It’s Show Low

Concho and Vernon: lake, history and high country east of White Mountain Lake

Part of White Mountain Lake country, our guide to the lake, the golf and the juniper country north of Show Low.

Concho and Vernon are small Apache County communities east of White Mountain Lake: Concho, at about 5,939 ft, grew up around a spring-fed lake; Vernon sits higher, at about 6,916 ft, at the edge of the pine forest.

~84 acresConcho Lake (USGS)
1927Concho Springs dam
5,939 ftConcho (USGS)
6,916 ftVernon (USGS)
Concho Lake under a wide sky with low hills behind
Concho Lake. Photo: Christopher J Fernandes, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Concho Lake

DamConcho Springs (federal ID AZ00032), rockfill, completed 1927
PurposeIrrigation and recreation
SurfaceAbout 84 acres on USGS maps (155 acres in the dam record)
Water surfaceAbout 6,296 ft

Concho Spring is just south of the lake. The photographer’s caption describes a public recreation area managed by Arizona Game and Fish; we could not confirm current access or stocking on the department’s website.

Concho

Local histories credit Manuel Antonio Candelaria with settling Concho in 1861, and Hispanic families from New Mexico built it into a sheep-ranching community; ASU Library’s collection on Hispanics in Concho dates San Rafael Catholic Church to 1925. Concho Creek runs through town.

Vernon

Vernon, about 1,000 ft higher than Concho, is a small community in the Vernon Elementary School District with ranches and pine forest nearby. See events in White Mountain Lake, Concho and Vernon.

Concho (north) and Vernon (south). Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

What we could not verify

Questions people ask

Can you fish at Concho Lake?

It has been described as a public recreation area managed with Arizona Game and Fish; check current access and stocking with the department before you go.

When was Concho settled?

Local histories credit Manuel Antonio Candelaria, 1861, with Hispanic families from New Mexico following.

More in White Mountain Lake country

Sources

  1. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: National Inventory of Dams (Daggs, AZ00013; Concho Springs, AZ00032)
  2. USGS National Hydrography Dataset (lakes and streams)
  3. USGS Geographic Names (geonames map service)
  4. ASU Library: Hispanics in Concho

Checked October 22, 2026 by It’s Show Low. Cite this page: It’s Show Low (itsshowlow.com), checked October 22, 2026. Free to quote with a link; tables are licensed CC BY 4.0.