Tortilla Flat, AZ - Not-quite-the-world-traveler
If you're looking for a
sleepy little tourist town way off the beaten track, Tortilla Flat may be your
gem in the sand!
A tiny town with a
registered population of 6 (officially listed as an unincorporated community)
and hailed as the last stagecoach stop along the Apache Trail, it's a small
settlement 18 miles northeast of Apache Junction, AZ on State Route 88. Having
visited my grandparents in Apache Junction for years, my younger and smaller
version of myself thought Tortilla Flat a wonderland of western mystique. The
actual slat-board building fronts, the creaky boardwalk, and the saloon with
actual saddles to belly up to the bar. (Not that we were allowed in the actual
bar.... though I was confused for YEARS why "miners" weren't allowed
- as all the signs loudly stated - I figured it must've been because of the
dirt and dust on them.)
Tortilla Flat was a western wonderland with staged
gunfights, actual saddles from off of real horses, (yes, my horse infatuation started early) the glorious smell of leather, the
creaking of a sign in the wind with a tumbleweed rolling down the roadway, the
wallpaper of dollar bills from around the country, the highlight of getting a
photo t-shirt made of my brother's and my face plastered on the front saying
something clever like "I survived Tortilla Flat!", sipping a genuine sarsaparilla and eyeballing the saloon girls with envy for the curley-edged
ostrich feathers in their hair - yes, it was truly a place of cowboy magic. But
above all, my favorite treat was a great big ice cream (prickly pear flavor for
the adventurous - minus the prickles of course!) Nothing beat eating a cone on
a hot Arizona day. Which, being from the cold and wintry north (and typically visiting over
Christmas break), was ANY day we were there!
(All photos and history from website http://www.tortillaflataz.com/)
Tortilla Flat is an
authentic remnant of an old west town, nestled in the midst of the Tonto
National Forest, Superstition Mountain Range. As well as being home for six
adventurous people, Tortilla Flat has a charm that has surpassed time.
Tortilla Flat started out as a stage stop in
1904 and neither fire nor flood has been able to remove this historic stop
along the Historic Apache Trail. Dubbed "The
friendliest little town in Arizona", Tortilla Flat is
presumed to be Arizona's smallest official "community" having
a U.S. Post Office and voter's precinct.
In the beginning ... Tortilla Flat was a small
grassy valley in the Superstition Mountains, with a babbling creek running
through. Nature placed the Flat between mountain passes that came to be used by
the early Indians on their way to and from the central Arizona mountains and
the Salt River valley. The trail their journeys created became known as the
Yavapai, or Tonto Trail.
Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer in America
in the early 1500s. During an expedition to Florida, he was shipwrecked on a
Texas island in 1528. There he was enslaved by the Indians. He escaped and made
his way into the Southwest and eventually into Mexico by 1536. His wanderings
brought him in contact with the Pueblo Indians, and his later reports in Mexico
gave rise to the legends of the Seven Cities of Cibola -- or the Cities of
Gold. These legends were the catalyst for bringing Spanish explorers and
prospectors into the Arizona territory. As part of the Coronado expedition into
Arizona for the Seven Cities of Cibola, Marcos de Niza traveled westward along
the Gila River as far as what is now the Phoenix metropolitan area. He may have
been the first Spaniard to see the Superstition Mountains.
Because
of its location, Tortilla Flat, even presently, is affected by the search for
gold in the Superstitions. Each Spanish expedition inspired other expeditions looking
for vast wealth in gold. In the late 1600s through the mid-1700s, Jesuit
priests were located throughout the Southwest. Allegedly, the Jesuits had
amassed a fortune in gold and didn't want to share with the King of Spain. The
king, convinced of treachery, ordered the deportation of all Jesuits in 1767.
However, before their
departure, they
supposedly hid their treasure in various places throughout the Southwest.
According to legend, the Superstition Mountain region was one of these hiding
places.
In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain,
and an influx of Mexican prospectors poured into the Superstition Mountain
region. Don Miguel Peralta was a wealthy landowner and miner from northern
Mexico. Reportedly, his expeditions recovered immense quantities of gold from
the Superstitions in 1847 and 1848. All but one member of the expedition was
killed in a battle with the Apaches at a site commemorated as Massacre Grounds,
located at the west end of the mountains. The Peralta legend is the inspiration
for quite a few gold expeditions into the Superstitions, even today.
Along with all the prospectors came settlers,
which created the need for military outposts for protection against increasing
hostilities with the Indians. Military personnel, prospectors, cattle ranchers,
and, of course, the Indians, used the Yavapai Trail as a route going into the
Tonto basin area. Because of its location, the availability of water, and grass
for horses, it's safe to assume Tortilla Flat was a good place to camp along the
trail. Even so, historians say the Yavapai Trail was a difficult trail to
traverse. There were other trails easier going. This was largely because of the
Herculean task it was to cross Fish Creek Mountain and Fish Creek Canyon.
Legends that there was a small settlement of
prospectors and/or Indians located at Tortilla Flat in the 1880s, while
colorful and fun to believe, seem to be just that -- legends, Historians agree
that if such a settlement existed, it would appear on the old trail maps of the
area, which were typically very detailed. The maps show no such indications.
Also, legal records, such as those of the U.S. Forest Service, give no mention
of a settlement prior to 1904.
Another myth that many
believe about Tortilla Flat is that it was a stage stop in the mid-to-late
1800s. There was no road to Tortilla Flat prior to 1904, until construction
crews built one to Roosevelt Dam. No road -- no stage stop. Later, 1904
and after, Tortilla Flat was a stop for freight haulers on their way to the construction
site at Roosevelt Dam. Shortly following the construction of the road,
Roosevelt Dam became a big tourist attraction. At that point Tortilla Flat was
a stage stop for tourists and mail carriers through the 1930s.
In the small, but interesting, archives of Tortilla Flat is a
letter written in 1939, from Postmaster Russell Perkins to Mr. Ross Santee,
state director of the Federal Writers' Project, a government project tracing
place names in Arizona, part of the Arizona Works Progress Administration in Phoenix.
Mr. Perkins states that Tonto Basin pioneer, Mr. John Cline, in a conversation
with Mr. Perkins, said that he [Cline] was with some folks from Tonto Basin who
had gone to Phoenix for supplies. On their return they were stranded in the
flat for several days by a flash flood. Their food ran out except for some
flour, so they made tortillas to eat, and Mr. Cline, in honor of their
victuals, therefore christened the flat, Tortilla Flat.
(All photos and history from website http://www.tortillaflataz.com/)
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