Apostle Erastus Snow appears to have been the first of the Mormon faith to cross this Gila Valley region. His party arrived on the San Pedro River, October 6, 1878. The most easterly point reached in the Gila Valley was at old Camp Goodwin, not far from the present railroad station of Fort Thomas and at the extreme western or lower end of the present farmed area. It would require a separate volume to follow Apostle Erastus Snow on his journeyings through the Southwest, where he appears to have served as a veritable inspector-general for his Church.
On the 1878 trip, L. John Nuttall of Snow's company, writes of passing into the Gila Valley through a rocky canyon, "a terrible place, almost impassable, the dread of all who travel this way." The same road is very little better to this day.
At one point was passed a ridge known as Postoffice Hill, where was found the grave of a white man, killed several years before by Apaches. Every time an Apache passed, he put a rock on the grave mound, at that time about twenty feet square at the base and four feet high. The travelers added another rock, on the principle of, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
Mormon Location at Smithville
The Mormon settlement of the Gila Valley was one of the few made without particular and direct instruction from the general Church authorities. It was caused, primarily, by trouble over the land tenure at Forest Dale, in the mountains to the northward, where settlers, at first permitted, even encouraged by the reservation authorities, finally were advised that they were on Indian land and would have to move. The first question before the colonists immediately became where they should find a new abiding place. All of them had come from the northward, seeking a better location than afforded along the Little Colorado River or in the mountain settlements. So there was determination to see what could be found in the way of farming land on the Gila, to the southward.
[Illustration: THE TEEPLES HOME, FIRST HOUSE IN PIMA]
[Illustration: THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE AT SAFFORD]
[Illustration: GILA NORMAL COLLEGE AT THATCHER] In February, 1879, an expedition started over the hills to view the valley of the Gila. It included W.R. Teeples, John Wm. Tanner, Ben Pierce and Hyrum Weech. The last-named told that the party looked over the country and finally selected a location for a town. He wrote, "We traveled from one end of the valley to the other on both sides of the river, looking for the best place to take out a ditch, because we had very little means and could not go to large expense. This (near the location of Smithville, later known as Pima) seemed to be about the easiest place on the river to take out water, so we decided on making the location here."
The Smithville ditch was on the basis of prior location by Gillespie and was extended to cover the Mormon land in 1880. Somewhat higher was the Central ditch, which had been built several years before as far down as the later site of Thatcher and which was extended above Pima in 1882.
Somewhat of a Samaritan was found on the ground in one Markham, from Oregon, from whom were hired a team and wagon and who refused to take any pay. With a pocket compass, Smithville was laid out. The settlement could not be scattered, because Indians and outlaws threatened. Foundations were laid on sixteen corners, each under the name of one of the families expected to come from the north.