Sonoita Creek is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

of the Santa Cruz River in Santa Cruz County,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. It originates near and takes its name from the abandoned

Pima Pima or PIMA may refer to: People * Pima people, the Akimel O'odham, Indigenous peoples in Arizona (U.S.) and Sonora (Mexico) Places * Pima, Arizona, a town in Graham County * Pima County, Arizona * Pima Canyon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains ...

mission in the high valley near Sonoita. It flows steadily for the first of its westward course past

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

, its

bird sanctuary An animal sanctuary is a facility where animals are brought to live and to be protected for the rest of their lives. Pattrice Jones, co-founder of VINE Sanctuary defines an animal sanctuary as "a safe-enough place or relationship within the cont ...

and

Patagonia Lake Patagonia Lake is a man-made reservoir in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States, located southwest of the town of Patagonia, Arizona and northeast of Nogales. The lake was created by damming Sonoita Creek, and is a popular area for boatin ...

, but sinks beneath the sand before joining the Santa Cruz River a few miles north of Nogales. This confluence provides water for Tumacácori and

Tubac Tubac is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,191 at the 2010 census. The place name "Tubac" is an English borrowing from a Hispanicized form of the O'odham name ''Cuwak'', which tr ...

and collects in the marsh lands around

San Xavier del Bac Mission San Xavier del Bac ( es, La Misión de San Xavier del Bac) is a historic Spanish Catholic mission located about south of downtown Tucson, Arizona, on the Tohono O'odham Nation San Xavier Indian Reservation. The mission was founded in 16 ...

downstream, to the north. The

Santa Rita Mountains The Santa Rita Mountains (O'odham language, O'odham: To:wa Kuswo Doʼag), located about 65 km (40 mi) southeast of Tucson, Arizona, extend 42 km (26 mi) from north to south, then trending southeast. They merge again southeastw ...

lie to the north and the

Canelo Hills The Canelo Hills are a range of low mountains or hills in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The range consists of a series of northwest–southeast trending ridges extending from the Sonoita Creek valley southwest of Sonoita to the Parker Cany ...

, Red Mountain and the

Patagonia Mountains The Patagonia Mountains are a mountain range within the Coronado National Forest, and in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. Geography The Patagonia Mountains begin near the Mexico border east of Nogales, Arizona. Running north, they ...

lie to the south. Harshaw Creek is a southern tributary which joins the Sonoita near Patagonia. Harshaw Creek drains the area between the Patagonia Mountains to the west and the high

San Rafael Valley The San Rafael Valley is a high intermontane grass valley in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The valley is bounded to the west by the Patagonia Mountains, to the north and northeast by the Canelo Hills and to the east by the Huachuca Mountain ...

grasslands to the east. The

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

of Harshaw lies within its watershed. Sonoita Creek contains

black bullhead The black bullhead or black bullhead catfish (''Ameiurus melas'') is a species of bullhead catfish. Like other bullhead catfish, it has the ability to thrive in waters that are low in oxygen, brackish, turbid and/or very warm. It also has barbels ...

red shiner The red shiner or red-horse minnow (''Cyprinella lutrensis'') is a North American species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are deep-bodied and laterally compressed,Farringer R.T., III, A.A. Echelle, and S.F. Lehtinen. 1979. Repr ...

mosquitofish The western Mosquitofish (''Gambusia affinis'') is a North American freshwater fish, also known commonly, if ambiguously, as simply Mosquitofish or by its generic name, ''Gambusia'', or by the common name gambezi. Its sister species, the easte ...

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...

American bullfrog The American bullfrog (''Lithobates catesbeianus''), often simply known as the bullfrog in Canada and the United States, is a large true frog native to eastern North America. It typically inhabits large permanent water bodies such as swamps, po ...

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

Gila topminnow The Gila topminnow or charalito (''Poeciliopsis occidentalis'') is a species of fish in the family Poeciliidae. It is found in Mexico and the United States. Description The Gila topminnow has an elongated curved body. Males are rarely over and ...

speckled dace The speckled dace (''Rhinichthys osculus''), also known as the spotted dace and the carpita pinta, is a member of the minnow family. It is found in temperate freshwater in North America, from Sonora, Mexico to British Columbia, Canada. Canada is ...

, longfin dace,

Sonora sucker The Sonora Sucker (Gila Sucker), ''Catostomus insignis'', is a medium-sized catostomid The Catostomidae are the suckers of the order Cypriniformes, with about 78 species in this family of freshwater fishes. The Catostomidae are almost exclu ...

s, and

desert sucker The desert sucker or Gila Mountain sucker (''Catostomus clarkii''), is a freshwater species of ray-finned fish in the sucker family, endemic to the Great Basin and the Colorado River Basin in the United States. It inhabits rapids and fast-fl ...

s.https://www.fws.gov/southwest/federal_assistance/pdfs/chapter%2010%20santa%20cruz%20river%20watershed.pdf The

New Mexico and Arizona Railroad New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

paralleled the Sonoita Creek for a portion of the railroad's route. The route ran from a connection with the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

Benson Benson may refer to: Animals *Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain Places Geography Canada *Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality *Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet United Kingdom * Benson, Oxfordshire ...

, then south to Fairbank (about 13 km or 8 miles west of Tombstone) then west to Sonoita – Patagonia and Rio Rico, then south to Nogales. The railroad was constructed in 1881–82 and was abandoned in five phases between 1927 and 1962. Only of track remains in place today, from Rio Rico to Nogales, and is operated by the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. Sonoita Creek Riparian Forest Arizona 2014.jpeg,

Riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. Etymology The term riparian comes from the Latin word '' ...

along Sonoita Creek, southwest of Patagonia Lake Sonoita Creek Arizona 2014.jpeg, Sonoita Creek in the summer of 2014 Sonoita Creek Great Blue Heron Arizona 2014.jpeg, A

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...

walking along Sonoita Creek

References

External links

Patagonia Lake State Park and Sonoita Creek State Natural Area

{{authority control Santa Cruz River (Arizona) Rivers of Santa Cruz County, Arizona Rivers of Arizona

See also

References

External links