Morenci Southern - The Hike to Cunningham


During the summer of 2023 I was contacted about putting on a clinic for the 2024 Sn3 Symposium that was going to be held in Mesa, AZ in May. Since this was an Arizona themed event I thought that perhaps a presentation of my hikes along the Morenci Southern grade would fit in. As I worked through my material I found a couple of holes that I wanted to fill in to complete the presentation. This led to a hike on April 29, 2024 with my hiking buddy Megan to seek out a location on the valuation map known as Cunningham. The following are some shots along the way that helped with my "Slim Gauge Ghost of Arizona" presentation.


The starting point for this hike would be at about milepost 4.5 where the Black Hills Back Country Byway crosses over the former grade. There is a convenient parking area on the northeast side of the bridge. The distance to Cunningham from this location is about a mile and we will pass by the Owl Canyon bridge.


This is my hiking buddy Megan at the north abutment of the Owl Canyon Bridge. As you can see she has grown up quite a bit comparing the earlier hike on April 12, 2008 to our hike on April 20, 2024. As can be seen the northern span of the Owl Canyon Bridge is no longer in place. Remnant can be found in the canyon below.


This shot is from our 2008 hike but nothing has really changed much since then. Note that there is a really large nest hiding behind the center vertical column. That nest is still there in 2024 and something flew out of it as we were making our way to the bridge but I didn't get a good look at it.


The nest on April 20, 2024.


Beyond the bridge is a high fill and a deep cut that we will traverse on our way to Cunningham. A fence line is built down the centerline of the grade to divide the various grazing areas along this BLM land. We started this hike around 7:30 AM because it will be getting quite warm for desert hiking on the April day and there won't be much shade.


With the warm weather we encounter our first rattler sunning along the grade. We will have to keep an eye out for these guys as they blend in pretty well!



Hiking through the deep cuts can be pretty challenging. All of the desert brush that wants to snag you, a fence line that forces you to the one side and then the potential snake lurking about.


With all of the deep cuts it is pretty common to find the remains of powder cans.


The hillsides are still quite green with the recent spring rains. It won't be long until it really heats up and becomes less inviting.


It didn't take us too long to find another snake hanging out in the sun along the grade!


I always enjoy the colors of the desert in the early spring. Too bad the clouds aren't moving into provide some shade as the sun is pretty intense.


Megan spots three Javelina down in the gully below the fill.


Here is a lid to one of the powder cans out along the grade.


With all of the obstacles in the cuts we occasionally hike above them instead of through them. Here we have a nice long view of the grade as we head further south. There is a bridge site coming up and our destination of Cunningham will be beyond the cut at the upper right.


This is an overlay of Cunningham that I put together for the presentation. We will take a look at bridge 350 (milepost 3.5) and then the site of Cunningham in the following shots.


This is the site of bridge 350 which was a 19' long frame trestle. There really isn't much left here except for a couple of timbers down towards the bottom and some stacked rock visible on the right end. The Morenci end of the trestle would be on the left.


 Down in the ravine we can see some old timbers from the structure. The abutment to the right is really eroding away with some remaining hints of stacked rocks.


South of bridge 350 we enter a broad cut and it was at this point that the Cunningham siding started. The cut is fairly wide to accommodate both the main and the beginning of the Cunningham siding in this view to the southeast.


This is a view to the northwest at Cunningham. The main would have been to the right along the fence line with the siding in the center of the shot. The cut where the siding started can be seen in the background.


Along this section of the grade, mounds were built with the material pulled out of the deep cuts. This is the mound at Cunningham as viewed from the grade behind me. I looked around for artifacts at Cunningham but about all that I found was small scraps of steal wire.


We hiked to the next deep cut southeast of Cunningham to get this overview shot. The cut where the siding started is visible along with the fill material used to create the flat mound in the foreground. In the background is the mining region at Morenci where the line would have terminated back in earlier times.


This view is the opposite direction from the prior view and would be heading towards the starting point of the line at Guthrie. Note another prominent mound in the center of the shot made from material pulled out of the cuts. Cottonwoods down in the Gila River canyon are visible at the right side of the shot.


Up on one of the cut hills we found some insulator fragments and placed them on the base of the former pole. The Morenci Southern appears to have used square poles like the United Verde.



This was the title page that I put together for my presentation. It was a fun experience and the folks involved in putting together the symposium were all very helpful along the way. It also gave me a chance to get my hiking buddy Megan out on a grade that we first explored back in 2008!