Great Bend of the Gila

Proposed National ParkArizona
Petroglyph boulders at Painted RockPhotograph: Chris Wonderly / Bureau of Land Management
All proposed National ParksGreat Bend of the GilaNo active campaign
Location
Arizona
Current protection
Bureau of Land Management lands, including the Signal Mountain and Woolsey Peak wildernesses
Status
BLM monument campaign; no National Park campaign
Tier
Tier 2 · National Monument
In the book
Not featured in Undiscovered America

Why should it be a National Park?

Where the Gila River swings around the Gila Bend Mountains west of Phoenix, basalt outcrops along the old river carry thousands of petroglyphs, at places like Sears Point and Painted Rock, left by Hohokam, Patayan, and later peoples over thousands of years.

At least 13 tribes have ties to this land, and the desert around it holds wilderness mountains and the historic trails of the Mormon Battalion and the Butterfield stage. It is one of the richest rock art landscapes in the Southwest, and it deserves the recognition a National Park brings.

The history of National Park Campaigns

Rep. Raúl Grijalva carried the Great Bend of the Gila for nearly a decade. His first bill, in 2016, would have protected about 84,000 acres along the river; his 2024 bill, the Great Bend of the Gila National Monument Establishment Act, grew it to nearly 400,000 acres with a tribal commission to guide management. Neither passed, and no monument was proclaimed.

Distinct National Park attempts
0
Other designation attempts
2 (2016 monument bill; 2024 monument bill)

Sources

  • House Natural Resources Committee Democrats, press releases (2016, 2024)
  • Cronkite News, "Bill proposing national monument along Gila River re-introduced" (2016)
  • Arizona Public Media (2024)
Know of a campaign? Tell us
  1. 2010

    An Interior Department paper lists Arizona's Northwest Sonoran Desert, about 500,000 acres, among 14 prospective national monuments.

  2. August 29, 2016

    Grijalva announces H.R. 5556, an 84,000-acre Great Bend of the Gila National Monument, at the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona; eight of 13 tribes endorse it.

  3. August 2, 2024

    Grijalva introduces the Great Bend of the Gila National Monument Establishment Act for about 377,000 acres, with a tribal commission.