Page 27 - Wood Plenty, Grass Good, Water None

Figure 15. On January 3, Whipple described this landscape, looking westward across the present site of Drake as "a tow ridge,coveredwithadensegrowthofdarkcedarsandpinyonswhichwe call'theBlackForest'."Withtheexceptionofareas cleared by the U.S. Forest Service treatments atthe right,thisview isnow probably similartowhat Whipple observed in 1854. Photograph by Harley Shaw.
notbeBillWilliam'sfork,asatfirstsupposed. At all events, it passes far towards the south. Our bivouac No. 3 was upon a branch which appearedtoflowwesterly,more inthedirection o f o u r r o u t e . T h e r e f o r e , t o e x p l o r e it, w e t o o k a course north 70 degrees west, descended into the valley, and, after travelling about ten miles, encamped upon a creek where were large pools of water. Small Alamos [cottonwood] and wil l o w s c o v e r t h e b a n k s . G r a m a - g r a s s is a b u n d a n t inthevicinity.Wenowseemtobebelowthe regionofpines,andofthesweet-berriedcedars. Red cedar [juniper] is, however, abundant; l a r g e r a n d f i n e r t h a n b e f o r e s e e n .T h e r e a r e a l s o numerous pinons with esculent nuts, affording food for wild beasts as well as for Indians. W e have seen today black-tailed deer [mule deer] , rabbits [cottontails or California jackrabbits],
and quails [Gambel's quail]; also footprints of many antelope [pronghorn] and bears."
Mountain. The ridge of the Black Forest (fig. 15) is nowcalledBigBlackMesa.Itliesalongthenortheast side of Chino Valley, running southeast from Picacho Peak. Its name is significant here as it tells us that junipers were noticeably dense on that ridge in 1854. Both Whipple, and later Mollhausen, mentioned it as a significant feature.
On thisday,thepartydropsoutoftheponderosapine vegetation and alligator-bark juniper and enters the elevationsofpredominantlyUtahjuniper.Theirroute off of the plateau passed just south of the small butte now named Sawtooth Peak, thence west and slightly northacrossrollingterrain.Theycampedthatnighton Ash Fork, a tributary of Partridge Creek, not far from thesiteofthepresent-daytownofAshFork.Whipple remarksagainontheabundanceofjuniperalongtheir route. His note that the juniper was larger and finer than seen before is significant. T h e junipers in the area today are mostly young or mid-aged— regrowth, no doubt fromfuelwoodingandjunipercontroleffortsoverthe past100years.Manylarge,oldstumps,remainsofthe earliermaturestands,arescatteredthroughthearea. Thehandwrittendiarystated:"Forfuelitisexcellent and even for railway ties it is doubtful whether this country west of the Delnorte can furnish anything superior."Few,ifanyofthejunipersinthisareatoday
IwonderaboutthesourceofthenameofTopographical
Hill,aswellasthesourceforothermountains.Whipple
oftenwritesasiftheirnameswereknown,butIsuspect
thepartyassignedmostofthem.TopographicalHillhas
no name on present-day maps. The handwritten diary
does not mention this name, so itwas apparently given
tothehilllater,duringthecompilingofthepublished
itinerary. couldbeconsideredlargeenoughtoprovideties.The
T h e m e s a t o t h e s o u t h ( S i e r r a T o n t o ) is t h e W o o d c h u t e / Mingus Mountain complex; the range to the west was undoubtedly the Santa Maria Mountains, where the snowypeakisprobablyeitherHydeMountainorDenny
large trees were apparently harvested quickly after the Anglo arrival.
By calling these trees larger and finer, I suspect Whipple was comparing them with shaggy-barked
USDA ForestServiceRMRS-GTR-177. 2006.
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