The Ol’ Pioneer The Magazine of the Historical Society

Volume 21 : Number 2 www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Spring 2010

In This Issue

Mules: A Dying Species at Grand Canyon ...... 3 The Yellow Brick Road ...... 6 President’s Letter The Ol’ Pioneer The Magazine of the After one of the snowiest winters in recent memory, signs of spring are fi- Grand Canyon Historical Society nally appearing in northern Arizona. It is a time when hikers and tourists alike Volume 21 : Number 2 begin to return to the canyon in droves like the swallows returning to Capist- Spring 2010 rano and the latest t-shirt designs make their appearance along with the new wildflowers along I-17. Old camping gear gets aired out, new gear u gets bought and plans get made for the year’s big adventures. Spring is a time The Historical Society was established of growth and renewal and new things. in July 1984 as a non-profit corporation Keeping in tune with the season and the times, we are going to be starting to develop and promote appreciation, some new things with the Grand Canyon Historical Society this year. One is under-standing and education of the the board’s recent decision to start posting old back issues of the Ol’ Pioneer earlier history of the inhabitants and and bulletin on the GCHS website for access by members and researchers. It is important events of the Grand Canyon. a good way to quickly find old articles or peruse early issues and we hope that The Ol’ Pioneer is published by the it will expand awareness and appreciation of the society’s work and research. GRAND CANYON HISTORICAL You can find an initial posting of older issues under the Publications section and SOCIETY in conjunction with The more will be added later. Be aware that the online copies will be for archival Bulletin, an informational newsletter. purposes only… printed hard-copies of the latest Ol’Pioneer will continue to be Both publications are a benefit of membership. Membership in the Society mailed to members only and will not be posted online until at least a year after is open to any person interested in the publication. We are also looking into ways of allowing members to join, pay historical, educational, and charitable their dues and share other information online… so keep an eye on the website purposes of the Society. Membership is (www.grandcanyonhistory.org). on an annual basis using the standard Spring is also a time for looking forward. It is hard to believe that it has been calendar; and dues of $20 are payable on the 1st of January each year, and more than three years since the last popular Grand Canyon History Sympo- mailed to the GCHS Treasurer, PO Box sium. There is a lot of interest in having another symposium in 2012 to coin- 31405 Flagstaff, AZ 86002. The Ol’ Pioneer cide with the Arizona statehood centennial. The tremendous success of the last magazine is copyrighted by the Grand symposium was due in large part to the efforts of numerous volunteers and Canyon Historical Society, Inc. All rights supporters. Planning and preparing for a third symposium will also require reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form significant time and resources and so a call goes out for volunteers who would without permission of the publisher. like to contribute to the effort. Even if you don’t live near the canyon, there will likely be opportunities to help remotely. If you are interested, please contact Lee Editor: Mary Williams Albertson (see contact info on the GCHS website). See you in the canyon! Submit photos and stories to the The Ol’ Pioneer editor of at: mary@ marywilliamsdesign.com or 4880 N Erik Berg Weatherford Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001. GCHS President (928) 779-3377. Please submit written articles and photos electronically on CD or via email if possible. You may mail photos or slides for scanning if needed.

Submissions to The Bulletin should be sent to Karen Greig, [email protected]

GCHS Officers Erik Berg, President John Azar, Vice President Cover: A wrangler and his mule string descend through the Tapeats sandstone Keith Green, Treasurer enroute to Phantom Ranch. Photo courtesy of : Tom Brownold. Amy Horn, Secretary Kirsten Heins, Pioneer Award Al Richmond, Awards Chair Photographer extraordinairre Tom Brownold has a portfolio of photos about Paul Schnur, Membership Committee the Grand Canyon mules and wranglers. You can see some of them ond order John Azar, Outings Coordinator prints at www.tombrownold.com. Board of Directors Karen Greig Howard Asaki Kristin Heins John Azar Mona McCroskey The Ol’ Pioneer submission deadlines are going to be roughly January, April, Erik Berg Carol Naille July and October and we will publish either three or four issues a year, de- Jackie Brown Adair Peterson Keith Green Paul Schnur pending on content volume.

2 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Mules : A Dying Species at Grand Canyon by Keith Green I’ve witnessed the trail crew for more money to increase funding for decades as they have tried different trail maintenance through higher he National Park Service is methods to keep the trail ditches from user fees. Maybe then mule riders considering severely limit- happening. Awhile back they actually would still be able to ride more places ing the historically significant widened the trail and created a place in the canyon. muleT rides at Grand Canyon. An for rainwater to run alongside the trail The Park Service also mentions Environmental Assess- other reasons for re- ment seeking to do so is stricting mule traffic. out for public review and Thousands of hik- comment until the end of ers have complained April. The preferred al- about road apples ternative calls for elimi- (mule droppings) and nation of the day trips to pee on the trail. All Plateau Point and Roaring those complaints have Springs. It would decrease finally resulted in ac- the number of mule rides tion. The Park Service to Phantom Ranch from also mentions un- twenty to ten mules. There pleasant interactions would still be the half-day between hikers and trips to Supai tunnel. Ten Mule trains have been riding into the canyon sincethe trails were built mule trips. Whenev- mule rides would go to Photo: National Park Service. er hikers and mules Uncle Jim’s Point. Private meet, unsafe things stock owners could take can happen unless the up to 12 animals into the canyon for with occasional wooden waterbars to mules are given the right-of-way. Ap- day trips presumably to Plateau Point push it across the trail into the can- parently this is not well understood or Roaring Springs; six could do an yon. I’ve seen trail crews laboriously especially by foreign hikers. Bud overnight at Phantom. The rules for replacing the trail foundation with Rippy, who once was a mule guide, concessionaire pack mules and Park various sizes of gravel or creating a told me the story of riding up the trail Service mules remain the same. cobblestone surface by setting slabs when a group of Germans were strid- The plan actually increases the of rock on end. The latest strategy has ing down the trail. total number of mule rides on both been to make a stair-step effect when- “Yer gonna have to stand along- rims, but it does this by creating mule ever the trail gets steep. Nothing has side the trail, or yer gonna get rides that stay out of the canyon. lasted more than a few years. The kicked,” Bud said. Forty mule riders per day could ride trails are subject to significant erosion The hikers kept coming; so bud from Yaki Point to somewhere near due to flooding, rockslides, and more said it again, (you’ll get kicked.”) Shoshone Point, and forty riders per or less continuous use. Limited fund- Up they came trying to squeeze by day could take a one-hour ride along ing has caused the corridor trails to the mules; so Bud kicked them! the Ken Patrick Trail (North Rim). fall into disrepair. The Bright Angel Mules have been a part of Grand The preferred alternative propos- and Kaibab Trails have become diffi- Canyon for more than 130 years. es an adaptive management strategy cult to navigate for hikers and mules. Prospectors used them, John Hance whereby managers would monitor In some areas, alternative trails have used them, Francois Matthes used the trails and possibly further restrict been formed because the real trail is mules and horses to map the canyon. trail use according to trail conditions. rutted or indistinguishable. Support In 1903, Dee Woolley, Dave Rust, et al The Park Service wants to limit walls and structures need repair. The began to improve the route from the the number of mule rides inside the Park Service claims they need $3 mil- South Rim to the North Rim so that it canyon mostly because of the dam- lion per year just to maintain these was suitable for mules. The idea was age they do to the trails. Mules almost trails and they’ve only been getting to get tourists from the South Rim always walk in a line on the same half that. In addition deferred main- to the North Rim and beyond into part of the trails width. This eventu- tenance costs are up to $24 million Southern Utah, and this had to be ally causes a ditch down the middle just to get the trails back to their origi- done by horses or mules. David Rust of the trail. Rainwater or snow melt nal condition. led a crew to make a horse trail from then runs down the ditch deepening A question rises here as to whether the North Rim to the river. Then, with it further. mule riders would be willing to pay much trouble, he was able to string www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 3 a cable across the river and suspend a cable car from it. Rust did all this in order to have a way to get horses and mules across the river where the Black Bridge stands today.. Rust then built a stock trail paralleling what is now the South Kaibab from the river to the Tonto Plateau and across that to Indian Gardens for mule traffic. Ralph Cameron improved the so that mules could use it. In other words, most, if not all, of the canyon trails were built for mule traffic. Until the 1960s, except in the cas- es of a few renegades, mules were considered the only way a civilized person would travel into the canyon. Think of the “On the Trail” section of Grofe’s . The mule day trip went all the way to the river before it was shortened to Pla- teau Point. In past years visitors could ride mules for three days in the can- yon with stops at Hermit Camp and Damagedone to the corridor canyon trails over the years. North Kaibab trail. Photo: National Phantom Ranch. Before restrictions, Park Service. one could ride a mule from both the North and South Rim to the river or across the canyon. The Park Service’s new plan seems like just another step toward the eventual elimination of mule traffic in the canyon. Access into the canyon is another issue. Those who cannot hike that far will not experience the inner can- yon unless they are lucky enough to get one of the ten mules to Phantom Ranch. River trips are an alternative, but that requires much more effort, and the views are only from the river if hiking is impossible. The Environmental Assessment is available on line at http://parkplan- ning.nps.gov/grca. Click on the “EA for Mules…” If you want to com- ment (before April 30), scroll down to “Open for Public Comment” and let them have it no matter what you think. You can also write the Superin- tendent at P. O. Box 129, Grand Can- yon, AZ 86023

Rock trail section on South Kaibab. Photo: National Park Service.

4 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Mule train at Windy Ridge on the South Kaibab trail. Photo: Tom Brownold / www.tombrownold.com

Mules at Phantom Ranch, waiting for thier next trip. www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 5 The Yellow Brick Road by Don Lago tion to its western destiny. that is sitting atop an earthen bank, Fulton bricks were loaded with which collapses due to a recent thaw. t the long-abandoned home- history, though very few people knew In the movie the bricks are sitting on stead of John Hance, the first it. One of the few who did was the the train platform and collapse for no white settler on the rim of the man who was president of the United obvious reason, and in fact the engi- GrandA Canyon, I reached down and States on the day I found the Fulton neer yells out a warning a split sec- turned over a broken yellow brick. brick at John Hance’s place. It was ond before the bricks begin to fall. It could have been years since Fulton bricks that had inflicted upon We see Reagan disappear beneath anyone had touched this brick. The this president a horrible accident. A the bricks, and then we see his tin Hance homestead was seldom vis- pile of Fulton bricks had collapsed coffee pot being crushed by the train ited. Only a few Grand Canyon his- upon him, pushing him onto a rail- wheels. When Reagan wakes up in tory buffs even tried to find it, and road track, pushing him into the path bed he looks beneath the blanket and sometimes they failed to find it. There of an oncoming train, which had run cries out in horror: “Where’s the rest wasn’t much to see there. There was over his legs, resulting in them being of me?” With the help of his steadfast a foundation outline, with bricks and amputated. Except that it turned out girlfriend, played by Ann Sheridan, stones scattered around it. There was that the train didn’t really run over Reagan recovers his self-confidence a stone well that now offered water his legs. His legs were amputated by and goes into business building a to no one. There was some rusty old a sadistic doctor who wanted to make subdivision for the workers of the hardware and tin cans. There wasn’t sure that his daughter didn’t marry a clay pits and brick factory. much to see there, except for the man who was beneath her. In the novel and movie the brick ghost road of American history, the If you are having trouble remem- accident is set in the year 1900, at a road that within twenty years had bering which recent American presi- time when John Hance was still liv- turned John Hance from a hermit into dent had his legs amputated by a sa- ing at his original homestead. Later the public persona of one of Ameri- distic doctor, it’s not because you are he would move to a cabin near the ca’s most celebrated landscapes. a poor student of American history. Bright Angel Lodge, where he would Imprinted into one side of the Only movie history. I first visited the entertain tourists with his tall tales. If yellow brick were four letters: “ON Hance homestead in 1988, when Ron- John Hance was writing this article, MO.” I immediately surmised where ald Reagan was president. If Reagan then the very bricks that knocked this brick had come from: the town had been able to land more roles like down Drake McHugh/Ronald Rea- of Fulton, Missouri (Mo), which was that of Drake McHugh in Kings Row, gan would be gathered up and put only a dozen miles from where I’d he probably would have remained a onboard a train heading west. The grown up. I had seen Fulton’s aban- Hollywood actor and never switched bricks would pass cowboys and In- doned brick factory quite a few times. to politics. The movie critics agree dians and aging Wild West towns My hometown and many small that Kings Row was Reagan’s best like Dodge City and head into the towns in Missouri still had plenty movie. Reagan thought so too. Kings mountains and find their way to John of old brick streets, brick sidewalks, Row was based on a 1940 bestselling Hance’s homestead. brick buildings, and brick walls, novel by Henry Bellamann, a native Even if the bricks at Hance’s whose bricks were imprinted with of Fulton. The fictional town of King’s homestead had missed out on the the name of the town or brick factory Row wasn’t nearly fictional enough excitement of conking and amputat- where they were made, including the for the residents of Fulton, who were ing a future president (and in truth, Fulton imprint. Yet I was surprised to appalled at seeing themselves depict- the bricks in the movie are larger find a Fulton brick way out here, over ed as sadists, murderers, swindlers, than normal bricks like the ones at a thousand miles from Fulton. There mental cases, snobs, and pompous Hance’s), they still had taken part in must have been many perfectly good hypocrites. To this day some Fulton the unlikely adventure of migrating brick factories that were closer, some residents begrudge Kings Row. to the Grand Canyon and sheltering of them much closer. By what logic or Reagan’s Drake McHugh, after a character like John Hance. chance of history had a Fulton brick being robbed of his life savings by a I wandered around the home- found its way here? There was a story runaway banker, is reduced to work- stead and found an unbroken brick here, a mystery, and perhaps it was ing in the local train yard. One winter inscribed with “FULTON MO.” Most the story of John Hance himself, of night he is waving a signal lantern of the bricks here bore no name. Most America itself, the story of a road, a beside a moving train when the stack of the bricks were light yellow, which westward tide, that had carried not of bricks behind him falls. In the nov- meant they were firebricks, manufac- just bricks and men but a whole na- el, the bricks are on a wooden wagon tured to withstand greater heat than

6 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Captain John Hance’s Cabin, Grand Canyon. Photo by Emery Kolb. NAU Cline Library, Emery Kolb collection. NAU.PH.568.11150. www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 7 were the red bricks used for most good job—”A damn good job,” he I walked back down Main Street, construction purposes. Perhaps these said aloud.” looking at all the brick buildings, firebricks had formed John Hance’s A century after this scene I walked some of them made entirely of yel- fireplace or chimney. Or perhaps once into a downtown still full of brick low firebrick. The woodwork on the tourists began staying here, Hance buildings, brick sidewalks, and brick buildings was nicely maintained and had built an outdoor grill to cook for streets. painted. Like thousands of American them. Or perhaps Hance was so far There are lots of Missouri towns towns, by the 1950s Fulton had de- from the nearest hardware store that made mostly of brick because there cided that nineteenth-century brick he had to take whatever he could get. is lots of clay there, high quality clay and wood was old-fashioned and be- I found only one other brick that for making high quality bricks, espe- gan covering its downtown with steel was inscribed with the name of a cially firebricks. There is lots of clay sheeting and tile. But in the 1980s Ful- town: “COFFEYVILLE,” a town in there because during the Pennsylva- ton decided that maybe brick wasn’t Kansas. Coffeyville too was baked nian period, when the Appalachian really so ugly. with history, with Wild West lore. In Mountains were at their peak, far I went into the county history mu- the late 1800s Coffeyville was a cow larger than the Rockies today, rivers seum. They had one exhibit about town where cowboys brought cattle full of sediment were draining off to Fulton bricks, including photos and to the railroad and then lived it up the west and forming thick deposits. several sample bricks. and shot it out. Coffeyville was never Twenty miles north of Fulton these The first firebrick factory in Ful- as famous as Dodge City, but it won clay deposits would give rise to a ton opened soon after the Civil War, its spurs one day in 1892 when the firebrick factory that would supply but it was a modest operation, using Dalton gang rode into town to rob the bricks to build many major steel shovels to fill a barrel with clay and two banks and got into a gunfight mills and later the launch pad that ab- using “a gentle mule,” harnessed to with citizens, who killed most of the sorbed the fire of Apollo moon rock- a wooden shaft, to walk around the gang. If John Hance was telling this ets. The A. P. Green brick company barrel and stir the clay. In 1885—soon story, he would no doubt point to a would also produce a family fortune after John Hance settled on the South knick on his Coffeyville brick and and a son who became a longtime Rim—an ambitious brick operation swear it was from a bullet that had Missouri governor and U. S. sena- began, intending to market bricks struck a pile of bricks on the platform tor. The town that A. P. Green built, outside of town, though sometimes at the Coffeyville train station, bricks named Mexico, still calls itself “The the factory sat idle due to lack of waiting to be loaded onto a train to firebrick capital of the world.” orders. But gradually business im- Arizona. Hance might also claim that This was a good reason why Ful- proved and the factory expanded, his brick was manufactured by the ton bricks might end up at the Grand and by 1902 it employed 130 men. A same hands that had wielded a gun Canyon: they were good bricks. But major breakthrough occurred when and shot the Dalton gang. The time not, apparently, good enough for Ful- railroad companies began buying frame would be correct: The Dalton ton. I walked up Main Street to where Fulton firebricks to line the fireboxes raid occurred the year before John half a block of the street had been ex- of their steam locomotives, fitting for Hance settled on the South Rim. cavated to repair underground pipes. a town named for Robert Fulton, the I decided that sometime when I Now workmen were laying the old inventor of the steam engine. Did went through Fulton, Missouri, I’d bricks back atop the filed-in dirt, John Hance’s bricks smoke their way try to learn more about its brick his- carefully arranging them like jigsaw west in a Santa Fe Railway locomo- tory. pieces. The workmen were laying tive and then get replaced and dis- Both the novel and the movie of the bricks with their inscribed side carded? Perhaps the Santa Fe Railway Kings Row begin with an image of facing down, but from the stack of brought a supply of Fulton firebricks bricks, of “the public-school build- bricks I could see the inscription on to the South Rim when it arrived in ing—Kings Rows special pride…It them: MOBERLY MO. Moberly was 1901. Then again, the timing seems was a red brick building, luxuriantly a town forty miles from here. I asked off. The railways didn’t adopt Fulton gothic—a bewildering arrangement the workmen why Fulton, with its bricks in a big way until 1909, and by of gables, battlements, and towers.” huge brick factory only a mile from then John Hance’s Grandview tour- On the same page we see “the old here, didn’t have Fulton bricks on its ist business was dead and he had no brick sidewalks, uneven after many own Main Street. They only laughed. need to build anything. years.” After learning that both the Soon afterward I visited Hannibal, Someone did haul some Fulton richest man in town and the poor Missouri, and I noticed that the old bricks to Anita, the copper mines European immigrants live in brick brick street in front of Mark Twain’s about fifteen miles south of the South houses, we visit the town cemetery: boyhood house also consisted of Rim. The Anita mines were opened “Absently, he noted the brickwork Moberly bricks. So why wasn’t it by Buckey O’Neill in 1897. Over a supporting the moss-covered slab… Moberly bricks or Mexico bricks at century later, archaeologists exam- He thought the brickwork was a John Hance’s homestead? ining an Anita mine shaft recorded

8 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org that it held Fulton bricks. If the Anita Woods was a women’s college in the took out an apprentice card in the mines had a pile of extra bricks, John southern style, where Scarlet O’Haras Amalgamated Union of Building Hance could have obtained his from came to become proper Southern la- Trade Workers.” there. dies, where the most essential skills As Churchill entered the yellow- I drove out to the abandoned were horseback riding, music, and brick college gymnasium, did he Fulton brick factory. Along the way dress fashions, but not math. To this glance up to inspect its workman- I came to a railroad crossing, with a day the William Woods campus is ship? If history had twisted differ- stop sign. This was the railroad spur dominated by huge horse stables ently, the bricks that ended up on the to the brick factory. The spur had been and arenas, and many students walk rim of the Grand Canyon, shielding abandoned years ago and the tracks around campus in riding pants and John Hance’s labors to obtain the as- removed and paved over, but the boots. Harvey was teaching in Ful- bestos that aided Winston Churchill’s old stop sign was still there, requir- ton when Kings Row was published labors to save London from fire, ing everyone to stop for ghost trains, and came out as a movie, and he un- could have ended up being admired for the roar of the past. This was the doubtedly heard great outrage about by Churchill’s glance. Or Churchill sort of town Fulton was, a town that it. After three years, Harvey left for a could have failed to see a brick be- was still enthralled by the glories of high-quality college in Yankee Iowa. cause it was lying on the rim of the the Confederacy, glories that in 1861 I found my way to the brick fac- Grand Canyon, or being picked prompted Fulton to secede from the tory that had opened in 1948. Its huge up at that very moment by Harvey United States even when the rest of metal building and water tower were Butchart, who suddenly smelled that slave-owning Missouri refused to do rusting, its old clay quarries full of old familiar smoke. so. When I’d been in the county his- weeds. In 1962 this factory had pro- I didn’t usually go near Cof- tory museum I’d overheard two local duced 100,000 bricks every day. But feyville, Kansas, but now I was curi- ladies looking through old photo- the age of American steel mills, steam ous to see what stories its brick might graphs, saying how glorious it would locomotives, and basement furnaces hold. After all, Kansas was the home be to find a photo of their ancestor had ended. of Dorothy, who followed the yellow wearing his Confederate uniform. On my way out of town I stopped brick road to adventure. I imagined It was such pomposities that had at the other Fulton college, Westmin- that if John Hance’s Coffeyville brick made Fulton such rich raw material ster. It was the venerable British name could speak, then when it landed on for Henry Bellamann, and why many of Westminster, plus the fact that the rim of the Grand Canyon it would locals still regarded Bellamann as a Westminster College was in Presi- have said: “Something tells me I’m traitor. dent Harry Truman’s home state, that not in Kansas anymore.” Along the way to the brick factory prompted Truman to invite Winston Downtown Coffeyville was most- I paused at the original brickworks, Churchill to Westminster’s yellow- ly brick buildings, but most of it re- which had been abandoned in 1948. brick gymnasium to deliver his “Iron mained covered with 1960s steel Today it was the city maintenance Curtain” speech in 1946. Today the sheeting. And most of it was aban- department yard, yet it still held one campus commemorates the speech doned. Whole rows of stores were kiln and one smokestack. It was this with a Christopher Wren chapel, empty, with peeling walls and old brickworks that saw bombed out in World War II and later shelves covered with dirt. Coffeyville in operation when he moved to Ful- shipped to Fulton and rebuilt. The made quite a contrast with its neigh- ton in 1939 to teach college. basement holds a Winston Churchill boring town of Independence, Kan- For three years Harvey Butchart museum. One exhibit is a chaotic sas, which had a vibrant downtown smelled the smoke of the factory that pile of broken bricks, portraying a full of shops and cafes and people. had made the bricks that somehow bombed London house. I tried to pick Independence had long ago removed found their way to the rim of the up a brick to see if it was actually a its steel disguise and restored its orig- Grand Canyon. Butchart was only a Fulton brick, but it was glued down. I inal brick architecture. few years away from finding his own thought of how the asbestos that John Now the only reason visitors vis- way to the rim of the Grand Canyon, Hance mined from the Grand Can- ited downtown Coffeyville was for and to John Hance’s trail into the yon was reportedly shipped to Lon- a brief moment of Wild West greed canyon, and to decades of obsession don for use as fireproofing; perhaps and violence. On October 5, 1892 the with hiking the canyon. Did Harvey it helped to save buildings in the war. Dalton gang rode into town and tried Butchart ever wander over to John A display on Churchill’s personal to rob two banks at once, leading to Hance’s homestead and turn over a life included three bricks and a trow- a shoot-out in which four of the five brick and smell that old Fulton smoke el. Two photos showed Churchill en- gang members died, and four town again? joying his hobby of bricklaying at his defenders. Today the biggest annual The original brickworks was estate: “Churchill constructed several event in town is the “Dalton Defend- right next to William Woods College, new buildings with his own hands… ers Days,” with a reenactment of the where Harvey taught math. William Proud of his skill as a bricklayer, he shoot-out, all-day musical entertain- www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 9 ment, chuckwagon feasts, crafts, were geometric, and others picto- Creek, down into the , games, a cake walk, and a 5k run. Un- rial, such as sunflowers, stars, or an downriver to help erode the canyon fortunately for tourism, the Dalton oxen yoke. It seemed Coffeyville was deeper. A journey stranger than Oz. defenders didn’t have the foresight famous for its red paving bricks, not When I had first contacted the to shoot the Dalton gang on the plaza firebricks. The most famous Cof- Coffeyville museum about their brick where a large crowd could watch, feyville brick said simply “DON’T history, they’d put me in touch with a but in a narrow alley, now known as SPIT ON SIDEWALK,” which in the local man, Norm Roller, who was the “Death Alley.” age when tuberculosis killed one in expert on Coffeyville bricks. Norm I walked up Death Alley, where every 500 Americans, was often pub- told me that if I ever came to town the outlines of four bodies were paint- lic law. Coffeyville’s anti-spit bricks he’d show me his brick collection. ed on the ground. The alley also held have been seen in sidewalks all over Now I gave Norm a call, and he gave the stone jail—bricks weren’t sturdy America, and from Paris to China. me directions to his house a few miles enough—that had been here in 1892. John Hance’s brick was made at out of town. After I’d seen the display I put 50¢ into a bulky old metal tape the Coffeyville Vitrified Brick and of bricks in the museum, I expected player machine and it played a song Tile Company, started in 1894, the that Norm would show me a similar and told me the story of the Dalton largest factory in town. I found an collection, so I wasn’t sure if this visit raid, to which a light went on inside aerial photo of their massive plant in would be worthwhile. the jail, showing me dummies of the 1925, with two large shale pits, one Norm greeted me and led me to a four dead Daltons, a scene copied already abandoned and filled with small barn in his backyard, where he from a famous photograph. water. Since the edge of this photo kept his bricks. I started thinking that If history had twisted differently, showed the downtown, I now knew Norm’s collection must not be very then the Coffeyville brick that had where to find the pit from which John important to him if he kept it stashed landed on the rim of the Grand Can- Hance’s brick had started its journey. away in a barn, behind some rusty yon could have ended up in Death The pit was still there, still a lake, tractor. Norm unlocked a padlock Alley, pooling with blood and fame. fringed by large chaotic piles of and opened the door and turned on Perhaps it was only a whim of chance, bricks. Ducks paddled on the lake. the lights. I was staring at thousands only a random pick or a fifteen-sec- The factory building was still there, of bricks, row after row of tall shelves ond difference, that sent one pallet of now serving as some sort of foundry. full of bricks, a whole barn packed bricks into a local alley and the adja- The bricks along the lakeshore with bricks. cent pallet onto a train heading west. must have been there for many de- Norm started pointing out the geo- John Hance’s brick went on its own cades, soaking up water and cold graphical arrangement of the bricks, Wild West adventure, not untouched and summer sun, slowly cracking by state and by country. Norm had by a lust for wealth, but whereas the open and shedding dust, dissolving bricks from all over the world. Al- Dalton gang sought instant wealth, back into the earth from which they most all of the bricks were imprinted John Hance undertook labors so long had arisen. Their clay had remained with their place or company of origin, and extravagant and unrewarding underground for 200 million years, or with decorative symbols like stars that it’s hard to avoid the conclusion vibrating with the footsteps of dino- or animals. Some bricks held compa- that he was motivated more by the saurs, vibrating with the impacts of ny logos, such as bricks the Santa Fe wealth of his Grand Canyon experi- asteroids, and then one day it was Railway had used for its station plat- ences, which included the deep peace peeled to the sunlight, lifted up by forms. There were commemorative and beauty of living in a forest on the strange limbs, and shaped for pur- bricks for celebrating town centen- canyon rim, far from the hustle and poses unimaginable to rocks. At least nials or sports victories. There were gunfire of rough towns. one chunk of the clay journeyed to a bricks bearing the faces of Abraham I checked out one of the banks the distant deep canyon where the rocks Lincoln and Daffy Duck. Daltons had robbed, and then vis- told tales about time and erosion and At the large section of Kansas ited the Dalton Defenders Museum, transformation and uplift, tall tales bricks, both red and yellow bricks, which held the Dalton’s guns and as unlikely as any tales John Hance Norm pointed out the bricks from saddles. The museum also served as ever told. Inspired by the canyon’s Buffalo, Kansas, and said they were the town history museum, and it in- talent at erosion, the brick now sat the best bricks in America, the best cluded displays on Coffeyville bricks. cracking open and shedding dust, clay fired very hard. The Buffalo One display case held 31 designs of dust that flowed into a drainage brick factory, fifty miles from here, local bricks, half of them bearing the and over the canyon rim and down, had closed only a few years ago. name “Coffeyville,” usually as part down through layer after layer of The bricks made in Coffeyville var- of the name of one of the five brick rock, down through the Supai layer ied from top-quality to too-crumbly, companies in town. Together those that had been laid down at the same made with too much sand. When companies produced 765,000 bricks time this clay was being laid down in the age of automobiles began, thou- every day, in 1900. Some designs the future Kansas, down into Hance sands of towns started paving their

10 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org dirt streets with bricks, extra-thick federate army, then the Union army. ate army and been captured, as he’d bricks laid two deep. But with time, But Hance’s niece later dismissed admitted. Hance also claimed he’d and with heavier automobiles, peo- the claim that Hance had ever been been converted and joined the Union ple saw that brick streets buckled and a Confederate soldier, saying that the army. But I found Hance’s Civil War crumbled and were harder to main- Hances were loyal Unionists. record, and it turned out that Hance tain than asphalt or concrete streets. I traced John Hance’s family to had spent the last two years of the Even in Coffeyville the brick streets a homestead near Rolla, in the Mis- war in a prison camp, Fort Delaware, got paved over. Many towns still had souri Ozarks. I once tried to visit the one of the most squalid of Union pris- a Redwall strata of Coffeyville bricks homestead, but found that it was pri- on camps. It seemed that John Hance hidden under a succession of asphalt vate pastureland, blocked by a gate. It had tried to cover up his Confederate strata. was in a hollow rimmed by 100-foot- and POW years, which his pro-union Were Coffeyville bricks ever used tall ridges, with a lush green floor. I relatives wouldn’t want to hear. A on the streets and sidewalks of the did find a nearby cemetery that held large majority of tourists at the Grand South Rim? Perhaps John Hance a dozen Hance graves, though at the Canyon during Hance’s years were found his there. Or perhaps he found time I wasn’t sure how they might be from Yankee states, and it would them in Williams or Flagstaff, to related to John Hance. Several related have stolen the romance from John which they’d hitched a ride on the Hance families had moved from Ten- Hance’s Wild West persona if people Santa Fe Railway, which does run nessee to the Rolla area around 1850. knew he’d been a Confederate soldier through Kansas, if 100 miles from Today there were dozens of Hance and a prisoner in a notorious prison. Coffeyville (and through Missouri, families in the area, and they held John Hance’s history in the nearly 75 miles from Fulton). But why didn’t an annual Hance family reunion. But two decades between the end of the John Hance have a brick from Buf- when I began contacting Hances, I Civil War and his arrival at the Grand falo, Kansas? As Norm’s brick col- couldn’t find anyone who had heard Canyon is vague, but we see John lection showed, it remained against of John Hance. I explained to them Hance popping up here and there as the odds that Hance would have the that John Hance was a Grand Canyon a character in America’s Wild West bricks he did. legend, an American legend, with a saga. Right after the war John Hance It seemed that Norm belonged to creek, a rapid, and a trail named for was working for Lorenzo Hickok, the a subculture of devoted brick lovers him, with rangers impersonating brother of Wild Bill Hickok, hauling and collectors; Norm used to travel him, with history buffs seeking out supplies to army forts on the plains. to brick collectors fairs all over the his grave. I did find someone who Lorenzo Hickok was a friend of country. Norm had been a building offered to act as my ambassador at John’s brother, George Hance, who in contractor in town, so he appreciated the next Hance family reunion, to some history books is the man who bricks for their practical uses as well ask for memories of John Hance. But attached the nickname “Wild Bill” as their historical and artistic inter- she reported that not one Hance had to Wild Bill Hickok. John Hance fol- est. Norm’s barn was famous in the ever heard of John Hance. Of course, lowed George’s westward path to world of brick collectors, who visited since these were Hances I was deal- Arizona, where they settled in Camp him from all over. ing with, it was entirely possible they Verde, running a store and farm. In Yet even Norm could only guess were all lying. 1881 John Hance was driving a stage how bricks from Coffeyville and Ful- The Missouri Ozarks seemed a coach near Flagstaff when it was ton (of course, Norm had some bricks logical place for John Hance to have robbed of $125,000, which was never from Fulton) had ended up at a re- come from. It was full of tall limestone recovered, keeping treasure hunters mote cabin on the rim of the Grand cliffs—tall by Midwestern standards, busy for years to come. This was the Canyon. 300 feet tall. John Hance’s county, era when prospecting was booming The mysterious bricks were a Phelps County, has one of the high- in Arizona, and John Hance seemed good symbol of the mystery of John est numbers of caves of any county to feel that he was the larger-than-life Hance himself, for there was plenty in America. The area was such an man needed to take on a Grand Can- of mystery in how John Hance had important mining area that Rolla es- yon landscape that was too big and ended up living on the rim of the tablished a mining college, still there too difficult for most men. Grand Canyon. today as the engineering and geology It was all a mystery to clay. Clay Like the Fulton brick, John Hance campus of the University of Missouri. was content to sit underground for had migrated to the canyon from Mis- Growing up with limestone cliffs, 200 million years. Supai clay was con- souri. Being from Missouri, I was cu- switchback trails, and mines, John tent never to wonder if it had been rious about Hance’s Missouri roots. Hance would have felt at home in the unearthed by rain or by the shovel of Hance was always reticent about his Grand Canyon. John Hance building a trail, a trail that past. He said only that he was born in I also found a likely reason for was the farthest tentacle of a restless Tennessee, and that he joined the Civ- John Hance’s reticence about his past. searching that had filled the continent il War army in Missouri, first the Con- He had indeed joined the Confeder- with trails. Clay couldn’t grasp the www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 11 Grand Canyon Historical Society PRSRT STD PO Box 31405 U.S. POSTAGE Flagstaff, AZ 86003 PAID FLAGSTAFF, AZ PERMIT 333

dreams of men or nations, the vision of a beckoning frontier, of land and gold and freedom and adventure and natural beauty. But clay joined into the … yoo hoo dream and the adventure, journeying with it, mapping it out, sheltering it, cooking for it, warming it, adding to its energy, adding to the national story that required heroes like John Hance to tell tales as tall as the Rockies and the canyon cliffs. ^ Spread the Word — Join the Grand Canyon Historical Society!

Membership in the Grand Canyon Historical Society has its benefits: 1 Henry Bellamann, King’s Row (New • Annual subscription to the tri-annual magazine The Ol’ Pioneer. York: Simon and Schuster, 1940) p 4. • Annual subscription to the quarterly newsletter The Bulletin. 2 Ibid, p 4. • Discount on all GCHS publications. 3 Ibid, p 108. • Free admission to all GCHS programs and outings, including an an- nual picnic on the edge of the Canyon. • Participation in the annual GCHS membership meeting and the elec- tion of Board Members. Membership is $20 per year ($25 outside U.S.). To become a member print out the online application at grandcanyonhistory.org or write down your name, address, phone num- ber and email address and send it with your check to the Grand Canyon Historical Society at PO Box 31405, Flagstaff, AZ 86003.