Fire Place Rock Arguments

After investigating all possible cliffs in the North Butte bend of the Gila River in my search for W. H. Emory's "Fire Place Rock", I have determined that my cliff #7 is the only one that fits all the evidence.  For a summary of the cliff investigations and an  aerial photo of the area with the seven cliffs numbered see Finding Fire Place Rock.  Here are the points that convinced me:

  1. Its location fits the written description in Emory's Journal.  We have identified Emory's "promontory of pitch-stone", over which his advance party rode.  On the other side of this, as he turned back along the river, he would have been looking straight at our cliff #7.  Cliffs 6 and 7 are the only ones that would come into view after "turning the sharp angle of the promontory," all others would be visible as soon as he reached the top of the east side of the plateau.

  2. It fits his description of the size of the rock.  Emory states that it was "a high perpendicular cliff".  Only cliffs 3, 5, and 7 are high cliffs.

  3. Cliff #7 is the only one that matches the outline of the rock in the old drawing. See the two pictures below:

  1. Cliff #7 has the small spires at the right side of the cliff shown in the plate at left.

  2. Although the photo above doesn't show it well, it also has swirly rock layering. 

  3. The next point is the undulating surface that the face of the rock appears to have in the picture at left.  It bothered me that this feature is so different now than in the old picture so I did some research.  I found that in 1905 the Phoenix and Eastern Railroad had extensively blasted the rocks in the approach to the tunnel which is just 1,500 feet to the east of our rock.  The railroad tracks are laid on a narrow bed of rocks from the cliff above, which indicates that this cliff was blasted to make room for the track.  I suspect that before the railroad construction the river probably washed right up to the base of the cliff. 

  4. Although Emory doesn't mention the color of the rock, I'm sure that before its face was smoothed it had the same reddish color as the rocks in the mountain behind it, adding to the fiery effect. 

Considering the above points I have to conclude that cliff 7 is Emory's "Fire Place Rock."  

Fire Place Rock can be found on the USGS "North Butte, AZ" 7.5' topographic map. Click here for a scan of the map. Here are GPS coordinates for the rock:

N 33° 5.78291’

W 111° 11.35276’

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