Apache Trail turns 100 by Carl Holcombe, The Arizona Republic

Since 900 A.D. and probably before, Apache Trail has been vital to life in the Valley. It has been a trade route, a path to cooler climates and water recreation, the scene of legends and the key to the construction of a dam that provided the foundation for the Valley’s rise from the desert floor.

This year, the paved version of the trail turns 100.

The trail, which is also Arizona 88 and runs from Apache Junction east to Roosevelt Lake and south to U.S. 60, rolls through areas flush with jagged rocky towers that rise from hills alongside the Superstition Mountains. Colossal mesas jut from the earth, green moss brushes the sides of bulbous rock formations and archaic remains of Native American cliff dwelling tribes stare out across miles of empty, rocky desert.

The earliest documented use of the trail was by the Salado tribe in about 900 A.D. as a footpath to cooler summer home locations. Historians believe the Anasazi later followed the trail to trade pottery with the Hohokam and gain access to water, Akers said.