The Hassayampa: The River That Makes Liars

There is a legend attached to the river that runs through Wickenburg, and it is one of the more entertaining pieces of folklore in the Arizona desert. The Hassayampa River rises in the mountains south of Prescott and flows generally northwest until it meets the Gila River near Buckeye. For most of its length it is what the desert Southwest calls a losing stream, a river that flows underground for long stretches and only surfaces in certain seasons or in certain places.

This subterranean quality gave the Hassayampa a reputation for mystery among the mining-era settlers who depended on it for water, and the legend grew up that whoever drank from the Hassayampa River would never be able to tell the truth again. A person who had drunk from the river became known as a Hassayamper, a term that came to mean someone who told tall tales. In the boom years of Arizona Territory, when prospectors and promoters were equally prone to fantastic exaggeration, the association between the Hassayampa and dishonesty had a particular satirical bite.

The legend survives in the name of the Hassayampa Inn, a historic hotel in Prescott built in nineteen twenty-seven, and in the casual use of the river's name as shorthand for a certain kind of optimistic frontier storytelling. The actual Hassayampa flows past Wickenburg in a sandy wash, usually dry on the surface, the water running silently below.