Pipe Springs Pond

by Sharon Williams Eng

Title

Pipe Springs Pond

Artist

Sharon Williams Eng

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

This natural spring seems out of place in the middle of Arizona's desert. It is in the Pipe Springs National Monument in Arizona, just south of the Utah line.

According to the website, Pipe Spring National Monument serves as a water oasis for American Indians, Mormon ranchers, and includes historic forts, gardens, and a ridge trail.

Ancestral Puebloans and Kaibab Paiute Indians gathered grass seeds, hunted animals, and raised crops near the springs for at least 1,000 years. In the 1860s Mormon pioneers brought cattle to the area and by 1872 a fort (Winsor Castle) was built over the main spring and a large cattle ranching operation was established.

This isolated outpost served as a way station for people traveling across the state. It also served as a refuge for polygamist wives during the 1880s and 1890s. Although their way of life was greatly impacted, the Paiute Indians continued to live in the area and by 1907 the Kaibab Paiute Indian Reservation was established, surrounding the privately owned Pipe Spring ranch. In 1923 the Pipe Spring ranch was purchased and set aside as a national monument. Pipe Spring National Monument may be the least well-known of the 24 National Park Service units in Arizona due in part to its isolated location at the edge of the wide, empty Antelope Valley in the Arizona Strip, cut-off from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon, and separated from Utah by the Vermilion Cliffs.

Uploaded

October 3rd, 2015

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