Mount Baldy ( ''White Mountain'') is an extinct

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a typically conical volcano built up by many alternating layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with ...

in eastern

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 ...

in the United States. With a summit elevation of , the peak of Mount Baldy rises above the

tree line The tree line is the edge of a habitat at which trees are capable of growing and beyond which they are not. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually low ...

and is left largely bare of vegetation, lending the mountain its current name. The Mount Baldy Wilderness occupies the eastern slope of the mountain and is managed by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The summit of Mount Baldy is within the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. It is the highest point in the White Mountains and Apache County. It is the fifth-highest point in the state, and the highest outside the

San Francisco Peaks The San Francisco Peaks (Navajo: , , Hopi: ''Nuva'tukya'ovi'', Western Apache: ''Dził Tso'', Keres: ''Tsii Bina'', Southern Paiute: ''Nuvaxatuh'', Havasupai-Hualapai: ''Hvehasahpatch''/''Huassapatch''/''Wik'hanbaja'', Yavapai: ''Wi:mun Kwa'', ...

in the Flagstaff area. An unnamed sub-peak with an elevation of exists approximately to the north of the summit that is off reservation and accessible to the public via maintained trail. A third peak, Ord Peak, sits about three miles northwest of Baldy Peak, not to be confused with Mount Ord in

Gila County Gila County ( ) is a county in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,272. The county seat is Globe. Gila County comprises the Payson, Arizona micropolitan statistical area which is incl ...

. Mount Baldy is one of the most sacred mountains to the Apache of Arizona. The Western Apache of Arizona inhabited the areas within their four most sacred mountain ranges: the White Mountains of Eastern Arizona, the Pinaleno Mountains near the town of Safford in southeastern Arizona, the Four Peaks near the City of Phoenix and the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff. When Captain George M. Wheeler visited the mountaintop in 1873, he described the view as "The most magnificent and effective of any among the large number that have come under my observation". Wheeler named the mountain Mount Thomas after General

Lorenzo Thomas Lorenzo Thomas (October 26, 1804 – March 2, 1875) was an American officer in the United States Army who was Adjutant General of the Army at the beginning of the American Civil War. After the war, he was appointed temporary Secretary of Wa ...

, who fought in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

. It later became Mount Baldy. The name Mount Thomas has been assigned to a nearby peak by the

U.S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

. Mount Baldy also contains the headwaters of the

Little Colorado River The Little Colorado River () is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona, providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about in ...

and Salt River and produces the most abundant trout fishing streams in Arizona. No other mountain in Arizona produces as many rivers and streams. Along its slope are numerous man made lakes. The area around Mount Baldy also averages the most abundant precipitation in Arizona. Wildlife is abundant on the mountain and includes the recently introduced Mexican Grey Wolf. While looking northeast from Historic Fort Apache (elevation ), Mount Baldy rises in elevation.

Climate

Geology

Mount Baldy is

volcanic A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure 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 fo ...

in origin. It is described as a stratovolcano that last erupted 2 million years ago.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldy White Mountains (Arizona) Landforms of Apache County, Arizona Mountains of Apache County, Arizona White Mountain Apache Tribe Volcanoes of Arizona Stratovolcanoes of the United States Sacred mountains of the United States Pleistocene stratovolcanoes

Climate

Geology

See also

References