The Hellsgate Wilderness is a protected wilderness within the

Tonto National Forest The Tonto National Forest, encompassing , is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and is the ninth largest national forest in the United States. The forest has diverse scenery, with elevations ranging from 1,400 feet (427 m) in ...

in Gila County, Arizona, at the base of the

Mogollon Rim The Mogollon Rim ( or or ) is a topography, topographical and geological feature cutting across Northern Arizona, the northern half of the U.S. state of Arizona. It extends approximately , starting in northern Yavapai County, Arizona, Yavapa ...

. It was created by the U.S. Congress in 1984 and is managed by the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...

Topography

The Hellsgate Wilderness is on the edge of the Mogollon Rim. The elevation change in the wilderness is , with the highest point being Horse Mountain in the northeast corner. Tonto Creek is a perennial creek that cuts a canyon through the wilderness. The terrain is subject to steep elevation changes throughout the entire wilderness area.

Wildlife

Due to available water, the Hellsgate Wilderness is home to myriad animal life, including black bears,

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, '' KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild ...

mule deer The mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus'') is a deer indigenous to western North America; it is named for its ears, which are large like those of the mule. Two subspecies of mule deer are grouped into the black-tailed deer. Unlike the related whit ...

coyotes The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely relat ...

, gray foxes,

javelinas Peccaries (also javelinas or skunk pigs) are pig-like ungulates of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs). They are found throughout Central and South America, Trinidad in the Caribbean, and in the southwestern area of North America. Peccarie ...

, and,

beavers Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

Trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

, and

smallmouth bass The smallmouth bass (''Micropterus dolomieu'') is a species of freshwater fish in the Centrarchidae, sunfish family (biology), family (Centrarchidae) of the order (biology), order Centrarchiformes. It is the type species of its genus ''Micropterus ...

live in the perennial creeks.

History

The southern part of the Hellsgate Wilderness was home to the native American group known as the Salado. This civilization flourished along the banks of the Salt River in the 13th and 14th centuries. In the later part of the 14th century, the Salado went into decline and by 1400 the Hellgate Wilderness area was largely abandoned. Sometime in the 16th century, the

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

began using this area for a hunting ground and continued to do so until they were driven out by ranchers and miners of European descent. In 1927, a

Ryan Brougham The Ryan Brougham was a small single-engine airliner produced in the United States in the late 1920s and early 1930s.Taylor 1989, p. 772. Its design was reminiscent of the Ryan M-1, M-1 mailplane first produced by Ryan in 1926, and like it, was ...

airplane flown by Martin Jensen, carrying MGM's

Leo the Lion Leo the Lion may refer to: Film and television * Leo the Lion (MGM), the mascot of the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer * ''Leo the Lion'' (2005 film), an Italian animated film * ''Leo the Lion: King of the Jungle'', a 1994 Japanese anima ...

, was forced to make an emergency landing in a box canyon in the Hellsgate Wilderness. Both pilot and lion survived with no injuries, and the canyon was named Leo Canyon after the incident. The wreckage of the plane was left in the canyon until 1991, when historic-airplane enthusiast Scott Gifford found it and removed it from the canyon via helicopter. He plans to restore the plane to airworthiness.

Recreation

The Hellgsate Wilderness contains many trails for hiking as well as camping spots. However, usage of this area is light as trailheads are difficult to reach without 4-wheel-drive capability, and most trails are rated as challenging. During the summer months, the wilderness's perennial creeks attract a small number of anglers.

Topography

Wildlife

History

Recreation

References

Further reading