Cascabel

Overview

A post office named for a rattlesnake

Cascabel is less a town than a stretch of river. Its community center describes an area about 40 miles long along the San Pedro, starting about eight miles north of Benson, with one road in and out. Mexican and Anglo farmers worked this valley by 1865, and the Leach Wagon Road came through in 1868. Families such as the Sozas and Frank Pool settled along the river in the 1870s, and a post office named Pool ran from 1902 to 1913.

In 1916 Alex Herron, who had a small ranch and store just north of Hot Springs Wash, applied for a new post office. As the story is told in Arizona Place Names, he wanted to call it Pool and was turned down. On the way to Benson he met a man carrying a rattlesnake he had killed, asked what the snake was called, and was told "cascabel." Herron used that.

The 1920s and 1930s were hard, and the post office closed in 1936. World War II took the young men away, and many didn't come back. But Cascabel never emptied. Power arrived in the late 1950s, land sales in 1985 brought new residents, and neighbors built a community center in 1989. An undated listing names the old adobe post office and foundations among what remains.

Timeline

Along the lower San Pedro

1. By 1865Mexican and Anglo settlers farm along this stretch of the San Pedro. Apache raids drive them out.
2. 1868The Leach Wagon Road is built down the valley to link military posts.
3. 1870sThe Soza family settles south of Redington, builds a chapel and a school and raises 14 children. Frank Pool takes up land near Hot Springs Wash.
4. 1902–1913A post office named Pool operates at Pool's ranch.
5. 1916Rancher and storekeeper Alex Herron opens a post office and names it Cascabel.
6. 1920s–1930sHard times. Families who tried to live off the river move back to town.
7. 1936The Cascabel post office closes.
8. Late 1950sElectric power reaches the valley.
9. Early 1960sThe City of Tucson buys the old Pool place for its water rights. The pumping plan is later ruled illegal.
10. 1970sA state road from Benson to San Manuel is surveyed and four bridges are built, then the project is dropped. The school is torn down.
11. 1985The Tucson land is auctioned and split into parcels of about 40 acres. New residents arrive.
12. 1989Neighbors finish the Cascabel Community Center without loans.
13. 1993Telephone service arrives.
14. Jun 2026The community newsletter reports a Tohono O'odham Nation visit to a protected Sobaipuri village site nearby.

Before and after the post office

A road never finished, a village rediscovered

Cascabel's isolation was partly an accident of politics. In the 1970s the state planned a road from Benson to San Manuel to replace the 1868 wagon road. Rights of way were bought and four bridges were built, then the money went elsewhere. Residents still call Cascabel Road "primitive."

Water shaped the valley too. In the early 1960s the City of Tucson bought the old Pool place to pump San Pedro water to the city. The plan was ruled illegal, and in 1985 the land was sold off in parcels of about 40 acres. In 1990 parts of the lower San Pedro were named one of the Last Great Places, and the Bureau of Land Management bought riparian land nearby to protect the river.

The people who lived here first left more than the post office did.

Archaeology Southwest and the local conservation association protect a Sobaipuri O'odham village site near Cascabel. In the community's June 2026 newsletter, Bill Doelle of Archaeology Southwest writes that it is likely Baicatcan, the village of the leader Coro before he moved his people south to Quiburi near modern Fairbank in Father Kino's time. Members of the Tohono O'odham Nation's Cultural Preservation Committee toured the site in 2026.

What's left

Old post office, scattered homes

An undated listing names the old adobe post office and some foundations. The school that was hauled down from the Soza ranch and enlarged was torn down in the 1970s. The historic maps below trace the settlement: the 1945 sheet spells it Cascabell and shows Pool School, Pool Ranch and a windmill, the 1957 sheet adds Cascabel School and the Majalcas Ranch, and the 1996 sheet marks landing strips north of the river crossing.

• Old adobe post office
• Foundations
• Community center (1989)
• Occupied homes and ranches

Historic maps

Cascabel on USGS maps, 1945–1996

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19451:62,50019571:62,50019811:24,00019961:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Benson is the closest city. Both routes leave Benson on Pomerene Road and follow North Cascabel Road north along the San Pedro. There are no services past Benson.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

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Visitor reports

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Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Cascabel

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.

• Redington11.5 mi NW · Pima
• Tres Alamos15.7 mi S · Cochise
• Johnson22.5 mi SE · Cochise
• Pantano23.3 mi SW · Pima
• American Flag28.2 mi NW · Pinal
• Cochise29.4 mi SE · Cochise
• Total Wreck30.1 mi SW · Pima
• Bonita31.6 mi NE · Graham

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Cascabel": fact sheet fields (county, roads, legal description, climate, best time, remains, post office years).
2. Wikipedia, "Cascabel, Arizona", retrieved October 2026: Alex Herron and the name, post office 1916–1936, coordinates and elevation (GNIS).
3. Cascabel Community Center, Mary Taylor, "Cascabel, a bare bones accounting" (reprinted June 2026): valley history from 1865, the Pool post office, the name story from Arizona Place Names, the school, the Tucson water purchase, the abandoned state road, the 1985 land sale, the community center, telephones.
4. Cascabel Community Center, "About" and visitor guidelines: location by milepost, rules for guests.
5. Valley View, issue 21 (June 2026; issue 22 followed in October 2026): Bill Doelle of Archaeology Southwest on the Baicatcan Sobaipuri site and the Tohono O'odham visit.
6. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection: Redington 1945 and 1957, Soza Canyon 1981 and 1996 (spelling, school, ranches, landing strips, section).
7. BLM Surface Management Agency map service, queried October 2026: private land at the GNIS point.
8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Road surfaces: OpenStreetMap, October 2026. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Redington 1945, 1:62,500; Redington 1957, 1:62,500; Soza Canyon 1981, 1:24,000; Soza Canyon 1996, 1:24,000.