San Francisco Peaks is a volcanic mountain range in the San Francisco Volcanic Field in north central Arizona, north of Flagstaff and remnants of the former San Francisco Mountain . The highest peak in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state of Arizona at 12,633 feet (3,851 m) above sea level. San Francisco Peaks are the remnants of a collapsed stratovolcano.The aquifer in the caldera supplies most of Flagstaff’s water, and the mountain itself is located in the Coconino National Forest, a popular recreation area. Arizona Snowbowl ski area is located on the western slopes of Humphreys Peak and is the subject of considerable controversy among several tribes and environmental groups.
The mountain provides a number of recreational opportunities including winter snow skiing and hiking the rest of the year. Hart Prairie is a popular hiking destination and nature preserve below Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort.
Humphreys Peak (35° 20’47 “N latitude) and Agassiz Peak (35° latitude.) ° 19’33 “N) are the two farthest southernmost mountain peaks in the contiguous United States, rising to over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) above sea level.
Before collapsing due to a lateral eruption in the northeast (about 200,000 years ago) and subsequent glacial erosion, the San Francisco Peaks were fully formed, with an estimated elevation of about 16,000 ft. (4900 м).
History
In 1629, 147 years before San Francisco, California received the name, Spanish friars established a mission in a Hopi Indian village in honor of St. Francis, 65 miles from the peaks. Seventeenth-century Franciscans in the village of Oraibi named the San Francisco Peaks after St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of their order. mountain man Antoine Leroux visited the San Francisco Peaks in the mid-1850s and led several American expeditions exploring northern Arizona. Leroux led them to the only reliable spring, one on the west side of the peaks, which was later named Leroux Springs.
Around 1877, John Willard Young, son of Mormon leader Brigham Young, took over the area around Leroux Springs and built Fort Moroni, a log palisade that housed cutters for railroad ties for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, which was then under construction through northern Arizona.
In 1898, U.S. President William McKinley established the San Francisco Mountain Forest Reserve at the request of Gifford Pinchot, head of the U.S. Forestry Administration. Local reaction was hostile: residents of Williams, Arizona, protested, and the Williams News reported that the reserve was “practically destroying Coconino County.” In 1908, the San Francisco Mountain Forest Preserve became part of the new Coconino National Forest.
. In 2002, Arizona Snowbowl, a ski resort on the peaks, proposed a plan to expand and begin construction. snowmaking using treated water from treated wastewater effluent. A coalition of Indian tribes and environmental groups sued the Coconino National Forest, which leases the land to the ski resort, in an attempt to stop the proposed expansion, citing serious impacts to traditional culture, public health and the environment. In 2011, construction began on a sewer line to the peaks. In response, a series of protests continued, including demonstrations and blockades in which protesters were chained to construction equipment. Notable protesters include Navajo musician Klee Benally, singer/guitarist for the punk rock band Blackfire, who was arrested for disorderly conduct during his ten years of protests. In 2012, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Arizona Snowbowl, and the conversion of wastewater to snow began for the 2012-2013 ski season.