San Francisco Peaks
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Coordinates: 35°20′27″N 111°41′00″W / 35.34083°N 111.683333°W
| San Francisco Peaks | |
| Range | |
 The San Francisco Peaks viewed atop nearby 9,000ft Mount Elden
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Arizona |
| Highest point | Humphreys Peak |
| - elevation | 12,633 ft (3,851 m) |
| - coordinates | 35°20′47″N 111°40′40″W / 35.34639°N 111.67778°W |
| Geology | volcano |
The San Francisco Peaks are a volcanic mountain range located in north central Arizona, United States, just north of Flagstaff. The highest summit in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state of Arizona at 12,633 feet (3,851 m). The San Francisco Peaks (known locally as simply "the Peaks") are the remains of an eroded stratovolcano.[1] An aquifer within the caldera supplies much of Flagstaff's water while the mountain itself is located within the Coconino National Forest and is the site of much outdoor recreation. The internationally known Arizona Snowbowl is located on the western slopes of the Mountain.[2]
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[edit] History
In 1629, one hundred and forty seven years before San Francisco, California received its name, Spanish Friars founded a mission at a Hopi Indian village in honor of St. Francis, sixty five miles from the Peaks. 17th century Franciscans at Oraibi village gave the name San Francisco to the peaks to honor St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of their order.[3]
Mountain man Antoine Leroux visited the Peaks in the mid 1850's, and guided several US expeditions exploring and surveying northern Arizona. Leroux guided them to the only reliable spring, on the west side of the Peaks, later named Leroux Springs.
Around 1877, John W. Young, son of Mormon leader Brigham Young, claimed the area around Leroux Springs, and built Fort Moroni, a log stockade, to house tie-cutters for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, then being built across northern Arizona.[4]
The biologist Clinton Hart Merriam studied these mountains and surrounding areas in 1889, describing a set of six 'life zones' found from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the summit of the mountains, based on the factors of elevation, latitude, average precipitation. He designated their characteristic flora, as follows:
- Lower Sonoran Zone - Sonoran Desert plants
- Upper Sonoran Zone - Pinyon and Juniper woodlands
- Transition Zone - Ponderosa Pine forests
- Canadian Zone - Mixed Conifer Forest
- Hudsonian Zone - Spruce-Fir or Subalpine Conifer Forest
- Arctic-Alpine Zone - alpine tundra
Merriam considered that these life zones could be extended to cover all the world's vegetation types with the addition of only one more zone, the tropical zone. His pioneering studies remained the one of the most widespread climate zone classifications, in use for nearly 80 years.
In 1898, President William McKinley established the San Francisco Mountain Forest Reserve, at the request of Gifford Pinchot, head of the US Division of Forestry. Local reaction was hostile -- citizens of Williams, Arizona held a mass protest, and the Williams News editorialized that the reserve "virtually destroys Coconino County."[4] In 1908, the Forest Reserve became part of the new Coconino National Forest.
The peaks have considerable religious significance to thirteen local American Indian tribes (including the Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni.) In particular, the peaks form the Navajo sacred mountain of the west, Dook'o'oosłííd. It is associated with the color yellow, and is said to contain abalone inside, to be secured to the ground with a sunbeam, and to be covered with yellow clouds and evening twilight. It is gendered female.[5]
The mountain provides a number of recreational opportunities, including snow skiing and hiking. Hart Prairie is a popular hiking area and Nature Conservancy preserve nestled just below the mountain's ski resort, Arizona Snowbowl. Recently, Arizona Snowbowl proposed a plan to expand the ski resort and begin snowmaking using reclaimed water. A coalition of tribes and environmental groups is suing the Coconino National Forest, which leases the land to the ski resort, in an attempt to stop the expansion.[6]
Sudden and relatively unpredictable weather changes in Fall or Spring have resulted in unexpected snow fall bringing death from exposure to unprepared hikers. Native Americans tell the stories of Kachina spirits appearing during heavy snowfall events on the peaks.
[edit] Geography
The four highest individual peaks in Arizona are contained in the range:
- Humphreys Peak, 12,633 feet (3,851 m)
- Agassiz Peak, 12,356 feet (3,766 m)
- Fremont Peak, 11,969 feet (3,648 m)
- Aubineau Peak, 11838 feet (3,608 m)
- Rees Peak, 11,474 feet (3,497 m)
- Doyle Peak, 11,460 feet (3,493 m)
The San Francisco Peaks are home to the only alpine tundra environment in Arizona, the only place where the threatened San Francisco Peaks groundsel (Senecio franciscanus) is found.[7][8][9]
[edit] Names
- Dook'o'oosłííd—Diné (Navajo)
- Nuva'tuk-iya-ovi—Hopi
- Dził Tso—Dilzhe’e Apache
- Tsii Bina—Aa'ku (Acoma)
- Nuvaxatuh—Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute)
- Hvehasahpatch or Huassapatch—Havasu 'Baaja (Havasupai)
- Wik'hanbaja—Hwal`bay (Hualapai)
- Wimonagaw'a—Yavapai
- Sunha K'hbchu Yalanne—A:shiwi (Zuni)
- 'Amat 'Iikwe Nyava[10]—Hamakhav (Mojave)
- Sierra sin Agua Spanish
- The Peaks—Anglo Arizonans
Source:[4]
[edit] Publications
- Duffield, Wendell A., 1998, Volcanoes of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon Association. ISBN 0938216589. Reviews
[edit] References
- ^ "San Francisco Peaks". USGS factsheet. http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/fact-sheet/fs017-01/. Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
- ^ "San Francisco Peaks, AZ". NASA Earth Observatory. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=10874. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
- ^ Cline, Platt (1976). They Came to the Mountain. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona University with Old Town Press.
- ^ a b c Houk, Rose (2003). "San Francisco Peaks". The Mountains Know Arizona. Arizona Highways Books.
- ^ Robert S. McPherson, Sacred Land, Sacred View: Navajo perceptions of the Four Corners Region, Brigham Young University, ISBN 1-56085-008-6.
- ^ "Save The Peaks". http://www.savethepeaks.org. Retrieved on 2006-08-07.
- ^ Epple, Anne Orth; Epple, Lewis E. (1995). A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona. Falcon Publishing.
- ^ "Alpine Tundra". Arizona Game and Fish Department. http://explore.azgfd.gov/Default.as?tabid=55. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
- ^ Kachina Peaks Wilderness - GORP
- ^ Munro, P et al. A Mojave Dictionary Los Angeles: UCLA, 1992
[edit] External links
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