Tortilla Flat is a small unincorporated community in far eastern Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the central part of the state, northeast of Apache Junction. It is the last surviving stagecoach stop along the Apache Trail. According to the Gross Management Department of Arizona's main U.S. Post Office in Phoenix, Tortilla Flat is presumed to be Arizona's smallest official "community" having a U.S. Post Office and voting precinct. The town has an average population of 4. Tortilla Flat can be reached by vehicles on the Apache Trail (State Route 88), via Apache Junction.
Originally a camping ground for the prospectors who searched for gold in the Superstition Mountains in the mid-to-late 19th century, Tortilla Flat was later a freight camp for the construction of Theodore Roosevelt Dam. From this time (1904) on, Tortilla Flat has had a small (less than 100 people) but continuous population. A flood in 1942 badly damaged the town, resulting in many residents moving away.
The town is made up primarily of a country store, a saloon (bar/restaurant), a BBQ Patio that has a live band daily starting Mid November through April or until it gets too hot (over 100), a mercantile/gift shop, and a small museum. Most of these were constructed in the late 1980s after a fire consumed the existing store, restaurant and motel on the same site; the mercantile/gift shop was built in 2009.
Several hiking trails into the Superstition Mountains begin near Tortilla Flat.
History
The pre-modern history of what is now Tortilla Flat indicates that the valley had a creek running through it. It was used by the Yavapai to traverse through the Superstition Mountains. That trail became known as the "Yavapai Trail" or "Tonto Trail". However, an alternative explanation is that the name was given by John Cline, a Tonto Basin pioneer, who claims to have been stranded about 1867 at this location for several days with nothing but flour to make tortillas to eat.
Records of the Forest Service indicate that when the Tonto National Forest was established in 1905, it was done because the Salt River Reclamation Project – one of the first efforts of the United States Reclamation Service – needed the Forest Service to protect the Salt River watershed for the dams and otherwise manage the land because cattle grazing had stripped it of vegetation. The freight camp established at Tortilla Flat, as well as the other camps along the road to the dam, were, therefore, on U.S. Forest Service land. Those who wanted to make Tortilla Flat their permanent residence kept up the lease on the land in later years whenever it came due.