Coordinates: 35°20′27″N 111°41′00″W / 35.34083°N 111.6833333°W / 35.34083; -111.6833333

San Francisco Peaks
Range
The San Francisco Peaks viewed from atop nearby 9,000 ft Mount Elden
Country	United States
State	Arizona
Highest point	Humphreys Peak
- elevation	12,633 ft (3,851 m)
- coordinates	35°20′47″N 111°40′40″W / 35.34639°N 111.67778°W / 35.34639; -111.67778
Geology	volcano

The San Francisco Peaks are a volcanic mountain range (consisting of extinct volcanoes) located in north central Arizona, just north of Flagstaff. The highest summit in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state of Arizona at 12,633 feet (3,851 m) in elevation. The San Francisco Peaks are the remains of an eroded stratovolcano.^[1] An aquifer within the caldera supplies much of Flagstaff's water while the mountain itself is located within the Coconino National Forest and is the site of much outdoor recreation. The ski resort of the "Arizona Snowbowl" is located on the western slopes of Humphrey's Peak.^[2]

[edit] History

In 1629, one hundred and forty seven years before San Francisco, California, received that name, Spanish friars founded a mission at a Hopi Indian village in honor of St. Francis, sixty five miles from the Peaks. 17th century Franciscans at Oraibi village gave the name San Francisco to the peaks to honor St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of their order.^[3]

San Francisco Peaks viewed from U.S. Route 89

The Mountain man Antoine Leroux visited the San Francisco Peaks in the mid-1850s, and guided several American expeditions exploring and surveying northern Arizona. Leroux guided them to the only reliable spring, one on the western side of the Peaks, which was later named Leroux Springs.

Around 1877, John W. Young, a son of the Mormon leader Brigham Young, claimed the area around Leroux Springs, and he built Fort Moroni, a log stockade, to house railroad tie-cutters for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, which was then being built across northern Arizona.^[4]

The biologist Clinton Hart Merriam studied these mountains and surrounding areas in 1889, describing a set of six life zones found from the bottom of the Grand Canyon to the summit of the mountains, based on the factors of elevation, latitude, and average precipitation. He designated their characteristic flora, as follows:

• Lower Sonoran Zone - Sonoran Desert plants
• Upper Sonoran Zone - Pinyon and Juniper woodlands
• Transition Zone - Ponderosa Pine forests
• Canadian Zone - Mixed Conifer Forest
• Hudsonian Zone - Spruce-Fir or Subalpine Conifer Forest
• Arctic-Alpine Zone - alpine tundra

Composite image of the mountains, from satellite imagery projected onto an elevation model.

Merriam considered that these life zones could be extended to cover all the world's vegetation types with the addition of only one more zone, the tropical zone. His pioneering studies remained the one of the most widespread climate zone classifications, in use for nearly 80 years.

In 1898, U.S. President William McKinley established the San Francisco Mountain Forest Reserve, at the request of Gifford Pinchot, the head of the U.S. Division of Forestry. The local reaction was hostile -- citizens of Williams, Arizona, held a significant protest, and the Williams News editorialized that the reserve "virtually destroys Coconino County."^[4] In 1908, the San Francisco Mountain Forest Reserve became a part of the new Coconino National Forest.

The San Francisco Peaks have had a considerable religious significance to thirteen local American Indian tribes (including the Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni.) In particular, the peaks form the Navajo sacred mountain of the west, called the Dook'o'oosłííd in their language. The peaks are associated with the color yellow, and they are said to contain abalone inside, to be secured to the ground with a sunbeam, and to be covered with yellow clouds and evening twilight. They are gendered female.^[5]

The mountain provides a number of recreational opportunities, including wintertime snow skiing and hiking the rest of the year. Hart Prairie is a popular hiking area and Nature Conservancy preserve nestled just below the mountain's ski resort, Arizona Snowbowl. Recently, the Arizona Snowbowl proposed a plan to expand the ski resort and begin snowmaking using reclaimed water. A coalition of Indian tribes and environmental groups is suing the Coconino National Forest, which leases the land to the ski resort, in an attempt to stop this proposed expansion.^[6]

Sudden and relatively unpredictable weather changes in the fall or spring have resulted in unexpected snowfall bringing deaths from exposure to unprepared hikers. Native Americans tell the stories of Kachina spirits appearing during heavy snowfalls onto the peaks.

[edit] Geography

The San Francisco Peaks (with Agassiz center) in the Fall of 2007.

The four highest individual peaks in Arizona are contained in the range:

• Humphreys Peak, 12,633 feet (3,851 m)
• Agassiz Peak, 12,356 feet (3,766 m)
• Fremont Peak, 11,969 feet (3,648 m)
• Aubineau Peak, 11838 feet (3,608 m)
• Rees Peak, 11,474 feet (3,497 m)
• Doyle Peak, 11,460 feet (3,493 m)

The San Francisco Peaks are the home of the only alpine tundra environment in Arizona, the only place where the threatened San Francisco Peaks groundsel (Senecio franciscanus) is found.^[7][8][9]

[edit] Names

Fall colors, Lockett Meadow, 1996

• Dook'o'oosłííd—Diné (Navajo)
• Nuva'tuk-iya-ovi—Hopi
• Dził Tso—Dilzhe’e Apache
• Tsii Bina—Aa'ku (Acoma)
• Nuvaxatuh—Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute)
• Hvehasahpatch or Huassapatch—Havasu 'Baaja (Havasupai)
• Wik'hanbaja—Hwal`bay (Hualapai)
• Wimonagaw'a—Yavapai
• Sunha K'hbchu Yalanne—A:shiwi (Zuni)
• 'Amat 'Iikwe Nyava^[10]—Hamakhav (Mojave)
• Sierra sin Agua Spanish
• The Peaks—Anglo Arizonans

Source:^[4]

[edit] Publications

• Duffield, Wendell A., 1998, Volcanoes of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon Association. ISBN 0938216589. Reviews

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: San Francisco Peaks

• Live webcam of the San Francisco Peaks