The San Simon Valley is a broad

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

east of the

Chiricahua Mountains The Chiricahua Mountains massif is a large mountain range in southeastern Arizona which is part of the Basin and Range province of the west and southwestern United States and northwest Mexico; the range is part of the Coronado National Forest. T ...

, in the northeast corner of

Cochise County, Arizona Cochise County () is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after the Native American chief Cochise. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Bisbee and the most populous city is ...

and southeastern Graham County, with a small portion near Antelope Pass in Hidalgo County of

southwestern New Mexico Southwestern New Mexico is a region of the U.S. state of New Mexico commonly defined by Hidalgo County, Grant County, Catron County, Luna County, Doña Ana County, Sierra County, and Socorro County. Some important towns there are Lordsburg, Si ...

. The valley trends generally north–south but in its northern portion trends northwest–southeast. The San Simon Valley separates the

Dos Cabezas Mountains The Dos Cabezas Mountains are a mountain range in southeasternmost Arizona, United States. The Dos Cabezas Mountains Wilderness lies east of Willcox, Arizona, Willcox and south of Bowie, Arizona, Bowie in Cochise County. The mountain range's ...

and Pinaleno Mountains on the west from the Peloncillo Mountains and the smaller Whitlock Mountains to the east.

Geography

The foot of the valley is at the northern end where the

ephemeral Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...

San Simon River, that flows northwest through the valley to Safford in Graham County, enters the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...

. At its southern end the valley merges into the separate

San Bernardino Valley The San Bernardino Valley ( es, Valle de San Bernardino) is a valley in Southern California located at the south base of the Transverse Ranges. It is bordered on the north by the eastern San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains; ...

which trends southwest–northeast. The head of the valley, , is at the junction of the two valleys, along the divide between the south side of Rustler Canyon Creek watershed and Paramore Crater just south of the town of

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

crosses the valley east–west.

U.S. Route 191 U.S. Route 191 (US 191) is a spur of U.S. Route 91 that has two branches. The southern branch runs for from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. The northern branch runs for from the north ...

, runs north from I-10 to Safford. The White Mountains lie north of the northern end of the valley.

Culture

The San Simon Valley is noted for the ceramics of native American Indians called the

Roosevelt Red Ware Roosevelt Red Ware, also known as Salado Red Ware and Salado Polychrome, is a late prehistoric pottery tradition found across large portions of Arizona and New Mexico. The tradition involves the combination of red, white, and black paint in varyin ...

, one type being named for a site in the valley, the ''Nine Mile Polychrome''.

References

External links

Dos Cabezas & Chiricahua Mtns, west of San Simon Valley

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{{Authority control Valleys of Arizona Valleys of New Mexico Chiricahua Mountains Landforms of Cochise County, Arizona Landforms of Graham County, Arizona Landforms of Hidalgo County, New Mexico