Qualla: Gila City, Arizona https://qualla.com/gila-city-arizona en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:10 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Gila City, Arizona https://qualla.com/gila-city-arizona Gila City, Arizona: Introduction https://qualla.com/gila-city-arizona/ Gold was discovered on the Gila River nineteen miles east of the Colorado confluence in 1858. Within months, a town had appeared. Men were pulling between twenty and one hundred and twenty-five dollars a day from the gravel. A 22-ounce nugget was found. Then the flood of 1862 came, and Gila City went into the river and did not come back. The post office closed July 14, 1863. The site is, today, indistinguishable from the surrounding desert.

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]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/y/d/gila-city-arizona-wp/9myd-gila-city-arizona-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Gila City, Arizona: Gold in the Desert https://qualla.com/gila-city-arizona/ The California Gold Rush of 1848-49 sent thousands of prospectors west, and many of them continued looking after the major deposits played out. The Gila River valley was one of the areas they searched, and in 1858, they found what they were looking for. Gold deposits along the Gi...

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]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/y/d/gila-city-arizona-wp/9myd-gila-city-arizona-gold-in-the-desert.mp3 0:06 2 full Gila City, Arizona: A Schooner in the Desert https://qualla.com/gila-city-arizona/ The geography of Gila City's supply chain was unusual. The Colorado and Gila Rivers, before they were dammed, were navigable by shallow-draft steamboats, and the settlements along them received supplies by water. In 1859, the schooner Arno — carrying parts destined to build a ste...

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]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/y/d/gila-city-arizona-wp/9myd-gila-city-arizona-a-schooner-in-the-desert.mp3 0:06 3 full Gila City, Arizona: The Great Flood of 1862 https://qualla.com/gila-city-arizona/ The winter of 1861-62 brought exceptional rainfall to the Southwest. The Colorado River, fed by snowmelt and sustained precipitation across a vast drainage basin, rose to levels that had not been seen in recorded history. The Great Flood of 1862 was catastrophic across the region...

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]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/y/d/gila-city-arizona-wp/9myd-gila-city-arizona-the-great-flood-of-1862.mp3 0:06 4 full Gila City, Arizona: What the River Took https://qualla.com/gila-city-arizona/ Ghost towns usually leave something. Gila City left nothing that can be identified on the current landscape. The combination of the 1862 flood, subsequent river course changes, agricultural development, and more than 160 years of natural process has eliminated any surface evidenc...

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]]> Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/m/y/d/gila-city-arizona-wp/9myd-gila-city-arizona-what-the-river-took.mp3 0:06 5 full