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The Flagstaff Area

by LaMar E. Garrard

History-Geography

Long before Flagstaff was settled, the San Francisco Peaks served as a landmark for mountain men, explorers, and early pioneers. They rise from the Colorado Plateau in northern Arizona to a height of 12,670 feet above sea level and form the eroded horseshoe-shaped rim of an ancient volcano opening to the east. They are four in number: Mr. Humphreys, Mt. Agassiz, Mt. Fremont, and Mt. Doyle, with Mr. Humphreys being the tallest. Long before the whim man came to northern Arizona, the San Francisco Peaks were given names by the local Indian tribes and were of special significance to the Hopi Indians,

who live in mesa-top villages sixty-five to seventy-five miles to the northeast, and whose trash heaps indicate a continuous inhabitation of the area for possibly one thousand years, [and] call the mountain Nuva-teekia-ovi, which means "the Place of Snow on the Very Top." The Hopis believe that the mountain is one of the principal abodes of the kachinas, supernatural beings which are represented by the popular kachina dolls. The Hopis go to the Peaks for certain plants and other objects for use in ceremonies, and at the very highest point on Humphreys Peak there is a crude rock cairn which has been used by Hopis for centuries as a place to deposit prayer feathers, and perform rain and blessing-bringing rituals.

The peaks were named after Saint Francis by friars who established a mission at the Hopi Indian village of Oraibi in 1629, some 147 years before the city of San Francisco was named.

They were important to the white settlers not only as a landmark but also as a source of water. Because of "the extreme porosity of the volcanic material of which the mountain is composed," there are "no flowing streams except in very wet years and then only for a few months of the year." However, three springs at the base of the mountain served as a supply of water to the early settlers. The most productive was Leroux Spring on the southwest base of the mountain. The other two, San Francisco Spring and Antelope Spring, were located where the city of Flagstaff now stands. Leroux Spring was of special significance to early Mormon settlement of the area. The modern city of Flagstaff receives water piped from springs in the Inner Basin of the crater whose peaks form a rim. The Rio de Flag is a small seasonal stream on the south side of the mountain, running down the valley through modern Flagstaff.

Bill Williams Mountain, named after an early mountain man, lies southwest of the San Francisco Peaks, and Sitgreaves Mountain, so called after an explorer, almost directly west. Thirty miles to the south Mormon Mountain rises on the west side of Mormon Lake: "Both lake and mountain gained their names from the establishment in 1878 of a dairy by Mormon settlers from the Little Colorado Valley-the Colorado Chiquito."