By Stan Brown

The town of Chino Valley has several theories of origin attached to it. Marshall Trimble, in ‘Roadside History of Arizona’ writes, “During the historic 1853-54 survey, Lieutenant Amiel W. Whipple chose the name Chino Valley after the grama grass that carpeted the vast, windswept region. The Mexicans in the party called the range grass ‘de china,’ or ‘the chino,’ hence the name. ‘China’ in Spanish is pronounced Chee-na and spelled ‘China.’ ‘Chinese’ in Spanish is ‘chino.’” Chino grass was often harvested as hay for livestock, and was the primary feed for U.S. Cavalry horses in the area in the mid-1800s.

The Baker ranch was located in this area with over 10,000 head of cattle by the 1880s. Farming was carried on until the 1940s, but water was a constant problem. A small oil boom occurred from 1917 to 1918, and some drilling into the 1940s, but it never paid off. By the 1950s, the farms were being subdivided into small homesites and, on September 21, 1970 the Town of Chino Valley was incorporated.

At the north end of Chino Valley, the Perkinsville Road, named for the family who ranched extensively in the region, takes off to the east from Highway 89. On this road about one mile east of Highway 89 was a railroad junction called Jerome Junction. It was a settlement sponsored by the railroad, consisting of a coal and water depot, a post office, school, store, saloon, hotel, dance hall in a barn, residences and a narrow gauge roundhouse. Sixty-five men worked there in the rail yards where the spur line to Jerome took off. In 1920, the railroad abandoned the narrow gauge for a standard gauge to Jerome and the town died. The Jerome Junction road sign marks the original site where little evidence remains of the bustling railroad town. Most of the buildings were moved to the present town of Chino Valley. The Jerome Junction Hotel was restored and moved to the grounds of Knott’s Berry Farm in California.

Just north of Chino Valley along highway 89 is a road east to Del Rio Springs. There is an historical marker along the highway at this site. This location is of particular interest for the founding history of Arizona Territory. The name derives from the fact that these springs are a source for “The River” (Del Rio). Such water sources have always been places for settlement, and this spring had been put on the military map by the 1853 Lt. Amiel Whipple party. When the Goodwin (Governor’s) Party of the new Arizona Territorial officers appointed by President Lincoln came to establish the new government, their advance military detachment under the command of General Carleton set up a temporary camp here on December 20, 1863 calling it Fort Whipple. Thirty-three days later, on January 22, 1864, the governor’s party arrived and set up the first Territorial capital in Arizona. In May, 1864, Fort Whipple was moved to Granite Creek, closer to the settlement that would become Prescott.

About this same time, a young army officer who had been wounded in an Indian skirmish and recently dismissed from the service at Fort Canby in New Mexico, arrived to stake squatter’s rights. His name was Robert Postle. He expanded his ranching to include the army’s former campsite. He was a successful farmer, along with a partner named J. N. Brown and developed a grist mill in addition to other improvements. He also included as partners two others, Andres Montaques and Jose Delgado, who would stake additional property and deed it over to Postle later. It was a common way settlers had of expanding their claims beyond the set limits.

The Arizona Miner of September 21, 1864 reported, “Messrs Postle, Brown and Co. have taken up for ranching purposes the old site of Ft. Whipple. The ranch consists of about five hundred acres. They are now cutting some two hundred tons of hay, which they expect to offer to Prescott this winter. Next season they will have under cultivation about two hundred acres of corn, wheat, etc.”

In 1866, David Wesley Shivers and his family of four daughters stopped to water their livestock and Postle convinced them to stay with the promise that they could purchase the nearby property of his partner Jose Delgado. Postle had just turned 30 years of age, was lonely, and was taken with the Shivers daughter Hannah, their eldest, who was only 14 years old. The property was transferred to Shivers on April 11, 1867 and, on September 10th of that year, Robert Postle and Hannah Shivers were married. She had turned 15. Their home was the large adobe house that had served as the original headquarters for Fort Whipple which Postle had taken over.

The Postles had three children, one daughter dying in infancy. Then, on April 9, 1871 at the age of 34, Robert Postle died and left his 18 year old wife, Hannah, with two little ones: Robert David, age three, and Alice, an infant.

Helped by her father’s family, Hannah remained on the Del Rio homestead which was now in her name. In 1875, an ex-soldier named Samuel Rees married Hannah and they had three boys. Hannah’s son, Robert David Postle contracted typhoid fever in 1883 and, while caring for him, she became ill with the fever and died in 1885. Samuel Rees did not fare well without Hannah, and the ranch was foreclosed in 1886.

The ranch was acquired by John G. Campbell and James Baker. They soon operated the largest ranch in central Arizona and laid claim to all the water from Del Rio Springs. In 1900, after the fire in Prescott, the town acquired from the Baker family a 130-acre parcel including the main springs and in September 1901, began pumping water to Prescott through a 19-mile pipeline. By that time, the Santa Fe RR spur had a depot in Del Rio Springs and the city sold water to the RR at 72 cents a gallon (via 6,600 gallon tank cars). The railroad then provided water for Ash Fork and the Grand Canyon. This water enabled the Grand Canyon to develop the resort hotel of El Tovar. The railroad also developed a dairy farm at Del Rio Springs to provide dairy products and meat for the Harvey House restaurants. This operation continued into the 1950s. In February 1956, the Del Rio Ranch was sold to developers, the Val de Chino.

Just north of Del Rio Springs Road (near the roadside historical marker on Route 89), look for the old Route 89 turnoff to the right. Along this road you will come to a concrete bridge and beside it, a railroad bridge crossing a canyon. There is a dam on the west side of the bridge and a large lakebed (usually dry) called Sullivan Lake. The name Sullivan comes from a member of the 3rd State Legislature, J. W. “Jerry”  Sullivan, who had a ranch in the area of Williamson and Chino Valleys. This is part of what is known as the “Upper Verde Region.” The Big Chino Wash is dammed here to form Sullivan Lake and downstream from this lakebed and flowing under the bridges is considered the headwaters of the Verde River. In a heavy rain, Sullivan Lake and the dam may be overflowing.

Continue north on old Highway 89 to where it rejoins the new highway, turning north toward Paulden. The Pownall family settled in this area in May 1924 and operated the Midway Grocery, cafe, service station, garage and several tourist cabins. Its location halfway between Prescott and Ash Fork made it a popular stop. The post office here was first named ‘Midway Grocery’ but, in February 1926, the name was changed to Paulden at the request of postmaster Orville T. Pownall whose son Paul had died from an accidental gunshot wound. The Pownall’s had a daughter, Ruth Pownall Gilpin who received the 2008 Sharlot Hall Award for her contributions to an awareness of Arizona history. She has written a book, “Paulden Pioneer Family and Ranching History.”

Continuing north on Route 89, you will come to Hell Canyon, so named because of the difficult wagon road in and out taken by the stage from Ash Fork to Prescott. Judge Joseph P. Allyn, traveling with the Governor’s Party to Prescott in 1864 writes of this canyon, “About ten o’clock we got under way and an hour brought us to the most infernal canyon for wagons I have yet seen. It was about 300 ft deep and the sides nearly perpendicular, and covered with rolling stones.”

Soon after Hell Canyon, the Santa Fe RR branch line crosses the highway and nearby there is a turnoff for Drake. Drake was originally named Cedar Glade, a little community that sprang to life with the mining of lime and quarrying of local sandstone. The railroad bridge here over Hell Canyon was completed in 1901. It connected Cedar Glade (north side of canyon) with Puntenney (south side of canyon). Herman Schwanbeck built a hotel, general store and restaurant beside the tracks as well as a house for his extended family. In 1920, the name Cedar Glade was changed to Drake, after William A. Drake who was in charge of railroad construction in the area in 1899. Today the historic ruins around Drake have been obscured by the construction of a large cement plant. The old Drake railroad depot is now a restaurant on Iron Springs Road in Prescott.

The Ash Fork-Prescott highway was one of the first constructed by Yavapai County in 1924. Ash Fork was a station & division point on the A. T. & S. F. RR. It was named for the ash trees located on the town site. Stage coaches connecting the Santa Fe with Phoenix started from here for many years, until the spur railroad could be taken to Prescott and on to Phoenix. In the 1950s, Route 66 gave a boost to the town’s economy, but the construction of the interstate by-passed the town. In 1960 the Santa Fe Railroad moved its main line north of town and a 1977 fire destroyed many businesses. The economy and population never recovered from this triple blow.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb041f5i8) Reuse only by permission.

The Jerome Junction Depot and yard located just a mile east of Route 89 on the Perkinsville Road out of Chino Valley. A railroad spur line to Jerome from this junction delivered supplies and passengers up until the early 1920s.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(pb116f8i10.6a) Reuse only by permission.

A photo taken in 1976 shows what was then left of the adobe walls of the house at Del Rio Springs used first as the headquarters for old Fort Whipple and then as a residence for Robert and Hannah Postle in 1867.

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(dam132pe) Reuse only by permission.

The 1934 construction of the dam at Sullivan Lake, the headwaters of the Verde River. The auto and railroad bridge