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area that appears to be a wet meadow (figs. 32 and 33).Nocottonwoodsarevisiblehere.Bythistime,the canyon was receiving sporadic use as a road between HardyvilleontheColoradoRiverandthenewsettle ment of Prescott. Both military and civilian wagons had moved through the area, and some livestock had been driven along the drainage in addition to mules and horses. It probably was not settled or being used aspermanentpastureasyetbecauseofthecontinued attacks by Indians. Walnut Creek apparently was a wetlandinthevicinityofthepresentK4ranchand narrowed to a drainage bordered by cottonwoods higher up. It is interesting that Whipple failed to mentioncottonwoodsintheWalnutCreekdrainage, identifying everything as ash, walnut, and willow.
Tidball and Mollhausen both mentioned cottonwoods in Walnut Creek. The cienegas are missing today, and cottonwoodshaveextendedintotheareaphotographed byGardner.
FewkestookonephotographlookingdownWalnut Creek from the site of Whipple's "old pueblo" (fig. 34). Qualityofthisphotograph,takenfromthereport,isnot g o o d , a n d it i s d i f f i c u l t t o i d e n t i f y t r e e s p e c i e s g r o w i n g alongthestreamchannel.Cottonwoodswerepresentin
of Picacho Butte in 1867, needs further investigation. Whilethisphotographshowslittlechangesince1867, a possibility exists that juniper treatments have been carriedouthere.Abetterknowledgeofpostsettlement history of this site would be valuable.
Another area that needs scrutiny is the juncture of Cienega Creek and Pine Springs Draw, called Turkey Creek by Whipple. This area was apparently a riparian drainagein1854.Itisnowadryflattransectedbya deep gully. Here, a soils analysis to confirm or negate itspaststatusasawetlandwouldbeinteresting.
BecauseoftherelativelylateAnglo settlementofthe area, a study of fire history might be especially interest ing.IftheFewkes1911photographoftheeastpointof Juniper M e s a (fig. 29) accurately represents conditions at that time, the area may have burned between 1854 and 1911. The poor quality of the photograph makes itdifficulttodetermineifthedistantslopesweretruly bareorifresolutionofthephotographwastoopoorto showtrees.TheWhipplewagontrainnotedmoderate densities ofjuniper on the slopes where they approached WalnutCreek.Theareanowholdsdensestandsofjuni p e r a n d c h a p a r r a l . W i t h t h e e x c e p t i o n o f M o l l h a u s e n ' s observationofwidespreaddeadjunipernorthofMount
1997whenthispicturewasrepeated(fig.35). FloydandalongPartridgeCreekinApril,1858,noother
The picture that emerges of the general study area, for the mid- 19th century, is one of a dry short grass prairieintermixedwithstandsofjuniper.Itmayhave been more savanna-like than itisnow. Woodlands now seem denser, mainly on ridges in areas where they existed in 1854, but I see no evidence that they have greatly extended their range into the larger valleys, such as Big Chino.
A few stands of extremely dense juniper were pres ent in the 1850s. The general vicinity of Polson D a m Draw, named Cedar Creek by Whipple, had dense juniper stands surrounding it.The ridge to the west of thisdrawandportionsofupperPartridgeCreektoward MountFloydwerecoveredwithdensejuniperinsome areas. The general vicinity surrounding the present site of Drake also held an extensive stand of juniper, but thediariesareequivocalabouttreedensities.The aerial extent of these juniper forests is difficult to determine from the diaries.
mention of possible natural or Indian-caused wildfire exists in any of the diaries. It would be interesting to attempt to confirm the occurrence of an extensive fire in the woodlands in the above area between the years of 1854 and 1858.
References
Adler,P.andW.Wheelock1965.Walker'sR.R.Routes— 1853. La Siesta Press, Glendale, California.
Allen, C. D., and D. D. Breshears. 1995. A drought-induced shift in a forest/woodland ecotone: rapid response to variation in climate (abstract). Supplement to Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 76(2):3.
Anderson, R. S. 1989. Development of the southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests: What do we really know, in Multiresource management of the ponderosa pine forests. U.S. D. A. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Technical Report RM-185.
Arnold, J. F, D. A. Jameson, and E. H. Reid 1964. The pinyon-juniper type of Arizona: Effects of grazing, fire and treecontrol.U .S.Department ofAgriculture,Product Research Report 84.
I cannot generalize further on vegetation change.
This work has identified a few locations that merit
further field study. Juniper population structure studies
would be of value in the areas identified as historically
having dense juniper stands. These should incorporate
studies of harvest history. T h e area surrounding the site westofAshFork,whereGardnertookthephotograph Press.
Babbitt, J. E. 1981. Surveyors along the 35th parallel: Alexander Gardner's photographs of northern Arizona,
1867-1868. Journal of Arizona History 22:325-348. Bahre,C.J.1991.A legacyofchange.UniversityofArizona
USDAForestServiceRMRS-GTR-177. 2006. 43