Butler Valley is a valley of the
Maria fold and thrust belt in western
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
,
southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...
. It lies east of the
Colorado River
The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...
, and is south of the west-flowing
Bill Williams River
The Bill Williams River is a river in west-central Arizona where it, along with one of its tributaries, the Santa Maria River, form the boundary between Mohave County to the north and La Paz County to the south.''Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer,'' ...
.
Description
Butler Valley is one of the two valleys in a (major) three-mountain range, two-valley sequence. Other minor ranges are on the perimeters, but thirty landforms are part of the region. The valley drains southwesterly into the northwest flowing
Bouse Wash Drainage. Cunningham Wash drains the valley southwest to meet with the Bouse. The valley also turns somewhat southwest to the north of the
Harcuvar Mountains, where Cunningham Pass holds the 30-mile route, unimproved major access road to
Alamo Lake State Park; the route traverses the Butler Valley in the northeast, then skirts the northeast of the Buckskins to meet the south side of Alamo Lake. Butler Valley is sparsely populated, with the road to Alamo Lake being the only paved road.
The northeast third of the valley drains northeast from a
water divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...
, then north to
Alamo Lake only 10 mi distant; Cunningham Wash drains to the southwest. At the northeast end of the
Buckskin Mountains, a basin forms attached to Butler Valley on the valley's northeast, and with the
Black Mountains (Yavapai County) bordered northeast; southeast is another up-
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
attached to the northeast of the
McMullen Valley, the
Aguila Valley to the southeast, and at the southwest of the small range, the
Date Creek Mountains.
The majority of Butler Valley is owned by the
Arizona State Land Department
The Arizona State Land Department is a department of the state government in the U.S. state of Arizona dedicated to the management of state-owned lands and property.
Mission statement
The mission statement of the Arizona State Land Department is ...
.
More than 99% of the valley is owned by the state, held in trust for the support of public schools in the state. The valley is used as a reserve for groundwater, to store water from the
Colorado River
The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...
for Arizona. It holds more than 6 million acre-feet of water, and is strategically located near the
Central Arizona Project
The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 336 mi (541 km) diversion canal in Arizona in the southern United States.
The aqueduct diverts water from the Colorado River at the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge south portion of Lake Havasu n ...
.
In 2022,
The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain.
History
Early years
The newspap ...
reported that the state land department had handed over thousands of acres to a Saudi company called Fondamonte, and gave it permission to withdraw unlimited amounts of groundwater to grow alfalfa, which would be exported to Saudi Arabia.
Geology
The major mountain ranges that are thrust ''northwesterly'' in the
Maria fold and thrust belt region are, from north to south:
*
Buckskin Mountains
* Butler Valley
*
Harcuvar Mountains
*
McMullen Valley
*
Harquahala Mountains
The Harquahala Mountains ( Yavapai: ʼHakhe:la) are the highest mountain range in southwestern Arizona, United States and are located southwest of the towns of Aguila and Wenden. The name originated from the Yavapai 'ʼHakhe:la", which means " ...
Some of the thirty landforms in the fold-and-thrust-belt listed in a circular path around these three ranges are:
# Northeast,
Alamo Lake State Park, Northeast Buckskin Mountains;
# Access roads from
U.S. Route 93, northwest, dirt, and southwest,
Arizona State Route 71 terminating at
Aguila, Arizona, at the northeast of the Harquahalas;
# Southeast of the Harquahalas, three mountain ranges, and the Hassayampa and Harquahala Plains (
Harquahala Valley);
# The southwest and west perimeter of the three ranges is the
Bouse Wash Drainage; the drainage is in the Ranegras Plain, but two small ranges, and the Bouse Hills abut the perimeter as well;
# The northwest abuts the
Cactus Plain and the
Cactus Plain Wilderness;
# The northwest also has the Buckskin Mountains extending into a ''western section'' at the confluence of the Colorado and Bill Williams Rivers.
Buckskin Mountain State Park is located here.
# The
Bill Williams River
The Bill Williams River is a river in west-central Arizona where it, along with one of its tributaries, the Santa Maria River, form the boundary between Mohave County to the north and La Paz County to the south.''Arizona Atlas & Gazetteer,'' ...
downstream from
Alamo Lake State Park is the northern border of the three ranges, as well as the de facto border of fold-and-thrust-belt. The river is also a dividing line between the
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...
north and northwest, and the
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...
, south and southeast; in California, the
Colorado Desert
The Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States, and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to ...
subsection of the Sonoran Desert lies southwest.
References
External links
Bouse Wash Watershed Map
{{Authority control
Valleys of Arizona
Landforms of La Paz County, Arizona