Well west of Phoenix, the river bends sharply southward along the Gila Bend Mountains, then it swings westward again near the town of Gila Bend. It emerges from the mountains into the valley southeast of Phoenix, Arizona, where it crosses the Gila River Indian Reservation as an intermittent stream due to large irrigation diversions, primarily at the Hayden Ashurst Diversion Dam. After flowing along the southern slope of the Gila Mountains in Graham County through a series of canyons, the Gila is impounded by Coolidge Dam in San Carlos Lake south of Peridot. It flows southwest through the Gila National Forest and the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, then westward into Arizona, past the town of Safford. The Gila River has its source in western New Mexico, in Sierra County on the western slopes of the Continental Divide in the Black Range. The engineering projects transformed much of the river valley and its surroundings from arid desert into irrigated land, and supply water to more than five million people in the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas who live in the watershed.

The historic natural discharge of the river was around 1,900 cubic feet per second (54 m 3/s), but has declined to only 247 cubic feet per second (7.0 m 3/s). European Americans did not permanently settle the Gila River watershed until the mid-19th century.ĭuring the 20th century, development in the Gila River watershed prompted the construction of large diversion and flood control structures on the river and its tributaries, and consequently the Gila contributes only a small fraction of its historic flow to the Colorado. Indigenous peoples have lived along the river for at least 2,000 years, establishing complex agricultural societies before European exploration of the region began in the 16th century. The river drains an arid watershed of nearly 60,000 square miles (160,000 km 2) that lies mostly within the U.S., but also extends into northern Sonora, Mexico. The Gila River ( / ˈ h iː l ə/ O'odham : Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil ) is a 649-mile-long (1,044 km) tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. San Francisco River, Salt River, Agua Fria River, Hassayampa River San Simon River, San Pedro River, Santa Cruz River

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