The Cañada del Oro (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

for ''Canyon of Gold''), is a primary

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

channel in the valley of

Oro Valley Oro Valley, incorporated in 1974, is a suburban town located north of Tucson, Arizona, United States, in Pima County. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town is 47,070, an increase from 29,700 in 2000. Dubbed the "Upscale T ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

, US. The word ''cañada'' has a

tilde The tilde () or , is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish, which in turn came from the Latin ''titulus'', meaning "title" or "superscription". Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) in ...

''( ñ)'' and is pronounced in Spanish; in English it is pronounced , not like the country of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. The Cañada del Oro originates in the remote Canyon del Oro in the

Santa Catalina Mountains The Santa Catalina Mountains, commonly referred to as the Catalina Mountains or the Catalinas, are north and northeast of Tucson in Arizona, United States, on Tucson's north perimeter. The mountain range is the most prominent in the Tucson area, w ...

north of Tucson, fed by

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...

and melted

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet ...

from the northern face of

Mount Lemmon Mount Lemmon, with a summit elevation of , is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Mount Lemmon was named for botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon, ...

and flows northward toward the town of

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The wor ...

. The Cañada del Oro is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

creek in Canyon del Oro while at higher altitudes. The Cañada del Oro curves from flowing northward to southward through the town of

north of Tucson, where it is usually a dry riverbed. In Oro Valley the Cañada del Oro collects watershed from the western face of the

. The Cañada del Oro ultimately feeds into the Santa Cruz River just northwest of Tucson, the principal watershed channel in the Tucson valley. Historically, the Cañada del Oro was the focus of significant interest in

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surfac ...

, beginning with

explorers in the 17th century. As early as 1880, the Cañada del Oro was labeled "Gold Cañon Creek" on American maps. Following the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Second Federal Republic of Mexico, Mexico f ...

, American gold-rushers continued the search for the valuable

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...

through the 1930s. Prospectors discovered minimal amounts of gold in the Cañada del Oro through

placer mining Placer mining () is the mining of stream bed ( alluvial) deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. Placer mining is frequently used for ...

operations, and reportedly mined gold in the lost '' Mine with the Iron Door''. The

lost mine Lost mines are a popular form of lost treasure legend. The mines involved usually contain a high-value commodity such as gold, silver or diamonds. Often, there is a map (sometimes called a "waybill") purportedly showing the location of the mi ...

is the subject of a novel of the same name written by Harold Bell Wright in 1923.

References

External links

U.S. Forest Service Canada del Oro Trail Guide

Sierra Club Oracle Ridge–Canada del Oro Trail Guide
{{Coord, 32, 19, 33, N, 111, 03, 46, W, display=title Santa Catalina Mountains Geography of Tucson, Arizona Canyons and gorges of Arizona Landforms of Pima County, Arizona Santa Cruz River (Arizona)

See also

References

External links