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After a good rain, the San Pedro River actually looks like a river, but most of the time it's a quiet trickle that nurtures birds and wildlife from the desert just on the other side of the trees. This photo was taken, in the summer of '04, of the now defunct bridge over the San Pedro on the road from Sierra Vista to Tombstone. The river was named Rio Nexpa by the Coronado Expedition in 1540. The records of Padre Kino, in 1692, show the name as Rio de San Joseph Terrenate, as the river flowed by the Terrenate Ranch in Mexico. Quiburi and Rio Santa Cruz were names given to the river until 1763, the Sobaipuri Indians lived along it's banks and the river took the name of the tribe. An 1805 map noted the name as Rio SN Pedro. Lt. Col. Phillip St.George Cooke on his way through Arizona Territory to the California conflict with the Mexicans called the river Jose San Pedro. (Information source; Byrd Howell Granger's book, "Arizona's Names".) Photo to the right is an aerial photo of the San Pedro river. A CD of 83 aerial photos in and around Bisbee, can be purchased for five dollars at this number. 520 432-3973

 

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