The Rio Verde is throughout its length a mountain stream. Rising in the
mountains and plateaus bounding two great connected valleys northwest of
Prescott, known as Big Chino valley and Williamson valley, both over
4,000 feet above the sea, it discharges into Salt river about 10 miles
south of McDowell and about 25 miles east of Phoenix, at an elevation of
less than 1,800 feet above the sea. The fall from Verde to McDowell, a
distance of about 65 miles, is about 1,500 feet The whole course of the
river is but little over 150 miles. The small streams which form the
river unite on the eastern side of Big Chino valley and flow thence in a
southerly and easterly direction until some 12 miles north of Verde the
waterway approaches the edge of the volcanic formation known on the maps
as the Colorado plateau, or Black mesa, and locally as “the rim.” Here
the river is sharply deflected southward, and flows thence in a
direction almost due south to its mouth. This part of the river is
hemmed in on both sides by high mountain chains and broken every few
hundred yards by rapids and “riffles.”
Its rapid fall would make the river valuable for irrigation if there
were tillable land to irrigate; but on the west the river is hugged
closely by a mountain chain whose crest, rising over 6,000 feet above
the sea, is sometimes less than 2 miles from the river, and whose steep
and rugged sides descend in an almost unbroken slope to the river
bottom. The eastern side of the river is also closely confined, though
not so closely as the western, by a chain of mountains known as the
Mazatzal range. The crest of this chain is generally over 10 miles from
the river, and the intervening stretch, unlike the other side, which
comes down to the river in practically a single slope, is broken into
long promontories and foothills, and sometimes, where the larger
tributaries come in, into well-defined terraces. Except at its head the
principal tributaries of the Verde come from the east, those on the
west, which are almost as numerous, being generally small and
insignificant.
Most of the modern settlements of the Rio Verde are along the upper
portion of its course. Prescott is situated on Granite creek, one of the
sources of the river, and along other tributaries, as far down as the
southern end of the great valley in whose center Verde is located, there
are many scattered settlements; but from that point to McDowell there
are hardly a dozen houses all told. This region is most rugged and
forbidding. There are no roads and few trails, and the latter are feebly
marked and little used. The few permanent inhabitants of the region are
mostly “cow men,” and the settlements, except at one point, are shanties
known as “cow camps.” There are hundreds of square miles of territory
here which are never visited by white men, except by “cow-boys” during
the spring and autumn round-ups.
Scattered at irregular intervals along both sides of the river are many
benches and terraces of alluvium, varying in width from a few feet to
several miles, and comprising all the cultivable land in the valley of
the river. Since the Verde is a mountain stream with a great fall, its
power of erosion is very great, and its channel changes frequently;
in some places several times in a single winter season. Benches and
terraces are often formed or cut away within a few days, and no portion
of the river banks is free from these changes until continued erosion
has lowered the bed to such a degree that that portion is beyond the
reach of high water. When this occurs the bench or terrace, being formed
of rich alluvium, soon becomes covered with grass, and later with
mesquite and “cat-claw” bushes, interspersed with such cottonwood trees
as may have survived the period when the terrace was but little above
the river level. Cottonwoods, with an occasional willow, form the
arborescent growth of the valley of the Verde proper, although on some
of the principal tributaries and at a little distance from the river
groves of other kinds of trees are found. All these trees, however, are
confined to the immediate vicinity of the river and those of its
tributaries which carry water during most of the year; and as the
mountains which hem in the valley on the east and west are not high
enough to support great pines such as characterize the plateau country
on the north and east, the aspect of the country, even a short distance
away from the river bottom, is arid and forbidding in the extreme.
[Illustration: Plate XIII.
MAIN COURT, RUIN NEAR LIMESTONE CREEK.]
Within the last few years the character of the river and of the country
adjacent to it has materially changed, and inferences drawn from present
conditions may be erroneous. This change is the direct result of the
recent stocking of the country with cattle. More cattle have been
brought into the country than in its natural state it will support. One
of the results of this overstocking is a very high death rate among the
cattle; another and more important result is that the grasses and other
vegetation have no chance to seed or mature, being cropped off close to
the ground almost as soon as they appear. As a result of this, many of
the river terraces and little valleys among the foothills, once
celebrated for luxuriant grass, are now bare, and would hardly afford
sustenance to a single cow for a week. In place of strong grasses these
places are now covered for a few weeks in spring with a growth of a
plant known as “filaree,” which, owing to the rapid maturing of its
seeds (in a month or less), seems to be the only plant not completely
destroyed by the cattle, although the latter are very fond of it and eat
it freely, both green and when dried on the ground. As a further effect
of the abundance of cattle and the scarcity of food for them, the young
willows, which, even so late as ten years ago, formed one of the
characteristic features of the river and its banks, growing thickly in
the bed of the stream, and often forming impenetrable jungles on its
banks, are now rarely seen.
Owing to the character of the country it drains, the Rio Verde always
must have been subject to freshets and overflows at the time of the
spring rains, but until quite recently the obstructions to the rapid
collection of water offered by thickly growing grass and bushes
prevented destructive floods, except, perhaps, on exceptional occasions.
Now, however, the flood of each year is more disastrous than that of the
preceding year, and in the flood of February, 1891, the culminating
point of intensity and destructiveness was reached. On this occasion the
water rose in some places over 20 feet, with a corresponding broadening
in other places, and flowed with such velocity that for several weeks it
was impossible to cross the river. As a result of these floods, the
grassy banks that once distinguished the river are now but little more
than a tradition, while the older terraces, which under normal
circumstances would now be safe, are being cut away more and more each
year. In several localities near Verde, where there are cavate lodges,
located originally with especial reference to an adjacent area of
tillable land, the terraces have been completely cut away, and the
cliffs in which the cavate lodges occur are washed by the river during
high water.