Apache Lake, Sierra Blanca Range, Arizona

O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882 · [1873]

Descriptive legend of view no. 7: About 35 miles east of Camp Apache, Arizona, in the Sierra Blanca or White Mountains, at an altitude of 10,500 feet above the sea, lies Apache Lake, the subject of the accompanying picture. This mountain pool is of no important size, being only a pistol-shot across, but is remarkable for the beauty of itself and its surroundings. It is shaded by trees of white or Arizona oak. On its surface in the left of the picture, a tangled web of the water-lily is floating. Lying in a valley which is a perfect basin, it can have no surface outlet, but its clear and cold waters sink by some underground channel and emerge a mile or so away, feeding the north fork of the White Mountain Creek. Around the lake are masses of limestone rock, while overhead the basaltic bluffs tower to a height of 2,000 feet. In the adjacent country are groves of fine oak timber, pine forests many miles in extent, and well-watered glades covered with a luxuriant growth of herbage and flowers. The lower spurs of these mountains are covered with bunch and grama grasses and decked with blossoms of golden-rod and aster, emblematic of a mild temperature which is most favorable for the farmer, while on the heights are broad fields of timber sheltering great pastures which will subsist thousands of cattle through the summer. These conditions of beauty and fertility effectually prove that Arizona, in its entirety, is not the worthless desert that by many it has been supposed to be.