Gila River

The Gila River (/ˈhiːlə/; O'odham [Pima]: Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil) is a 649-mile (1,044 km) tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of nearly 60,000 square miles (160,000 km²) that lies mainly within the U.S. but also extends into northern Sonora, Mexico. Indigenous peoples have lived along the river for at least 2,000 years, establishing complex agricultural societies before European exploration of the region began in the 1500s. However, whites did not permanently settle the Gila River watershed until the mid-19th century.

During the twentieth century, human development of the Gila River watershed necessitated the construction of large dams and flood control structures on the river and its tributaries, and consequently the Gila now contributes only a small fraction of its historic flow to the Colorado. These engineering projects have transformed much of the river valley and its surrounds from arid desert to irrigated land, and supply water to over five million people that live in the watershed.

Geography

The Gila River has its source in western New Mexico, in Sierra County on the western slopes of Continental Divide in the Black Range. It flows southwest through the Gila National Forest and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, then westward into Arizona, past the town of Safford, Arizona, and along the southern slope of the Gila Mountains in Graham County. It emerges from the mountains into the valley southeast of Phoenix, Arizona, where it crosses the Gila River Indian Reservation as an intermittent stream due to large irrigation diversions. Well west of Phoenix, the river bends sharply southward, temporarily, along the "Gila Bend Mountains", and then it sharply bends westward again near the town of Gila Bend, Arizona. It flows southwestward through the Gila Mountains in Yuma County, and finally it flows into the Colorado at Yuma, Arizona.

History

First inhabitants

A band of Pima (autonym "Akimel O'odham", river people), the Keli Akimel O'odham (Gila River People), have lived on the banks of the Gila River since before the arrival of Spanish explorers. Popular theory says that the word Gila was derived from a Spanish contraction of Hah-quah-sa-eel, a Yuma word meaning "running water which is salty".

Their traditional way of life (himdagĭ, sometimes rendered in English as Him-dak) was and is centered at the river, which is considered holy. Traditionally, sand from the banks of the river is used as an exfoliant when bathing (often in rainstorms, especially during the monsoon).

Indigenous peoples such as the Hohokam were responsible for creating large, complex civilizations along the Gila and Salt Rivers between 600 and 1450 A.D. These native civilizations depended largely on irrigated agriculture, for the purposes of which they constructed over 200 miles (320 km) of canals.

Explorers

The first European to see the Gila River was possibly Spanish explorer and missionary Juan de la Asunción. Asunción reached the Gila in 1538 after traveling northwards along one of its tributaries, either the San Pedro or Santa Cruz. In 1540, Hernando de Alarcón sailed up the Colorado and Gila Rivers; maps drawn by his expedition show the river as the Miraflores or Brazos de la Miraflores.

19th century to present

The Gila River near Coolidge Dam in Arizona

During the Mexican-American War, General Stephen Watts Kearny marched 100 cavalrymen from the 1st U.S. Dragoons along the Gila River in November, 1846. This detachment was guided by Kit Carson. The Mormon Battalion followed Kearny's troops, building a wagon trail roughly following the river in December 1846 - January 1847.

After the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, the Gila River served as a part of the border between the United States and Mexico until the Gadsden Purchase (1853) soon extended American territory well south of the Gila. The confluence of the Gila with the Colorado river was also used as a reference point for the southern border of California.

Incident during World War II

In 1944 twenty-five German POWs pulled off the largest and most spectacular escape from an American compound during the war, digging a 178-foot tunnel out of the Navy’s Papago Park Prisoner of War Camp in Arizona. All of the men were eventually captured, but some remained at large for more than a month. Among the last to be brought in were three German soldiers who had based their audacious but ill-fated escape plans on a stolen highway map of Arizona, which showed the Gila River leading to the Colorado River, which in turn led to Mexico. Devising a scheme to flee by water, they constructed a collapsible kayak under the noses of their American captors, tested it in a makeshift pool within the prison compound, then snuck it out through the tunnel. Their plan was perfect- except for the map. The Gila, shown as a healthy blue waterway, turned out to be little more than a dry rut.

Dams and diversions

The only major dam on the Gila River is Coolidge Dam 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Globe, Arizona, which forms San Carlos Lake. The Painted Rock Dam crosses the Gila near Gila Bend, although the river is a transient one at that point. A number of minor diversion dams have been built on the river between the Painted Rock Dam and the Coolidge Dam, including the Gillespie Dam which was breached during a flood in 1993. Many dams have also been built on tributaries, including Theodore Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, New Waddell Dam on the Agua Fria River, and Bartlett Dam on the Verde River.

The Gila River and its main tributary, the Salt River, would both be perennial streams carrying large volumes of water, but irrigation and municipal water diversions turn both into usually dry rivers. Below Phoenix to the Colorado River, the Gila is usually either a trickle or completely dry, as is also the lower Salt from Granite Reef Diversion Dam downstream to the Gila, but both rivers can carry large volumes of water following rainfall. The Gila River a long time ago was navigable by boats from its mouth to near the Arizona - New Mexico border. The width varied from 150 to 1,200 feet (370 m) with a depth of two to 40 feet (12 m). The natural discharge of the river was roughly 1,300,000 acre-feet (1.6 km³) per year, with a mean flow of about 1,800 cubic feet per second (51 m³/s) at the mouth.

The upper Gila River, including the entire length within New Mexico, is a free-flowing one. Recent efforts to allow for damming or otherwise diverting this stretch have met with stiff political resistance, having been named as one of the nation's most endangered rivers due to the threat of damming. During his time in office, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had promised to block any such attempt during his term, and he had even considered pushing for a statutory prohibition against any such projects on the state's portion of the river.

Recreation

Boating facility

Middle Fork of the Gila River, SW New Mexico

Rock spires above the East Fork of the Gila River, Gila Wilderness

• Paved access
• Gravel access
• Dirt access
• Swimming
• Primitive parking area
• Camping

Fishing

Fish species in the Gila River include largemouth bass, sunfish, channel catfish, flathead catfish and Gila Trout (Oncorhynchus gilae gilae.

Variant names

The Gila River has also been known as:

• Akee-mull
• Apache de Gila
• Brazo de Miraflores
• Cina`ahuwipi (Chemehuevi language)
• Hah-quah-sa eel (Yuma language)
• Hela River
• Jila River
• Rio Azul
• Rio Gila
• Rio de las Balsas
• Rio del Nombre Jesus
• Rio del los Apostoles
• Zila River
• Xila River
• Keli Akimel

See also

Gila River at U.S. 95

• San Francisco River
• San Pedro River
• Santa Cruz River
• Agua Fria River (Arizona)
• List of Arizona rivers
• List of New Mexico rivers
• List of tributaries of the Gila River
• List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem)
• Gila River War Relocation Center
• Needle's Eye Wilderness
• Gila and Salt River Meridian

External links

• Gila River Tourism Website
• Arizona Boating Locations Facilities Map
• Arizona Fishing Locations Map
• Where to Fish in Arizona Species Information
• Arizona Lake Levels