The Gila Valley was the route of Coronado in search of the Fabled Seven Cities of Cibola in 1540, of James O. Pattie and other famous trappers along the Gila River in 1825-26, and of Gen. Stephen W. Kearny and Lt. W.H. Emory led by Kit Carson to California in 1846; Apache Indian hunting grounds there were colonized by Mormon pioneers in 1879.