The Chiricahua Mountains

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

is a large

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

in southeastern

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

which is part of the

Basin and Range province The Basin and Range Province is a vast physiographic region covering much of the inland Western United States and northwestern Mexico. It is defined by unique basin and range topography, characterized by abrupt changes in elevation, alternatin ...

of the west and

southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

and northwest Mexico; the range is part of the Coronado National Forest. The highest point, Chiricahua Peak, rises above sea level, approximately above the surrounding valleys. The range takes its name from the Chiricahua Apaches native to the region. The Chiricahua Mountains and other associated ranges, along with Sulphur Springs Valley on the west and the San Simon Valley on the east, form the eastern half of Cochise County in southeast Arizona. The Pedregosa Mountains are found at the southern end of the Chiricahua Mountains, while the Swisshelm Mountains are located to the southwest. The northwest end of the Chiricahua mountains continue as the Dos Cabezas Mountains beyond Apache Pass and the Fort Bowie National Historic Site. Access to the Chiricahua Mountains and Coronado National Forest is through Willcox from the north, Douglas from the south, and Rodeo from the east. Part of the range lies within the Chiricahua Wilderness, managed by the Coronado National Forest.

History

The earliest evidence of humans in the vicinity of the Chiricahua Mountains are

Clovis Clovis may refer to: People * Clovis (given name), the early medieval (Frankish) form of the name Louis ** Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler ** Clovis II (c. 634 – c. 657), ...

archeological sites such as Double Adobe Site in the Whitewater Draw tributary of Rucker Creek north of Douglas. Subsequently, the Cochise culture another pre-ceramic based culture spanning 3000–200 BCE was defined from sites around the Chiricahua Mountains, including Cave Creek Canyon. Following the transition to ceramics, artifacts characteristic of both

Mogollon culture Mogollon culture () is an archaeological culture of Native American peoples from Southern New Mexico and Arizona, Northern Sonora and Chihuahua, and Western Texas. The northern part of this region is Oasisamerica, while the southern span of the Mo ...

and its local variants, the Mimbres culture, are found. These relics span the period from 150 BCE – 1450. The influx of other

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, such as the Chiricahua Apaches, including the leaders Cochise and

Geronimo Geronimo ( apm, Goyaałé, , ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache ...

occupied the area until forced removal in the late 19th century. The name Chiricahua is believed to originate from the Opata name for the mountains, ''Chiwi Kawi'', meaning "Turkey Mountain". The Chiricahuas were once known for an abundance of wild turkeys. The first recorded mining claim in the Chiricahua Mountains was the Hidden Treasure claim filed in 1881, and mining has continued intermittently to the present with the greatest periods of activity occurring in the 1920s and 1950s. More recently, the Chiricahuas have fallen into use by people smugglers and drug cartels, who position lookouts on their peaks to warn of Border Patrol activities.

Geology overview

The Chiricahua Mountains are an uplifted structural block of the Basin and Range. The mountains contain

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of th ...

basement rocks,

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

and

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particle ...

s around a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber ...

complex formed by

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 plates ...

eruptions and intrusions 35–25 million years ago. The last major eruption, 27 million years ago, created the Turkey Creek Caldera and laid down of

volcanic ash Volcanic ash consists of fragments of rock, mineral crystals, and volcanic glass, created during volcanic eruptions and measuring less than 2 mm (0.079 inches) in diameter. The term volcanic ash is also often loosely used to refer ...

which fused into welded

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained ( aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The min ...

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock ...

. Subsequent erosion has created mountain ridges covered in stone spires and stone columns, hoodoos, that rise up out of the forest. These natural features, preserved in the Chiricahua National Monument, are composed of

Rhyolite Canyon Tuff The Boot Heel volcanic field is located in the Bootheel region of southwest New Mexico, adjacent areas of southeastern Arizona, and northwest Mexico. The field covers an area of more than 24,000 km2.Baldridge, W. Scott, ''Geology of the Ame ...

. A one to two mile wide band of

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

rock running southeast to northwest from south of Portal through Paradise and up to the Dos Cabezas Mountains is the source of mineralized deposits. The largest of the mines developed in the California district of the Chiricahua Mountains was the Hilltop mine which consisted of 3 interconnected levels totaling .

Flora and fauna

The Chiricahua Mountains are a bio-diverse area which is composed of numerous sky islands. Five of the 9 life zones are found in the Chiricahua Mountains. Three hundred and seventy-five avian species have been recorded from the Chiricahua Mountains; some are largely Mexican species for which southern Arizona is the northern limits of their ranges. Other animals of note include ocelots, jaguars,

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

, black bears, and

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

. With the base of the Chiricahuas at about , the range covers about in elevation. Grasslands and desert cover the base of the range, with

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

and

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are thre ...

at the highest elevations. Cave Creek Canyon on the east side is home to the American Museum of Natural History Southwest Research Station and the small towns of Portal and

Paradise In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...

Species associated with the range

* Arizona sycamore * ''

Catocala violenta ''Catocala violenta'' is a moth of the family Erebidae. It is found from Colorado to Arizona, east to Texas and into Mexico. The wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other win ...

'' (=''Catocala chiricahua'') * '' Charadra tapa'' * Chiricahua leopard frog * Eared quetzal *

Elegant trogon The elegant trogon (''Trogon elegans''), also known as the coppery-tailed trogon, is a near passerine bird in the trogon family. Taxonomy ''T. elegans'' has five recognized subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank ...

Nine-banded armadillo The nine-banded armadillo (''Dasypus novemcinctus''), also known as the nine-banded long-nosed armadillo or common long-nosed armadillo, is a mammal found in North, Central, and South America, making it the most widespread of the armadillos. I ...

* ''

Hypotrix lunata ''Hypotrix lunata'' is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the range of Arizona to northern Mexico. The length of the forewings is 15–17 mm and the wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the dista ...

'' * Johann's pinyon * '' Lilium parryi'' * ''

Lithophane leeae ''Lithophane leeae'' is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is only found in the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the ...

'' * Madrean pine-oak woodlands * Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir * ''

Tricholita ferrisi ''Tricholita ferrisi'' is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is only known from Onion Saddle in the Chiricahua Mountains and Ash Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains of extreme south-eastern Arizona at elevations between 1,575 and 2,325 metres. Thi ...

''– ((?) found only at Onion Saddle)

Gallery

File:Chiricahua nima4.JPG, Chiricahua National Monument File:Chiricahua nima6.JPG, Hoodoos, Chiricahua National Monument File:Chiricahua Nima1.JPG, Trees and hoodoos, Chiricahua National Monument File:SpherulitesChiricahua.JPG, Spherulites File:Taghdeem be doostam Pastoral.JPG, Road to Chiricahua National Monument File:Chiricahuamountainsarizona.jpg, Sunglow Ranch File:Cave Creek Canyon.JPG, Cave Creek Canyon File:Chiricahua map.jpg, Chiricahua Mountain Range (

), and its sub-Ranges, with the bordering valleys.

References

External links

The Nature Explorers Chiricahua Expedition
A 2-hour 49 minute ecosystem video. * *
Chiricahua Peak Summit, trails, mountainzone.com, (coord)

Chiricahua Mountains Study Area

Map of Chiricahua and Dos Cabezas Mountains

* {{Authority control Mountain ranges of Cochise County, Arizona Madrean Sky Islands mountain ranges Coronado National Forest Mountain ranges of Arizona