Bye-bye monsoons...

... and hello Fall.

We seem to be getting the last bit of rain from our share of monsoon season. It can get pretty wet around here when the rains come to visit but bye and large Benson is indeed a desert. And we have the cactus and mesquite to prove it!

San Pedro Valley is kind of a special place as we have the San Pedro River flowing North out of Mexico right thru the middle of this unique valley. The San Pedro River is one of only two rivers in the US which flow North out of Mexico (yes, a repeat of info I posted here a few years ago). 

Much of our little piece of 'uniqueness' is below the surface of the sandy river bottom: most of the water flow in our San Pedro River is below the surface of what looks like a dry river bed. That river bed is sand and I've read that it is very deep- as deep as 2,200 ft if memory serves. That river bed sand originates from the sandstone hills, cliffs and mesas that make up San Pedro Valley. And for that matter much of Southern Arizona.

There is water flowing thru our San Pedro River, but it looks for all the world like just another Arizona dry river. That makes it.. mmm... 'special'. Kinda'. Sort of. To us!

The Mormons found the water and settled here over a 150 years ago. They started the farming communities of St. David and Pomerene, Arizona. The town of Benson exists first because it was a stage coach stop. Then later it was saved from the scrap heap thanks to the railroad and mining. 

 

San Pedro Valley (mostly); Pomerene and St. David were the original Mormon settlements. And there's also the notorious town of Tombstone made famous by Wyatt Earp back in the day. The boot hill cemetery is still there in Tombstone.




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