Cane Beds, Arizona

Cane Beds, Arizona
Census-designated place
Cane Beds Road in 2004
Cane Beds Road in 2004
Cane Beds is located in Arizona
Cane Beds
Cane Beds
Cane Beds is located in the United States
Cane Beds
Cane Beds
Coordinates: 36°56′03″N 112°54′42″W / 36.93417°N 112.91167°W / 36.93417; -112.91167
Country United States
State Arizona
CountyMohave
Area
[1]
 • Total
8.29 sq mi (21.46 km2)
 • Land8.29 sq mi (21.46 km2)
 • Water0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)
Elevation
[2]
5,046 ft (1,538 m)
Population
 (2020)[3]
 • Total
466
 • Density56.25/sq mi (21.72/km2)
Time zoneUTC-7 (MST)
ZIP Code
86022
FIPS code04-09900
GNIS feature ID2582747

Cane Beds is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. It lies 4 miles (6 km) south of the border with Utah in the Arizona Strip, and is supported by services in Utah as well as some in Nevada.

The population was 466 at the 2020 census.[3] The community is historically Mormon, and presently also includes several families from breakaway Mormon groups. It has a small tourism industry because of nearby scenic hiking trails.

Etymology

[edit]

The name of the town refers to cane that grows natively in the area. In Will C. Barnes' book of Arizona place names, Barnes quoted a letter received from a resident, Annie W. Wilkinson, in his explanation of the name of Cane Beds: "When settlers first came here they found beds of wild cane growing in the district. Some can still be found, hence the name."[4] The name has historically been recorded as "Cain Patch".[5] Cane Patch Creek/Cane Beds Spring has the same etymology.[4][5][6]

The Southern Paiute name, Paɣáŋq`ʷtonƐnįnto`, translates to "cane valley".[5]: 789  Edward Sapir identified a Paiute location romanized as "Paganktonic" as likely being Cane Beds.[7]

History

[edit]
1934 map of the Southern Paiute with Cane Beds marked

Until the 20th century, the land was occupied by Southern Paiute people; it is seen within Paiute territory on maps from 1934, which had receded north and was completely absent in Arizona by 1986.[5] There are Paiute, Archaic, and Anasazi sites in the area.[8]

As the Arizona Strip was largely ignored by the government, the Cane Beds land was first explored by settlers during early pioneering expeditions of Mormons in northern Arizona, by John D. Lee, J. C. L. (John Calvin Lazelle) Smith, and Jesse Pierce Steele in June 1852. In 1858, a similar expedition also landed the pioneers in Cane Beds.[9] Lee's party may have known Cane Beds as "Virgin Bottoms", being a valley near the Virgin River.[10] The town was established in 1868[10] and was fully settled by Mormons by 1876, shortly before the first Mormon temple in Utah was finished. It lay along the trail from Lees Ferry to the new temple, traversed by Mormon settlers.[9] The post office was established on June 15, 1917, with Cora H. Cox as postmistress.[4] Cox was born Cora Haight, and had married into the Cox Mormon family. She had moved to Cane Beds with her young family on March 11, 1917.[11]

A group of the Church of the Firstborn (a form of Mormonism), led by Ross LeBaron Jr., is based in Cane Beds. When the nearby Short Creek Community of fundamentalist Mormons broke up following the imprisonment of leader Warren Jeffs, several families moved to Cane Beds; others had been exiled there by Jeffs for not following his doctrine.[12][13][14][15] Benjamin Bistline, Short Creek historian, moved to Cane Beds in his later years after renouncing fundamentalism.[16] Polygamy persisted in the area in the 20th century due to its isolation, despite the practice being discontinued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[17] By 2009, most residents of Cane Beds were non-polygamous, though some still had connections with Colorado City.[18][14][19][15]

Geography

[edit]

Cane Beds is located in northeastern Mohave County at 36°56′03″N 112°54′42″W / 36.93417°N 112.91167°W / 36.93417; -112.91167 (36.934154, −112.911788). According to the United States Geological Survey, the CDP has a total area of 8.28 square miles (21.4 km2), all land.[2] It is in the Arizona Strip,[20] 4 miles (6 km) south of the Arizona–Utah border,[21] 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Colorado City,[22] just south and west of the Vermilion Cliffs[8][10] and Kaibab Indian Reservation,[5] and about an hour and a half northwest of the Grand Canyon.[23] It is close to the St. George, Utah metropolitan area[24] and borders Cottonwood Point Wilderness.[8] The Vermilion Cliffs at Cane Beds rise more than over 1,000 feet (300 m) above the community,[10] to elevations of 6,210 and 6,443 feet (1,893 and 1,964 m) above sea level.[25]

Land in Cane Beds includes that which is suitable for agriculture. Native fauna includes pronghorns and mule deer.[6]

There are a variety of rock types in the strata at Cane Beds, including the Moenkopi Formation, Chinle Formation, and Shinarump Conglomerate. The town was studied in the Wheeler Survey.[10]

Demographics

[edit]
Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
19105—
192042740.0%
193040−4.8%
194036−10.0%
2010448—
20204664.0%
U.S. Decennial Census[26]
Pre-1940 data from U.S. survey[10]

As of the 2010 census, there were 448 people living in the CDP: 231 male and 217 female. 171 were 19 years old or younger, 78 were ages 20–34, 65 were between the ages of 35 and 49, 66 were between 50 and 64, and the remaining 68 were aged 65 and above. The median age was 29.2 years.[27]

The racial makeup of the CDP was 94.4% White, 2.2% Native American, 0.7% Black or African American, 0.2% from Asian, and 1.3% from two or more races. 2% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.[27]

There were 142 households in the CDP, 106 family households (74.6%) and 36 non-family households (25.4%), with an average household size of 3.15. Of the family households, there were 84 married couples living together, 13 single fathers, and 9 single mothers. Of the non-family households, 31 were a single person living alone, 16 male and 15 female.[27]

The CDP contained 168 housing units, of which 142 were occupied and 26 were vacant.[27]

Tourism

[edit]

It is a popular hiking spot, with nearby scenic border trails.[28][29] In 2016, a nurse who was hiking alone in Cane Beds fell 100 feet (30 m) and was not rescued for over a day, having landed in a canyon. Mountain and air rescue teams found her after the owners of her hotel noticed her absence and called the county sheriff,[20] and she recovered in three months.[30] She was initially treated at a regional medical center in Utah, before being transferred to the Mayo Clinic, where she worked.[31] In 2014, a teenager from St. George fell 100 feet into a canyon on a hike with family, and died.[32]

Education

[edit]

It is divided between Fredonia-Moccasin Unified School District, in nearby Coconino County, and Colorado City Unified School District, principally serving the former Short Creek Community.[33] For four years in the 2000s, the Colorado City Unified School District was placed under state intervention because of the high rates of polygamy practiced in Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, the other towns in the district.[18] Cane Beds students originally began to be educated in the Short Creek school district as there were only five students from the town, and districts needed eight students to justify a school, so the districts had been merged.[34]: 90 

Infrastructure

[edit]

Transport

[edit]
State Route 389 near Cane Beds

The nearest airport is Colorado City Municipal Airport;[35] the nearest airport in regular service is St. George Regional Airport in St. George, Utah, approximately an hour away.[36] The nearest international airport is Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.[35]

A two-mile stretch of Yellowstone Road in the Cane Beds area was renamed for LaVoy Finicum in 2017; while residents supported the motion, believing local man Finicum died defending his beliefs, the Mohave County Planning and Zoning Department only passed it 3–2, with the two opposing votes citing Finicum's lawlessness.[37] Those who voted in favor said the move would celebrate the long history of Finicum's family in the area, not his armed activism.[38] Reportedly, Finicum had previously requested that the stretch of road be named for him. It goes from Arizona State Route 389 (SR 389) to Cane Beds.[14]

In 1950, there were efforts in the area to promote improvement of roads and infrastructure, and on March 14 that year a town hall-style meeting was held and an organization formed to better the community of Cane Beds and others nearby.[39] Cane Beds Road is a stretch of county road 91 (former U.S. Route 91), and has a confluence with Interstate 15 (I-15) for about a mile. I-15 connects the town to Utah and Nevada.[citation needed] A railroad used to follow U.S. Route 89/89A where it passes by the town.[40] SR 389 also passes close to Cane Beds.[41]

Services

[edit]

Cane Beds is supported by the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, as well as the Kane County Sheriff's Office in southern Utah.[24]

Major hospitals serving Cane Beds residents are in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.[42] Local medical facilities are at the Creek Valley Health Clinic in Colorado City[43] and Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George.[44]

The Cox Family Cemetery, also known as the Cane Beds Cemetery, is in the town.[45] The town receives most of its local television from translators of Utah stations serving Hildale, with the exception of one Mohave County-owned translator of KSAZ-TV, the Fox station in Phoenix.[46][47]

Notable residents

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "2021 U.S. Gazetteer Files: Arizona". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Feature Detail Report for: Cane Beds Census Designated Place". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  3. ^ a b "Cane Beds CDP, Arizona: 2020 DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171)". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Barnes, Will C. (1988). Arizona Place Names. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 73. ISBN 0-8165-1074-1. OCLC 17300876.
  5. ^ a b c d e Bright, William (December 14, 2010). Southern Paiute and Ute Linguistics and Ethnography. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 627, 789, 842, 889–890, 904, 911. ISBN 978-3-11-088660-3.
  6. ^ a b Department of the Interior draft environmental statement, Vermillion grazing. United States Bureau of Land Management Arizona State Office. 1979.
  7. ^ Richard W. Stoffle; Alex K. Carroll; Amy Eisenberg; John Amato (2004). Ethnographic Assessment of Kaibab Paiute Cultural Resources in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah (PDF) (Report). University of Arizona. p. 82. hdl:10150/271234.
  8. ^ a b c Arizona Wilderness: Land Tenure Adjustment Plan. United States Bureau of Land Management Arizona State Office. 1992. p. 20.
  9. ^ a b c Altschul, Jeffrey H. (1989). Man, Models and Management: An Overview of the Archaeology of the Arizona Strip and the Management of Its Cultural Resources. The Service. pp. 162–163, 174.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1949. pp. 19, 25, 42, 147, 156, 197–198.
  11. ^ Wilcock, Lenna Cox (2011). Arthur Delano Cox & Cora Haight Ancestors. Idaho, Cox Family Organization.
  12. ^ "Tiny Tombstones: Inside the FLDS Graveyard for Babies Born from Incest". Vice. March 9, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  13. ^ "Exodus of the FLDS". The Salt Lake Tribune. May 13, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  14. ^ a b c d "Bundyville: The Remnant, Chapter Three: The Widow's Tale". Longreads. July 17, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  15. ^ a b "Polygamy tug-of-war: Hildale man criminally charged for playing Christmas music, battles child custody nightmare". St. George, Utah News. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  16. ^ a b "Self-taught historian offers in-depth views of FLDS". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  17. ^ Morgan, Neil (September 2, 1975). "Polygamy Still Proves Popular in Proud Pocket of Arizona". Desert Sun. Palm Springs, CA. Copley News Service. p. A8, columns 1–4.
  18. ^ a b "Arizona may end takeover of polygamist area school district". Deseret News. October 10, 2009. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  19. ^ "Here is what polygamous sect member Ross LeBaron Jr. wrote in support of the Bundy family". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  20. ^ a b "Hiker recovering after northwest Arizona fall". KTNV. May 24, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  21. ^ "Cane Beds, AZ" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  22. ^ Valencia, Peter (July 26, 2020). "One charged in officer-involved shooting in Cane Beds, south of Utah/Arizona border". KSNV. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  23. ^ "Cane Beds Corral". Cane Beds Corral. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  24. ^ a b "Escaped inmate caught in Mohave County after K-9 finds him hiding in chicken coop". St. George, Utah News. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  25. ^ "USGS 1:24,000 Topographic Map Series: Cane Beds AZ". mapper.acme.com. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  26. ^ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  27. ^ a b c d "American FactFinder: Cane Beds CDP, Arizona". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved October 31, 2016.
  28. ^ "Near Cane Beds". All Trails. 2022.
  29. ^ Warren, Scott S. (1996). Exploring Arizona's Wild Areas: A Guide for Hikers, Backpackers, Climbers, Cross-Country Skiers and Paddlers. The Mountaineers. pp. 41–46. ISBN 978-0-89886-470-0.
  30. ^ "Rochester Woman Survives 100-Foot Fall On Hike In Arizona". May 24, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  31. ^ "After Surviving 100-Foot Fall, Nurse is Moving Forward and Looking Up » In the Loop". Mayo Clinic. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  32. ^ "St. George teen falls to his death in Cane Beds". KSL. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  33. ^ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Mohave County, AZ" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  34. ^ Bistline, Benjamin G. (2004). The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona. Agreka Books. ISBN 978-1-888106-74-9.
  35. ^ a b "Cane Beds (Mohave County, AZ) - Airports". Roadside Thoughts. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  36. ^ Ltd, rome2rio Pty. "Cane Beds to St George Airport (SGU) - 3 ways to travel via taxi, and car". Rome2rio. Retrieved February 23, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  37. ^ Anglen, Robert. "Mohave County renames road after LaVoy Finicum, militia member killed by officers". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  38. ^ "Arizona roadway to be named for man killed during Oregon protest". Las Vegas Review-Journal. November 8, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  39. ^ McKoy, Kathleen L. (2000). Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History of Pipe Spring National Monument. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Intermountain Region. pp. 379–380.
  40. ^ Anderson, O. L. (February 1, 1979). "Rocky Mountain coal for southern California's coal-fired electric power generation": 91–92. OSTI 6171938. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  41. ^ Richard E. Van Loenen (1988). Mineral Resources of the Canaan Mountain and the Watchman Wilderness Study Areas, Washington and Kane Counties, Utah, Issue 1746. United States Geological Survey. pp. A2, A5.
  42. ^ "Cane Beds explosion victims still hospitalized; benefit concert planned". St. George, Utah. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  43. ^ "New Colorado City medical facility begins construction, hiring processes". St. George, Utah News. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  44. ^ Garcia, Tony (May 23, 2016). "Rochester, Minn., tourist rescued after falling from Arizona hiking trail". KSNV. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  45. ^ "Cox Family Cemetery (Mohave County, AZ)". Roadside Thoughts. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
  46. ^ Television & Cable Factbook: Cable (PDF). Warren Publishing Company. 1997. pp. B-173, B-275. ISBN 978-1-57696-004-2 – via World Radio History.
  47. ^ "List of TV Translator Input Channels". Federal Communications Commission. July 23, 2021. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
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