COCONINO NATIONAL FOREST TANKS

Anyone who has driven the dirt roads through Coconino National Forest have seen the water tanks as they are called on maps and occasional sign posts.  They are just small ponds where animals can get a drink during the dry season.  They are all located in low areas where they collect snow melt and runoff from the summer monsoon rains.  Many are located around seasonal water seeps or springs. 

Blue Grade Tank in Rarick Canyon near Beaver Creek

Spring fed Locket Meadow Tank on San Francisco Mountain

Committee Tank, Schnebly Hill at the head of Jack's Canyon

There are literally hundreds of them throughout the national forest and a dirt road leads to every one of them.  It seems there are far more tanks than what are needed to water just the local wildlife so I looked into it.

Most of the tanks were dug in 1916 using horse drawn metal scoops called Fresno Scrapers or dirt scoops.  The federal government financed the project to encourage ranchers to raise cattle on national forest land.  The government would then buy the livestock to feed the US troops fighting World War I in Europe.  Originally dug to support the war effort they are maintained today by the National Forest Service to support wildlife and for grazing cattle and sheep on leased land.

Invented in 1883 by James Porteous in Fresno, California.

Sedona Heritage Museum

Fresno Dirt Scoop in use.

Not all ponds in the forest are tanks.  Some are springs where regional aquifers seep to the surface. How to tell the difference?  All tanks have C shaped earthen berms on the down hill side where sinks will not.  Another clue is tanks generally have opaque, brown water where natural ponds or sinks will be cleaner and may have plants growing in them.  Many of the tanks and sinks are seasonal and will dry up in drought years.

Saginaw Sink

November, 2012

Quarry Sink

July, 2015

Rocky Hole Tank (actually a sink)

November, 2012