Tortilla Flat is a small

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in far eastern

Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, United States. The mayor is Lisa Schmidt Smith. It is located in the central part of the state, northeast of

Apache Junction Apache Junction (Western Apache: Hagosgeed) is a city in Pinal and Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,499, most of whom lived in Pinal County. It is named for the junction of the Apache Trai ...

. It is the last surviving stagecoach stop along the

Apache Trail The Apache Trail in Arizona was a stagecoach trail that ran through the Superstition Mountains. It was named the Apache Trail after the Apache Indians who originally used this trail to move through the Superstition Mountains. The historic ...

. According to the Gross Management Department of Arizona's main

U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

in Phoenix, Tortilla Flat is presumed to be Arizona's smallest official "community" having a U.S. Post Office and voting precinct. The town has a population of 6. Tortilla Flat can be reached by vehicles on the

( State Route 88), via

. Originally a camping ground for the

prospector Prospector may refer to: Space exploration * Prospector (spacecraft), a planned lunar probe, canceled in 1962 * ''Lunar Prospector'', a NASA spacecraft Trains * Prospector (train), a passenger train operated by the Denver & Rio Grande Western ra ...

s who searched for

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in the

Superstition Mountains The Superstition Mountains () is a range of mountains in Arizona located to the east of the Phoenix metropolitan area. They are anchored by Superstition Mountain, a large mountain that is a popular recreation destination for residents of the ...

in the mid-to-late 19th century, Tortilla Flat was later a freight camp for the construction of

Theodore Roosevelt Dam Theodore Roosevelt Dam is a dam on the Salt River located northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. The dam is high and forms Theodore Roosevelt Lake as it impounds the Salt River. Built between 1905 and 1911, the dam was renovated and expanded in 1989� ...

. From this time (1904) on, Tortilla Flat has had a small (less than 100 people) but continuous population. A flood in 1942 badly damaged the town, resulting in many residents moving away. The town is made up primarily of a country store, a saloon (bar/restaurant), a BBQ Patio that has a live band daily starting late December through April or until it gets too hot, a mercantile/gift shop, and a small museum. Most of these were constructed in the late 1980s after a fire consumed the existing store, restaurant and motel on the same site; the mercantile/gift shop was built in 2009. Several hiking trails into the Superstition Mountains begin near Tortilla Flat.

History

The pre-modern history of what is now Tortilla Flat indicates that the valley had a creek running through it. It was used by the

Yavapai The Yavapai ( ) are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Their Yavapai language belongs to the Upland Yuman branch of the proposed Hokan language family. Today Yavapai people are enrolled in the following federally recognized tribes: * Fort ...

to traverse through the

. That trail became known as the "Yavapai Trail" or "Tonto Trail". The Spanish 16th-century expeditions looking for

, specifically the "

Seven Cities of Gold The myth of the Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cíbola (), was popular in the 16th century and later featured in several works of popular culture. According to legend, the seven cities of gold referred to Aztec mythology ...

", inspired more modern gold prospecting in the Superstitions, including those by Don Miguel Peralta from Mexico, who, in 1847 and 1848, supposedly amassed large quantities of gold from the area. Settlers followed the prospectors, raising the need for military outposts to protect them from the increasingly hostile Native Americans, whose land was being taken. Despite the difficulty of crossing the Fish Creek Mountains and Fish Creek Canyon, the Yavapai Trail was a significant route used into the

Tonto Basin The Tonto Basin, also known as Pleasant Valley, covers the main drainage basin of Tonto Creek and its tributaries in central Arizona, at the southwest of the Mogollon Rim, the higher elevation '' transition zone'' across central and eastern Ariz ...

, as other trails were even more difficult, and, due to its access to water and fodder, it is likely that the Tortilla Flat area became a place used to camp. It was unlikely, however, that there was a settlement there at this point in history, as none appear on old trail maps. Based on available records, Tortilla Flat got its start because of the road construction to

Roosevelt Dam Theodore Roosevelt Dam is a dam on the Salt River located northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. The dam is high and forms Theodore Roosevelt Lake as it impounds the Salt River. Built between 1905 and 1911, the dam was renovated and expanded in 1989� ...

in 1904. There was a need for a stagecoach stop for freight haulers on their way to the construction site at Roosevelt Dam and Tortilla Flat served that purpose. Shortly following the construction of the road, Roosevelt Dam became a big tourist attraction. At that point Tortilla Flat was a stage stop for tourists and mail carriers through the 1930s. Tortilla Flat took its name from a nearby butte shaped like a

tortilla A tortilla (, ) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread from Mesoamerica originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl speakers called tortillas ''tlaxcalli'' (). First made by the indi ...

. However, an alternative explanation is that the name was given by John Cline, a

pioneer, who claims to have been stranded about 1867 at this location for several days with nothing but flour to make tortillas to eat. Records of the Forest Service indicate that when the

Tonto National Forest The Tonto National Forest, encompassing , is the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and is the ninth largest national forest in the United States. The forest has diverse scenery, with elevations ranging from 1,400 feet (427 m) in ...

was established in 1905, it was done because the Salt River Reclamation Project – one of the first efforts of the United States Reclamation Service – needed the Forest Service to protect the Salt River watershed for the dams and otherwise manage the land because cattle grazing had stripped it of vegetation. The freight camp established at Tortilla Flat, as well as the other camps along the road to the dam, were, therefore, on U.S. Forest Service land. Those who wanted to make Tortilla Flat their permanent residence kept up the lease on the land in later years whenever it came due.

Gallery

File:2021 Tortilla Flat Superstition Saloon exterior.jpg, The Superstition Saloon File:2021 Tortilla Flat Superstition Saloon interior saddle bar 2.jpg, The bar in the Saloon has stools with saddles on them. File:2021 Tortilla Flat Superstition Saloon interior dollar bills 3.jpg, The walls of the Saloon are papered with dollar bills. File:2021 Tortilla Flat Mercantile and Gift Shop from northwest.jpg, The Mercantile/Gift Shop with some of the rock formations of the area in the background File:2021 Tortilla Flat Schoolhouse Museum.jpg, The town's museum is a replica schoolhouse on the site where the first school opened in 1932. File: Tortilla Flat-Mormon Flat Bridge-1924.JPG, Mormon Flat Bridge, built in 1924 and located on the Apache Trail (State Route 88) over Willow Creek, 3.8 miles west of Tortilla Flat, was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

(NRHP) on September 30, 1988 (#88001598). File: Torilla Flat-Boulder Creek Bridge-1937-12.JPG , Boulder Creek Bridge, built in 1937 and located on the Apache Trail over Boulder Creek, 1 mile west of Tortilla Flat, was listed in the NRHP on March 31, 1989 (#8800159).

References

External links

Official Tortilla Flat website

Tortilla Flat, Arizona – The Apache Trail

– ghosttowns.com {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Maricopa County, Arizona Superstition Mountains Unincorporated communities in Arizona Ghost towns in Arizona