Pilot Knob (also, Avie Quah-la-Altwa, Ha-bee-co-la-la, and San Pablo) is a peak in Imperial County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Pilot Knob is located southeast of Ogilby, It rises to an elevation of . Pilot Knob is a rocky landform, geologically a

Volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged ma ...

, west of

Yuma, Arizona Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...

–

Winterhaven, California Winterhaven (formerly, Karmack) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California. Winterhaven is east of Pilot Knob, The population was 394 at the 2010 census, down from 529 at the 2000 census. It is part of the El Centro, CA ...

; it is connected to the

Cargo Muchacho Mountains The Cargo Muchacho Mountains are located in the southeast Colorado Desert in the Lower Colorado River Valley, in Imperial County, California in the United States. Much of the range's geology was described by the geologist John T. Dillon. Geograph ...

, the central portion of the mountains being about north. Pilot Knob was named for its prominence as a landmark for

riverboat A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury un ...

traffic in the 19th-20th centuries on the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

which borders Winterhaven–Yuma. Pilot Knob is an

Area of Critical Environmental Concern Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act ( ...

administered by the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's ...

Pilot Knob description

Separated from the center of the

by 7 mi, the

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...

landform is at the base of

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

s. Pilot Knob has a height of , and the entire mountain block is about 2 x 2 mi. The mountain has a rock

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

on its north side, visible from Interstate 8.

Access to Pilot Knob

Pilot Knob is accessed from

Interstate 8 Interstate 8 (I-8) is an Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay (San Diego), Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, San Diego, Californi ...

, the landform being east of the

Algodones Dunes The Algodones Dunes is a large sand dune field, or erg, located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of California, near the border with Arizona and the Mexican state of Baja California. The field is approximately long by wide and ex ...

and east of

El Centro, California El Centro ( Spanish for "The Center") is a city and county seat of Imperial County, California, United States. El Centro is the largest city in the Imperial Valley, the east anchor of the Southern California Border Region, and the core urban ar ...

in southeastern Imperial County. The

All American Canal The All-American Canal is an long aqueduct, located in southeastern California. It conveys water from the Colorado River into the Imperial Valley and to nine cities. It is the Imperial Valley's only water source, and replaced the Alamo Canal, w ...

is cut from the south border of Pilot Knob, and can be seen in aerial views traversing the Algodones Dunes to the west. The Bureau of Land Management administers the Pilot Knob Long Term Visitor Area campground at the base of Pilot Knob.

History

When

Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding f ...

sighted the peak in 1774 he named it ''Cerro de San Pablo''. The

Saint Thomas Yuma Indian Mission The Saint Thomas Indian Mission is a Catholic mission in Winterhaven, California. It was dedicated in 1923, and its design replicates the Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción, which once stood on the site. History Construction began on the ...

was located to the east. During the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

, Pilot Knob was the landmark on the

Southern Emigrant Trail :''The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Northern Emigrant Trails.'' Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage ...

for what was called

Emigrant Crossing Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

, the center crossing of three major crossings of the

in the vicinity of what is now

. The

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

located its Pilot Knob Station, near the river and the Knob in 1858. The

Alamo Canal The Alamo Canal ( es, Canal del Álamo) was a long waterway that connected the Colorado River to the head of the Alamo River. The canal was constructed to provide irrigation to the Imperial Valley. A small portion of the canal was located in th ...

intake was placed at Pilot Knob due to the availability of a solid rock foundation for the head gate.

KIVA (TV) KIVA (channel 11) was a television station in Yuma, Arizona, United States. It was the first local television station in Yuma and, for more than half of its existence, the only local station. It signed on October 8, 1953, and signed off Janua ...

Yuma, Arizona transmitted from Pilot Knob from 1953 to 1970.

References

{{reflist Yuma, Arizona Winterhaven, California Lower Colorado River Valley Mountains of Imperial County, California Volcanic plugs of California Mountains of Southern California Protected areas of Imperial County, California