From Duncan to Safford you’ll follow the Gila River as it makes its way toward a far-off rendezvous with the Colorado River, on Arizona’s border with California. In the fields around Safford, water from the Gila is used to grow cotton, which, along with copper and cattle, has been a mainstay of Arizona’s economy since Territorial days. The dominant feature of the local landscape is 10,700-foot Mount Graham, a “sky island” that rises well above the horizon to the southwest (see sidebar).
Duncan Bakery, Duncan, Arizona
If you want a closer look at Mount Graham, consider taking an optional side trip to Riggs Flat Lake, at 9,000 feet. The views are spectacular and the lovely reservoir is stocked with trout. It is an 80-mile, 4-hour round-trip over a narrow, winding roadway, some of it unpaved; for directions, seasonal availability, and road conditions, check in at the Safford Ranger District Office.
Gila River Valley, near Safford, Arizona
| Sky IslandsSome of the mountain ranges of southern Arizona are distinguished by one or more dominant peaks that rise well above their neighbors—to heights of 8,000, 9,000, even 10,000 feet. These taller peaks are big enough to disrupt the flow of warm, moist air through the atmosphere, stirring things up, generating clouds and localized rainfall.The climate near the tops of those mountains is completely different from the climate at their base, and so are the flora and fauna. High on the mountain you’ll find forests, streams, snow in the winter. Down below? You have the Sonoran desert, one of the hottest, driest climate zones in North America. The desert serves to isolate these high-altitude forests, one from another, in the same way that islands are isolated by the sea. These isolated peaks are called “sky islands,” and there are no fewer than 40 of them in Arizona’s Sky Island region, which extends into New Mexico and the northern Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Each sky island is unique.Like many sea islands, most famously the Galápagos, Arizona’s Sky Islands have evolved unusual species of plants and animals, some of which exist nowhere else on the planet. The Mount Graham Red Squirrel, for example, lives only on Mount Graham; the Rosemont Talus Snail, another unusual creature, lives only in the Santa Rita Mountains. Many other species, including frogs, flowers, birds, lichens, and many other small creatures are found exclusively on these sky islands.The Sky Islands are considered the most biodiverse regions in North America, host to more species of birds and mammals, insects and trees than any comparable region outside the tropics. Some peaks encompass as many as eight climate zones. To put that in perspective, a drive to the top of Mount Lemmon, near Tucson, can be compared to a drive from the Mexican border all the way to Canada. |
| Lordsburg to Safford Highlights |
| Safford Ranger District Office711 14th Ave., Safford, AZ 85546(928) 428-4150 |
Globe
Leaving Safford, the highway follows the Gila River to the northwest, across a portion of the San Carlos Apache Reservation. This is one of the poorest Native American communities in the U.S., a fact that will be apparent as you pass through the ramshackle town of Bylas, where 60 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and 68 percent of the labor force is unemployed. At the western edge of the reservation, the Apache Gold Casino presents a stunning contrast with its opulent hotel, restaurant, gaming halls, and golf course. Owned and operated by the tribe, the casino provides jobs and welcome revenue for the community.
A few miles past the reservation border you’ll be in the small city of Globe. According to legend, the town was founded by prospectors attracted by stories that local Indians were casting bullets from silver because it was easier to get than lead. Indeed, silver ore lay so near the surface it barely required digging. The silver deposits played out after just four years, but under the silver cap there was copper—so much copper that for a time Globe was one of the world’s biggest producers of the metal. In fact, this entire region for hundreds of miles in nearly every direction continues to be among the richest copper-producing areas on earth.
The heart of the once bustling city is the Downtown Globe Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places; it includes 18 buildings dating from the early 1900s, including the Post Office, the Gila County Courthouse, and several churches. The area’s history as a mining center is apparent in the landscape, especially in the neighboring town of Miami, where you can still see the pit and the smelters, the tailings and leaching ponds—the bleak destruction that mining can inflict on the landscape. These mines aren’t played out. The infrastructure is still intact, waiting for the price of copper to rise enough to make these diggings economically viable again.
While you’re in Globe, consider a visit to Besh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park, a mile outside town atop a ridge overlooking Pinal Creek. There you can see ruins of a Salado pueblo dating to AD 1225. The pueblo was built of stacked cobblestones bonded with clay mortar, and it rose several stories high. In its heyday, as many as 400 interconnected rooms surrounded the central plaza, like an ancient apartment building. The pueblo was built with great care, but the years have taken their toll. Part of what you see today is a restoration, and most of the walls have been stabilized, to prevent further deterioration. A small museum showcases artifacts found during the excavation, and there’s a model of what the pueblo might have looked like before it was abandoned, around AD 1400. There was an extended drought around that time, which quite probably forced the people in this region to migrate north.
| Globe Highlights |
| Apache Gold Casino5 US 70, San Carlos, AZ 85550(928) 475-7800apache-gold-casino.comBesh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park1324 S. Jesse Hayes Road, Globe, AZ 85501(928) 425-0320globeaz.gov/visitors/besh-ba-gowah |
Superior
US 70 terminates in Globe, at the point where it merges with US 60, which you’ll follow out of town as it swings toward the west. The portion of US 60 that runs from Globe to Superior is known as the Gila-Pinal Scenic Road, and the landscape along the way is stunning. After passing through the mining town of Miami, you’ll wind your way up curves and switchbacks all the way to Top-of-the-World, so called because at 4,528 feet it’s at the high point of this stretch of road. There’s not a lot to see these days at Top-of-the-World—if you blink, you’ll miss it—but back in the 1950s, it was a happening spot, with a guest ranch and … let’s call it a dance hall.
After Top-of-the-World you’ll pass through Devil’s Canyon, a jumbled maze of granite pillars lining the hairpin turns of the road. Beyond Devil’s Canyon, you’ll come to the quarter-mile-long Queen Creek Tunnel, which is immediately followed by the Queen Creek Bridge, a steel arch that crosses the deep gorge of Queen Creek Canyon. The completion of the bridge and tunnel in 1952 cut the time required for the journey between Globe and Superior in half, and made it considerably safer. The old “winding ladder” road can still be seen in the canyon below, slowly crumbling into ruin.
Like Globe, the town of Superior began as a silver camp and quickly turned to copper. The fabulously productive Magma Mine kept going longer than most, but it closed for good in 1996, forcing much of Superior’s population to search elsewhere for work. Much of the old town is boarded up now, and very worn around the edges, giving it a gritty ambience.
World’s Smallest Museum, Superior, Arizona
There are a couple of things worth checking out. The World’s Smallest Museum, which is contained entirely within a 134-square-foot shed adjacent to the Buckboard City Café, includes among its exhibits a 1984 Compaq computer, a Beatles poster, and other “artifacts of ordinary life.” A few miles outside town is something quite a bit more spectacular: the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. This world-class botanical garden, set on 320 acres, was created as a private garden and plant research center by William Boyce Thompson, the owner of the Magma Copper Company, who collected more than 3,000 species of both rare and common desert plants, including