KENT SPRINGS

The spring is supposedly named for William “W.H.B.” Kent.  Kent was born in 1878 and started with the Forest Service in 1904 in Silver City, New Mexico.   His duties primarily involved establishing boundaries of federal lands and enforcing restrictions on grazing and related activities to conserve rangeland.  In 1905 he was assigned to Arizona.  In 1908, Kent was named supervisor of the Tumacacori Division of the Garces National Forest which was named for Franciscan missionary Father Francisco Garces. The Garces National Forest was incorporated into the Coronado National Forest later in 1908.  According to a fellow ranger, Kent held his staff meetings during 1911 near a spring in the Santa Rita Mountains.  It is thought that this spring is the one the ranger referred to, hence the name, Kent Springs.  Kent was dismissed from the Forest Service in 1911, supposedly for alcohol addiction and for insisting on wearing his red bandana on his head instead of a Stetson.  Kent’s nickname was “Whiskey High Balls”.


Summarized from “The Nature of Madera Canyon” by Douglas W. Moore

Additional Material: GVHC Library File 36