Gila River
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
The Gila River is a tributary of the Colorado River, 630 mi (1,014 km) long, in the southwestern United States.
It rises in western New Mexico, in Sierra County on the western slope of continental divide in the Black Range. It flows southwest Gila National Forest and Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, then westward into Arizona, past the town of Safford, and along the southern slope of the Gila Mountains. It emerges from the mountains into the valley southeast of Phoenix, where it crosses the Gila River Indian Reservation as an intermittent stream, due to its use as a water source. East of Phoenix, it turns abrupty southward along the Gila Bend Mountains, then abruptly westward again near the town of Gila Bend, Arizona. It flows southwestward and joins the Colorado near Yuma, Arizona.
After the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, the river served as the border between the United States and Mexico until the 1853 Gadsden Purchase extended U.S. territory south of the Gila.
See also
fr:Gila (rivière)
