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| Upper Cherry Crk Camping Trip - Day 2, AZ | | -
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| | Upper Cherry Crk Camping Trip - Day 2, AZ | | | |
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Upper Cherry Crk Camping Trip - Day 2, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.40 Miles |
866 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.40 Miles | | | |
| 866 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This hike was on the second day of my six day camping trip to Upper Cherry Creek in the Sierra Ancha. The plan for this hike was to locate an old homestead in the canyon bottom somewhere upstream from the confluence of PB Creek and Cherry Creek. I had seen pictures of this homestead in a HAZ photoset that had piqued my curiosity. http://hikearizona.com/photo=263515
I started up Cherry Creek from my campsite at the intersection of FR203 and FR2812 (Camp Grasshopper). Cherry Creek had a good flow of water and several crossings were required along the way but rock hopping at chosen locations kept my feet dry. I let my curiosity get me side tracked on a cow trail along the north side of the creek which angled up the side of the canyon on what turned out to be the remains of an old man made trail. I followed it for about a quarter mile before being stopped by a dense thicket of manzanita and never determined where it went. I would find a number of curious old trails and roads hidden on the canyon sides over the next few days. Returning back down the trail and continuing up the creek I soon came to the homestead site on a bench above the creek.
This had not been your ordinary homestead shack. Although the fireplace was all that was left standing the nearby debris indicated that the house had stucco walls, asphalt shingle roofing, and an inside bathroom with running water. This tells me either the man had a wife or he built the home with amenities to attract a potential wife to this remote location. Old car parts scattered around in the catclaw bushes nearby indicated that at one time there was a road to this site. The predominant parts were from a Ford Model A but there was also a 1934 Plymouth gas tank. I tried to find evidence that would indicate when this home had been built but had no luck. If it was a homestead, the homestead law wasn't officially ended until 1972. Model A's were commonly used well into the 1950s. My Dad had a Model A sedan he used for transportation around our cattle ranch up until about 1952. The high clearance and simple maintenance made them ideal for this use. The old road up the bottom of Cherry Creek Canyon probably started as a mining road which led to within a half mile of the homestead site. This road was used for access to uranium mines at the mouth of PB Canyon in 1955 but could have been there much earlier. The section of FR203 from the Ellison Ranch up to HW288 at Board Tree Saddle was built with funding by the Atomic Energy Commission in the early 1950's - locals call it the AEC road. But old maps show a road from Board Tree Saddle down to the PB Ranch site and maybe further much earlier. So my best guess is that the house was built sometime between the late 1930's and early 1950's - that doesn't narrow it down much.
Considerable effort had been put into supplying irrigation water to the land bench where the house was located. I followed the old irrigation ditch up up to where it had been fed water from a cement flume built along the side of a cliff for about 200 feet. The flume was built to collect water from a side channel of Cherry Creek. Following this side channel to where it branched off of the main creek disclosed that raising the creek level only a few inches with a diversion dam would have directed water down this channel. But with all the effort put into this homestead it may have never been viable for a long enough period (5 years?) to qualify for land ownership since this land is still part of the Tonto National Forest. Or maybe a later land owner traded it off to the National Forest for land somewhere else?
So with many unanswered questions spinning around in my head I hiked back to camp for a relaxing evening cooking dinner and reading a good book. The next day I would be off to look for ancient Indian ruins. |
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