The Pinal Mountains (

Yavapai The Yavapai ( ) are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Their Yavapai language belongs to the Upland Yuman branch of the proposed Hokan language family. Today Yavapai people are enrolled in the following federally recognized tribes: * Fort ...

: Walkame – "pine mountains",

Western Apache The Western Apache are an Indigenous people of North America, and a subgroup of the greater Apache identity, who live primarily in east central Arizona, in the United States and north of Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Most live ...

: Dził Nnilchí' Diyiléé – "pine-burdened mountain") are a mountain range located in

Gila County, Arizona 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 inclu ...

. They have a maximum elevation of at

Pinal Peak Pinal Peak, located in southern Gila County, Arizona, is the highest point in the Pinal Mountains, with an elevation of . It is the highest point of land located in between the Salt River (Arizona), Salt and Gila River, Gila rivers in Arizona be ...

and a prominence of over . The closest city is the

Globe, Arizona Globe ( "Place of Metal") is a city in and the county seat of Gila County, Arizona, Gila County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 7,249. Globe was founded c. 1875 as a mini ...

Miami, Arizona Miami ( Western Apache: Goshtłʼish Tú) is a town in Gila County, Arizona, United States. Miami is a classic Western copper boom-town. Miami's old downtown has been partly renovated, and the Bullion Plaza Museum features the cultural, min ...

area, which is just a few miles north of the mountain range. The mountains are located 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 ...

, and their recreational facilities are maintained by the USDA's

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

. The San Carlos Indian Reservation is very close to the mountain range, with its boundaries being just a few miles east/northeast of the range. The mountains are covered 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

white fir ''Abies concolor'', the white fir, concolor fir, or Colorado fir, is a coniferous tree in the pine family Pinaceae. This tree is native to the mountains of western North America, including the Sierra Nevada and southern Rocky Mountains, and int ...

and experience cooler weather than the Globe/Miami area, so that they are a popular recreation area in the summer. The maintained facilities include a maintained dirt road that goes all the way to the summit of Pinal Peak, a campsite and recreational area, many hiking trails, as well as some radio towers near both Pinal and Signal peaks (the two highest peaks of the range). The mountain range covers an area of 45,760 acres.

Location

The entire range is located in southern

and is a few miles south of

and

History

The area around the Pinal Mountains was inhabited by Pueblo-culture Native Americans around the 11th and 12th centuries. This early culture has been called the

Salado culture Salado culture, or Salado Horizon, Todd Bostwick of Pueblo Grande Museum, "Salado Summary". was a human culture in the upper Salt River () of the Tonto Basin in southeastern Arizona from approximately 1150 CE through the 15th century. Distingu ...

, and it thrived for centuries in the area. The

Besh-Ba-Gowah Besh-Ba-Gowah is a 200-room prehistoric Salado culture, Salado masonry pueblo located atop a broad ridge overlooking Pinal Creek. The site is situated one mile southwest from Globe, Arizona and surrounded by a small city park and adjacent muse ...

ruins near the city of Globe are known to have been occupied by people of the Salado Culture from the 13th to 15th centuries. However, around the middle 15th century the Salado inhabitants abandoned the area and moved south, possibly merging with the

Pima people The Akimel O'odham (Oʼodham language, O'odham for "river people"), also called the Pima, are an Indigenous people of the Americas living in the United States in central and southern Arizona and northwestern Mexico in the states of Sonora and Ch ...

in the process. Around this same time the

and Kwevkepaya-Yavapai people started to settle around the area. The Apache call the Pinal Mountains Dził Nnilchí' Diyiléé, meaning "pine-burdened mountain", while the Yavapai call the mountains Walkame, or "pine mountains". Later on, in the 17th century, the Spanish began to explore the region and met with the native peoples; they translated the natives' term for the mountain into Pinal, or "stand of pine trees" in Spanish. On at least one occasion the Pinal Mountains were a battle location between Spanish forces and the native Apache warriors; this brief conflict was called the Battle of the Pinal Mountains.

Geology

The Pinal Mountains have an abundance and variety of minerals, both precious and non-precious. Numerous mining claims existed in the Pinal Mountains from 1875 to the early 1900s. With precious minerals such as

Copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

, and trace amounts of

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

being mined in varying quantities from the mountains during that period. Other less precious minerals found in more abundance in the mountains include

Iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

Calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

Malachite Malachite () is a copper Carbonate mineral, carbonate hydroxide mineral, with the chemical formula, formula Basic copper carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2. This opaque, green-banded mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often for ...

Azurite Azurite or '' Azure spar'Krivovichev V. G.'' Mineralogical glossary. Scientific editor A. G. Bulakh. — St.Petersburg: St.Petersburg Univ. Publ. House. 2009. — 556 p. — ISBN 978-5-288-04863-0. ''(in Russian)'' is a soft, deep-blue copp ...

Feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

Diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is Intermediate composition, inter ...

, and the

Lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

ores of

Galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

and

Anglesite Anglesite is a lead sulfate mineral with the chemical formula PbSO4. It occurs as an oxidation product of primary lead sulfide ore, galena. Anglesite occurs as prismatic orthorhombic crystals and earthy masses, and is isomorphous with barite and ...

. The most successful mine was the Gibson mine, located on the far western section of the range and was most successful from 1906-1918. It accounted for 99% of the total Copper and Silver production from the mountains, which totaled 12.5 million pounds (over 6,250 tons) of Copper and 3,500 ounces of Silver (as a by-product of the Copper mining). Many of the mines located higher up in the mountains helped develop some of the modern day hiking trails, one notable example being Sixshooter Canyon trail in the eastern section of the mountains. Which was a mining trail leading to a mine claim in the mid to late 1870s, the miners each wore Six shooters which led to the naming of the Canyon and the trail, in what was then the

American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the Geography of the United States, geography, History of the United States, history, Folklore of the United States, folklore, and Cultur ...

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 ...

. Today, however, there are no active mines on the mountains and most of the previous mines have long been mined out.

Flora and fauna

The Pinal Mountains has a variety of plant and animal life; several species are exclusive to the area. Examples include Arizona prominent moth and a variable species of the Arizona hedgehog cactus. Other species of flora include

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 ...

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

Gambel oak ''Quercus gambelii'', with the common name Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub that is widespread in the foothills and lower mountains of western North America. It is also regionally called scrub oak, oak brush, and white oak. T ...

, and '' Senecio neomexicanus toumeyi'' (also known as Toumey groundsel). Other fauna found in the mountains include

javelina 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. Peccari ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known Common name, commonly as the whitetail and the Virginia deer, is a medium-sized species of deer native to North America, North, Central America, Central and South America. It is the ...

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 ...

cottontail rabbit Cottontail rabbits are in the ''Sylvilagus'' genus, which is in the family Leporidae. They are found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characterist ...

tree squirrel Tree squirrels are the members of the squirrel Family (biology), family (Sciuridae) commonly just referred to as "squirrels". They include more than 100 arboreal species native to all continents except Antarctica and Oceania. They do not form a ...

quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...

little brown bat The little brown bat or little brown myotis (''Myotis lucifugus'') is an endangered species of mouse-eared bat, mouse-eared microbat found in North America. It has a small body size and glossy brown fur. It is similar in appearance to several ...

;

American black bear The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), or simply black bear, is a species of medium-sized bear which is Endemism, endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. It is an omnivore, with ...

, and

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

Peaks

The Pinal Mountain range has 4 peaks, as listed by the official

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

topographic survey map of the area. All elevations are official as listed by the USGS survey map.

Central section

- 7,848 ft (2,392 m). # Signal Peak - 7,812 ft (2,381 m).

Eastern section

3. East Mountain (HP) - 6,892 ft (2,101 m).

North-western section

4. Madera Peak - 6,647 ft (2,026 m). Pinal Mountains

Recreation

The mountains are often a place of recreation in the summer months, due to their cooler climate and scenic beauty. There are many trails and a campsite to support recreation.

Trails

Recreation areas on Pinal Mountain include at least 8 public hiking trails, two of which are Sixshooter Canyon Trail #197 and Icehouse Canyon Trail #198, both located on the northeastern side of the mountain and accessible via maintained roads.

Campsite

The Pinal Mountain recreation area also includes a public campsite, with 16 units with picnic tables, fire-pit grills, and 4 vault bathrooms. The open season for this campsite is May–November according to the USDA Forest Service. The campsite is reachable via a maintained dirt road that stretches to the top of the mountain.

Gallery

File:View from Pinal Mountains..jpg File:Upper Pinal Mountains .jpg File:View of Pinal Mountains .jpg File:Sixshooter trail, Pinal Mountains, AZ.jpg File:Sixshooter trail view , Pinal Mountains, AZ.jpg File:Sixshooter trail trees, Pinal Mountains, AZ.jpg File:Stream in the Pinal Mountains.jpg File:Stream in the Pinals.jpg File:Clear Stream.jpg

References

External links

Surgent.netSites.google.com
Official

7.5-minute quadrangle topographic map of the Pinal Mountains, with official USGS elevation listings. {{Authority control Mountain ranges of Arizona Mountain ranges of Gila County, Arizona Madrean Sky Islands mountain ranges Arizona transition zone mountain ranges