Whitewater Draw, originally Rio de Agua Prieta, panish: river of dark water is a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

of the Rio de Agua Prieta in

Cochise County, Arizona Cochise County ( ) is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The count ...

. It was called Blackwater Creek by

Philip St. George Cooke Philip St. George Cooke (June 13, 1809 – March 20, 1895) was a career United States Army cavalry officer who served as a Union General in the American Civil War. He is noted for his authorship of an Army cavalry manual, and is sometimes calle ...

when his command, the

Mormon Battalion The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in United States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation. The volunteers served from July 1846 to Jul ...

, camped at a spring on its course on December 5, 1846. Philip St. George Cooke, ''The Conquest of New Mexico and California'', G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1878, pp. 91–109, 125–96 [142
">42"> Philip St. George Cooke, ''The Conquest of New Mexico and California'', G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1878, pp. 91–109, 125–96 [142
/ref> Whitewater Draw has its source at an elevation of 8,520 feet at in Rucker Canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains in the Coronado National Forest and flows generally westward, skirting the north end of the Swisshelm Mountains, then southwest and south through Sulphur Springs Valley into

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Douglas, Arizona Douglas is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, that lies in the north-west to south-east running Sulphur Springs Valley. Douglas has a Douglas, Arizona Port of Entry, border crossing with Mexico at Agua Prieta and a history of min ...

and

Agua Prieta Agua Prieta ("dark water") is a town in the Agua Prieta Municipality in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Sonora. It stands on the Mexico–U.S. border, adjacent to the town of Douglas, Arizona, Douglas, Arizona. The municipality c ...

to,

Sonora, Mexico Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital (and largest) city of which is ...

. There it flows southward as Rio de Agua Prieta then southeast to join the Rio de San Bernardino at an elevation of , at La Junta de los Rios about 24.5 miles southeast of

. The San Bernardino River joins the

Bavispe River The Rio Bavispe or Bavispe River is a river in Mexico which flows briefly north then mainly south by southwest until it joins with the Aros River to become the Yaqui River, eventually joining the Gulf of California. History Historically, the Rio B ...

at Morelos, Sonora at the northern end of the Sierra del Tigre. The Bavispe River flows south by southwest to the

Yaqui River The Yaqui River (Río Yaqui in Spanish) (Hiak Vatwe in the Yaqui or Yoreme language) is a river in the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. It was formerly known as the Rio del Norte. Being the largest river system in the state of Sonora, th ...

and eventually to the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

Ciudad Obregon, Sonora Ciudad () is the Spanish word for "city". Ciudad or La Ciudad may also refer to: * La Ciudad (archaeological site), Hohokam ruins in Phoenix, Arizona * La Ciudad, district of Durango City, Mexico * ''La ciudad'', a novel by Mario Levrero published ...

References

{{authority control Rivers of Cochise County, Arizona Rivers of Sonora International rivers of North America Cooke's Wagon Road Rivers of Arizona