Verde Valley in the context of "Endemic (ecology)"

Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer) is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be endemic to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can also be referred to as an endemism or, in scientific literature, as an endemite.

Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in a particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology, because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area or becoming extirpated from an area they once lived), go extinct, or diversify into more species.

Jerome is a town in the Black Hills of Yavapai County in the U.S. state of Arizona. Founded in the late 19th century on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley, Jerome is approximately 100 miles (160 km) north of Phoenix along State Route 89A between Sedona and Prescott. Supported in its heyday by rich copper mines, it was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. As of the 2020 census, its population was 464.

The town owes its existence mainly to two ore bodies that formed about 1.75 billion years ago along a ring fault in the caldera of an undersea volcano. Tectonic plate movements, plate collisions, uplift, deposition, erosion, and other geologic processes eventually exposed the tip of one of the ore bodies and pushed the other close to the surface, both near Jerome. In the late 19th century, the United Verde Mine, developed by William A. Clark, extracted ore bearing copper, gold, silver, and other metals from the larger of the two. The United Verde Extension UVX Mine, owned by James Douglas Jr., depended on the other huge deposit. In total, the copper deposits discovered in Jerome's vicinity were among the richest ever found.

Mingus Mountain (Yavapai: Hwa:lkyañaña) is a mountain located in the U.S. state of Arizona in the Black Hills mountain range. It is located within the Prescott National Forest traversed by State Route 89A approximately midway between Cottonwood and Prescott. The summit can be reached via Forest Service roads that branch off from State Route 89A. From the mountain, there are views of the Verde Valley, Sycamore Canyon Wilderness and the towns of Cottonwood, Jerome, and Clarkdale. The Woodchute Wilderness, north of the highest point of 89A, also offers views and hiking trails. There are several National Forest campgrounds in the area and it is the transmitter location for Prescott full-service television station KAZT-TV and several low-power television stations serving Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Camp Verde and Prescott Valley. Mingus Mountain is also the premier flying site of the Arizona Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association.

According to the book, Roadside History of Arizona, by Marshall Trimble, "Mingus Mountain was named for Joseph and Jacob Mingus, two brothers who settled in the area in the 1880s and later operated a sawmill near the base of the mountain". Another source attributes the name to William Mingus (d. 1911, Prescott, Arizona), a pioneer prospector who lived and worked on Mingus Mountain in the 1870s.