Bathed In Sunshine

 In the eastern part of Yuma, there is a very busy street called Araby Road. This street got its name because someone who came through the area in the 1800s said the area looks "araby."
How clever. That was a reference to all of the sand dunes in the area and it reminded him of the Arabian Desert.
  Yuma is a city with a strong military presence. East of town is the Barry Goldwater Air Force Gunnery Range, which stretches for about 150 miles towards the east. About 20 miles north of town is the Yuma Proving Ground, which, I believe, is used by all branches of the military. On the south side of Yuma, adjacent to the airport, is the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station and, west of town, in California, is the Chocolate Mountain Gunnery Range. The abundant hours of sunshine in the Yuma area is the main reason all of the military bases are in this area. There is very little rain and most days are bright, sunny and warm and this is seen as the optimum conditions for military training and maneuvers.
  The area where Yuma was eventually founded had long been a preferred crossing for travelers, explorers, missionaries and soldiers who were traveling through the area, on their way to and from California and also by people who sailed up to the head of the Sea of Cortez , in Mexico. They disembarked at a now vanished port town called Port Isabel. The Colorado River, at the time much, much wider than it is today, had a shallow area that made  it easier to cross here than in other places. This shallow place, or ford, came to be known as The Yuma Crossing and was the principal reason Fort Yuma was established on the California side of the river and the Yuma Quartermaster Depot was established on the Arizona side. The Yuma Quartermaster Depot, now a state park, was a supply center that looked just like a fort and was managed in the same way, but its mission was economic rather than defense. Its function was to serve as a supply center for all of the forts in a huge area of the western United States.
  In 1540,  Spanish explorers Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz saw the strategic importance of this area and thought it would be be an ideal place for a city, so it is rather surprising that no city existed here for another three centuries. Well known  military expeditions that used the Yuma Crossing included  Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774, The Mormon Battalion in 1848 and the California Column in 1862. Also, just about any well known explorer of the era came through here. Not only was there a shallow place in the river that allowed for easier crossing, but, about half a mile upstream, the Colorado River squeezed between two bluffs and, as a result, was significantly narrower than it was everywhere else. Old journals say that the narrow part of the river was "less than 1,000 feet wide." Today, sadly, the river is about 30 feet wide in this area.
  The railroad built through here in 1877, part of the Southern Transcontinental Railroad, and the bridge was built between the two bluffs, where the river was the narrowest. The coming of the railroad spelled the end for Port Isabel, Mexico, which was completely abandoned by 1879. The first automobile bridge in this area also crossed between the bluffs, right next to the railroad bridge. The automobile bridge, called the "Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge," opened in 1914. It carried the original alignment of U.S. Highway 80 across the river until the newer bridge, now called the Fourth Avenue Bridge, opened to traffic.

A City That Gets No Respect

  In far southwestern Arizona, on the California border, lies the city of Yuma. Yuma is a city of 112,000 people and is located in one of the hottest and driest places in North America. The average yearly rainfall is only about  2 1/2 inches. Temperatures over 110 degrees are commonplace in the sweltering summer months. There has even been a 30 minute program about Yuma on The Weather Channel called "The Hottest City In America." Well, it is not the hottest city in America, although it is one of the hottest. If they were just talking about cities with over 100,000 people, then maybe it is the hottest, but there are other places that routinely record higher temperatures than Yuma does during the summer months. In Arizona, cities and towns such as Lake Havasu City, Parker, Bullhead City, Gila Bend, Buckeye,Casa Grande and Coolidge are usually hotter than Yuma. There are other places in California and Nevada that also have hotter summers than Yuma does. 
  Yuma is located about 60 miles from the head of the Sea of Cortez, in Mexico. The Sea of Cortez  is the long, narrow arm of the Pacific that separates the Baja Peninsula from mainland Mexico. Yuma's temperatures, while still dangerously hot in the summer months, are moderated slightly by the sea breezes.
  Yuma is one of the oldest European settled cities in Arizona. It sprang to life in 1854 after a U.S. Cavalry fort called Fort Yuma, was established on the other side of the Colorado River, in California. The city was originally called Colorado City, but shortly thereafter the name was changed to Arizona City. It took the name "Yuma" in 1873. When the town first got its start, Arizona and New Mexico were combined, administratively, into one territory called New Mexico Territory, but, evidently, people were not really sure if the Colorado River was the border at the time (California became a state in 1850), because the townsite was registered in San Diego and the state of California collected taxes from Yuma (or Arizona City) residents for several years after the town's birth. It is possible that San Diego was easier to reach to register than townsite than Tucson was (Phoenix did not exist yet) because to get to Tucson required a journey over the infamous "El Camino del Diablo" known as "The Road of Death" in English.
  Yuma is a city that gets no respect because it is located in an extremely hot, dry, stark and unforgiving landscape, but it is actually a very pleasant city with well maintained streets and I have noticed how clean it always looks when I am there. Yuma is also a city the oozes history. That is a definite plus for a history buff for me.    

Entering The Valley

  It is a dramatic descent from the summit of Telegraph Pass into the Gila Valley. Some maps call it the Yuma Valley.  Approximately 190,000 people live in this area in the southwest corner of Arizona.  Looking at this area on an aerial map is striking. It shows 2 ribbons of green, a narrow one for the Gila River and its accompanying valley coming from the east and a much wider ribbon of green centered along the Colorado River sandwiched by sand dunes on either side of the Colorado's "ribbon of green" and brown desert on each side of the Gila River. The Colorado River's ribbon of green empties into a wider patch of green that encompasses the northern part of the Mexican state of Baja California. The sand dunes are the Yuma Sand Dunes, south and east of Yuma and the more famous Imperial Sand Dunes in Southeastern California. Alot of movies have been filmed in the Imperial Sand Dunes. Just about any movie that takes place in the Sahara Desert is actually filmed here. The Imperial Sand Dunes were originally beach sand dunes on the shore of a long vanished northward extension of the Gulf of California, which is also called the Sea of Cortez (my preferred name). The Sea of Cortez once extended almost to present day Palm Springs, California. In fact the sea level line goes right through Indio, which is a few miles east of Palm Springs. This ancient seabed in California, west of the dunes, is a very fertile farming area called the Imperial Valley.  Old campfire rings, ash deposits and stone tools have been found all along the sea level line. The ribbon of green along the Colorado River is deep and fertile silt that was laid down by the river over the eons. The river's course wandered back and forth across this area over the centuries and the soil is extremly deep. 
  Well, back to the mountains of Fortuna. Immediately west of the mountains lies a substantial, unincorporated town called Fortuna Foothills. It has about 27,000 people and is the third largest town in Yuma County. There have been several attempts by Yuma over the years to annex Fortuna Foothills into the city, but all efforts have failed. Fortuna Foothills does not have a central business district and is completely suburban in character. It lies mostly south of Interstate 8 and abuts the boundary of the Barry Goldwater Air Force Gunnery Range, which is a massive bombing and gunnery range that stretches about 150 miles from east to west. The southern boundary of the base is the border with Mexico. The infamous El Camino del Diablo, or "the Road of Death," in English, runs through the base. It was the trail taken by fortune seekers, explorers, missionaries and wide-eyed adventurers in centuries past as the made their way to California. Many of them didn't make it, succumbing to the harsh and waterless desert. Today, the old trail reposes silently in the desert sun, serving as a haunting reminder of the perils of travel in days gone by.

Telegraph Pass

  After Old U.S. Highway 80 rejoins Interstate 8, at Exit #21, the freeway alomost immediately begins climbing through the Gila Mountains, which are also known as the Fortuna Mountains, the name I prefer. A few miles farther east, the railroad curves to the north and goes around the north end of the mountain range and then loops back south to Yuma, but U.S. Highway 80 made its way through the mountain range and, now, Interstate 8 closely follows the old highway's former path up and over Telegraph Pass.
  I am not really sure what the elevation is at the summit of Telegraph Pass because it seems like every map I have looked at and every book I have looked at gives a different elevation. I have seen the following elevations for Telegraph Pass: 767 feet above sea level; 844 feet above sea level; 921 feet above sea level; 1,052 feet above sea level; 1,107 feet above sea level and 1,903 feet above sea level. At any rate, it is a steep climb up and over the Fortuna Mountains. The elevation at Wellton, east of the mountain range, is 256 feet and the elevation of Yuma, to the west, is 141 feet.
  When Interstate 8 threads its way through the mountain range, it is a dramatic ascent up to the pass and then an event steeper descent down the west side of the mountains. The first time I ever drove through this area, I was taken aback by the fact that while the freeway goes through the mountain range, the westbound lanes of the interstate cross over the eastbound lanes on a viaduct. The traffic goes on the left for slightly more than one mile and then the westbound lanes cross back over to the other side and resume their logical place. It is a little strange to see westbound traffic on the left and eastbound traffic on the right, reminiscent of the United Kingdom. Since then, one other highway in Arizona has been built in the same manner. State Highway 87  between Mesa and Payson was built in the same way when it was converted from a two-lane highway to a four-lane, divided highway. Traffic on Highway 87 goes on the left for about a mile.
 A drive up and over Telegraph Pass east of Yuma will reveal abandoned stretches of Old Highway 80 above the freeway. There is one piece of the old highway that is about 75 feet long and it just dead-ends on both ends of it and, beyond the dead-ends, are steep dropoffs to the freeway below. 

Mohawk Valley Odds And Ends

  There is a town on Old U.S. Highway 80, in Yuma County, called Tacna. According to "The Old U.S. 80 Highway Traveler's Guide" by Eric J. Finley, the town's name came from Tachnapolis, a 17th century Greek priest who came to Arizona after spending time in California to spend his dying days with the local Indians. This name was given to the town, which was previously called Antelope Hill, by Max Noah. At least that is the story that Max Noah told people. I don't know if the story is true or not. Sounds like the author of "Old U.S. 80 Highway Traveler's guide" has his doubts, too.  A Greek priest named Tachnapolis did exist, however.
  Five miles west of Tacna is a ghost town called Noah. Noah, or what's left of it, is halfway between Tacna and Wellton. Wellton is the biggest town in Yuma County that is outside of the Yuma area, where most of the population lives. Wellton has about 2,000 people. 
  There isn't much left of Noah, just an abandoned gas station, some scattered debris from long gone buildings, and Antelope High School. That's right, a high school located in a ghost town. Antelope High School has about 400 students and it draws from a huge area of Yuma County east of the Gila Mountains, which are also called the Fortuna Mountains(my preferred name for the mountain range). The school district goes all the way to the boundary with Maricopa County east of Dateland. I am not sure how far north the school district goes, but it goes south all the way to the Mexican border.
Antelope High School is located in a rural area. In fact there is farmland all around the campus. The high school was named after nearby Antelope Hill. The school's mascot is the Rams. The abandoned gas station on Old Highway 80 that I just mentioned is always painted in Antelope High School's colors (red, white and blue). From what I have been told, the senior class of Antelope High School repaints the abandoned gas station with a different theme every year. I am assuming that theme is the Homecoming theme. If that is true, it is an interesting use of an abandoned gas station. It certainly appears to be true because every time I have gone through that area, the gas station was painted with a different theme.
  At the end of this 33 mile stretch of Old U.S. Highway 80 is a tiny town called Ligurta. "Ligurta" maybe a corruption of "lagarto," which is Spanish for lizard. Ligurta only has about 25 people. It is mostly an RV park these days. The RV park gets bigger, much bigger, in the winter months when "snowbirds," or winter visitors from cold northern states and Canada, converge on this area to take advantage of the balmy winter weather.
 

Mohawk Valley

Thirteen miles west of Dateland, there exists a long, continuous stretch of Old U.S. Highway 80. This stretch runs for 33 miles and, even though it is merely a county maintained road now, it is a very busy road. It serves the farms in this area and the 3 towns that still exist along the old highway. These towns are: Tacna, with 600 people; Wellton, with 2,000 people and Ligurta with 30 people.  This stretch of the highway runs north of Interstate 8. In some places, it is only about half a mile from the busy interstate, in other places, it is 2 or 3 miles from the interstate. This stretch of the old highway has alot of traffic and seems like it could warrant a state highway designation, but it is merely a county road that is called "Old Highway 80."
  Almost immediately after departing Interstate 8 at Exit #54, Old Highway 80 crests Mohawk Pass, which is a gap in the Big Horn Mountains. In this mountain pass, three different alignments of the old highway are visible, but the two older ones are undriveable now.
 Just below the pass is a big lot of junked cars and two, antique gas pumps, vintage approximately late 1950s. There is a crudely handlettered sign that identifies this site as "Owl." But there is nothing left of this town except for a vast amount of surface debris, the gas pumps and the junked car lot. Most maps, however, show a town called Mohawk in this general vicinity. Mohawk is also a remnant of the past, but, either these two towns were very close together, they had interchangeable names, or the town changed names at some point, I'm not sure. Anyway, I like the old style gas pumps, they have character.
I'll bet all of these junked cars met their demise on highway 80 when it was the main travel  artery through this area.
  This is a rich agricultural area. Most of the water is delivered long distance from the Colorado River, but the Gila River  runs along the north edge of this area. Notice I said "runs" instead of "flows." The Gila River, one of the Colorado's longest tributaries (633 miles), is usually dry through this area, as it is for the final 300 miles of its length. There is subsurface water, but the water table gets lower every year as the population increases. Later, I will go into more details about how the Colorado's water is delivered to this area. It comes from a dam north of Yuma, astride the  California border. It is really sad what has become of a once great river, a river that carved the Grand Canyon.

" The Broadway Of America"

    "The Broadway Of America" is the name that was used in reference to U.S. Highway 80. This was in response to "The Main Street Of America," which was the nickname given to highway 80's famous cousin to the north, U.S. Highway 66, better known as "Route 66."
  The Broadway of America, in its heyday, was a true coast to coast highway. It began in Tybee Island, Georgia, on the Atlantic Ocean, and ended in San Diego, California, on the Pacific Ocean, a distance of about 2,500 miles. It was an all-weather route, unlike its famous northern counterpart. Very rarely did any town along highway 80 receive snow.
  Unlike Route 66, which has been entirely decommissioned  by the federal government , U.S. Highway 80 still exists, at least the eastern half of its route still exists as a federal highway. It still begins in Tybee Island, Georgia, but now it ends in Dallas, Texas. The western terminus has been pulled back, piece by piece. In 1974, it was truncated to Gila Bend, Arizona. In  1977, it ended it Benson, Arizona, 45 miles east of Tucson. In 1991, it was truncated back to Monahans, Texas, then, a few years later, the end of the highway was placed in Dallas. The former segments of highway 80 in the West still exist in various forms, such as Interstate Highway Business Loops through towns ( Interstate 8 Business Loop through Yuma, Arizona, for example), state highways, county roads, or city streets. Some parts of it have been abandoned entirely and silently repose under the merciless desert sun.
  In the days before 1926, that is before the current highway numbering system was started, what became U.S. Highway 80 was known as the Bankhead Highway. Before 1926, highways had names instead of numbers. What became U.S. Highway 66 was initially the National Old Trails Highway. What became U.S. Highway 40 was originally the National Road, etc. etc.
  I have explored many old highways, both active and abandoned, and I have found the history of highway 80 to be one of the more fascinating ones. I have seen the entire routing of Old Highway 80 in Yuma County.
  Now that my readers know a little about the history of U.S. Highway 80, I will continue with my writings about Yuma County, Arizona.