Atershed Historical Review

The San Simon Watershed Historical Review

Item Type Article

Authors Jordan, Gilbert L.; Maynard, Michael L.

Publisher College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)

Journal Progressive Agriculture in Arizona

Download date 27/09/2021 20:25:46

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/300178 , The San Simon atershed

Figure 1.A view of the San Simon Valley looking down the canyon from Fort Bowie, photographed, June, 1967. The shrubs co ering the valley floor are creosote -b by Gilbert L. Jordan & Michael L. Maynard' and sand -dune mesquite.

Hinton'( 1878 ) provides an over- The San Simon Valley located intions, mining camps developed andview of the early -day San Simon Val- Southeastern Arizona extends fromadditional army posts were establishedley in his book, "The Handbook to the Arizona -New Mexico border north-to hold the Indians in check.TheArizona." "Looking down the canyon west to Solomon, Arizona.Here, thesouthern part of the valley was settledfrom Camp Bowie, a beautiful view San Simon River traversing this valleyfirst due to the protection afforded themay be had of a portion of the San enters into the Gila River. This valley,settlers by Fort Bowie from hostileSimon plains,literally strewn with about 65 miles long and 25 milesApaches.Farming and ranchingflowers. The valley of the San Simon wide, covers about one million acresplayed an important role in supplyingis about 25 miles in width, and con- of semi -arid rangelands and water-the increased demand by the armytains much fine grazing and some sheds. Itvaries in elevation fromposts and mining camps for hay andagricultural land.It is covered with 3000 to 4000 feet and the averagefood. grama a grass rivalled in nutritious annual rainfall is about 9.5 inches. quality only by the mesquitegrass of * Associate Professor of WatershedManage- Texas...Mesquite is most conspicu- ment and former Graduate Student and Re- ous and abundant from the base of The Early Days search Associate in Watershed Management. the mountain ( Graham ) toa certain In 1859 the Butterfield Stage Co. altitude, and sparceon the mesa. The established a station at the town site Literature Cited Sacaton and three varieties ofgrama presently known as San Simon. Aside Hinton, R. J. 1878. The Handbook to Ari- grass cover the plain zona. American News Co., New York, N.Y. ...The country from service to travelers, there were republished, 1954, Arizona Silhouettes, abounds in game suchas deer, ante- few if any permanent settlers in the Tucson, Arizona. lope, wolf, wild turkey, duck and region because of danger from the2 Barnes, W. C. 1936. Herds of the Sanquail." Indians. Camp Bowie was established Simon Valley, Amer. Forests 42 :456 -57, Will C. Barnes2( 1936) described in 1862, presently known as the Fort 481. 3 Thornber, J. J. 1910. The Grazing Ranges the San Simon Valleyas it appeared Bowie National Monument. After the of Arizona, Ariz. Agric. Expt. Sta. Bull No. in 1882. The meadowswere covergd Indians had been placed on reserva- 65, 115 pp. with two -foot lush grasses.On t. 10 end when it entered the Gila.As I remember it, the banks of the San Simon at the junction were not more than three feet high and the wash it- self measured not over 20 feet from banktobank.Great cottonwood trees the pioneer's best friend and willow thickets lined its banks." Historically this valley was named Valle de Sauz or Valley of Willows.

The demand for meat increased and cattle were driven in from Texas.In 1895 there was an estimated 50,0003 head grazing the San Simon ranges in contrast to the few head in 1882.In 1883 the local farmers dug a drainage ditch at the mouth of the San Simon River to drain the excess water into the Gila.From meadows along the river native hay was harvested. Figure 2.The beginning of a future galley. Shrubs in the foreground are tarbush Ore wagons from the mining camps with snakeweed, the smaller shrub, in background. Root exposure in bottom of channel indicates recent erosion. The absence of grass cover is typical of these rangelands. followed the river route. more open areasthose fine stockwhole range with their rich growth, Barnes reported that this valley had grasses, black, blue, and hairy gramaswhile several sages grew in densegone rapidly down hill in 15 years grew luxuriantly.Along the washbodies, furnishing splendid forage inafter his first visit in 1882. The com- were tracts of alkalai land on whichwinter when the range was coveredbined effects of drainage and intensive sacaton touched my stirrups. A littlewith snow, or in dry seasons whengrazing became most noticeable dur- further back large areas were coveredthe grass was short."Of the streaming a severe drought in 1902 to 1905. with another useful plant, hilaria, oneitself, he wrote: "There was then prac-Comments traced toold- timersof of the first to "green up" in the spring.tically no banks to the stream.Itthis area indicated that passengers on Running back to the foothills on eachsimply flowed softly and quietly ontrains travelling through at this time ile, the grama grasses covered thetop of the ground, except at its lowerpreferred to have the windows on their coaches closed.So many cattle had died during the drought that the stench was more intolerable than the heat.

In the following years, heavy rains and excessiverunoff enlarged the drainage ditch, eroded the wagon road, and enlarged the main channel. Water holes dried up and people moved away.Following his visit in 1934, Barnes wrote: "Many of the old valuable grasses and forage plants were gone.The meadows were re- placed by drifting sand.Of running water, except during the summer rains when floods occurred, there was al- most none. The ranges on both sides of the deep wash were criss- crossed by deep trails worn by the feet of restless herds and then dug deep in the loose soil by the storm waters. On both sides of the main wash, side washes headed into it from the mountain slopes.Where the San Simon Wash was originally not more than 20 feet wide, at the Gila, itwas now fully 100 feet wide and 30 feet deep. . Figure3.Collecting floodwaters gather energy for extensive bank-cutting and toppling ( a stream -bankshrub,cat -claw. (Turn to Next Page)

11 In some places above the junction theplains would have been mentionedbank -cutting and root exposure of the San Simon had widened out to 200had they existed during Hinton's time.larger shrubs ( Fig. 3) .On the valley feet, and the cut extended back 60 floor near the main channel, arroyos miles." The Valley Today are head - cutting intothe deep alluil The vegetation at the present time The San Simon Valley is of particu-um(Fig.4).4. consists mainly of creosotebush andlar significance in this region because the need for corrective ac- sand -dune mesquite.Yucca, tarbush,it is classed as a frail watershed, sub-tion was recognized, it was beyond cat -claw accacia, and snake weed areject to excessive soil erosion and chan-the scope of private enterprise.Pre- also common.Tobosa isthe mostnel development.The silty alluviumliminary action was taken by public common grass in the swales.Otherof the valley bottom readily moves un-agencies, the Soil Conservation Service grasses of very limited occurrence areder the driving force of summer thun-and the Civilian Conservation Corp sideoats grama, black grama, plainsderstorms.It has been estimated that ( CCC ), to build small diversion dams, bristle grass, wolftail, spike dropseed,annual sedimentation yields of 0.3 acrecontour furrows, and gully plugs ( Fig. mesa dropseed, sacaton, Arizona cot -feet occur for each square mile of 5 ). In 1949 these lands were trans- tontop, and bush muhly. The presentdrainage area.Sheet erosion and rillferred to the Bureau of Land Manage- day view down the canyon from Fortformation are prominent on the upperment ( BLM ) .In 1953 a large deten- Bowie ( Fig. 1) is a marked contrastlevels of the watershed ( Fig. 2). Ation dam and drop structure was con- from that described by Hinton.Thelittle further downslope, channel de-structed by the BLM in the main obvious shrub -covered San Simonvelopment is active as illustrated bychannel of the San Simon River ( Fig.

Figure 4.Head- cutting and arroyo formation as illustrated here might take years or could possibly be theresult of one large rain, storm. llib 12 ever,there were no guidelinesto establish these practices on southern desert rangelands under such low rainfall. Preliminary attempts by public and private enterprise to revege- tate the area had met with failure. The BLM recognized the need for research specifically to develop revegetation procedures for the San Simon Area. In 1962, the BLM, Safford District, contacted the Department of Water- shed Management, University of Ari- zona.A research contract was developed and these two agencies are cooperating in fundamental and ap- plied research for the revegetation of the San Simon Watersheds.Effective methods for shrub control were inves- tigated.Despite earlier reports that reseeding was impractical, the forage and game reported by Hinton and Barnes indicated the productive po- tential was there.Adaption of spe- cies and seeding methods have been studied. The application by BLM of results from this research has pro- duced successful seedings and will be Figure 5.The Goat Well detention dam and drop structure, built in 1940 by the Soil a basic tool in the rehabilitation of the Conservation Service, to contain a head- cutting arroyo. Without this structure this San Simon. The research results will arroyo would have conservatively, advanced another five miles by 1970. be the theme of subsequent articles in 6). Sedimentation behind this dampractices curtail runoff and erosion at ad advanced by 1967 eight miles up-their point of origin and prevent head- this publication on the revegetation earn.Depth sediment cutting arroyos from developing. How-of the San Simon. ' 7rely behind the structure is about 16 feet. Several additional dams have been built and many more structures need to be built in the main channel and contributory gullies to control the smaller flood waters, erosion, and to regrade the main channel.

Outlook for Rehabilitation A fundamental approach has been initiated by the BLM on the San Si- mon Valley and its watersheds.This consistsof more closelycontrolled grazingand managementofthe present vegetation.The Valley now supports about 5,000 head of cattle in contrast to the 50,000 head present at the turn of the century. The carry- ing capacity for domestic livestock averages now about four head per sec- tion. Management alone, however, has not been sufficient to bring about the desired vegetative improvement of these watersheds. Shrub control and revegetation have been the two most fundamental practices to protect and develop depleted Figure 6.The Fan Drop structure on the main channel of the San Simon. Sedimenta- (ngelands and watersheds.These tion and regrading of the channel has advanced eight miles behind this structure.