Soon after location on the Little Colorado there was exploration to the
southwest, with a view toward settlement extension. At the outset was
encountered the very serious obstruction of the great Mogollon Rim, a
precipice that averages more than 1000 feet in height for several hundred
miles. Ways through this were found, however, into Tonto Basin, a great
expanse, about 100 miles in length by 80 in width, lying south and
southwest of the Rim, bounded on the west by the Mazatzal Mountains, and
on the south and southeast by spurs of the Superstitions and Pinals. The
Basin itself contains a sizable mountain range, the Sierra Ancha.
The first exploration was made in July, 1876, by Wm. C. Allen, John
Bushman, Pleasant Bradford and Peter Hansen. Their report was
unfavorable, in considering settlement. In the fall of the following year
there was exploration by John W. Freeman, John H. Willis, Thomas Clark,
Alfred J. Randall, Willis Fuller and others. They returned a more
favorable report. In March, 1878, Willis drove stock into the upper Basin
and also took the first wagon to the East Verde Valley. He was followed
by Freeman and family and Riel Allen. Freeman located a road to the Rim,
from Pine Springs to Baker's Butte, about forty miles. Price W. Nielson
(or Nelson) settled on Rye Creek, in 1878. In the following year was
started the Pine settlement, about twenty miles north of the East Verde
settlement, with Riel Allen at its head. There is record that most of the
settlers on the East Verde moved away in 1879, mainly to Pine, and others
back to the Little Colorado. However, the Author, in September of 1889,
found a very prosperous little Mormon settlement on the East Verde,
raising alfalfa, fruit and livestock. It was called Mazatzal City and lay
within a few miles of the Natural Bridge, which is on the lower reaches
of Pine Creek before that stream joins the East Verde.
A settlement was in existence at least as late as 1889 on upper Tonto
Creek. The first resident was David Gowan, discoverer of the Natural
Bridge, he and two others taking advantage of the presence of a
beaver-built log dam, from which an irrigating canal was started. The
first of the Mormon settlers at that point, in 1883, were John and David
W. Sanders, with their families, they followed by the Adams, Bagley and
Gibson families. This location was a very lonely one, though less than
ten miles, by rocky trail, from the town of Payson. It was not well
populated, at any time, though soil, climate and water were good.
Erastus Snow in 1878 made formal visit to the Tonto settlements. He found
on Rye Creek the Price Nelson and Joseph Gibson families, less than a
mile above where the stream entered Tonto Creek. Thereafter were visited
the East Verde settlements, from which most of the men had gone to
southern Utah after their families and stock, and Pine Creek and
Strawberry Valley, where later was considerable settlement.
According to Fish, the first settlement in Tonto Basin was by Al Rose, a
Dane, in 1877, in Pleasant Valley, though he lived for only a few months
in a stockade home which he erected. Then came G.S. Sixby and J. Church
from California. There followed Ed. Rose, J.D. Tewksbury and sons, the
Graham family and James Stinson, the last from Snowflake. Sixby is
renowned as the hero of a wonderful experience in the spring of 1882,
when, his brother and an employee killed, he held the fort of his log
home against more than 100 Indians, the same band later fought and
captured by Capt. Adna R. Chaffee in the fight of the Big Dry Wash.
There was good reason for the delayed settlement of Tonto Basin, for it
was a region traversed continually by a number of Indian tribes. It was a
sort of No Man's Land, in which wandered the Mohave-Apache and the Tonto,
the Cibicu and White Mountain Apaches, not always at peace among
themselves. Several times the Pleasant and Cherry Creek Valleys were
highways for Indian raids of large dimensions. The Pleasant Valley war,
between the Tewksbury and Graham factions cost thirty lives. No Mormon
participated.
Most of the land holdings necessarily were small. The water supply is
regular in only a few places. Hence it is natural that most of the
Mormons who settled, moved on, to better agricultural conditions found
farther southward. Abandonment of all Tonto Basin settlements was
authorized at a meeting of President Woodruff with the heads of the
Arizona Stakes, held at Albuquerque August 14, 1890.