AZ - Big Bend of the Virgin River: Narrative

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Summary

The Big Bend of the Virgin River route segment of the Old Spanish Trail is located in the Basin and Range physiographic province (Thornbury 1965) as well as the Mojave Basin and Range Ecoregion (US EPA 2011).  The Virgin River is on the eastern margin of the Basin and Range system, with the Virgin Mountains marking a transition zone in physiography (Billingsley and Workman 2000:1) and biology between the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert and Great Basin Desert.  Because of a series of deep lateral drainages on both sides of the Virgin River, the Big Bend creates a major topographic obstacle in the 30 mile stretch between two established “camp sites” (or “parajes”) at Beaver Dam on the North and Halfway Wash on the south in the river travel corridor as it passes through the northwest corner of Arizona.  Antonio Armijo passed from a camp presumed to be at Beaver Dam on December 25, 1829 to a camp presumed to be halfway to the confluence of the Muddy River and the Virgin River the following day.   John C. Frémont wrote a clear historical account of travel over of this section of the Spanish Trail in his “Second Expedition” on May 8, 1844 (Fremont 1845:293, Jackson and Spence 1970:688-691, Steiner 1999:102-108). This is the first section of the pack trail and livestock driveway travelling west after leaving Abiquiu, New Mexico where the Old Spanish Trail “Main Route” and “Armijo Route” share a common corridor.  No trail remnants have been located in this property attributable to the 1829-1848 period of use for fall pack animal trade caravans to California or spring stock drives of horses and mules back to New Mexico[t1] .  However, the Big Bend Key Observation Point (KOP)[t2]  proposed in this nomination provides an excellent opportunity to experience the natural setting of river beds and desert benches through which the trail passed, and where subsequent intrusions do not dominate.

Environmental Setting

The Big Bend of the Virgin River route segment of the Old Spanish National Historical Trail is located in the Basin and Range physiographic province (Thornbury 1965) as well as the Mojave Basin and Range Ecoregion (US EPA 2011).  The Virgin River is on the eastern margin of the Basin and Range system, with the Virgin Mountains marking a transition zone in physiography (Billingsley and Workman 2000:1) and biology between the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert and Great Basin Desert.  This environmental distinction was important to people traversing the Spanish Trail.  Coming from east, it meant the hardships of a month in the “hot desert” with
limited forage, game animals for food and scarce water sources.  Coming from the west, it meant adequate water supply, more abundant game and forage on the Colorado Plateau.  The Virgin River is a major perennial water supply with periodic wet lands and marshes forming an “oasis” corridor with headwaters 60 miles to the east of the Big Bend and joining the Colorado River more than sixty miles to the south.  However there is considerable seasonal variability in the forage available in the Virgin River, with periodic flooding which scours out the river channel (Johnson et al. 2002) washing out forage or depositing silt and sand, creating barren flats. 

The Virgin River flows out the Virgin River Gorge defile at an elevation of 1900 feet along a fault separating the Beaver Dam Mountains composed of cherty gray to white Pennsylvanian age limestone and the Virgin Mountains composed primarily of dark colored gneiss, schist and granite (Billingsley and Workman 2000).  When it leaves the Gorge seven miles north of the Big Bend, the River flows sinuously through a valley about one quarter mile wide against the toe of the Virgin Mountains  to the east and a broad plain of yellowish-brown “Pediment calcrete” of the Mesquite Basin (Billingsley and Workman 2000:6) to the west. 

The “Big Bend” is a notable “oxbow” in the Virgin River where Big Bend Wash and other minor drainages enter the drainage from the north.  Side channels from infrequent but regular torrential precipitation bring sediment loads into the Virgin, causing the main channel to move from its given location from season to season and year to year.  High flow in the Virgin River can be expected in March, April and May from spring snowmelt at around 400 cubic feet per second, but drops off precipitously in June and July to less than 200 cubic feet per second through November (Johnson and others 2002:305).  This pattern is important in predicting when the river channel itself can be used as a travel corridor (June through January) and when old channels free of vegetation re-growth might be traversable (February through May).  The availability of the river valley floor as a travelway is not predictable.  Over the period from 1930 to 2000, fourteen years exceeded an annual flow in the Virgin River at Littlefield of between 300,000 and 500,000 acre feet.   The remaining fifty-six years hovered between 100,000 and 200,000 acre feet.  This indicates that the average flow of about 150,000 acre feet of year would make the valley floor dependably traversable for four out of five years, but during flood years, travelers could confront very difficult or impossible travel conditions during late winter and spring.

The Old Spanish Trail corridor in the Virgin River Valley includes two very distinct landscape elements: dense tree cover of the “valley oases” (willows, mesquite and tamarisk) and the dry rocky uplands dominated by shrubs of creosote and shadscale associations (Rhode 2002:3-9).  The Big Bend Route segment, being the transition zone between the two, includes both of these radically different ecological situations.

The Big Bend Bench as defined here is a triangular peninsula capped by pediment calcrete located between Big Bend Wash on the west and the Virgin River on the east with a base overlooking Beaverdam Wash about 5 miles to the north.  The peninsula forms a steep sided cliff terrace of calcrete caprock 150 feet above the Virgin River on the east side. It terminates in a point overlooking the Big Bend of the Virgin to the south.  The only place where there is no shear caprock cliff is at the southeast tip of the bench where historic maps show a switchback descent of a wagon road and later mechanically cut auto route still passable today with four wheel drive high clearance vehicles. 

From the top of the bench, an observer can catch a vista of the sweeping Beaver Dam Mountains to the north, observing a large swath of the Virgin River Valley (marked by dense thicket of tamarisk, willow and mesquite and the sinuous channel) follow the steep face of the north section of the Virgin Mountains forming the eastern horizon, and on the southern horizon twenty miles away, see the mass of Virgin Peak rising marking the east margin of valley.  To the west, is only a short vista of creosote-covered slightly angled bench, with no distant features extending above the horizon.

Foreground Appearance. The vegetation on the terrace is visually dominated by creosote which has about 20% crown cover away from the rim.  Low growing shadscale fills about 10% of the ground cover.  Invasive red brome fills the interstices between the shrubs, and gives the surface a fuzzy brown appearance.

The sides of the terrace have less dense and more diverse vegetation.  Below the white calcrete caprock is the slope, formed of brown to pink Muddy Creek siltstone.  Creosote still dominates the vegetation, and shadscale is absent.  There are pockets of cottontop, or barrel cactus, in some of the drainage coves on the slopes.

The sandy floor of the Virgin River canyon is covered by dense mesquite, tamarisk, ash and willow, except where the channel has been recently active where there is bare light brown to pink sands, silt and clay.  Long stable surfaces in the river channel have high growing trees several meters high.  The more recent meanders have lower growing young tree stems only a meter or less.  Recently scoured channels are devoid of vegetation and form open dry, sandy travelways.

Distant Landforms.  Beaverdam Mountains North Field of View (north 5° and 20 miles to northeast 65° 10 miles): The Beaver Dam Mountains are composed of gray, light gray and white ledge forming limestone rising as much as 5000 feet above the Virgin Valley and Beaver Dam Wash floor forming an impressive vertical backdrop. The mountains also mark the trail alignment to the north, the main route passing up “Utah Hill” through a canyon whose mouth cannot be distinguished from this perspective.

Mouth of the Virgin River Gorge (50°, 8 miles): The mouth of the Gorge is imperceptable topographically from the the Big Bend route segment.  This feature is important in the Old Spanish Trail because it formed a significant obstacle for travel down the Virgin River drainage.  In late September of 1826, Jedediah Smith led his band of trappers down the tortuous Virgin River Gorge (Brooks 1977:56-62) encountering a canyon floor riparian area that was disappointing for the trappers because the beaver dams had been scoured out by floods earlier in the year.  In July of 1827 Smith avoided the canyon favoring a round about route 25 miles up the Santa Clara (“Corn Creek”) and then southwest to the Beaver Dam Wash drainage (Smith’s “Pautch Creek”) back to the vicinity of Beaver Dam on the Virgin River (Sullivan 1992:27-28).  From Armijo’s itinerary (Hafen and Hafen 1993:163) it is inferred that he avoided the Virgin River Gorge, following a route that was determined by a reconnaissance party.  On May 10, 1844 Frémont (1845:269) says:

Our camp was in a basin below a deep cañon – a gap of two thousand feet deep in the mountains – through which the Rio Virgen passes and where no man nor beast could follow it.  The Spanish trail, which we had lost in the sands of the basin, was on the opposite side of the river.  We crossed over to it, and followed it northwardly towards a gap which was visible in the mountain.  We approached it by a defile, rendered difficult for our barefooted animals by the rocks strewed along it; and here the country changed in character.  From the time we entered the desert, the mountains had been bald and rocky; here they began to be wooded with cedar and pine, and clusters of trees gave shelter to birds – a new and welcome sight – which could not have lived in the desert we had passed.

Eastern Field of View (northeast 65°, 9 miles to south to 180° 11 miles): Virgin Mountains. The break between the Beaver Dam Mountains and the Virgin Mountains is south of the Virgin River Gorge and can be detected by the dark massive nature of the gneiss, schist and granitic rocks which make-up the latter, but not by any break in the impressive 3-4,000 feet height of the mountains above the Virgin Valley floor.   The steep slopes of the Virgin Mountains’ crest only 8-9 miles away dominates the eastern view.  There is a noticible saddle between the closest mountain mass of Mt Bangs (8012 feet elevation) less than 8 miles to the east and the more distant mass of Virgin Peak (8075 feet elevation) to the south southwest nearly 20 miles away.

Western Field of View (west 265° to 295°, 28 miles distant ): Mormon Mountains. The crest of the Mormon Mountains can be seen to the west as a jagged ridge just peeking over the surface of the Big Bend terrace.  Moapa Peak (6471 feet elevation) appears distinctly separated from the main moutain ridge but indicates the direction of the main route where the trail leaves the Virgin River and crosses Mormon Mesa.

Virgin River water and forage.  The Virgin River links the foreground with the backround from the Big Bend Key Observation Point.  The Virgin River is a critical feature of the trail route because it provides both forage and water for thirty miles in an otherwise waterless terrain.  Three miles to the north northeast up river, a new housing subdivision can be seen on the bench overlooking the river.  This cluster of houses is far enough distant and blends sufficiently in color that it does not draw the eye.

Environmental Change.  No substantial human modifications of land forms are noticable in the foreground or background from the Big Bend KOP.  However, vegetation composition is substantially altered from what would have been seen in 1829-1848.  In the river valley, tamarisk introduced in the early 20th Century (Stevens 2011) is a major invasive non-native species which is being successfully removed to restore native riparian species (UCSB Rivrlab 2011).  Tamarisk has significantly altered drainage and accessibility of the valley floor for transportation from the early part of the 19th Century.  Restoration efforts promise to return the valley floor vegetation to native species similar to that which Armijo would have observed in 1830 and Frémont would have observed in 1844. 

The dry upland bench vegetation also is substantially altered in species and composition from the Spanish Trail Period of significance.  Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is a major non-native component altering the bare rocky ground between sparse native shrubs to a brief period of brilliant green in spring and a straw color for the remainder of year.   It may prove far more difficult to restore native vegetation in the uplands similar in composition and density to what would have been observed in the early 19th century, even if that was determined desireable (Young and Clements 2009).

Nature and Period of Use

Jedediah Smith-Precursor to the caravan trade. The first written record of travel down the Virgin River is that of Jedediah Smith in early fall of1826 with about 15 men and 50 horses (Brooks 1989:38-39).  Smith’s overt purpose was to trap beaver and trade with natives for beaver pelts, and so the routes he travelled were purposely to explore river habitats where these animals could be found.  For this reason in his first passage, he went down the 12 miles of the Virgin River Gorge from the “Indian lodges” on “Corn Creek” [modern Santa Clara River] down the “Adam’s River” [modern Virgin River] to some more “Pautch” lodges four days travel down river (probably in the vicinity of modern Overton at the mouth of the Muddy River Brooks 1989:57-65).  In his second trip down the Virgin River corridor Smith comments that he is avoiding the Gorge but also explores a new drainage he calls “Pautch” Creek (modern Beaver Dam Wash [Sullivan 1992:28]). Even though Smith was travelling on the Sevier River (“Ashley’s River”) in late July 1827 he is able to identify tracks of horses and mules remaining from spring “when the ground was soft” that he associates with a trapping, trading group headed for “Taos” (Sullivan 1992:27-29). Smith did not purposefully follow aboriginal trails in pursuit of fur bearing animals, though he regularly stayed over in aboriginal settlements.  In both trips in early Fall 1826 and late summer 1827, Smith probably followed down the Virgin River channel itself in search of beaver.

Armijo.  On December 25, 1829 Antonio Armijo and a party of 60 New Mexicans transporting “efectos del pais [products of the country]” (Minge 1994) to California, camped on the “Severo,” (Virgin River) most likely in the vicinity of the mouth of Beaver Dam Wash (Hafen and Hafen 1993:163). On the following day the Armijo caravan camped down the river, and then on the 27th camped at a “rancheria” of Indians with pierced noses, likely at the confluence of the Muddy River and the Virgin River in the vicinity of modern Overton.

Wolfskill and Yount.  In the fall of 1830 and Winter of 1831 William Wolfskill and George Yount led a party of about twenty trappers and traders from Taos to San Bernardino and then to Los Angeles via the Mojave villages (Hafen and Hafen 1993:139-154). The route is not described in an itinerary, but likely followed the Smith and Armijo route in the Virgin River bottoms. 

Frémont.  On May 8, 1844, John C. Frémont, and some twenty-one men (including scout Kit Carson) camped on the Virgin River at the mouth of Beaver Dam Wash having lost the “Spanish Trail” proceeding up the east side of the fast moving and swollen river 28 miles upstream from the mouth of Halfway Wash.  Frémont comments on the “overgrown” nature of the sandy bottomlands (Frémont 1845:268). It is possible that Frémont missed the trace of the Spanish Trail at Big Bend where in Addison Pratt notes the wagon road south from Beaver Dam descends from the gravelly bench into the Virgin River channel (Hafen and Hafen 1998:85).

Orville Pratt. On October 8th, 1848 Orville Pratt carrying military dispatches from Santa Fe to California following the Spanish Trail, camped at Beaver Dam with his escort of 16 men. He only commented on the nature of the trail 30 miles down the River to the next camp (at the mouth of Halfway Wash) where forage was poor and the only water brackish, is that the road was through “heavy sand” (Hafen and Hafen 1993:354-355)

Successor Accounts

A. Pratt.  On November 11, 1849 Addison Pratt, a guide for the Hunt emigrant wagon train leaves Beaver Dam:

“…on the desert which is high and dry, covered with gravel.  After traveling about 5 miles, we descended a steep slope into the river bottom” (Hafen and Hafen 1998:85).

The wagon train moves slowly, travelling six more miles down the river before camping. The following day the group proceeds fourteen more miles fording the river six times. Hunt’s wagon train is following the established packtrail.  The steep descent described the Big Bend descent to the Virgin River.

Heap.  On August 7, 1853, Gwinn Harris Heap,(accompanying his Uncle Edward Beale who had been appointed as US Government Indian Agent for California) travelling in a pack caravan, camps in the vicinity of Beaver Dam on the Virgin River.  The following day the pack train follows the sandy river among cottonwoods and farther downstream, mesquite and willows.  Heap explains that the course down the river bed is necessitated by the dissected nature of the land on the west and the steep rocky slopes of the mountains which abut the river on the east (Heap 1854:100-101).

Carvalho. On May 24 1854, Solomon Nunes Carvalho, travelling in a combined wagon and pack train camps on the west bank of the Virgin River in the Beaver Dam vicinity anticipates a difficult crossing the following day because the river is very high.  Carvalho states (Kahn 2004:222):

Our road lay over a sandy bluff, which was most tiresome to our animals. After a stretch of three miles, we abruptly descended some two hundred feet into the bed of the river, which we crossed with much difficulty as the water was over the bottoms of the wagons.

The road led through a continuous grove of acacias (spirlobeum odoratum), in full bloom, interspersed with a few cottonwoods. We found this road, also, to assume a serpentine course, which created the necessity to recross it seven times, by noon camp.

Carvalho continues to describe desert willow, acacias filled with doves and mockingbirds, sandy areas covered with “thousands of party-colored flowers” and the canyon walls of “conglomerate” and layers of sandstone.  The landforms and description of the trail alignment fit conditions today at the Big Bend, though the vegetation of the river floor is now overwhelmed with tamarisk and the “party-colored flowers” are not in evidence. 

Marcy. In his guidebook to western emigrants published in 1859, Marcy (277) indicates that the road from Beaver Dam crossed the Virgin River ten times in just under 40 miles before reaching the confluence of the Muddy River.

Later Networks

Salt Lake to Los Angeles Wagon Road. Lyman (2004) provides a detailed historical analysis of the Salt Lake to Los Angeles wagon road or “Southern Route” for emigrant and commercial purposes.  Of the section between the Santa Clara River and the Muddy River Lyman (2004:210-211) states:

As early as 1855, sometime mail carrier Jim Williams pointed out to interested observers the practicability of bypassing the Virgin River fords, the dreaded Virgin Hill, and much conflict with Native Americans along the Santa Clara and Virgin Rivers.  Lt. Col. Edward J. Steptoe, in charge of improving the road for mail and military use, suggested this practicability in his advertisements for contracts to construct a road from a “sideling” hill within nine miles of the rim of the Great Basin, making a cutoff from near Santa Clara to the Muddy.  As a guide for Lt. Sylvestre Mowry, Steptoe’s subordinate, and his troops later that year, Williams easily convinced Steptoe and Mowry  of the desirability of the proposed route and Mowry included the recommendations in his military reports.  His version of this “cutoff” was from the head of the Santa Clara to the Muddy River, essentially skirting the foot of the Mormon Mountain rather than traveling the old road midway out on the Mormon Mesa several miles south of the new route. The report stated (understated) that the bypassed segment was “one of the most trying portions of the route,” and thus would be a great improvement of the roadway to Southern California.

The road down the Virgin River was still the major corridor in 1869 according to the Wheeler Survey maps and the cutoff was not a priority for long distance freighting (Wheeler 1875:61):

The road, so much used at one time in the winter season by the Mormons in freighting into Southern Utah, is long, and sandy in the extreme.  The stretches between waters from Cajon Pass to Saint George are long and tedious, and the camps, at which grazing and wood are scarce, numerous.  Its former uses no longer obtain, as it is found much cheaper to freight to the most remote and southern settlements in Utah from the Central Pacific Railroad.  

The Wheeler Survey Map illustrates a wagon road that avoids the Virgin River and the dissected Big Bend bench by swinging west from Beaver Dam and re-entering the Virgin River bottomlands where the valley broadens just east of the Nevada state line.  This alignment reflects the re-organization of the network to accommodate heavy freight and emigrant wagon traffic before the southern route to California decreased in usage.

Local Wagon Roads.  The General Land Office plats of 1913 illustrate a re-organization of the transportation network between Beaver Dam and the Nevada state line.  The road shown in the Wheeler map through the uplands is clearly illustrated between Littlefield and the state line, but the old road on the Big Bend bench is also illustrated descending from the rim rock into the Virgin Valley floor with a crossing of the Virgin River to the bench on the east side of the river.  The latter is the projected alignment of the Spanish Trail which may have been essentially abandoned since about 1855 and then re-vitalized with the settlement of Littlefield (Beaver Dams [1864]), Bunkerville (1879) and Mesquite (1897).

Telephone Lines.  General Land Office Plats illustrate a telephone line on the 1913 plat.  Telephone lines were established as early as 1904 along existing telegraph lines in southern Utah (Alder and Brooks 2007:241).

Arrowhead Trail Highway. Improvements were made on existing wagon roads which ran “right down the middle of the Virgin River” to accommodate long distance automobile traffic as early as 1912 (Thurston 1994:213). The Arrowhead Trails Highway Association was formed in 1914 to promote the “Southern Route” to California for automobiles from Salt Lake City.  By 1918, it was estimated that 2500 cars travelled the route (Lyman 1999:251). In 1921, a bridge was constructed across the Virgin River south of Mesquite (Lyman 1999:271) connecting to Bunkerville.  The auto route was developed alongside the telephone line and later constructed along the paved route now designated as “Old US 91” in Arizona.

US Highway 91.  US Highway 91 was “completed” in 1930 (Alder and Brooks 2007:242), but realignments continue to be made and can be detected on aerial photos and historic topographic maps.

Identity of People who Created and Used the Trail

The only description of the general composition and appearance of the Mexican trading caravans by an American observer is that of Brewerton (1993:56-62) in 1847, who described  the eastbound livestock drive (not a westbound frieght mule caravan) as “grotesque in the extreme”.  This description explains the general composition (200 horse-mounted Mexicans and 60 ‘Amercanos’ with additional freight mules) and scheduling of the caravans (leaving New Mexico in October with woven goods arriving at Los Angeles two and a half months later, and returning from California with upwards of 2,000 head of horses departing in April) reported in 1841 (Hafen and Hafen 1993:187).  More than 250 mounted men and double that number of pack mules is bound to produce at least a temporary strain on water, forage,and even with low-impact camping practices, will leave some footprint at the locations of overnight camps.  The compaction produced by the loaded pack animals, with 100-250 pound loads on the outgoing pack trail, and more than twice the number of animals (albeit faster moving with fewer loaded) in the return livestock herd, would have lasted only a day per year and may not have produced any long-term scars. Over a period of years, there may have been loss of vegetation, soil and water resources with repeated use, as seen at other Old Spanish Trail nominated sites.

Unlike along the Santa Clara to the north and the Muddy River to the south, the “jornada” (day’s journey) along the Virgin River between Beaver Dam and the mouth of Halfway Wash is not noted for aboriginal “rancherias” (Antonio Armijo’s term) or “lodges” (Jedediah Smith’s term).  Frémont does have significant contact with Paiutes along this segment, however it does not seem that the natives were resident in the Beaver Dam vicinity at the time of Frémont’s passage (May 1844).  Addison Pratt also comments extensively on Paiute harrassment of the wagon train livestock in this section of the trail in December of 1849.  It appears from the Frémont and Pratt accounts that if the natives were not offered food by the passing outsiders, they would attempt to drive off livestock as a food source, or barring success with this tactic, wound an animal with arrows in anticipation that the beast would be abandoned and could be eaten after the travellers passed through.  It appears that the traveller’s experience with the natives was directly related to whether there was exchange of food or other trade goods. 

Description and Dating of the Site

The Big Bend Route Segment KOP is the topographic feature along which the pack trail and livestock trail is inferred to have passed over starting with Armijo in 1829 and ending with Orville Pratt in late 1848, just after the last herd of horses and mules were driven back to New Mexico from California.  This topographic feature and the associated landscape compose the significant characteristics of the Big Bend national register district, which appears much as it did between 1829 and 1848 when pack caravans passed through on the way to California and equine livestock was driven back to New Mexico.

The Old Spanish Trail route segment between Beaver Dam in Arizona and Halfway Wash is approximately thirty miles long following the Virgin River.  Frémont’s account in May 1844 and Orville Pratt’s account in October 1848 indicate that pack trains could travel this distance in one day, but wagons in 1849 and after would require at least two days with numerous river crossings and slow going as a result of deep sand.   Research and fieldwork for preparation of this National Register nomination have led to the conclusion that intact remnants of the trail used during the period of significance have not been confirmed; however evidence of pack trail and livestock driveway uses within the landscape based on historic documents is compelling.

The pack trail between the mouth of Beaver Dam Wash and the Big Bend of the Virgin River (about 5 miles) was likely on top of the upland bench on the west side and above the Virgin River, the route described by Addison Pratt in 1849.  It is inferred that this would also have been the route travelled by Armijo in 1829 and subsequent pack animal freighters on the “Spanish Trail.”  It is likely that Frémont missed the well-used trail ascending out of the river channel on the west side of the river to the top of the gravel bench. in his travel up the east side of the swollen Virgin River in May of 1844.

There are five discrete linear structures within the site identified in the Big Bend district boundaries, which are also defined as separate sites: 

1.          The contributing livestock trail from rimrock to river terrace:  A segment of a stock trail 675 feet long descends from the calcrete rim rock to the active flood plain of the Virgin River on the southeast point of the Big Bend bench.  The stock trail is identified by cobbles and boulders with exposed white caliche crusts and scratched rock surfaces indicating displacement on the only place where the caprock calcrete does not have a vertical drop.  After the 24 inches wide constriction through the caprock there are several braided trail alignments down the spine of this slope.  It would be difficult for wagons to pass through this pathway in the caprock.  This livestock trail descends 140 feet with a slope of 21%.  It is possible that this is the historic alignment of the 1829-1848 pack trail, but the association with the recently disused stock loading pen may be the only reason this trail is identifiable.  The route used for the Mexican period caravan trade may be where the graded wagon road and non-contributing current jeep trail has been constructed with a switchback as illustrated in the 1913 GLO Survey Plat (attached).   Because of the bedrock surface on top of the bench and the active erosion at the base of the slope on the river terrace, no travelway alignments are detectable except on the slope.

In summary, the trail remnant is attributable to recent twentieth century livestock operations, but may be indistinguishable from the pack trail that would have been used between 1829 and 1848. The trail structure does not contribute to the national register property, but the trail alignment passing through the caprock including the setting does contribute to the Big Bend Key Observation Point.

2.          A non-contributing wheeled vehicle grade with switchbacks.  A constructed grade averaging 12 feet wide descends 140 feet to the Virgin River floodplain through a 1335 foot long switchback.  This switchback appears on the 1913 GLO Plat and has a slope of under 11%, thus reducing the natural slope (21%) by half.  The last 100 feet of this established historic grade has been shortened by a recent mechanical cut through the caprock and the older route has started to revegetate with creosote shrubs.  Though the date of this cut is unknown, the re-growth indicates that on steep slopes,  if not maintained by use, these treadways erode and revegetate in decades, rather than centuries .  Because of the constructed grades on this slope, it cannot be determined if there was a natural break in the caprock cliff face before the construction occurred.  The absence of displaced caliche covered stones on the slope except on the switchback may indicate that the stock trail descent was the only break in the caprock cliff face prior to construction of the switchback grade.

Headed north upon achieving the top of the bench, the alignment of the wagon road is clearly detectable on the ground and in aerial photographs, at first as an alignment of smaller creosote shrubs on the rocky surface and then as a slight swale as the road enters the sandy sediment away from the caprock edge.  Initially there are two parallel alignments for about 600 feet (to the drift fence which is perpendicular to the roadway), indicating a “bypass,” or “pullout” as is frequent at the top and bottom of steep ascents on roadways.  This alignment continues about 1 mile north to the boundary of the district.

This constructed roadway reflects a wheeled vehicle conformation which is subsequent to the Old Spanish Trail period of significance and therefore does not contribute to the Mexican period Old Spanish Trail. However, the site of the passage and associated setting is part of the national register district landscape and is the likely alignment of the pack trail which was converted to a wagon route in 1849, and later “improved” when Littlefield was established in the 1860’s and homesteads established at Big Bend in the late 19th and early 2oth century.

3.          A non-contributingalignment for a modern power line and a mechanically graded and gravelled roadway is also likely the early 20th century Arrowhead Trail Highway prior to improvement  between 1917 and 1945. Light colored gravel has been applied to the surface, making this alignment clearly visible on the ground.  This alignment was established on an existing telephone poleline after the 1913 GLO Plat was madeand likely constructed before 1925 when a road guide indicates “dangerous curves” 3.8 miles south of Littlefield and the” Virgin River to the left” before a “dugway” descent and ascent, likely on the west edge of the Big Bend where Old US 91 is today (Thurston 1994:219).

This road structure is part of the complex evolution of travelways in the Big Bend Bench District.  The structure does not contribute to the Old Spanish Trail because it was constructed and utilized in the early Twentieth century.  This structure may contribute to significance of National Register properties under other themes and periods of significance.  The area of this motor vehicle roadway site is part of the setting  of the Old Spanish Trail alignment on the Big Bend bench and is part of the intact landscape evocative of the Old Spanish Trail period of significance.

4.          The non-contributing paved highway alignment of “Old US Highway 91.”  Enormous outlays were made in the 1920s for bridges across the Virgin River at St. Thomas, Riverside and Mesquite (Thurston 1994:209-226) to promote the Arrowhead Trail Highway, renamed US Highway 91 as the “all season” auto route to California from Salt Lake City. Like the earlier gravelled route, the oiled road avoided the Virgin River channel but did go through the deeply dissected side drainages on the west side of the Virgin River at the Big Bend.  Instead of a switchback on the southwest point of the Big Bend bench on the Arrowhead Highway route, the paved roadway is a grade cut into the sideslope of an unnamed southward flowing drainage.

Like the Arrowhead Trail Highway alignment, the US 91 road structure does not contribute to the significant characteristics of the Old Spanish Trail packtrail, but is within the setting of the key observation point.  Old US 91 may contribute to a National Register district for other themes and periods of significance as this roadway is relatively intact since being replaced by Interstate 15 in 1973 (Thurston 1994:223).

5.          A non-contributing network of jeep trails and livestock trails identified on aerial photos converge on a corral, livestock loading pen and drift fence, all now unused.  The aerial photographs of the Big Bend bench area illustrate a web of roads and trails emanating from the livestock loading pen on the rocky eastern edge of the bench.  These structures appear to have been constructed after World War II and fallen into disuse in the last decade.   The corral/loading pen and associated drift fence are the only non-road constructed structures in the Big Bend district.  This complex of livestock and more recent recreation (winter camping, dumping, target shooting, auto maintenance) features do not contribute to the significant characteristics of the Big Bend KOP.

Appearance of Site during Period of Significance

The landforms of the Big Bend bench site appear much as they did during the period of use (1829-1848).  Both foreground and distant landforms are not altered by major construction, resource extraction or settlement activities.  The course of the Virgin River is remarkably unaffected by construction activities in the valley floor, probably because of periodic catastrophic flooding and the absence of dams or reservoirs.  Up the river valley to the north, a residential subdivision can be detected on the west bench of the river, but this is far enough away as to not draw the eye.

The native vegetation of the landscape, dominated by creosote on the upland bench and willows and cottonwoods in the alluvial floodplain is still present, but is visibly altered by non-native cheatgrass filling the interstices between creosote, and tamarisk thickets choking out the native willow and cottonwood mosaic.   Efforts to eradicate the tamarisk and restore the native vegetation appear to be promising, though the initial die off of the tamarisk creates an unprecedented “skeletal” forest.

The trail structures used and improved over time in the Big Bend of the Virgin River between the broken country at the foot of the Virgin Mountains on the east and the dissected tablelands to the west is a result of ad hoc transportation criteria required to support mule pack freighting and livestock driveway modes of transportation.  Construction of a trail passageway is not purposeful, but reflects decisions in selecting routes that can be travelled in a day’s journey (“jornada”) with predictable adequate water and forage for beasts of burden at the end of each day.  The Virgin River was the most direct route between predictable water and forage between the mouth of Beaver Dam Wash and the mouth of Halfway Wash, providing reliable water (though sometimes brackish) and reliable forage (though sometimes of low quality because of salt content) through this otherwise waterless, hot desert scrubland.

The route of the historic trail  through the corridor reflects the daily requirements of water, forage and rest spots for the livestock as well as food, fuel and hazard reduction (extreme heat and attack) of the “voyageurs.” It is likely that evidence of the ephemeral pack trails and/or livestock driveways has been altered or obliterated by natural erosion or re-vegetation and later use of the corridor for wagon and motor vehicle traffic as demonstrated in the site.  The stock trail descent from caprock to valley floor, though recently used and possibly not the alignment of the pack trail structure, nevertheless is at least a “proxy” for what the pack trail might have looked like between 1829 and 1848 with a single caravan passing through in a few hours during one day in late fall. The wagon road alignment on the bench surface is now filled in with creosote and therefore does not have an active trail appearance. The packtrail was probably not a distinct alignment as the currently used and re-vegetating wagon and jeep trails.  Wheeled vehicles create a more visually distinct trace with parallel ruts from heavy wheel compaction than a braided pack trail which will tend to “scuff-up” instead of compact the sediments. 

Impacts and Alteration of the Trail

Though subtle and reversible, the biggest alteration in the Big Bend bench district is the recent, use of the bench as cattle pasture, ongoing Off Highway Vehicle recreation use, and unauthorized dumping.  As is visible from the aerial photographs, the livestock loading corral, drift fence and livestock trails have formed a network of routes converging on the stock pen and graded roadway to the river valley floor. Evidence of early Twentieth Century farmsteads and fields in the Big Bend valley floor shown on the GLO Plats are virtually undetectable in the viewshed, though the road alignment and telephone poleline trace is still in use as a jeep trail.

On the western side of the Big Bend bench are the routes of the Arrowhead Trail Highway and modern electrical poleline and the still heavily used paved Old US 91. The bench is a regular winter campsite for “Snowbirds” in motorhomes.

Discuss impacts that have resulted from the development of the network of jeep trails and stock trails.

Current BLM and non-governmental agency environmental education programs such as Tread Lightly help assure that inadvertant damage does not occur with Off-Highway vehicles outside of designated areas.

Air quality and noise in the Big Bend route segment viewshed and soundscape are relatively unchanged from the historic conditions.  Traffic noise is with the vehicles currently travelling the bench and accessing the Virgin River.  Under certain conditions noise from Old US Highway 91 and Interstate 15 may drift over to the Virgin River (east) side of the bench.

Site Integrity 

In line, form and color, the Big Bend landscape is still evocative of the 1829-1848 period of use. The 1 mile long, 1.5 mile wide parallelogram composing the Big Bend route segment landscape, contains no identifiable trail segments that can be proven to be a pack trail structure contributing to the 1829-1848 period of significance.  The existing alignments on the Big Bend bench district are likely the result of uses subsequent to the original pack trail and livestock driveway alignments in use from 1829-1848.  The trace of the unimproved wagon route may been laid over the earlier pack trail alignment, but has been substantially altered by subsequent use to the current day.  It is unlikely that a braided pack trail used once a year for 500-1000 animals in a pack caravan, or 1500 to 5000 head of mules and horses would be detectible on these resistent natural surfaces after 160 years if it were not for subsequent use “fixing” the alignment. Taken as a whole, the site constitutes a contributing key observation segment (site/point) within an intact Old Spanish Trail historic landscape which contributes to the National Register of Historic Places. The landscape of this section of the Virgin River corridor of the Old Spanish Trail does allow visitors to “vicariously experience” a period-style setting as stipulated by the National Trails Act.  The qualities of integrity as discussed below are for the landscape of the Big Bend district as described in period historical accounts (especially Armijo [1830], Fremont [1848] and Orville Pratt [1848]). The Big Bend route segment landscape site retains integrity of Location, Setting, Feeling, and Atmosphere.

Location.  The Big Bend of the Virgin River and the bench north of it is an intact Old Spanish Trail landform and landscape that historical evidence indicates was used as a commercial pack trail and livestock driveway between New Mexico and California during portions of the period of significance between 1829 and 1848, and which continues as the singular transportation corridor passing down the Virgin River.

Setting.  Landform, color and texture are largely unaltered from what would have been observed from the back of a mule or horse in 1829-1848, or earlier.  Vegetation has been qualitatively altered by the expansion of non-native cheat grass (Bromus tectorum) in the dry uplands and tamarisk (Tamarix spp.) in the riparian river channel. The series of subsequent travelways are an obvious intrusion in the setting, but illustrate the importance of this corridor down the Virgin River.

Feeling.  Even though portions of the Big Bend bench route segment are within view and earshot of a well  used  highway (Old US 91), the overall landscape retains the general character of the historic landscape through which the mule freighters and  livestock driveway merchants passed. E extraordinary vistas without substantial modern intrusions afford the experience of leaving the “modern world” behind and imagining the conditions that existed for those using the trail during the period of significance.

Association.   The Virgin River is integrally associated with the use of the commercial pack trail from New Mexico to California in fall and the return to New Mexico in spring with herds of horses and mules, as was established formally in 1844 when Fremont mapped and documented the use of the route.

Previous investigations

The Big Bend route segment as defined here is a major trail alignment  common to the  “Armijo Route” and “Main Route” or “Northern Branch” route of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail (Hill 1921, Hafen & Hafen 1993, Auerbach 1941, Steiner 1999, Lyman 2002). Historians Steiner (1999), Lyman and Reese (2002) and Lyman (2004) have conducted on-site reconnaissance of trail traces on this section of the Old Spanish Trail, but have not included formal recording of the archeological evidence.  Formal archeological investigations to identify physical evidence of trail alignments have been directed by the Arizona Strip BLM in 2008 and 2009 through block survey and linear survey to identify trail traces and associated artifacts dating from the Mexican Period (Henderson 2011).

No artifacts dating to the period of significance have been documented within the Big Bend district boundaries.  No evidence of imported materials in the use or construction of the trail is present.  No objects have been located on route segments of the Old Spanish Trail that can definitely be associated to that use of the corridor and the 19-year long period of significance, though attribution to the “Mexican” or “Spanish” Periods can be ascertained. The materials that the “arrieros” (muleteers) and “yegueros” (mule and horse drovers) used and worked were those materials occurring naturally within the environment and which could be easily manipulated.  Durable trade goods were sometimes acquired by the native peoples from the commercial venturers along the Old Spanish Trail. Apparently, the muleshoes and horseshoes regularly connected to later-period draught animal and wheeled vehicle travelways were rarely used during the Old Spanish Trail period of1829-1848. It is possible that Frémont was the first traveller to pass through to have some shod animals; the shoes are not thought to be indicators of earlier use and are primarily associated with draught animals and twentieth century livestock operations. Horse shoes and muleshoes have been located on the bench top associated with the wheeled vehicle alignments and corral/loading pen.  It is thought these artifacts are late 19th century to modern artifacts. 

Chipped stone artifacts have been identified in the bench top gravels that are associated with prehistoric and historic aboriginal occupants.  Concentrations of this chipped stone debris consist of only ten to twenty items which appear to be single core chipping stations, not complex campsites or residential sites.  The recent refuse associated with public land use (beverage cans), unauthorized dumping (household refuse and appliances) and target practice and bird hunting (large caliber casings, ceramic skeet fragmens and shotgun shells) do not contribute to the significant charcteristics of the Big Bend National Register District.