1906 Map of Desert Well

About this map

Buchanan's Ranch and the settlement of Higley anchor this early twentieth-century survey of the arid lands east of Phoenix. The landscape is defined by the early infrastructure of the Salt River Valley, where the Highland Canal and Salt River Consolidated Canal branch off from the Salt River near the Salt River Ind Res. These waterways represent the vital irrigation efforts that transformed the desert into agricultural land. Further east, the terrain rises into the User Mts and Pass Mts within the Tonto National Forest, where the Bulldog Mine indicates early mineral exploration.