Quitobaquito Springs

Quitobaquito Springs is a rare desert water source in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, near the Mexican border. Inhabited by desert peoples for at least 16,000 years, it long served Tohono O'odham communities and later Spanish explorers traveling routes between Sonora and California, becoming an important stopping place into the later 19th century. A pond built in the 1860s and fed by the springs requires continual upkeep. The springs are especially notable for their fragile ecology, holding the only United States populations of several endangered species and an endemic snail, making the site culturally, historically, and biologically exceptional.

Arizona · United States