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a hand-held Trimble G P S receiver (Appendix A). M y GPS receiverlocationswerenotdifferentiallycorrected somayhaveanerrorofupto100meters.Anyonere visitingthesesitesinthefuturecanusetheGPS receiver coordinates to locate the general site, but must use the photographs themselves to determine the exact photo location. The photo point for figures 4, 5, and 8 were marked with cairns and rebar driven to ground level. AlloftheKingphotographsweremarkedbyJohnsen and Elson with steel fence posts. Other photo points used here are unmarked.
Past and Present
Ewing Young and Kit Carson
During the fall and winter of 1829 to 30, a party of trappers that included Ewing Young and Kit Carson traveleduptheVerdeRiverfromitsmouthandcamped near its headwaters (Quaife 1966). They then headed westward across the upper Verde watershed, ultimately crossing the Colorado River and going on to the mis sion of San Gabriel in California. Of the upper Verde, Carson wrote:
"Game wasveryscarce.Afterremainingthree days continually on the hunt to procure the necessary supplies, we found we had killed only three deerfprobably mule deer] ,the skins of which we took off in such a manner as to make tanksforthepurposeofcarryingwater." For the country between present Chino Valley and Truxton, he noted that the "march was over a country, sandy, burned up, and without a drop of water."
The Sitgreaves Expedition
Sitgreaves and his physician/naturalist, S. M. Woodhouse (Sitgreaves 1853), provided the first sci entific descriptions of the area. O n October 25, 1851 at Camp 23, Sitgreaves traversed the country lying between present Ash Fork and Seligman, now along Interstate40(fig.3).Waterwasamajorproblemduring thefallof1851,asithadbeenforYoungandCarson in 1830. Juniper was present, but the descriptions for October 25th are sketchy. Today, much of this route has a continuous, dense juniper stand, or areas where
juniper has obviously been removed. WoodhousewritesatCamp24(October26):
"This night we made our fires of the yellow- wood, which imparts much heat and a peculiar, pleasantodor.On leavingthiscamp,whichwas on the edge of a large valley in which there
was plenty of grama grass, we again entered the dense cedar timber; on leaving this, cacti and the Obione canescens [fourwing saltbush] abound."
Wallace (1984) places Camp 24 a little west of present-day Seligman, perhaps on the southern edge of Aubrey Valley. Yellow wood is undoubtedly algerita; Obione canescens, four-winged saltbush. Their use of algeritaforfirewoodmaybespeakalackofjuniperat this campsite. Certainly today, they would have had no trouble finding juniper to burn anywhere along this route. However, they could have used algerita for a single evening's fire, simply because it was easily brokenandburnedwell.Woodhouse'scommentthat they"againenteredthedensecedartimber"wouldleave onetobelievethatatleastsomedensestandshadbeen encountered earlier.
Woodhouse continues:
"After leaving camp 24 and passing over a plain, the first part of which was covered with [twoleaf] pinon, cedar, and yellow wood, the ground becomes more bare, producing cacti, EphedraAmericana[Mormontea].Yuccaag- rifolia [yucca], Agave Americana [American c e n t u r y p l a n t ] ,a n d O b i o n e c a n e s c e n s [ f o u r w i n g saltbush]. From this valley we commenced ascending a mountain of quartz rock, on the top of which the cedars become quite thick; here is a portion of country apparently without animal life."
The granitebouldercountrywestofpresentSeligman still h a r b o r s d e n s e s t a n d s o f j u n i p e r . T h e p l a i n c o v e r e d withMormontea,yucca,agave,andsaltbushdoesnot match most openings in this area today, which tend to be covered more with grama grasses. Woodhouse goes on:
"Camp No. 25 [October 27] was in a small valley, with a little grass; on the side hills were growing cedars, yellow-wood, and Fallugia paradoxa....A trulymiserablecountryisthis, where an insect can hardly exist."
"CampNo.26[October28]inthemountains, near two small springs; the vegetation is the same as in the last camp.... Following down a valley from here until within two miles of Yampai creek, there was but little change; there we found cedars, some dry grass, cacti, and a few birds; not a flower have Iseen for several days."
On October 30, at present-day Truxton Springs, Sitgreaves noted:
USDA ForestServiceRMRS-GTR-177. 2006.
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