194103-DesertMagazin.. - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

Desert Place Names
For the historical data
contained in this de-
partment the Desert
Magazine is indebted to the research work done by the late Will C. Barnes,
author of "Arizona Place Names;" to Betty Toulouse of New Mexico, Hugh
F. O'Neil of Utah, Marie Lomas of Nevada, and Charles Battye of California.
ARIZONA
CANELO (ca-ne-lo) Santa Cruz county
Sp. canela, "cinnamon." South of Babocomari
grant. When the small range
known as the Canela hills was in Mexico,
prior to the Gadsden purchase, the mountains
were so called because from the
south they have a light brown color, cinnamon-like.
Robert Rodgers, one-time forest
ranger wrote: "I moved here in 1904 and
asked for a postoffke to be called Canille.
This spelling was mine. Name was approved
and p. o. established. Later the
forest service set aside a ranger station
site here, as Canela." Officially Canela
was changed to Canelo.
• • •
GILA BEND (hee-la) Maricopa county
Barnes says the word gila appears to
be of Indian origin, meaning spider, and
according to Bancroft the name was first
applied to a province in New Mexico,
near source of the Gila river. McClintock
reports a Yuma Indian in his employ told
him "e-el" means salt and "hah" means
To all true friends of the desert . . .
Your Help is Needed
Unless funds are available before June
1, 1941, to pay the filing fees on 209,443
acres of land in the Vallecito and Carrizo
desert areas, there is grave danger that
it will be forever lost to the public for park
purposes.
water, literally salt water. Gila Bend is a
town on SP rr about 35 miles west of
Maricopa, named from location near the
"Great Bend" on the Gila river which
comes in from the north and resumes its
westerly flow at this point. About 1925
the railroad shortened it to Gila to save
telegraphing, writes the SP agent at Gila.
Gila Bend of 1877-80 was a well known
stage station on the river about 6 miles
north of the present railroad station. Post-
HUBBELL BUTTE Coconino county
In Grand Canyon national park on west
wall near northeast corner of park. Named
for J. Lorenzo Hubbell, who settled on
Navajo reservation in 1871. He was a
pioneer Navajo trader, county sheriff and
Briefly, the situation is this: By act of Congress, the California
Park Commission has been given the privilege of acquiring this
land for state park purposes by paying the filing fees necessary to
acquire patent. The Park Commission has stated that no funds are
available for this purpose. The money must be raised from private
sources.
The filing cost is $1.00 for each 80 acres—or a total of $2618 to
acquire the entire tract set aside for the Anza Desert State Park.
Will you contribute to this fund? Every dollar you pay will provide
80 acres of desert park in one of the most fascinating desert
regions in the Southwest. This appeal is sponsored by a non-profit
organization, with the pledge that every penny received will go
directly into the purchase of these lands. Not one cent will be used
for overhead or salary or office expense of any kind.
Send contributions to the following, and receipt will be issued
immediately:
Anza Memorial Conservation Association
John R. Adams, President — Arthur L. Eaton, Secretary
Care of Bank of America, El Centro, California
member of the seventeenth territorial and
first state senates. Defeated 1914 for U.S.
senator by Mark Smith. Butte named by
Will C. Barnes. Hubbell was born at Pajarito,
New Mexico, in November 1853,
died at Ganado, November 11, 1930, aged
77. Was buried on a hill near his store
where more than 20 years before his friend
Chief Many Horses of the Navajos was
buried with the understanding between
them that Hubbell would be buried by his
side.
CALIFORNIA
TURTLE MOUNTAINS
San Bernardino county
So named, writes Charles Battye, probaon
in Apache Land records:
bly because of the abundance of desert
"Arrived at last at Gila Bend "turtles" in the vicinity. (Desert Maga-
Our river journey comes to end zine, June 1938, p22). Old timers around
'Tis wise to stop here, wheels to tauter Ehrenberg referred to it as North moun-
To rest and fill the cans with water." tain, but the present name is better, Battye
Postoffke established May 1, 1871, believes, and it has prevailed. This entire
Albert Decker, p. m.
range as well as the spring beneath the
• • •
peaks, is called Ma-pah by the Chemehuevi
Indians.
NEVADA
NEVADA Silver state
From Andalusia in Spain comes the
name Nevada, meaning snow-clad. The
Spanish padres found the counterpart of
their own Sierra Nevada in the mountain
range separating Nevada and California.
They passed the name on to the jagged,
snow-capped peaks from which the Silver
state, or Sagebrush state, later derived its
name. Until 1848 Nevada was part of
Mexico. Eleven years later it was organized
with Utah into a territory. It became a
separate territory in 1861 and was admitted
into the union officially as the state of
Nevada in 1864. Fray Francisco Garces,
the adventurous missionary-frontiersman
at San Xavier del Bac, was first of the
Spanish to set foot on what is now Nevada
soil and to leave written records of
his journey. He crossed the southernmost
tip on the historic expedition of 1775
which discovered an overland route from
Sonora to Monterey.
NEW MEXICO
DOMINGO (doe-min-go)
Sandoval county
Sp. Dominic from Saint Dominac. Originally
called Wallace in 1880 in honor
of New Mexico's author-governor, Lew
Wallace, the name of the town was
changed in 1890 to honor newly elected
Governor Thornton. This name was difficult
for the Spanish and Indians to pronounce,
so on January 1, 1910 the name
officially became Domingo because of its
proximity to Santo Domingo Indian
pueblo.
36 The DESERT MAGAZINE