NAME: Tortilla Flat
LEGAL INFO: 1
CLIMATE: hot summers, mild winters
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime
Current residents - 6, all employees. Tortilla Flat is the only authentic stagecoach stop to survive the 1900's along the Apache Trail. A remnant of the old west, and still serving adventurous travelers of the mysterious Superstition Mountain area. Located 18 miles N.E. of Apache Junction. AZ on S.R. 88.
REMAINS: Post office/motel, general store/restraunt and one room schoolhouse (the only buiding not touched by a fire in 1987) - All else is gone
|Tortilla Flat got its start because of the road construction to Roosevelt Dam (1904). Once established as a freight camp, there seems to have been some number of people living there from then on. Originally, Tortilla Flat was on the opposite side of the road from where it is now, and largely on the other side of the creek. A bit of exploring down by the creek will reveal foundation remains. In the community's entire history there were never very many buildings. Some of the residents lived in big army tents with wooden floors. The Arizona State Data Center, which keeps track of population statistics, has guidelines specifying a community outside a major urban area, should have 100 or more persons before they're recorded in the official books. Tortilla Flat has never appeared on their records, which suggests the town's population, if it reached 100, did not remain there very long. Forest Service records show Tonto National Forest being established in 1905 as kind of a "package deal" with the Salt River Reclamation Project. The freight camp at Tortilla Flat, as well as the other camps along the road to the dam, were, therefore, on U.S. Forest Service land. Those folks who decided to make Tortilla Flat their permanent residence kept up the lease on the land in later years whenever it came due. To learn more: visit http://www.tortillaflataz.com/ Submitted by: Thomas Sandifer