December 31, 2007 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.
The Apache
Trail can certainly be classified as one of the most adventurous and
scenic routes in the American Southwest. Since 1906 tourists have
traveled this unique mountain road and marveled at some of the most
spectacular scenery in our state. The Apache Trail, as we know it today,
originates in Apache Junction and terminates at its junction with
Highway 60-70 some four miles east of Miami, Arizona. The original
roadway began at the Mesa railhead and terminated at the Roosevelt Dam
site on Salt River some sixty-two miles away.
This approximate route of the Apache
Trail has served humanity for more than a millennium. The Salado used
the trail to penetrate the Salt River Valley around 900 A.D. Other
Native Americans groups continued to use the trail as a migratory route
between their winter homes on the desert lowlands and their summer homes
in the mountains along the Mogollon Rim and the various sky islands of
the central mountain region of Arizona.
The Apaches and Yavapais used the trail
for their predatory raids against the Pimas along the Salt and Gila
Rivers south and west of Superstition Mountain. The Apaches and Yavapais
continued their raids after the arrival of the Anglo-Americans in the
early 1850s. Finally in 1864, Camp McDowell was established along the
Verde River some four miles north of the Salt River. The Pimas became
willing allies of the blue-shirted soldiers who manned Fort McDowell.
This footpath (trail) along the Salt River through the mountains to
Tonto Basin was called both the Tonto Trail and the Yavapai Trail. The
Army quelled the predatory Apaches-Yavapais in this region by 1868.
There were other military campaigns fought against renegade Apaches from
1871 until Geronimo’s surrender in 1886 at Skeleton Canyon in Southern
Arizona.
An expedition navigated the Salt River
near the present site of Roosevelt Dam to Phoenix in a cataract boat
during the early part of the 1880s. They reported numerous ideal dam
sites along the river’s course. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
ordered a feasibility study done on the Salt River for possible water
storage and flood control dam sites shortly thereafter. William “Billy”
Breakenridge, James H. McClintock, and John H. Norton conducted this
feasibility study. Breakenridge also explored the route for a possible
wagon road at the time of this study. Billy Breakenridge was a well
known Tombstone lawman during the 1880s. James McClintock became
Arizona’s first official historian.
Breakenridge’s report was highly favored
for the construction of a dam just downstream from confluence of Tonto
Creek and the Salt River. The Congress of the United States authorized
the construction dam and the project was funded in March of 1903. The
task of supervising the building of this dam was given to the newly
formed U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Service under the United States
Department of Interior.
Immediately after funds were approved by
Congress the communities of the Salt River Valley realized no money was
appropriated for the construction of a haul road from Phoenix to the
dam site. The valley communities wanted to participate in this economic
boom. They wanted a greater involvement in the market developed by the
construction of Roosevelt Dam. The communities immediately worked on a
bonding plan to raise enough money to fund the construction of the
Mesa-Roosevelt Road.
Actual construction of the Tonto Wagon
Road began on August 29, 1903, with two hundred Apache laborers working
just below the dam site on the Salt River. Another work camp was
established on November 11, 1903, at Government Well, some twenty-five
miles from Mesa, employing some 200 Pima laborers. The Tonto Wagon Road
was completed on September 3, 1905, at a cost of $551,000. The road was
sixty-two miles in distance, running from the Tonto Dam site to the Mesa
railhead. It was reported more than a million and half pounds of
freight moved over the road in its first month of operation.
The first Concord stage made a run over
the Mesa-Roosevelt Road on June 10, 1905. The first automobile that
traveled over the road from Mesa to Government Wells was on August 23,
1905. This Knox Automobile was known as the “Red Terror.” The first
so-called tourist group to travel over the Mesa-Roosevelt Road was on
October 10, 1905. The first major accident to occur on the
Mesa-Roosevelt Road was a stagecoach accident that happened between
Mormon Flat and Fish Creek Hill on November 23, 1905. The curves, steep
grades, and narrowness of the Mesa-Roosevelt road challenged the skills
of early teamsters and drivers. Even today as we drive the Apache Trail
the road certainly can challenge our skill as a driver.
The Mesa-Roosevelt Road was highly
regulated during the construction of Roosevelt Dam (1906-1911), however
when the construction was over the road became a favorite tourist
attraction. The road was known as the Mesa-Roosevelt Road and Tonto
Wagon Road during the period 1903-1915. Sometimes the media called the
road the Roosevelt Road. Shortly after 1915 the road became known as the
Apache Trail. Historians appear to agree in general as to the origin of
the name “Apache Trail.” They believe the term was coined by an
enterprising young entrepreneur who worked as a railroad agent for the
Southern Pacific. The man’s name was E.E. Watson. Watson was trying to
promote the Southern Pacific’s “Sunset Limited” as it made its way
through Arizona. The Southern Pacific offered a side trip for its
transcontinental passengers over the Apache Trail if they were
interested. Southern Pacific had the franchise on the Apache Trail as a
special side trip for their passengers. Some of the photos from one of
the Southern Pacific photo books of 1915 appear in this article.
The Apache Trail was officially
dedicated as Arizona’s first historic highway on February 25, 1987, at
Lost Dutchman State Park along the Apache Trail. The Apache Trail is a
roadway to adventure, beauty and history.
President Theodore Roosevelt may have
said it best when he talked about the Apache Trail. He said, “The Apache
Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the
magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something
that none of the others have.
To me, it is most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful."