Page 10 - April - June, 2019 CityLine

Watering Holes SHOP THE PARK
of the West Valley DOWNTOWN
by Lisa Hegarty Wigwam Boulevard & Old Litchfield Road
In Arizona’s territorial days, Dining
travelers regularly crossed this Litchfield’s Wigwam 623 935-3811
desert valley. Knowing where to Old Pueblo Café 623 935-5059
stop for water was critical to the Papa Paul's Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta 623 215-6850
journey, and some of the most Park Café 623 535-6661
prominent features in our local Red’s Bar & Grill Wigwam 623 856-1094
landscape were the key to finding it. Ribbons Tea House 623 536-8119
Maricopa Wells. The Gila Trail was an early major artery through The Lazy Palm Sports Grill 623 518-6388
the territory of Arizona, so named because it followed a long Service Providers
segment of the Gila River. The Estrella Mountains were a waypoint Charity Realty 623 258-0272
for travelers along this route, and among a series of watering holes Ellsworth & Warren Family Dentistry 623 935-9376
in the Estrella Mountains was Maricopa Wells. It became a trading Fringe Salon 623 935-0505
center and stagecoach stop in the mid- to late 1880s. Located eight King Enterprises 623 935-5101
miles north of the present-day town of Maricopa, it is estimated LeMonds — Aveda Salon and Spa Wigwam 623 535-4967
that as many as 60,000 people passed through this place on their Litchfield Elementary School District #79 623 535-6000
way to California between 1849 and 1851. Litchfield Park Cross Fit 623 695-6449
Coldwater Station. Along the Agua Fria River was Coldwater Litchfield Park Old Fashion Barber Shop 623 535-0300
Station. Stagecoach companies followed routes which led from Morrissette Martial Arts 623 935-0400
Tucson to Maricopa Wells to Wickenburg and Prescott. Coldwater Smith Law Offices 623 935-2870
Station was established by pioneer Billy Moore in 1880—in what Society West, LLC 623-536-8113
is now southern Avondale—when he dug a well to supply water St. Peter’s Montessori School 623 935-7737
to passing stagecoaches and freight wagons. According to one The City of Litchfield Park Preschool 623 935-9040
description, Coldwater was “out on the blazing desert some 16 Tri West Realty 623 536-9378
mile west of Phoenix… Its only reason for existence was the fact Wigwam Resort 623 935-3811
that it possessed a well of cool water, which made it a good stopping Wigwam Golf 623 935-9414
place for the famous Butterfield
Stage and a veritable magnet
for trains of covered wagons and
traveling horsemen.”

The White Tank Mountains.
In the White Tank Mountains
are several tinajas, or natural
stone water catchments,
which hold water much of
the year. One in the northeast
section of the mountains was
a particularly important water
stop for people on their way to
and from Prescott from 1863 to
1895. Called the White Tank
because of the surrounding
bleached out granite, it was the
only available water for 20 to
30 miles. Sometime between
1898 and 1902 heavy rain
caused the cliff above the tank
to collapse and fill in the tank. Map of local water stops in the 1880s.

10 | Apr-Jun 2019 Issue litchfi eld-park.org