©Bremner Benedict, Lower Sonoran Desert – Gran Desierto de Altar, La Salina Grande, Pozo (freshwater unnamed spring), MX. A fossil water aquifer of unknown extent supports rare coastal freshwater mound springs, (pozos), by the edge of the sea. Existing in an extremely dry desert where there is extensive ground water pumping for agriculture, border infrastructure construction as well as climate change threaten the survival this diverse ecological wetland.

©Bremner Benedict, Upper Sonoran Desert – Montezuma’s Well, Verde Valley, AZ. 1,500,000 US gallons of spring water emerges daily to fill this collapsed travertine spring mound. The Well is a stopover for waterfowl, including Cinnamon Teal ducks, Mallards, and Coots. It contains at least five unique species such as endemic diatom, a springsnail, a water scorpion, an amphipod, and a new genus and species of leech giving it the highest number of unique species of any single spring in North America. Cliff dwellings on the walls evidence human use from 600 AD.

©Bremner Benedict, Sonoran Desert – Quitobiquito Springs, Organ Pipe National Monument, AZ. Made of melted Ice Age water the springs are the only dependable water source in this driest part of Arizona. A wildlife supporting oasis, it’s home to two endangered species, the Quitobiquito Pupfish and the Sonoyta Mud Turtle. Important since the prehistoric era, it’s sacred to the Tohono O’odham tribe on their trans-national Salt Pilgrimage. Being at the edge of the US Mexico border the spring is threatened due to intensive water use in building the Border Wall.

©Bremner Benedict, Colorado Plateau – Garland Prairie, Dow Springs, AZ. Petroglyphs in the canyon show prehistoric peoples used these springs. In the 1870’s it was an overland trail water station which became a short-lived, small-town due to abundant and reliable springs. Water flow measurements since the 1980’s shows a decreasing water table.

©Bremner Benedict, Colorado Plateau –Black Mesa, Big Uncle’s Spring, AZ. Big Uncle shared the water from his ancestral spring with his neighbors until it dried up. Since the 1960’s Peabody Energy Coal Company’s intensive strip mining, consumed high levels of water from the Navajo aquifer to transport coal with a slurry pipeline depleting fifty springs in the area. The water table was greatly lowered. The mine closed late 2019.

©Bremner Benedict, Colorado Plateau – Coconino Forest, Weimer Springs, AZ. Serving as a watering hole for free-range cattle and wildlife an accidental spill of forest-fire retardant turned the spring this red color. The toxicity of these chemicals will take several years to dissipate.

©Bremner Benedict, Colorado Plateau, Painted Desert – Unnamed spring, Navajo Nation, AZ. A remnant of a 1800’s trading post on the Navajo Nation, this artesian spring serves local sheep ranchers and farmers as their only running water.

©Bremner Benedict, Smoke Creek Desert – Artesian spring, Deep Hole Ranch, NV. Only a day’s walk from Wall Springs on the Nobles Trail, a trading post arose here in 1856 for westward immigrants and local Shoshone and Paiute. Lack of water made agriculture problematic in this very dry desert. Attempts to farm creased as the aquifers were depleting due to withdrawals of water exceeding replenishment. Today, the land supports an only couple hundred cattle through late summer and Fall.

©Bremner Benedict, Smoke Creek Desert – Wall Springs, NV. Thousands of white settlers crossing the country on the 1850’s Nobles Emigrant Trail rested at this campsite and watering hole. They followed an ancient path indigenous people created going from known spring to spring. In the 1970’s private landowners piped the spring waters to their ranches, emptying the pool under the tree.

©Bremner Benedict, Black Rock Desert – Fly Geyser, NV. Northern Paiute called this area Boiling Springs. Roughly 100 years ago farmers drilled an irrigation well for irrigation but the water too hot to use. In 1964, a geothermal company drilled a second hole. Finding the water was too cool for energy uses they tried and failed to seal it, creating an artesian cone-type geyser. Blue-green algae that live in high temperature color the travertine limestone vibrant hues of red and green.

©Bremner Benedict, Great Basin Desert – Pinto East Hot Springs, NV. Made of warm subterranean water, moving through rocks that are so porous and fractured they act like pipes, the emerging water becomes a hot spring. On-going research of hypersaline environments with the presence of microbial life and secretion of antimicrobial compounds by microorganisms is being studied for novel compounds and potentially new strains of anti-biotic medicines.

©Bremner Benedict, Mojave Desert – Corn Creek Springs, Desert National Wildlife Refuge, NV. Home to Native Americans for at least 5,000 years, Corn Creek Springs part of the largest wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states. Established in 1936 it contains over 500 plant species, 320 bird species, 52 mammal species and over 35 reptile species. Located where the Mojave and the Great Basin Deserts merge, the valley floor receives no more than four inches of rain, annually.

©Bremner Benedict, Mojave Desert – Salt Creek Springs, Death Valley National Park, CA. An evolution island, this intermittent spring fed creek is a salt-water adapted ecosystem, with its own endemic desert Pupfish. The Salt Creek Pupfish developed the ability to live in water that’s 2.5 times more saline than seawater. The depletion and degradation in California springs has been so widespread, (up to 91% in places), that its wetlands are considered to be an endangered ecosystem.

©Bremner Benedict, Mojave Desert – Rogers Springs, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, NV. Mammoths drank from these springs created from melted ice age water. Recognized internationally as important wetlands, this last intact oasis in Death Valley is a biodiversity ‘hot spot’ including a relic species of desert fish, and 26 endemic plants and animals.

©Bremner Benedict, Mojave Desert – Tecopa Hot Springs, Tecopa, CA. This isolated remnant of a dried-up ancient lake located on the historic Old Spanish Trail is home to a minnow sized genetically unique descendent of a prehistoric Pupfish. High tourist visitation threatens their survival.