ourselves, let alone the camping gear, most of which was swept away from our sandbar campsite. In fact, Perry and Fant were stranded on the opposite side of the stream for six hours until the water lowered enough for them to cross. On another trek into Hell's Gate with Fred Weiler and our two boys, we found playshoes and paper plates lodged in rocky crevices fifteen feet above the normal stream level. A flood tide like this would have engulfed us without a chance of our escaping.

In the deepest part of Hell's Gate, Tonto Creek gets a resurge of power from Haigler Creek. Haigler starts in the untrammeled forest around Colcord Mountain, flowing some thirty miles in a southwesterly direction to its juncture with the Tonto in Hell's Gate.

Haigler carries nearly as much water as Tonto Creek, and throughout its course features some of the state's finest wilderness trout water.

Only one road crosses Haigler Creek during its pic turesque course. This is Chamberlain Trail crossing, which fords the stream midway between Young and the Colcord Mountain road connecting Arizona 160 (Payson) with Arizona 288 (Young).

Below Hell's Gate, Tonto Creek pushes into the upper end of Tonto Basin. The broad green valley is historic grazing land that has echoed with the crack of angry rifle fire between warring cattle factions.

The best route to Phoenix was through here during frontier days via Reno Pass, Tonto Basin and through the gap near Mount Ord (near Sunflower). In those days, you could ride a horse from Rye to Tempe in two days - if you dug the spurs in deep. Reno Trail also was the route followed by cattle drovers.

After leaving the constricted confines of Hell's Gate, Tonto Creek meets civilization again near the ranching community of Gisela. At 2,500 feet elevation, the stream now is flanked by cacti, ocotillo and other desert growth. Gisela was first settled back in 1880. It was named by a local school teacher who was fond of a romantic novel called Countess Gisela. The tiny settlement featured one of the early post offices in Arizona.

OPPOSITE PAGE "QUIET FALL AFTERNOON ALONG THE TONTO."

Photo taken on a quiet October afternoon along Tonto Creek near the Tonto-Horton campground. By early fall, the crowds have long since departed from this busy camping area, leaving the setting serene. Days remain bright and warm, with night-time temperatures brisk. To many outdoor lovers, this is the best season for camping. The stream generally runs its clearest in the fall and trout fishing remains good. Bronica-S camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.11 at 1/125th sec.; Nikkor wide angle 50mm f3.5 lens; October; bright day; ASA rating 64.

FOLLOWING PAGES

This winter snow scene was taken along Tonto Creek in Tonto-Horton campground. Photo taken between Kohl's Ranch and Tonto Hatchery the morning after a sixinch snow. The road was kept open by the hatchery crew. The campground is eighteen miles northeast of Payson. Bronica-S camera; Ektachrome Professional; f12.5 at 1/250th sec.; Nikkor wide angle 50mm 3.5 lens; January; bright day; ASA rating 64.

Photo taken after a heavy snowfall at Tonto Hatchery. This picture was shot five miles north of Kohl's Ranch at the end of a gravel road that serves the hatchery. Tonto Hatchery stays open even during wintry blizzards. These cold winter months are especially busy as thousands of trout eggs are incubated on racks of movable trays within the main hatchery building. After hatching and gaining sufficient strength, the tiny trout will be transferred to these circular pools. Yearly production at Tonto hatchery is two million rainbow, brown and brook trout. Bronica-S camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.16 at 1/250th sec.; Nikkor 50mm wide angle 3.5 lens; January; bright day; ASA rating 64.

"HORTON CREEK TRIBUTARY OF THE TONTO."

Horton Creek is one of the major tributaries to the Tonto. It is the first stream to enter Tonto Creek, juncturing in Tonto-Horton campground about one mile north of the point where Arizona 160 crosses the Tonto. This scene was taken in the fall of the year. The upper part of Horton Creek is a series of beautiful little waterfalls and crystalclear pools. Fishing is good for rainbow and brown trout. Although plenty of water is evident here, the stream dives underground before meeting the Tonto. Bronica-S camera; Ektachrome Professional; 6.3 at 1/60th sec.; Nikkor wide angle 50mm 3.5 lens; November; overcast; ASA rating 64.

"STILL WATER IS TROUT WATER." As the Tonto wanders its merry way down to Roosevelt Lake from the Rim Country, it pauses in places to form pools which always are a delight to the fisherman seeking elusive trout.

"INVITING SCENE TONTO CREEK." This photo reveals a pleasant scene, so inviting to the angler, on Tonto Creek before it leaves its forested habitat under the Rim.

"ALONG THE UPPER TONTO." The Tonto begins its career in sylvan settings. Lush forest borders its path as it flows downward from the Mogollon Rim to desert country where it is embraced by desert flora.

This scene was taken in Hell's Gate Canyon. A jeep-type road for 4-wheel drive vehicles only thrusts five miles through dense manzanita thickets and over rocky ridges to the brink of this 1,100-foot deep gorge. Hell's Gate trail is marked by a Forest Service sign beginning at Little Green Valley between Payson and Kohl's Ranch on the Tonto Creek. This is one of the wildest canyons in Arizona. Very few people have seen it. The difficulty entering Hell's Gate probably will always keep it one of the loneliest canyons in the West. Here you will find husky trout that have never been fished for, while at night the shrieking cry of mountain lion echo off the steep walls. The only way to reach the stream is by foot or horseback. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Profes-sional; f.16 at 1/125th sec.; 3.5 Schneider Xenotar lens; June; bright day; ASA rating 64. (Same for the next two photos.) This is a placid pool in spectacular Hell's Gate Canyon. This remote 1,100foot deep gorge is located five miles west of Arizona 160. It can only be reached after a back-breaking five-mile jeep ride and a foot or horse-back climb to the bottom. Hell's Gate is located in a transition zone where the pine country disappears and desert growth begins. Beautiful emerald pools like this are common in the primitive canyon where fishing for large brown and rainbow trout can be fantastic.

This is one of the prettiest pools in Hell's Gate Canyon. The water is twenty feet deep below the waterfall. It is located near the juncture of Haigler and Tonto Creeks. Sheer-walled cliffs make it impossible to hike along the stream for any distance. The only way to reach many of these inviting pools is to climb up two hundred feet or more and drop back down again or take to the water and swim from pool to pool.

In spring, Tonto Creek can become a roaring torrent flushing snow runoff into the big Salt River storage reservoirs. This picture was taken near Gisela - located five miles east of Rye Creek crossing on Arizona 87. Bronica-S camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.11 at 1/250th sec.; Nikkor wide angle 50mm f3.5 lens; April; bright day; ASA rating 64.

Here an angler looks down on Tonto Creek before venturing over the brink into Hell's Gate Canyon. From this height, you can hear the roar of the stream as it tumbles over waterfalls and through a series of emeraldgreen pools. It's a rugged drop to the bottom, but hardy anglers claim the rewards can be great. Rolleiflex camera; Ektachrome Professional; f.16 at 1/125th sec.; Schneider Xenotar lens; June; bright day; ASA rating 64.

"TONTO CREEK IN THE DESERT." The Tonto plunges downward from high-forested country into dry, desert country. Here the creek is rapidly approaching Roosevelt Lake.

LAST PAGE OF COLOR PORTFOLIO

"WHERE THE TONTO JOINS ROOSEVELT LAKE." At long last, Tonto Creek has run its journey from high country to Roosevelt Lake, impounded by Theodore Roosevelt Dam which contains the flow of the Salt River and Tonto Creek.