Nutrioso, sixteen miles southeast of Springerville, is very near the
dividing ridge of the Gila and Little Colorado watersheds. The name
is a combination of nutria (Sp., otter) and oso (Sp., bear). "Nutria"
was applied to the beaver, of which there were many. The first
English-speaking settler was Jas. G.H. Colter, a lumberman from
Wisconsin, who came to Round Valley in July, 1875, driving three wagons
from Atchison, Kansas, losing a half year's provision of food to Navajos,
as toll for crossing the reservation. He grew barley for Fort Apache,
getting $9 per 100 pounds. In 1879, at Nutrioso, he sold his farm, for
300 head of cattle, to Wm. J. Flake. The Colter family for years had its
home four miles above Springerville, at Colter, but the founder is in the
Pioneers' Home at Prescott. One of the sons, Fred, was a candidate for
Governor of Arizona in 1918.
Flake parcelled out the land to John W., J. Jas. M. and Hyrum B.
Clark, John W., J.Y., and David J. Lee, Geo. W. Adair, Albert Minerly,
Adam Greenwood, George Peck and W. W. Pace, the last a citizen of later
prominence in the Gila Valley. The grain they raised the first season,
1700 bushels, chiefly barley, was sent as a "loan" to the Little Colorado
settlers, who were very near starvation.
In 1880 was built a fort, for there was fear of Apaches, who had been
wiping out whole villages in New Mexico. There was concentration in
Nutrioso of outlying settlers, but the Indians failed to give any direct
trouble. A sawmill was started in 1881 and a schoolhouse was built the
following year. A postoffice was established in 1883.
In Lee's Valley, sixteen miles southwest of Springerville, is Greer,
established by the Saints in 1879. The first to come were Peter J.
Jensen, Lehi Smithson, James Hale, Heber Dalton and James Lee. In 1895,
was added a saw-mill, built by Ellis W. Wiltbank and John M. Black. The
name Greer was not applied till 1896. The postoffice dates from 1898.