A Hike in the Pine Grove Quiet Area

This 4 October 2014 hike would be our first of the 2014/2015 season and we had decided to start the season with a hike in the Pine Grove Quiet Area. From I-17 at Flagstaff we turned onto Lake Mary Road and continued for about 17 miles to the Pine Grove Campground turnoff. We turned right as though going to the campground, crossed Walnut Creek and then, almost immediately, turned left into a parking area.

We were now in the quiet area where no motorized traffic is allowed between 15 August and 1 January. Donning our packs we headed south, finding ourselves following a section of the Arizona Trail.

Strangely, no “You Are Here” marker appeared on the map (right). But, for those who might be interested, we were just below the loop in the trail at Flagstaff. One branch runs directly through the city, the other loops to the east and bypasses it.

Almost immediately we found ourselves following along the course of a raised ridge of earth, a man-made berm or dike, running along the ridge. One of our hikers had previously hiked in the area with a Forest Service-sponsored group and was told by the group leader that it was the remains of an old railroad track intended to be part of the proposed Arizona Mineral Belt Railroad (AMBRR), which was intended to connect Globe and Flagstaff. The promoters, partially backed by the Atlantic and Pacific (A&P) Railroad, began working on a tunnel at the Mogollon Rim in 1883. However, the A&P withdrew its support the very next year. Work on the tunnel was stopped and the promoters moved to Flagstaff and started building south. By 1887 AMBRR trains were running between Flagstaff and a station about ten miles south of Mormon Lake.¹

The raised ridge we were following was barely wide enough on top to hold even a narrow-gauge railroad. It was suggested that it might once have been wider but had eroded away since the 1880s, when it supposedly was erected. However, the sides appeared much too smooth for that to have been the case. Additionally, there was no evidence that the builders had used stone or gravel to form a solid foundation for a roadbed. This would surely have been done if it really were part of the AMBRR. It is possible that it was a spur railroad built to haul logs from Anderson Mesa just across Walnut Canyon. That sort of route would only have needed to last until the timber was harvested and could have been built to less exacting standards. A section of the raised formation is shown in the photograph below.

Raised ridge of earth that reportedly was part of the AMBRR

The trail followed the ridge for awhile, running southwest, and then turned west, actually slight northwest for a distance, away from the man-made formation we had been following, before again turning south. Just before the trail turned to the south, we came upon a herd of eight antelope. As usual by the time I had readied my camera, they were gone.

After turning south we found that we were now following closely along the remains of another old railroad track (right). This was the remains of the FLM (Flagstaff Lumber Manufacturing) Company Railroad which was built onto the grade of the AMBRR.² I have no date for when the FLM Railroad became operational, but the company opened its mill in Flagstaff on 30 November 1910.³

The AMBRR had been purchased at sheriff's auction by the Riordan brothers, owners of Arizona Lumber and Timber Company. They sold part of the railroad and renamed the rest the Central Arizona Railroad. I have no information as to how the Central Arizona Railroad passed from Arizona Lumber and Timber to Flagstaff Lumber Manufacturing, just the comment in a United States Forest Service/National Forest Service Interpretive Partnership handout⁴ stating that it was “over a decade” after the Riordan brothers acquired the old AMBRR.

Through a series of acquisitions over the years all of the companies mentioned above seem to have wound up in the hands of Southwest Forest Industries. The old abandoned tracks in the area are all listed under that name on a map titled Railroads of Arizona (2002) available at the Arizona Railway Museum. The map which includes abandoned lines and historical surveys is also available online.⁵ One thing that I found interesting is that the survey for the AMBRR would it have had it running to Phoenix rather than Globe. Perhaps the idea was to go first to Phoenix and then extend it to Globe later.

As we continued south on the Arizona Trail along the old FLM roadbed we found that the track we were now following converged with the previous man-made ridge where that ridge ended at the crest of the gently-sloping ridge west of Walnut Creek. The trail continued to closely follow the course of the old railroad track and we started to see pieces of ancient cross-ties (left), some with spikes still affixed.

Along the way we saw another herd of antelope, this time at least twelve in number. We think that the earlier sighting had been of a part of the same herd. A little later we saw them again, but I still was unable to take a decent photograph.

We next came upon two hunters sitting dejected and empty-handed alongside the trail and stopped to chat for a few minutes. They had parked and started their hike at the southern end of the Quiet Area where the Arizona crosses the West Weimer Springs Road (Forest Road 132). They told us there was a sign posted there that provided information about the old railroad.

Meanwhile the old road bed was itself becoming ever more well defined. The below photograph shows where a bridge once crossed a stream.

The bed of the FLM Railroad and the AMBRR before it

Shortly after passing the area shown above we came to the sign that the hunters had described to us and just beyond that the edge of the quiet area at Forest Road 132. We stopped to read the sign which basically just told us that, in addition to being a logging railroad, the FLM carried as many as 300 passengers per day during weekdays. We also learned from the sign that the railroad ceased operation almost 90 years ago, in 1927 to be more precise.

We found a nice spot near the sign and stopped for lunch before starting back. I had laid out a route that would take us east along FR 132 for a short distance to intersect with County Road 90, a paved road with a nice wide shoulder, which we would follow for about 0.5 miles before turning off onto an old dirt road that was now closed (see right) to motor vehicles at the entry to the quiet area.

The road did, however, show signs of rather extensive motor vehicle use during the season such is allowed.

Quiet area closed to motor vehicles

We were now on Forest Road 90E, but we only followed it for about a mile before turning onto another, fainter old road that followed north along Walnut Creek. The hiking was easy and we stopped often to admire isolated flowers found along the way. Some of these are shown on the following page.

Here are some of the flowers we saw during the hike.

Asters

A single Indian paintbrush

Woodhouse phlox

Fetid goosefoot

     

   

We continued along an old road that closely followed the presently dry course of Walnut Creek. As we drew near to the bridge that carries traffic across the creek to Pine Grove Campground the road became very indistinct and some of the party just left it and hiked directly through the forest to where we were parked. Others of us, being of an obstinate cast of mind, continued along the faint path of the old road, climbed out of the wash at the bridge and followed the campground road back to the parking area.

Not until we arrived back at the parking area did I remember that we had not yet posed for a group photograph during this hike.

    Left to right: Frank Lombardo, Kwi Johnson, Loren Pritzel, Lila Wright,

     Anita Jackson, Daisy Williams, Gordon Bice and Jim Manning – photograph

     by the author

As shown in red on the attached map (next page), the total hike distance was 8.5 miles, the maximum elevation was 7200 feet and the elevation difference along the trail was negligible.

1 Arizona Mineral Belt Railroad, Published by the USFS/NPS Interpretive Partnership

2 Arizona Mineral Belt Railroad, Published by the USFS/NPS Interpretive Partnership

3http://steam.wesbarris.com/consolidation/?page=flm

4 Arizona Mineral Belt Railroad, Published by the USFS/NPS Interpretive Partnership

5http://www.azrymuseum.org/Information/Arizona_Railroad_Map_2002.pdf