16-PAGE BONUS SECTION true tales of the frontier west

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COVER SPECIAL HISTORY SECTION 6 Venturing Into Wildness 25 Tales of the Wild West East Clear Creek slices northeastward above the BASCOM AND In 1861, when the page 54 Mogollon Rim, forming a deep channel through chief Cochise and U.S. Army Lt. George N. rough country that challenges visitors. Bascom met near in southeastern 63 GENE PERRET’S WIT STOP to negotiate the return of a captive boy, a series of As soon as his aching back gets better, our ‘cowboy’ bloody encounters ensued. page 25 FOCUS ON NATURE author intends to take up rodeo bull riding. 42 Captured by Apache warriors in Ant Slaves southern Arizona as a 12-year-old boy, Mickey Free 57 HUMOR In the Chiricahua Mountains, a researcher was raised by Indians, became a rough-but-respected studies one ant genus that survives by running U.S. Army scout and went on to legendary actions 2 LETTERS AND E-MAIL a slave operation. in 19th-century Arizona Territory. page 28 54 DESTINATION TWIN MURDERS AT TUTTLE’S STATION A vicious 1910 Hubbell Trading Post murder of two deer hunters by two ornery Army National Historic Site FOOD deserters led to a manhunt across eastern Arizona John Lorenzo Hubbell’s famous trading post on the 50 and the eventual capture of the killers. page 30 Quest for Mushrooms Navajo Indian Reservation carries on today with its INEPT BANDITS HAVE A BLAST In 1895, a couple of The Arizona Mushroom Club sponsors mountain founder’s original mission. wannabe robbers tried on two occasions—just a week forays to collect wild fungi that rate as gourmet apart—to hijack a Southern Pacific train near Willcox treasures or toxic blunders. 3 TAKING THE OFF-RAMP and take its loot, leaving empty-handed both times. Explore Arizona oddities, attractions and pleasures. page 32 ADVENTURE POKING FUN AT ARIZONA TERRITORY Newspaper 62 EXPERIENCE ARIZONA 44 ­writers around the country in the late 1800s and early Relive a historic town-naming at an Independence Dodging Lightning 1900s couldn’t resist fictionalizing “news” stories about Day Parade in Flagstaff; in Willcox, learn about the on Vishnu Temple wild escapades in Arizona Territory. page 33 lesser-known Earp brother’s fatal gunfight; enjoy Navajo weavings in Prescott; and celebrate a town’s THE TWO WORLDS OF CESARIO LUCERO On the A resolute climbing group undertakes a dizzying heritage in Seligman. expedition to the summit of one of Grand Arizona-Mexico border of the 1880s, Cesario Lucero Canyon’s remarkable natural wonders. was a cunning, relentless lawman whose work spanned 58 BACK ROAD ADVENTURE two nations and two cultures. His exploits were often Loop Around Gobbler Peak violent encounters, and his luck finally ran out. page 34 PORTFOLIO A circling drive passes unusual historical sites in 14 BUCKEY O’NEILL Admired by ladies and respected by the White Mountains and offers a chance to see More Heavenly Than Hellish fellow citizens, Yavapai County Sheriff Buckey O’Neill elk and turkeys, or go fishing and bird-watching. had barely taken office in 1889 when a sensational Photographs belie the name of rugged and train robbery occurred near Canyon Diablo. The 64 HIKE OF THE MONTH remote Devils Canyon in central Arizona, desperados were eventually imprisoned, but O’Neill Kendrick Mountain Trail although getting there proves a daunting and one robber shared an unusual fate. page 36 At Kendrick Peak, northwest of Flagstaff, a 3.5-mile challenge. ’S CATTLE The Apache leader Geronimo, steep sunny trail leads to scenic vistas and prime while guiding a band of his people and a herd of cattle wildlife habitat. from Mexico to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona in Vishnu 1883, was met at the border by a U.S. Army officer Temple National Park sent to be an escort. Federal lawmen wanted to arrest Hubbell Trading Post [this page] Sunrise reveals a delicate mist rising above Geronimo, but the Indians slipped away silently in the Kendrick Peak the still waters of Blue Ridge Reservoir on the Mogollon Rim. night with their cattle. page 39 [front cover] Blue Ridge Reservoir, one of the Rim East Clear Gobbler Country’s larger lakes, provides fishing and recreational ON-TRIAL RUSTLER ‘ALTERS’ EVIDENCE Cattle rustler Creek White Peak opportunities, plus a summertime haven for heat-stressed Rufus Nephew, also known as Climax Jim, was on trial Mountains ALPINE desert-dwellers. See story, page 6. both by nick berezenko [back cover] Morning light filters through the leaves of in the 1890s when the check he had forged was PHOENIX Devils Canyon an Arizona sycamore tree deep in Devils Canyon. presented as evidence. But the clever tobacco-chewing TUCSON See story, page 14. scoundrel found a tasteful way to win his case. page 40 POINTS OF INTEREST Chiricahua FEATURED IN Mountains THIS ISSUE and e-mail takingthe

JULY 2003 VOL. 79, NO. 7

Publisher WIN HOLDEN Arizona oddities, attractions and pleasures Editor ROBERT J. EARLY Senior Editor BETH DEVENY off-ramp Managing Editor RANDY SUMMERLIN Research Editor MARY PRATT Editorial Administrator CONNIE BOCH Administrative Assistant NIKKI KIMBEL Hanging Our Heads traffic, people driving without seatbelts and hikers THIS MONTH IN Director of Photography PETER ENSENBERGER Tombstone’s ‘Rose Too Tough to Die’ In “Buckey O’Neill, Mr. Sensitive?” (“Taking the entering the Grand Canyon in July without water. Photography Editor RICHARD MAACK ARIZONA Off-ramp,” February ‘03), there is the sentence I hope you don’t mind the ribbing, but I also Art Director MARY WINKELMAN VELGOS ince Arizona’s Territorial blossoms that number in the “When murderer Dennis Dilda was hung in Prescott hope you choose to set a good example in the Deputy Art Director BARBARA GLYNN DENNEY days, Tombstone has had the hundreds of thousands. Deputy Art Director BILLIE JO BISHOP in 1886 . . .” future. reputation of “The Town Too One of Tombstone’s first adobe Art Assistant PAULY HELLER First home Map Designer KEVIN KIBSEY S According to the best stylists, this is bad Todd Martin, Phoenix Tough to Die,” so it seems fitting structures houses the museum, 1878 laundry in the English. Plants are “hung” in the window and Arizona Highways Books that Tombstone is also the home of which has been owned and Salt River Valley Christmas stockings are “hung” by the chimney Miles From Where? WitWorks® Books “the rose too tough to die.” maintained by the Macia-Devere is established in Editor BOB ALBANO Phoenix. with care, but human beings are always “hanged.” I have been a subscriber to Arizona Highways for Associate Editor EVELYN HOWELL In 1885 Mary Gee traveled family for six generations. Visitors Associate Editor PK PERKIN McMAHON M.W. Wenner, Prescott more than 40 years. During that time, I have from her native Scotland The poor old editor would apologize for committing always looked forward to its arrival. Production Director CINDY MACKEY to Tombstone with her A month after the Production Coordinator KIM ENSENBERGER 1881 such an error, but he’s not here. The grammar police Recently however, it has gotten my hackles up. Promotions Art Director RONDA JOHNSON new American husband. Atlantic and Webmaster VICKY SNOW Pacific Railroad have taken him away. Almost every issue has a map on page 1 showing Soon after arriving, enters Arizona, Phoenix and Tucson, yet almost all articles have a Marketing Director she wrote her family track-laying is PATRICIA POWERS-ZERMEÑO Teen-age Dancing note at the end telling how to get there only from An Arabian Oryx asking them to send her suspended until Circulation Director LEE FRANKLIN September The column “He Could Have Danced All Night,” Phoenix. Success Story some cuttings from because of (“Along the Way,” February ’03) by S.E. Turner In the February 2003 issue, it says Nogales is Finance Director ROBERT M. STEELE nce one of the rarest animals her garden. Among the “unprecedented” rainstorms. brought tears to my eyes. 175 miles south of Phoenix. In the January 2003 Fulfillment Director VALERIE J. BECKETT in the world, and still listed plants that arrived from It has been more than 60 years since I attended issue, it says the Huachuca Mountains are 200 Information Technology Manager as endangered, the Arabian Scotland were the rooted Pima County’s CINDY BORMANIS O first legal teen dances, and the story brought back happy miles southeast of Phoenix. In the March 2003 oryx owes its growing numbers to shoots of a rosebush. hanging takes memories of the agony of asking a girl to dance issue, it notes that the Buenos Aires National FOR CUSTOMER INQUIRIES the Phoenix Zoo. Forty years ago, Gee planted the rose ROSE TREE MUSEUM ROSE place in Tucson. OR TO ORDER BY PHONE: (especially when you had little confidence in your Wildlife Refuge is 170 miles southwest of Phoenix, the zoo started the first captive cutting in the back Call toll-free: (800) 543-5432 [above and below] The Shady Lady of Tombstone dancing ability), and the joy of finding a and that Tubac is 160 miles south of Phoenix. In the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., breeding herd of Oryx leucoryx yard of her landlady’s Call (602) 712-2000 holds the record as the world’s largest rose tree. compatible­ partner. Most people in the world know where Tucson is. with only nine animals. Two boardinghouse. Little did The Black Or visit us online at: 1883 Canyon Stage is William A. Marsh, Boise, ID I recently bought a globe of the world made in arizonahighways.com hundred oryx births later, the Gee know that the rose robbed for the China. It has Tucson on it, but not Phoenix. For Corporate or Trade Sales Phoenix Zoo has helped other zoos she planted would live for second time in Call (602) 712-2050 Peanut-loving Squirrels I feel the 750,000 people in Tucson would like start their own herds. Many of the more than 117 years. three days. E-MAIL “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”: We read the story about the shy Abert squirrels by to know how far places in southern Arizona are [email protected] animals have been reintroduced to The Lady Banks rose, named Two Black Kelly Tighe (“Shy Sprites of the Ponderosa Pine from Tucson and not from Phoenix. Regular Mail: their native habitat, which ranges for the wife of noted 18th-century Canyon stage robbers are Forests,” February ’03). You should come to our James Gray, Tucson Editor from the Arabian Peninsula north British botanist Sir Joseph Banks, 2039 W. Lewis Ave. caught. One is a house. About seven of them come for breakfast We agree with you. We will begin giving mileage Phoenix, AZ 85009 to Iraq. came from cuttings taken from a local village blacksmith from each morning and for dinner each afternoon. from the nearest large city. Thanks for the ZOO GEORGE/PHOENIX DICK species brought to England in Governor Janet Napolitano Gillett. We feed them peanuts and apples, and if we suggestion. Director, Department of Transportation 1807. One of Banks’ collectors had don’t get out there fast enough, they climb on the Victor M. Mendez found the previously unknown back screen door to let us know they are out there. Finding a Body ARIZONA TRANSPORTATION BOARD species in China and brought a Chairman Ingo Radicke, Globe 1893A rumor that the They are beautiful animals, and we know when Thank you for the article “John Daw, the Navajos’ Vice Chairman Bill Jeffers, Holbrook Goodbye, Whiskey specimen back to Banks for the has each female has her litter. She has about three of Big Policeman” (February ’03) by Leo W. Banks. I Members Dallas “Rusty” Gant, Wickenburg Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in arrived in Tempe Richard “Dick” Hileman, Lake Havasu City brings out them, and when the young ones get big enough, particularly appreciated the account of the murder James W. Martin, Willcox n June 1931, federal agents London. citizens armed she brings them around to us. They will take that took place near Kaibito in 1937. Even though Joe Lane, Phoenix destroyed a huge whiskey still Called the “Shady Lady of with rifles, S.L. Schorr, Tucson shot­guns and peanuts right out of our hands, and they are I was only 2 years old, I will never forget that in Sandrock Canyon, located Tombstone,” the rose still grows on hand­guns. INTERNATIONAL REGIONAL MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION I clowns, too. For the cost of peanuts, we get hours event. My father, the late Ralph Jones, was the 2001, 2000, 1998, 1992, 1990 Magazine of the Year north of Strawberry and south of the patio of the Rose of entertainment just watching them. They are our trader at Kaibito when the body was spotted by WESTERN PUBLICATIONS ASSOCIATION what is now State Route 260. Tree Museum in babies and part of our family. There is nothing shy one of the local Navajo men. Not wanting to get 2002 Best Overall Consumer Publication The wilderness distillery had an historic Tombstone. Warren Earp 2002, 2001 Best Travel & In-transit Magazine 1900, about our squirrels. anywhere near a corpse, this gentleman persuaded 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1992 estimated worth of $20,000. The Guinness Book of youngest Best Regional & State Magazine brother of Wyatt Mr. and Mrs. Del Porter, Flagstaff Daddy to “discover” the body. Three men were arrested. World Records yearly

ROSE TREE MUSEUM ROSE is killed SOCIETY OF AMERICAN TRAVEL WRITERS FOUNDATION Earp, After that day, when my father brought any 2000, 1997 Gold Awards “They [federal agents] confirms it as the during a fight in Best Monthly Travel Magazine a Willcox saloon Montezumas Head ­visitor to Kaibito, he would slow his vehicle to a charged a log cabin which world’s largest will find displays chronicling on infamous I just finished reading the article ‘”Scrambling Up crawl and dramatically point out the spot where Arizona Highways® (ISSN 0004-1521) is published housed the distillery,” rose tree. Tombstone’s history, including Railroad Avenue. monthly by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Montezumas Head” (February ’03). I particularly the deceased was found. Then we would hear the Subscription price: $24 a year in the U.S., $34 in Canada, newspapers reported, Supported by period furniture, vintage guns and $37 elsewhere outside the U.S. Single copy: $3.99 U.S., enjoyed the fact that none of the climbers in the story of John Daw and how he knew that no except July, $4.99. Send subscription correspon­ dence­ “and with rifles and a metal pipe trellis, a mining exhibit. The museum and change of address information to Arizona High­ways, story wore helmets. It’s a well-known fact that the Navajo would ever wear the boots of a dead 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. Periodical sawed-off shotguns, surprised it covers more than 8,700 also sells rare, first-edition books Arizona leads postage paid at Phoenix, AZ and at additional mailing 1909 the world in protection afforded by climbing helmets is vastly ­person. Even today, with that old road to Kaibito office. POST­MASTER: send address changes to Arizona the three men, whom they square feet. Dappled sunlight about the Old West and potpourri Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. copper ore overrated (particularly in comparison with the no longer in existence, I think I could find that Copyright­ © 2003 by the Arizona­ Department of Trans- tied to trees while the still and peers through its tightly woven made from the dried blossoms of production portation.­ Reproduc­ tion­ in whole or in part without­­ for the first half durability of the bare human skull). I look forward gully in my sleep. permission is prohibited. The magazine does not accept 700 gallons of mountain whiskey canopy of vines, and each April, the Lady Banks rose. and is not responsible for unsolicited­ materials­ provided of the year.

to future articles that feature kids playing in Elizabeth Jones Dewveall, Phoenix for editorial consideration.­ were destroyed.” KEVIN KIBSEY the plant bursts with tiny white Information: (520) 457-3326.

Produced in the USA 2 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 3 off-ramptakingthe

Head ’Em Up, Feed Entering the ’Em Out, Bigtime Magical Valley of the Moon

he largest cattle-feeding ive years before J.R.R. dressing in costume and trough in Arizona, and Tolkien published his first leading them through his T perhaps the entire F fantasy, Tucson’s own Hobbit gnome-filled dreamscape and West, became operational lived in a warren of caves telling them wonderful stories. at southern Arizona’s constructed under fanciful Legler is gone, but at the Valley Canoa Ranch in gardens and towers of rock. of the Moon, an officially December 1928. In the 1920s, a kindly, designated Arizona Historic Place,

PETER NOEBELS Made of concrete, eccentric postman spent all his the quest continues. The George it measured one- spare time reshaping a couple of Phar Legler Society continues to A Candid Look at Black Heritage third mile long acres on the edge of Tucson. maintain the Valley. Periodically, and could feed Wandering through the magical volunteer wizards and elves lead

Kitsch e try to give unedited small-town life of another century. 1,500 cattle land he called the Valley of the tours past waterfalls, skirting the LONGMIRE LINDA on U.S. history, how it was,” An old country store has been simultaneously, Moon proves that George Phar great serpent and stopping to visit Route 66 “ Wsays Shad “Standman” replicated with potbellied stove, a according to The Legler’s imagination outran his the Tower of Zogog. Tolkien’s Blair, one of the founders of the board set for a game of checkers and Arizona Daily Star. construction skills. Nevertheless, Hobbits would feel right at home. Even though Afro-American Heritage Museum disquieting examples of the way The ranch he created a soulful, sometimes The Valley of the Moon stands America’s Mother in Tucson. advertising once depicted blacks. encompassed eerie retreat from everyday life. in a residential area, no longer Road has been The small storefront museum Blair gives the tour, and he has 500,000 acres Like all good fantasy thinkers, on the edge of town, at 2544 E. Question bypassed by offers a happy hodgepodge of the experience. He can say, “I’ve in its heyday Legler was on a quest. He sought Allen Road. of the

slicker, antiques and artifacts collected gone from seeing a black man and was MAACK RICHARD to teach kindness to children by Information: (520) 323-1331. Month faster by Blair and co-founder Charles hanged to seeing Colin Powell.” head- freeways, you can Kendrick. Many of the displays Don’t expect any frills in this quartered What desert still get your kitsch relate to the life and impact of museum. Do expect honest talk 30 miles between Yuma and Gila Bend. sweltering heat were a necessity. Qplant is and collectibles on BRUCE LAZZARINI blacks on the Southwest, including and a look at some pieces of south of The World Famous Eight varieties of dates spring from “Dateland is one of the last sometimes called U.S. Route the role of the black cowboy history. Admission free, by Tucson, Date Shake among the palm fronds each year. remaining authentic highway the monkey’s tail 66 at and the Buffalo Soldiers. appointment only, 1834 S. Park not far They can all be sampled in the stops,” Roland says. or devil’s coachwhip? Roadworks Others depict the rural and Ave. Information: (520) 792-9484. from present-day Interstate 19. LONGMIRE LINDA ver wonder what type of date Dateland Palms Gift Shop. What makes the Dateland date ? in Winslow. makes the best date Coincidentally, the date that shake so irresistible? The shop milkshake? Roland and makes the best shake is the same “We use the actual fruit,” says These names E refer to the offers hundreds of Charna Walker never did. That that has been historically reserved Charna. “Others use only date sugar A LIFE IN ARIZONA 1880s ocotillo, which Route 66 souvenirs. is, until eight years ago when they for royalty. “Only medjool dates are or crystals purchased from growers.” means Here you’ll find left Alberta, Canada, and bought used for date shakes. Other dates Pioneer Cabin Survives Fire “coachwhip” in lighters, earrings, Dateland Palms Village at Interstate have thicker skins and don’t drink Spanish. Its long, belt buckles, hen Andrew Locy Rogers 8 and Milepost 67 in the tiny town well through a straw,” Roland says. thin limbs sprout T-shirts, keychains, Wcame with Erastus Snow and of Dateland. Travelers from around the ‘Lost’ Hopi Art thousands of tiny license plates, beer William J. Flake to the high desert of Included in the deal were a world visit this quaint desert town even decades passed before the green leaves after mugs, shot northern Arizona in 1878, he built a restaurant, gift shop, recreational- of 864 to satisfy their date Sbronze Hopi Flute Player, designed spring rains. Most glasses, modest one-room log vehicle park and 300 producing cravings. The Dateland Restaurant by Hopi artist Emry Kopta (1884-1953), of the year it thimbles, cabin for his family. date palms. The trees can come as usually sells its first shake of the was cast into sculptural life. Today the appears dead and hats, As the Rogers clan grew, so did the quite a surprise to unsuspecting day when its doors open at 6 a.m. flutist silently plays amid the serene brittle, its arms bumper house. Room after room was grafted motorists traversing the otherwise If business slows, you can bet the fountain courtyard of the Arizona State punctuated by stickers, onto the cabin, eventually swallowing scrub-desert stretch of highway waitresses are in the back hand- University Music Building in Tempe. The sharp gray thorns. nightlights, it and the knowledge of its existence pitting medjools. 1933-commissioned artwork languished Frisbees, yo-yos into dusty antiquity. The date shake’s origins are a for lack of funding until this year.

and magnets — all The house caught fire in 1989, and INC. MULTIMEDIA, CALLAWAY/CREATIVE DAVE mystery to Roland and Charna. It was designed for the Public Works emblazoned with of Art Project initiated by President when it was extinguished and the But many of the establishment’s CONTRIBUTORS the famous black- rubble cleared away, the long-forgotten tiny cabin west of State Route 77. Volunteers constructed a new more seasoned customers tell tales ANGELA REABURN Franklin D. Roosevelt. Kopta’s and-white road was standing in the ashes, its thick log wall singed shake roof and handhewn wooden porch. Restored of partaking of the unique treat at original plaster model was VERA MARIE BADERTSCHER sign. Information: but intact. The house’s many additions had to its modest glory, the Rogers Cabin gives visitors the original Dateland Restaurant. digitally enlarged, cast by LEO W. BANKS (928) 289-5423. Arizona Bronze of Tempe and SALLY BENFORD protected the cabin from the elements, leaving it a glimpse of pioneer living in the 1880s. It was first built in the late 1920s SARA COOPER exceptionally well-preserved. The interior sports period furniture, including along the now-abandoned placed — finally — in the GAIL FISHER DEBRA KROL Realizing an opportunity to showcase early a trunk, a rope bed with a bearskin bedspread, State Route 80. In courtyard in accordance with CARRIE M. MINER the wishes of the TERI NIESCHULZ Snowflake life, the city moved the cabin to its new and rag rug. A springhouse and well complete the the days before air MARY PRATT home at First West and Center streets, one block small park. conditioning, frequent Hopi Tribe. KATHLEEN WALKER

CHARNA WALKER CHARNA stops to escape the

4 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 5 TouchingTouching Wildness,Wildness, RuggedRugged andand RemoteRemote East Clear Creek cuts a deep, challenging path above the Mogollon Rim Text and Photographs by Nick Berezenko [preceding panel, pages 6 and 7] A whisper of clouds veils the convoluted course of East Clear Creek below Soldier Trail on the Mogollon Rim north of Payson. [above] Coneflower stems promise ust northeast of Pine, atop the 8,077-foot-high bubble of yellow blooms along one of East Clear Creek’s placid pools. Baker Butte, I watch the approaching storm. Ranks of blue clouds [below] Early morning sunlight peeks pile up above the swath of green forest beneath me. The largest through aspen and juniper woods, catching golden peas flowering near continuous ponderosa pine forest in the world rolls out forever, Baker Butte northeast of Pine. and the storm promises to engulf it. [right] East Clear Creek meanders through a forest of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir Feeling the first splotchy pellets of rain- before eventually reaching the same desert. trees between Blue Ridge Reservoir and Jdrops hit, I am at this moment — in spite of If the rain settles onto the northwest quad- Kinder Crossing. the grandiose panorama at my feet — think- rant of the butte, it will wind up in wild and ing of East Clear Creek to the north of me. woolly West Clear Creek — a canyon deep, For when a raindrop falls, a matter of mere remote and quite spectacular. But if the rain inches can determine entirely different routes inches east, it takes a more curious course — of travel for the precious water. Depending if slightly less gaudy, at least much more upon the vagaries of wind and weather — accessible. This, then, is the story of the updrafts, currents, elevation — if the rain is lesser, but nevertheless big-hearted, brother. blown anywhere onto the southern slope of The wonderful, cantankerous stream known this little mountain that I’m on, it’ll quickly as East Clear Creek. tumble off the precipitous lip of the Mogollon Rim on which the mountain perches. Below At first you don’t even know that the 2,000-foot-high escarpment, the water it’s there. On the spongy, fern-covered slopes will soon meld into one of numerous drain­ of Baker Butte, no water runs. No rills, no ages heading directly south for the desert tendrils spring. In the strewn forest com- surrounding Phoenix. post, all precipitation suffuses underground, But if it falls just a few inches north, it’ll and where it first appears aboveground offers undergo a much different journey — a long, quite a revelation and a surprise. circuitous odyssey that will take it either Set in a deep bowl ringed by pines and through the Verde Valley to the west or the aspens, Potato Lake — just about 2 miles wind-blown plains of Winslow to the north northeast of the butte — depicts the classic

8 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com picture postcard-view of a mountain lake. One of the few natural lakes on the Rim, it’s an ideal spot for picnicking, for lazing the afternoon away watching butterflies flit among the purple locusts in the spring. Or in autumn, listening to the aspen leaves tam- bourining down in showers of gold coins. During the night, campers hear the eerie, melodious bugling of elk during the fall rut. The shallow, round pond of Potato Lake forms the first real water below Baker Butte. Actually a basin spring, it gives birth to East Clear Creek, though officially that doesn’t happen until a mile northeast of the lake. Here, where Potato Lake Draw and Quak­ ing Aspen Canyon meet in a quiet pool, East Clear Creek begins.

On a drive four months earlier — it was a brilliantly sunny spring morning — I had reached down and cupped a handful of cold water out of the pool. Looking down on the smooth surface that I’d disturbed, I watched it return to quietness, to a still mir- ror once again, reflecting soaring ponderosas and drifting clouds. Even though I was by the side of a road, I was again in wildness. Marvelously strange country, this Mogol­ ­ lon Rim. The deceptively difficult terrain can fool you. Initially you may think it’s flat forest, the southern edge of the . But then you discover that the Rim actually slopes gradually to the north. All the water that runs on this barely noticeable declina­ tion cuts long, parallel channels, deep fur- rows that quickly become incised little canyons. Eventually, by hook or crook, myr- iad canyons meet and, like a swelling sym- phony, form the larger drainages like East Clear Creek. But before they do, each forms its own Lost World, its own moist hideaway where pristine purple monkshood, blood- red cinquefoil and royal-blue lupines bloom, and deer, coyotes, turkeys, elk, bears — all manner of wild denizens — hide and roam.

For the first 8 miles of its run down from the confluence pool, burbling East Clear Creek sashays through open meadows filled in June with the splashy yel- low centers of oxeye daisies. Shortly before Jones Crossing, 2 miles southeast of Clints Well, the creek walls begin rising up to form a canyon, but just below the crossing the creek throws you

[left] Decorated with spring blooms, a locust tree embraces its neighboring aspens by the shore of Potato Lake.

ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 11 [left] At Kinder Crossing, East Clear Creek reflects jagged cliffs that defy hikers wanting easy access to the water’s edge. [right] Ledges buttressed with stone fortresses near Soldier Trail mutely testify to long-ago Sinagua Indian presence.

another curve. It entirely disappears. It goes to passing through a Chinese dragon. The hard-won solitude and exultation. Wild and underground beneath a wide, rubble-strewn narrow lake twists and turns upon itself in undisturbed 4-pound trout will still take a watercourse of bleached streambed gravel, serpentine folds and oxbows, while the well-placed fly. And the silver-flashing, rain- rounded river boulders and brachiopod fos- nearby banks on either side rise so steeply bow-speckled fish still bend rods across clear sils. As the canyon continues to deepen, the that the majestic 100-foot-high Douglas firs graveled pools. creekbed remains crunchingly bone-dry for climb on each other’s shoulders. The reser- Here, East Clear Creek has finally come 7 more miles, until it reaches Big Dry Wash. voir appears particularly lovely at morning, into its own. It’s as glorious a canyon as those The Battle of Big Dry Wash occurred in when there’s a chill in the air and the fog seeking the untrammeled wild could wish 1882 when most Arizonans held their breath starts to lift off the water. Ducks and coots for. Deep, remote and ever-flowing, it gives its that the had finally ended. On skim silently across the surface, and a great big heart to those who win it. July 6, a band of about 75 renegade blue heron flaps its slow, great wings, broke out from the San Carlos Indian Reser­ ­- momentarily flashing golden in a shaft of By the time it reaches Soldier vation.­ They marauded north, killing isolated sunlight penetrating into the canyon. Trail at the edge of the Coconino National settlers and stealing cattle. Troops were dis- Built by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Forest, East Clear Creek has completed patched from all corners of the state, and the 1962 as part of a complicated water-exchange slightly less than half of its 90-mile run to Indians fled onto the Rim. arrangement that allowed the company to Winslow and the Little . On July 17, the soldiers caught up to them mine copper at Morenci, the 160-foot-high Beyond Soldier Trail, it becomes mostly terra at East Clear Creek near what is now the Blue Ridge Dam backs up one of the prime incognita, seen by few and rarely visited. end of the dry watercourse and the upper trout fisheries in the state. Because of the Soon the creek will run out of the pine for- reaches of Blue Ridge Reservoir. steep banks, fishermen are mainly boaters. est and will flow beyond the Apache- Peering through a dense tangle of moss- So the dam has transformed East Clear Creek Sitgreaves National Forests boundary as draped pines and firs, the sharp-eyed trooper into its fourth — and perhaps most quixotic well. It enters private land, formerly the old scouts somehow discerned that the rene- manifestation — that of a cold, deep, azure- Gene Autry ranch, now the property of the gades waited about 700 yards away on the green ribbon, an entity half-canyon, half-lake. Hopi Tribe. opposite side of the steep canyon. In this portion, the creek will undergo Flanking parties were dispatched to find a East of the dam, East Clear Creek several more spectacular transformations. way down the almost impassable pitches returns to what it once was: a hiker’s canyon It will: become a bare rock canyon hiding and up the opposite precipices. They did and a challenge. Severe rock cliffs appear, and, Sinagua Indian fortresses and ruins; get lost make it up the other side, and so successful beneath them, somnolent deep pools ringed in a convoluted and intricate maze below was their reverse ambush that at the end of by upright, congregated coneflowers. Here, the shadow of Sunset Mountain; turn into the day, after a furious tree-to-tree firefight in gaining access to the creek is difficult. Once a magnificent, close-walled slot canyon. which 8,000 rounds were exchanged, only past the bridge at the confluence of Barbershop And finally, just before Winslow, East Clear one trooper was mortally wounded. At least Canyon, 2 miles east of Blue Ridge Reservoir, Creek becomes a reservoir once again. 20 Apaches lay dead and the rest had fled the wilderness trails that take you down to Eventually its waters will even run through back to the reservation. The battle holds sig- the streambed are rugged and not for the the Grand Canyon. A fitting place to come nificance as the last major conflict between fainthearted. Kinder Crossing, Horse Cross­ing, to its end. the U.S. Cavalry and the Apaches. Mack’s Crossing, Soldier trails — all require nearly vertical 600-foot-or-so descents. Living as he does beneath the shadow of the Mogollon Rim in the town of Pine, Nick Berezenko feels a special Today, navigating 4-mile-long Blue The few backpackers, dayhikers and fish- affinity for East Clear Creek. It was his first canyon — Ridge Reservoir by boat or canoe compares ermen who brave the trails are rewarded by and we always remember our first love. arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 13

EVILS . D

ANYON IN MY EXPERIENCE, A WILDERNESS of PLACE WITH A HELLISH-SOUNDING NAME usually has earned it. Devils Canyon in central Arizona’s Dripping

Spring Mountains about 60 miles east of Phoenix near Superior is no exception. What

C awaits discovery ranks much closer to heaven, but you pay a price in getting there: in physical exertion; in possible harm from falls; in cuts and scratches, sunburn, insect bites and possible snakebites. Even as a child, on a driving trip by the upper end of the canyon, I could see that the mysterious gorge seemed to hide something. Later, halfhearted attempts to discover the canyon’s secrets proved futile. This remote defile guards its jewels with some daunting obstacles: wall-to-wall poison ivy, impenetrable catclaw bushes, needle-sharp agaves, angry rattlesnakes and imposing cliffs of rotten rock that must be down-climbed. My first five serious expeditions failed. I was stranded a cou- ple of times at the top of huge cliffs and had to turn back. I ran out of daylight. The waterfalls were hidden by the very dra- matic topography — most of the canyon is remote and difficult to approach. But finally I found what I sought: some of Ari- zona’s most beautiful and dramatic waterfalls and plunge pools. Devils Canyon shelters much more treasure than its waterfalls The Mysteries Mysteries The TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD K. WEBB TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY RICHARD K. and pools. Lush vegetation, incredibly balanced boulders, nar- row volcanic spires, a troop of exotic coatimundis and a hid- den cave all invite exploration if you dare make it in. For the serious adventurer, the efforts and risk will be rewarded, but not without paying the devil his due.

14 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com [preceding panel, page 15] Countless seasons of erosion have produced the fanciful granite spires of Devils Canyon in the Dripping Spring Mountains southeast of Superior. [left] Devils Canyon’s ruggedness and inaccessibility hides its geologic wonders from all but the hardiest adventurers. [above right] A yellow- flowered agave’s spiky armament punctuates the harsh beauty of the surrounding landscape. [below right] Balanced rocks create totems along the upper reaches of the steep-sided canyon.

arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 17

[preceding panel, pages 18 and 19] Springtime rains fuel a hidden waterfall deep in a rocky cleft at the bottom of the canyon. [above left] Saguaro cacti line a ridge above a transient desert grotto. [below left] The temporary nature of flowing water in most desert canyons invites quiet contemplation. [right] Steep-sided Devils Canyon shelters a series of small waterfalls. Pools created below the falls provide a source of water for desert wildlife.

20 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com [left] Sunlight skims across verdant streamside grasses and a small waterfall. [top] The cream-colored trunks of Arizona sycamore trees arch gracefully before sun- splashed canyon walls. [above] The sycamores’ roots entwine water- polished cobblestones along the canyon’s creekbed.

22 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 23 Bascom and Chochise Bascom and Chochise

Mickey Free Mickey Free

Twin Murders at T uttle's Station Twin Murders at T uttle's Station

The Gunfighter as Fa rce The Gunfighter as Fa rce

T he Two W orlds of Cesario Lucero T he Two W orlds of Cesario Lucero

Buckey O'Neill Buckey O'Neill

TRUE STORIES FROM ARIZONA’S FRONTIER PAST

Stories of the Indian wars, courageous lawmen and the struggle to tame the Arizona frontier are among the most popular topics of Arizona Highways readers. But many of those readers are unaware that Arizona Highways recently has published a series of 11 books of such stories in its Wild West Collection. So here we offer excerpts from some of those books to give our readers a few good stories and to acquaint them with what else we have in print. [right] Moisture at the canyon’s floor encourages a vivid green stand of Virginia creeper. [below] Hidden desert oases like Devils Canyon foster a rich diversity of Bascom and Cochise plant and animal species. DIPLOMACY DISHONORED

BY LEO W. BANKS

he Chiricahua Apache among his people, their intelligent, tall, with and projected a dignity that leader Cochise first absolute leader. Approximately well-chiseled features, he had could cow the toughest man. T came to the attention of 50 years old at the time, three brass rings in each ear, But when crossed, as he was the U.S. military when an by Bascom, he became what Overland stage route and Indian-haters believed he was: station were established savage. through Apache Pass, between the Dos Cabezas and Chiricahua hese two adversaries came mountains. Cochise kept his T together on February 4, people at peace — though 1861. The month before, relations were strained — and Apaches had raided a ranch in even supplied firewood to the the Sonoita Valley of what is station. But war erupted with now southeastern Arizona, exquisite fury in 1861. The driving off some cattle and episode that sparked it, known stealing the 12-year-old stepson as the , was a of ranch owner John Ward. The drama that could not be young boy — later to become invented. known as Mickey Free — Kentucky-born George N. gained fame in his own right as Bascom graduated from the a scout for the U.S. Army [see U.S. Military Academy at West following story]. Point in 1858, finishing an Based on tracks, both Ward unspectacular 26th in a class of and Arizona’s military leaders 27. He had been an Army assumed the raiders were lieutenant in Arizona for five bound for Apache Pass. The months when he was ordered pass was home to Cochise and to Apache Pass to retrieve a his band, so they were kidnapped boy named Felix presumed guilty. Ward. Not yet 25 years old, Bascom and 54 men of the Bascom was supremely 7th Infantry rode out of Fort stubborn and, we can presume, Buchanan, south of Tucson derived much of what he near Patagonia, with orders to believed about Apaches from OF OKLAHOMA UNIVERSITY do what was proper to recover his imagination. An artist’s rendering of the stock and the boy, Felix Cochise was a revered figure Chiricahua Apache chieftain Cochise Ward, and in the bargain “to

24 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 25 Bascom and Cochise Bascom and Cochise

pursue and chastise such eyewitness, a soldier known to this encounter, but that concur that Cochise was not for an Apache, shot him trouble,” according to marauding parties.” only as Oberly, Bascom yelled, portrayal wasn’t quite true. released, but escaped. through the head, killing him Robinson. The soldiers arrived at the “Shoot them down!” Furthermore, he was highly Looking back, Bascom had instantly. Wallace remained a The sergeant was wounded Overland stage station in What happened to critical of Bascom, saying that good reason to lie. He was captive. in the shooting, a station Apache Pass on Sunday, Coyuntura and the warrior is the lieutenant was “totally unfit embarrassed at losing the man One of the unarmed soldiers employee killed, and the February 3. After sending word unclear. Oberly said Coyuntura to deal with the Apaches.” He he believed responsible for the who accompanied Bascom, also raiders made off with 56 mules. to Cochise requesting a meeting, was stopped by a bullet through alone among memoirists Ward raid, thus touching off unarmed, to the parlay was But the attack at the spring Bascom headed into Siphon the leg. Another memoirist implied that Bascom was a several days of spectacular wounded in the turmoil, and served only as a diversion. Canyon, three-quarters of a reported that one of them was drunk, “well-supplied with violence. according to Irwin, one bullet The main raid, meant to mile away, to make camp. knocked to the ground with commissary whiskey, which he passed through Bascom’s overrun the station and free Late the following day, the butt of a carbine and the used liberally.” ascom moved his clothing and another through Cochise’s relatives, was under Cochise arrived with his wife; second bayoneted, but survived. Oberly concluded — B command back to the his hat. way, probably led by Cochise his younger brother, This much is certain: neither correctly on this point — that Overland stage station, perhaps Several Apaches probably himself. A young Geronimo, Coyuntura; two of his children; one escaped. Cochise and his party had done thinking that its rock walls were wounded as well, and a then 38, and Chief Mangas and two or three warriors, Cochise fled through a absolutely nothing wrong, and would help protect his soldiers few were killed. That night, in Coloradas and his band also possibly his nephews. phalanx of Army riflemen. An “came into camp on a friendly in the fight he believed was the words of Sgt. Daniel were present. But this force was Historians believe his decision estimated 50 shots were fired invitation from Bascom and coming. On the morning after Robinson, who told his version driven off, too, by heavy fire to bring family members as he raced over a hilltop, his without fear of molestation.” he had fled from the tent, in the August 1896 issue of from behind the stone walls. indicates that he anticipated no coffee cup still in hand. Shortly On the other hand, writing Cochise appeared on the hill Sports Afield, the “weird war With his failure to capture trouble, having had nothing to thereafter, he reappeared and in 1887, B.J.D. Irwin, an south of the station, cries of the squaws were the station, Cochise gave up do with the Ward raid. shouted down to Bascom, assistant military surgeon who accompanied by a Coyotero distinctly heard wailing over hope of retrieving his relatives Exactly what transpired chief named Francisco and their dead.” and headed into Mexico. inside Bascom’s tent that day about 500 warriors. They At noon the following day, Bascom and his men, unaware remains somewhat mysterious. presented a white flag of truce Cochise again tried to make an of this, stayed put for six days, The likeliest version, based on and asked to talk with exchange. This time he keenly awaiting the next several accounts, is that Cochise took additional Lieutenant Bascom. appeared on a hill above the Chiricahua raid. Bascom served dinner to Four men from each party station dragging a hungry and In the meantime, in response Cochise, his brother, and one prisoners that night, when his moved cautiously together, freezing Wallace behind him, SOCIETY HISTORICAL ARIZONA to a dispatch sent by Bascom of his nephews. Then after converging about 150 yards the captive’s hands tied behind Lt. on February 7, two relief friendly talk, the lieutenant men waylaid a 12-man wagon train from the station. The meeting his back and a rope looped columns were en route to turned accuser, naming went nowhere. Cochise around his neck. The chief Apache Pass. One was the Cochise as the perpetrator of hauling flour through pleaded for the release of his asked for his family back in volunteer group of 14 men, led the raid. family, and Bascom again exchange for Wallace and 16 Bascom. It was written by effort failed and the coach by assistant surgeon B.J.D. The chief denied it. He said the pass to New Mexico. insisted that Cochise return the government mules. Wallace in charcoal, according reached the station about 2 a.m. Irwin out of Fort Buchanan. the boy had been taken by Ward boy first. But Bascom’s answer hadn’t to William Sanders Oury, an During this time, according En route, as his party crossed members of the Coyoteros Then the unexpected changed —he wanted the Ward Overland employee, and to Oberly, Bascom became a dry lake south of the present band, who held him captive in asking to see his brother, arrived at Apache Pass six days happened. Three civilian boy returned. attached to a stake driven into thoroughly unnerved, cowering town of Willcox, they the Black Mountains. Cochise Coyuntura. Bascom answered after the tent episode, Overland employees — James Cochise took additional the ground. behind the stone walls, afraid encountered a Coyotero chief then offered to try to bring with gunfire. described Bascom and other Wallace, Charles Culver and a prisoners that night, when his “Treat my people well and I even to permit his parched and two warriors herding 30 Felix Ward in, if Bascom were At that, the chief raised his Americans as victims of the third man identified only as men waylaid a 12-man wagon will do the same by yours, of soldiers to go for water at the stolen ponies and 40 head of willing to remain at the stage hand, swore revenge, and cowardly and wicked Walsh or Welch — believing train hauling flour through the whom I have three.” In truth, spring nearby. cattle. Irwin wrote that “after a station for 10 days. shouted, “Indian blood is as Chiricahua chief. He said the their existing friendship with pass to New Mexico. The by then, it was four — Wallace, Finally, after Sergeant long and exciting chase and a But that wouldn’t do for the good as white man’s blood!” lieutenant announced that he Cochise might break the considered nine of Whitfield, Sanders and Robinson safely filled six running fight, extending over lieutenant, who firmly believed Then he left. was keeping Cochise and his stalemate, moved forward them worthy of execution on Brunner. canteens, Oberly said, several miles,” he captured the Cochise was responsible and people only as a last resort, among the Indians, ignoring their nationality alone — they “Bascom’s craven fears were Indians and the stock. had plotted all along to take the he conflicting versions of “after every effort at peaceful Bascom’s order to stay back. were Mexicans. The Indians hy Bascom didn’t get stilled and he ordered the He drove the animals ahead chief prisoner. As soon as T this incident, as with persuasion had proved futile.” When warriors concealed in tied the men by their wrists to W Wallace’s note remains a mules taken to the water but of his command to Apache Cochise had entered the tent, several that followed, usually Adding to the murkiness a ravine rushed forward to the wagon wheels, tortured mystery. But for Cochise, the they were attacked” as they Pass, where their arrival on Bascom’s soldiers surrounded it break down according to surrounding the incident, capture the three, shooting them and then set fire to the silence from the lieutenant was returned by a party of naked February 10 was “hailed with to prevent escape. whether the teller supports the Edwin Sweeney, Cochise’s broke out. Culver knocked wagons. an answer to his offer, an Indians, painted and singing a shouts of joy, as it was feared After Cochise’s offer, the officer’s actions or finds them biographer, claimed that down two of his Indian captors Cochise kept the three unspoken death sentence for war song. that the expected relief party lieutenant announced that the reprehensible. Even today, Bascom lied in his official and broke for the stage station, Americans as trade bait. They the four hostages. “Like a flash the entire place had been intercepted and chief and his people would be Bascom personifies whatever report to his superiors by along with Welch. Culver were Sam Whitfield, William Early the morning of was filled with Indians,” said wiped out.” held hostage until the boy was viewpoint a chronicler wishes saying he had consented to reached the front door before Sanders, said to be a half-breed February 7, the Apaches Oberly of the February 8 fight. Two companies of dragoons, returned. Enraged, Cochise to expound. Cochise’s proposition. taking a bullet in the back and Cherokee, and Frank Brunner, attempted to waylay another “They seemed to spring from led by Lieutenant Moore, drew his knife, slashed open Oberly’s recollections If he had, an escape collapsing, severely injured. At a German teamster. eastbound stage in the pass, the earth.” arrived four days later from the back of the tent and fled, provide a case in point. Writing obviously wouldn’t have been the station’s stone corral, Welch Also that same night, apparently to secure more “They were coming so Fort Breckenridge (later named with his brother and one 25 years after the fact, he necessary. Sweeney said that all popped his head above the February 6, Cochise returned hostages. Although the openly and boldly that they no Camp Grant). With these warrior following. depicted Cochise as entirely six of the written recollections rocks, whereupon a soldier on to the hill overlooking the stage Overland driver had his leg doubt expected to sweep all reinforcements, scouting In the account of an friendly with Americans prior of the incident by Americans the other side, mistaking him station and left a note for broken by a rifle bullet, the before them without much parties rode into the

26 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 27 Bascom and Cochise Mickey Free

mountains, but they Bascom “to the trees that the Cochise-Bascom standoff. Mexicans in that month.” pages of recorded history for Free and relied on him. It was autobiography, Free was less than human. But encountered no Apaches. shaded our new-made grave.” Irwin would later receive the “Another,” the paper said, over a decade, to eventually Sieber who complimented Free called Free “the wildest the Army valued primitiveness On February 18, however, After unsaddling his horse, Medal of Honor for their “[was] begging piteously for emerge as Mickey Free.” by saying he was “half Irish, ­daredevil in the world,” a man in its scouts. the scouting soldiers spotted Moore relayed his decision to capture. his life” before, as Sergeant How Felix Martinez Ward half Mexican, half Apache, and with fiery red hair, a small red “The nearer an Indian buzzards hovering in the sky, Bascom, who objected, The next day, Moore, Irwin Robinson said, he and his got the name Mickey Free is whole son of a [expletive].” mustache, and “a mug that approaches a savage state,” and riding to the scene, a small believing he would face the and Bascom departed Apache fellows were “hoisted so high unknown.­ One theory is that a Once Sieber assigned Free to looked like the map of Ireland.” wrote Gen. , who valley on the west side of the censure of his superiors. But Pass. When they reached the by the infantry that even the bad pronunciation of his capture an Apache who had A more common description chased Geronimo without Chiricahuas, they found the Oury said that Moore, as fresh graves of the four wolves could not touch them.” Apache name sounded like murdered a cavalry corporal was “ugly.” Free’s left eye was a success, “the more likely he horribly mutilated bodies of ranking officer, told Bascom he Americans, the soldiers Cochise’s wife and two Mickey Free. and fled San Carlos. After gray blob cocked at an odd will prove valuable as a Cochise’s four prisoners— would assume all responsibility. stopped. Bascom led the six sons — including Naiche, who In his years with the San tracking him for 300 miles, angle, the result of a cataract he soldier.” Wallace, Whitfield, Sanders In his typescript, however, Indians to the oak trees and would become a chief himself Carlos Apaches, Mickey Free caught the renegade and developed as an infant. He let and Brunner. Writing in 1877, Irwin said the decision to hang told them what was about to and bedevil the Army in the learned to track, shoot, hunt slashed his throat. his stringy, unkempt­ hair fall ree quit the scouts in July primarily in defense of Bascom, the Indians was made at his happen. war’s last days— were and kill. He signed on as an But the body was too heavy over his face to hide it. F 1893. Ten years later, Horn Oury, who was present, said initiative. “It was I who The condemned men, subsequently turned loose. Army scout at Fort Verde in to haul to the reservation, and In his history of Arizona wrote that Free was living on that only “by the gold filling in suggested,” he wrote with according to Oberly, wanted to The Bascom Affair, which December 1872. Army records Free needed proof of his kill. published in 1916, J.H. the Fort Apache Reservation some of his teeth” was he able evident pride, “their summary be shot instead of hanged, and began as a sincere effort to rescue listed him as 5 feet 7 inches tall So he carved out the face of the McClintock wrote that Free with “a large Indian family, and to identify Wallace. “All the execution, man for man.” they asked for whiskey. Both a young boy, spawned decades and 135 pounds. His pay was renegade and wrapped it in the was “about as worthless a biped is wealthy in horses, cattle, bodies were literally riddled When Bascom objected, requests were denied. of bloody hostilities between $20 a month. In this role, he squaws and dogs, as he himself with lance holes,” he said. Irwin claimed the right to The Mesilla Times, a New Cochise’s people and the was to be present at almost puts it.” Free married four The remains were taken to a execute the three prisoners he Mexico newspaper, reported Americans settling the Territory. every incident of the Apache times and fathered four mound studded with oak trees had taken, regardless of what that one of the Indians, conflict, from the Battle of Big children. and buried. On the trip back Bascom did. At that, the probably Coyuntura, went to Adapted from the book Double Dry Wash to the escape of the In his last years, Mickey Free to the station, Oury said the lieutenant relented. the gallows “dancing and Cross: Treachery in the Apache Apache Kid and the pursuit of was bent over, losing vision in Wars, volume 10 in the Wild West shaken command decided to The three Coyoteros most singing, saying that he was Collection published by Arizona the renegade Victorio. his right eye and racked by hang all the Indians held by likely had nothing to do with satisfied that he had killed two Highways Books. was the Army’s tuberculosis. But in Prescott famed chief of scouts. At first, writer Kenneth Calhoun’s Sieber neither trusted nor liked manuscript on file at the Free. But a bloody incident in Arizona Historical Society, the Mogollon country in 1875 cunning tracker had one job changed that. left in him. Cavalrymen were herding About 20 miles from Free’s some Apaches from Camp tin shack, another retired Verde to San Carlos when a Apache scout and his son-in- snowstorm struck. In the flurry, law were shot dead when they a horse stumbled into a ravine confronted two cowboys and broke its neck, and one of butchering one of their cattle. its riders, a 9-year-old Yavapai The old manhunter, hobbled by Apache boy, broke his leg. illness and near death, got his Sieber pulled the boy onto the rifle and his knife and rode out. back of his horse and the group In a few days, Free returned went on. to Fort Apache leading two Mickey Free “They were hardly started riderless horses. He sold the when Sieber felt a sharp pain in mounts, along with their AN ARMY SCOUT RAISED BY APACHES his back,” wrote A. Kinney saddles and bridles, and gave Griffith, whose extensive the money to the widow. But BY LEO W. BANKS ARCHIVES STATE ARIZONA writings on Free’s life include a he kept the cowboys’ guns and biography. “As he jerked Mickey Free boots for himself. around he felt the pain lessen A short time later, on he young boy was Mexican, half Apache, and Jesus moved with her children again. They died about 1867 and saw his own Bowie knife dead man’s jacket. He dropped as could be imagined, ugly, December 31, 1915, Free was tending stock on a ranch whole son of a­ [expletive].” It into the Sonoita area of believing the boy was dead. But flash in the boy’s hand for the rotting trophy at Sieber’s dirty, unreliable and dishonest.” found dead in his shack with a T in southern Arizona was meant as praise. southern Arizona and took up according to author Allan another stab.” feet. For his work, Free got a McClintock was echoing Catholic missal in his hands. It when Apache warriors with — though never married Radbourne, who studied Free’s Free killed the boy with a good meal and a bottle of Charles T. Connell, who was the final contradiction in kidnapped him. Thrust into a ickey Free was born Felix — a prosperous farmer named life for the English Westerners’ knife, then shot the boy’s whiskey. worked with Free at San Carlos the life of a man who took his new life on that fateful day, M Martinez about 1848 in John Ward. In 1861, 12-year- Brand Book, the boy was mother in the head as she in 1880 and described him as a pay, killed his master’s enemies January 27, 1861, he lived as Santa Cruz, Mexico. His mother old Felix was out with the herd handed over to the San Carlos lunged at Sieber with a saber. any of the stories told “wandering half-breed whose and survived. an Apache. was Jesus Martinez, and his on Ward’s ranch when Apache Apaches, who raised him. “Twice in the space of a few M about Free hint of being caused the woeful events Eleven years later the boy father was a light-skinned, renegades stole 20 head of “Felix Ward came into breaths,” wrote Griffith, romanticized exaggeration, if of a decade.” Adapted from the book Days of became a U.S. Army scout blue-eyed man, probably of cattle and took him with them. contact with a whole new way “Mickey Free had saved Al not outright fiction. Sieber said Although it was false, the Destiny: Fate Beckons Desperados & Lawmen, volume 1 in the Wild known as Mickey Free, Irish descent, named Tellez. John Ward and Jesus of life,” wrote Radbourne, “and Sieber’s life.” he “could track a shadow­ on a half-breed label stuck, West Collection published by described as “half Irish, half In 1858, after Tellez’s death, Martinez never saw Felix effectively disappeared from the From then on Sieber trusted rainy night,” and in his contributing to the view that Arizona Highways Books.

28 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 29 Twin Murders at Tuttle’s Station

on the pock-marked road but Hayes, former Gila County burned out a bearing just short superintendent of schools. of Tuttle’s Station. This near Goodwin’s hanging was disaster resulted in what press originally scheduled for March accounts described as heroic 14, 1913, at the Gila County repair work by Brewer. jail in Globe. Twin Murders He went to an old sawmill But Flannigan, racked with and retrieved bearing metal guilt at his legal gamble gone from some abandoned bad, scrambled to save his at Tuttle’s Station machinery, melted the metal in client’s life by appealing directly a frying pan and cast a bearing to President Woodrow Wilson BY LEO W. BANKS in sand. After many hours of for executive clemency. Hours work, Naquin’s Caddy was up before the hanging was to and running again. occur, Wilson sent a telegram t started with an the animal hard enough to bullet into Kibbe’s forehead, steal their victims’ horses, then The manhunt was several to Arizona, ordering a 60-day argument over a dog, and draw a yelp. An argument killing him instantly. decided to return to the cabin days along when Thompson’s stay to study the issue. I before the matter was erupted, but by the next day, Then Stewart took up a .30- to rob the bodies of any party found the getaway SOCIETY HISTORICAL ARIZONA With that delay, the fever of settled two men would be the hunters assumed the .30 Marlin rifle and began valuables. Remarkably, Hillpot horses, exhausted and running Globe street scene from Labor Day 1911 anticipation in Globe broke, brutally murdered, lynch mobs incident was over. firing at Hillpot as he lay on his was not yet dead. To finish the loose about 20 miles east of and the tense deathwatch would demand rope justice The gruesome story of what back on his bedroll with his job, Stewart drew a knife and Holbrook. The tip that led to two trials, both men were cases be heard in federal court. around the newly built gallows and President Woodrow Wilson happened next came from head against a saddle. One shot cut his throat. the arrest came from an found guilty and sentenced to Flannigan won his argument, ended. But before the crowd would order a dramatic, last- Joseph E. Morrison, U.S. penetrated Hillpot’s torso, By that time, Stewart’s shoes unlikely source, a barber in life in prison — Goodwin for but the results were disastrous. dispersed, souvenir seekers minute stay of execution. But attorney for Arizona and a narrowly missing the heart. were so bloody that he yanked Holbrook named W.B. Cross. killing Kibbe and Stewart for He ran up against U.S. practically carried the gallows in the end, killers William Hillpot’s shoes off the still He was cutting the hair of a killing Hillpot. But defense Attorney Joseph Morrison, a away in pieces. Stewart and John B. Goodwin warm body and put them on. Gila County cowboy, whose lawyer Thomas E. Flannigan fierce prosecutor who wanted The execution was carried would dangle at the bottom of He and Goodwin mounted the name has never been firmly won a new trial by arguing that both defendants to suffer the out as soon as the stay was government gallows. horses and fled the station, established, when conversation death penalty. over. Goodwin’s last request to On September 14, 1910, a carrying all of the hunters’ turned to the ongoing The best way to accomplish Flannigan was to be hanged year and a half before Arizona belongings. manhunt. The cowboy this, Morrison reasoned, was to wearing oxford shoes, new became a state, deer hunters The killers were up against a mentioned that he’d just reindict the men for the most trousers, a white shirt with a Fred Kibbe and Alfred Hillpot formidable opponent in J.H. spotted two sets of tracks left Goodwin’s last brutal of the two murders, black necktie, and a red rose on tied their horses outside Tuttle’s Thompson, known as the by humans near the whistle- which was Hillpot’s. Success his breast. Station, a stage stop and inn Territory’s senior sheriff and a stop of Adamana, 25 miles east request to hinged on convincing the juries “Pin it on my shirt so it won’t located along an old military cunning tracker of bad men. In of Holbrook. that both men were legally fall off when I make the drop,” supply road between Fort previous cases, Thompson had Hearing that, Cross dropped Flannigan was culpable for both murders. Goodwin told his lawyer. “Bury Apache and San Carlos in earned a reputation for the his scissors and bolted across Two more trials were held. me with it on.” eastern Arizona. peculiar contents of his the street to the telegraph to be hanged Goodwin was convicted and Flannigan pinned on the Owner Bill Tuttle had turned saddlebags: an extra box of office to alert Thompson. given a death sentence, but rose, then Goodwin took the operation of the station over to ammunition, a change of socks Capture came without incident wearing Stewart, thanks to a single juror 13 steps to the gallows’ platform Stewart and Goodwin, unaware and underwear, and a box of on September 22, when who couldn’t abide capital two at a time. At the top he saw that both men were deserters salt. As the Arizona Record Stewart and Goodwin went oxford shoes, punishment, was sentenced to that his executioner was a local from the U.S. Army. But Kibbe ARCHIVES STATE ARIZONA noted: “He [was] a great lover into a store in Adamana to buy life in a federal penitentiary in bill collector named Bill and Hillpot had no reason to Scene of the murders of Fred Kibbe of this life sustaining substance.” supplies. new trousers, Atlanta. Cunningham, who was hired to suspect trouble. Stewart and and Alfred Hillpot, circa 1914 This manhunt also marked Thompson then loaded his Not content with letting spring the trapdoor, for a Goodwin invited the hunters to the end of an era for prisoners onto a train for the a white shirt with Stewart live out his sentence, reported $50, by a fainthearted lay over, offering to cook for Thompson. For the first time in trip back to Globe. En route, he Morrison pulled an U.S. marshal and his deputy. them and care for their horses. prosecutor in the subsequent Another entered the middle of his long career, he shunned his learned that the mood in town a black necktie, unprecedented legal maneuver Before dropping to his death, As they awaited the next case. His account was his left shoulder and exited at horse for an automobile. The had grown ugly and that a mob and brought Stewart back from Goodwin cussed out the two day’s hunting, Kibbe, 24, a published 47 years later in the his armpit, and a third struck sheriff contacted M.L. Naquin, of 500 townsmen was meeting and a red rose Atlanta to stand trial for killing absent federal lawmen for grocer who’d married into a Globe Arizona Record. him in the neck. owner of the first Cadillac every incoming train. Fearing a Kibbe. This time Stewart, too, lacking the guts to do their job. prominent Globe family, and It was right after supper, and But Hillpot was alive when automobile to appear on the necktie party, the shrewd on his breast. was sentenced to death. Stewart died in the same Hillpot, about 27, a newcomer Kibbe was sitting on a backless the shooting stopped, so streets of Globe, and convinced sheriff transferred his prisoners This fifth and final trial spot a year later, on May 29, from New Jersey whose first chair, leaning forward with his Stewart charged him and, using him to use that car as the chase to a car in Phoenix and spirited produced an interesting side 1914, also at the hand of name also was reported as elbows on a table, enjoying a the rifle as a club, beat Hillpot vehicle. So Thompson — along them safely back to Globe because the crimes were drama, a romance between hangman Cunningham. Albert, chatted amiably with smoke from his corncob pipe. so severely that the rifle’s stock with Naquin, “horseless along the rugged Apache Trail committed on an Indian prosecutor Morrison and Rose Stewart, too, was angry that the two station managers. Goodwin, better known by splintered and “portions of the carriage” mechanic S.T. “Red” flanking the Salt River. reservation, with only white Kibbe, Fred’s sister. Joe Morrison the federal lawmen were But trouble began that same the alias James Steele, rose from brains and bone were dashed Brewer, and District Attorney Stewart and Goodwin were men involved, his clients had later married Rose Kibbe. absent. He confronted day when a dog belonging to where he was sitting a few feet against the walls of the cabin,” Walter Shute — drove off in put on trial five separate times been convicted illegally by The killers’ executions were Cunningham on the gallows, Stewart bit Hillpot in the leg, away, and with no provocation, according to Morrison. high style to find the killers. in a bizarre legal tangle that the trials in Territorial court. recounted in the book, Sheriff saying, “I’ll meet you in hell, and he responded by kicking drew a six-shooter and put a The killers hurried outside to The Cadillac performed well lasted four years. In the first The law required that the Thompson’s Day, by Jess G. and before you come to be

30 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 31 Twin Murders at Tuttle’s Station

with me, I hope you choke to death.” matters stand following the first trials, his murders was the explanation of the Writers have made frequent note that clients would have remained alive, perhaps killers that their terrible violence and Cunningham, many years later, died from as free men after serving long terms. blood lust stemmed from a dispute throat cancer. The amateur executioner Oddly, Stewart was executed for killing over a dog. probably lived with Stewart’s words rattling Kibbe, and Goodwin for killing Hillpot, through his brain, and defense attorney when the evidence was overwhelming Adapted from the book Manhunts & Massacres, volume 2 in the Wild West Flannigan no doubt suffered the that it happened the other way around. Collection published by Arizona Highways Newspapers Poke Fun knowledge that if he would have let But the strangest twist to these Books. at Arizona Territory BY LEO W. BANKS

n the late 1800s and early reported gunfight. The 1900s, panning Arizona New York reporter wanted I was the thing to do, almost to know if Chinamen are a national sport for newspapers so numerous on the streets on both coasts and some in of Big Hat that they’re between. always within reach if Editors and writers, then as someone decided to open now, were not independent fire? What about the thinkers. They reflected deplorable situation of a Inept Bandits majority opinion, so when wild large man so unfortunate tales of the Territory were as to get hold of a small written and spoken — once, man for protection? Have a Blast twice, a hundred times — they The reporter concluded were accepted as true. by wondering if Big Hat BY MARSHALL TRIMBLE The slander not only twisted hadn’t been settled by the truth, but took the most Eastern misanthropes tired blatant lies and published them of being victimized by the wo would-be Arizona to gather coins than in chasing as news. If the article was about “big hats” sitting in front of train robbers named Joe the two thwarted robbers. Arizona, it seemed, newspaper them in the theater: T George and Grant A week later, Wheeler and readers would believe just “Here [in Big Hat,

Wheeler twice tried to rob the George tried to rob the same about anything. For example, Arizona] they may have LOS ANGELES TIMES same Southern Pacific train — train, this time near Doubtful The New York Tribune, in its day formed a sort of colony, and failed miserably both times. Canyon. one of the nation’s most named their town after the On January 30, 1895, they “Well, here we are again,” influential papers, published a common curse which stopped the train near Willcox Wheeler said, grinning lengthy article describing a brought them low, and and climbed into the express sheepishly at the crew. gunfight in Big Hat, Arizona, now are engaged in trying car, carrying with them a few The bandits told the crew to which is not, the paper to kill one another off.” An 1895 Los Angeles Times cartoon sticks of dynamite to blow the separate the train engine and stressed, “one of those places How clever. Imagine the mocked Arizona’s public image. safe. They ignored several sacks express car from the mail and which tries to ape the effete typical reporter of the day, filled with Mexican silver passenger cars. Then they ways of the East.” The article sitting amid the chaos of a New his editor’s desk, and off he probably had never been West pesos, figuring the real loot was forced the engineer to drive the described two prominent York newsroom, wearing spats goes for a boost at the tavern and couldn’t find Arizona with in the safe. They tried twice to engine and express car a mile citizens meeting to settle a and a noisy tie. Blue cigarette downstairs, never giving a a lantern. blow the safe door open before or so down the track to where dispute: smoke curls in front of his second thought to the fictional Once formed, the wave was deciding to use the sacks of the dynamite was stashed. “Pulling their weapons, each pasty face. He yanks a pocket incident he has created. unstoppable, and what silver pesos for ballast. This Wheeler and George failed principal seized a Chinaman watch from his vest, calculates That’s right. Big Hat, Arizona, essentially was the same story time they used too much to notice, however, that the by the pigtail, got behind him the time remaining before never existed, and no such was told again and again, only dynamite and blew the express train crew had mistakenly and holding him securely in deadline, hears the desperate- gunfight ever took place. Some with different characters and car to pieces. The safe, now brought the mail car instead of position,­ blazed away. A dozen for-copy roar of his editor, so readers might have figured that circumstances. Such an finally blasted open, turned out the express car. In disgust, the shots were exchanged, but loud it makes the scribbler’s out, some not. The newspaper approach was much easier than to be empty. The only real two robbers set off their neither combatant was straw hat vibrate, and he begins story played the hoax straight as thinking. treasure had been the sacks of COLLEGES COMMUNITY OF SOUTHWEST STUDIES, MARICOPA DEPARTMENT dynamite anyway and rode off, injured.” to form his story. a renegade’s arrow. silver coins, which now were Grant Wheeler empty-handed once again. The body of the Tribune He fills it with commonplace The trashing of Arizona Adapted from the book scattered all over creation. story, published March 26, racial nonsense and even works Territory often happened just Rattlesnake Blues: Dispatches Wheeler and George rode away lawmen had a hard time raising about the scattered pesos, they Adapted from the book The Law 1893, consisted of various in the local angle. The boss will that way — capricious, From A Snakebit Territory, of the Gun, volume 4 in the Wild volume 8 in the Wild West empty-handed. enough men to form a posse. were much more interested in West Collection published by editorial comments and love that, he thinks, as he arbitrary, based on whim and Collection published by Arizona Back in Willcox, local When the townspeople heard rushing out to the robbery site Arizona Highways Books. satirical speculations about the dumps the finished pages on stereotype by men who Highways Books.

32 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 33 The Two Worlds of Cesario Lucero

whose only crime was his through the Mexican watching. The Citizen gave the was dead. They were blood relation to Manuel. The neighborhoods and towns on following account of what recognized as Fredrico [Acuna] Star reported that Guadalupe both sides of the border, Lucero happened on Sunday, August and Geronimo [Miranda], two was killed almost instantly, surely knew he was a marked 12, 1888: of the train robbers, for which a “with a Colt .45 in his hand, man. But he pushed the threats “Manuel was seen on large reward is offered, but up full cocked, ready to shoot.” aside and stayed on the trail of Saturday night near the Mescal to the present time have evaded The Two Worlds Nievas Deron fled some 40 the Agua Zarca killers. It turned Ranch. On Sunday morning, arrest or a more merited death. feet up a nearby hill, dodging “On examination of the body behind trees and firing as he of the murdered man, it was of Cesario Lucero ran. But Slaughter brought him found that he had received two down with a fatal charge of bullet wounds, both in the BY LEO W. BANKS buckshot. Manuel Robles ran head. Death must have been down French Joe Canyon with instantaneous.” Lucero, Alvord and Slaughter at A somewhat different version esario Lucero, one of the separated there and so did the a murder charge in Graham named J.J. Taylor, was arrested his back. was told in The Southwest­ of best lawmen of the lawmen, with Daniels going County at the time. He’d shot a within hours after investigators “It was a running fight,” the John H. Slaughter, by Allen A. C borderlands, lived in a after Dowd and Lucero taking man through the heart for found his hat at the scene. The Star reported, “and as Alvord Erwin. He wrote that Lucero world of shadows. His territory Delaney. interfering in his quarrel with a remaining four, all Mexicans, was without shoes, the was tracking Geronimo was the border between Mexico It was perilous work. Mexican woman. vanished somewhere in Mexican escaped.” But not Miranda that day, on orders and Arizona, and his time was Delaney was a hot-tempered After separating from Dowd, southern Arizona. before he’d been hit by two from Slaughter. the 1880s. 27-year-old from Pennsylvania, Hankin wrote, Delaney “simply Over the next month, rounds from Slaughter’s Erwin also recounted, in In this violent border world, considered the most dangerous disappeared, and for a while no Cochise County Sheriff John shotgun and a third from what might be more folklore a place of two languages, two man in the gang. Writer Harriet trace of him could be found.” Slaughter pursued the Alvord’s Winchester rifle. than fact, that when Miranda cultures and serpentine Hankin, in a typescript about But Lucero never lost the murderers from Fairbank to Robles fell after each wound, approached Lucero at the allegiances, Lucero performed the massacre on file at the scent. He dogged his prey deep Willcox, Clifton and but kept getting back up and stream, the outlaw was “smiling brilliantly and anonymously. into Sonora over several Tombstone. It was an arduous running. The lawmen trailed as if greeting a brother” when He was never quoted, never hundred miles. He passed out and frustrating chase. The men him for more than two miles by he said, “I understand you are featured and rarely credited. handbills containing a kept moving, taking and the blood that flowed from his after me.” Lucero was shot Only toward the end of his description of Delaney in the shedding names like clothing, wounds, but he got away. The dead before he could reply. life was he praised as the best With his ability to villages and to Mexican police. and using friends, family and sheriff boasted that Robles In death, Lucero received the Mexican detective in the His diligence paid off when, their knowledge of the terrain wouldn’t live long. full acclaim that eluded him in Southwest. But by then, the read the whispers according to Hankin, Delaney’s to stay ahead of the law. Much of the credit for the life. The Tombstone Epitaph for criminals he hunted, his own “ugly temper overcame his Early in June, after spending successful routing of the August 25 wrote that “few countrymen, had marked him and rumors discretion,” and he got involved a night in Tombstone, two of murderers went to Slaughter. better, and no braver, men than as a traitor deserving in a saloon brawl in Minas the robbers, Manuel Robles and “It is not every county that Cesario Lucero ever met death assassination. that ran through Prietas, near Hermosillo. another known in some has a sheriff brave enough to at the hands of cowardly Lucero was called upon by Mexican police thought they accounts as Nievas Deron, left walk over the mountains in his assassins.” Cochise County Sheriff Jerome the Mexican recognized him from the for the Whetstone Mountains, bare feet to capture desperate Public demands for L. Ward after the Bisbee handbills and took him in. He west of town. Robles’ brother, criminals,” reported the retribution against Miranda

Massacre of 1883. The trouble neighborhoods was the last of the robbers Guadalupe, worked there as a Tombstone Prospector. ARCHIVES STATE ARIZONA became intense, even though it started on a cold December day arrested, and all of them died at woodcutter. But Lucero, whose was never firmly established and towns The marker for Dowd and his gang when five gunmen botched the end of a rope. Lucero, along with Slaughter knowledge of the back alleys of at Tombstone’s Boot Hill that he was the actual their attempt to rob the Even though Delaney’s and Deputy Burt Alvord, Mexican Tombstone was key to triggerman. He proved a Goldwater and Castaneda on both sides capture might never have followed close behind, and the pursuit, finally got some formidable adversary for Mercantile on Main Street. Five occurred without Lucero’s came upon the fugitives at recognition, too, when the out that they were tracking Lucero went to the creek which Slaughter, who chased him for bystanders, including a of the border, knowledge of Mexico, the Mescal Springs at dawn the Prospector paid tribute to his him, too. runs through the ranch about two more years without pregnant woman and her deputy was largely absent from morning of June 6. “coolness, bravery and Early in August, Lucero two hundred yards distant from success. unborn baby, died as a result of Lucero surely the congratulatory press “When within some 80 yards shrewdness” in the shoot-out. departed Tombstone for the the house. He went unarmed, Geronimo Miranda finally the shooting that accompanied accounts of the day. He of the camp,” reported the Unfortunately for Lucero, Mescal Ranch in the San Jose leaving his rifle at the house, met his end, in June 1891, the bandits’ getaway. Two of the knew he was a remained in the background on (Tucson) Arizona Daily Star, Slaughter was wrong in Mountains, a short distance not expecting any danger. when he was gunned down by bandits — W.E. “Bill” Delaney other occasions as well. “they all removed their shoes predicting Manuel Robles’ south of the Arizona border. “After washing himself he ranchers near Benson after and Dan Dowd — rode toward marked man. On May 11, 1888, several and proceeded in their stocking death. The killer survived his The Arizona Weekly Citizen sauntered back, but had stealing some horses. Fredrico John Slaughter’s ranch near masked men held up a train at feet. When they came to the wounds, reunited with two reported that he went “with the proceeded but a few yards Acuna and Manuel Robles Douglas, then picked up the Arizona Historical Society, Agua Zarca, Mexico, 12 miles men they found them lying by more of the gang — Fredrico idea of entering into the when the crack of a rifle shot escaped and were never heard smuggler’s route south into described him as “a dark, agile south of Nogales. They coldly a fire wrapped in their Acuna and Geronimo Miranda business of buying and selling was heard, quickly followed by from again. Mexico. man of medium height, vicious killed the conductor and blankets. The sheriff ordered (or Baldon, depending on the mescal [a liquor made from a second report, and Lucero Deputy Billy Daniels and and aggressive in disposition, brakeman and wounded them to throw up their hands account) — and swore revenge agaves].” was seen to fall in his tracks. Adapted from the book Lucero reportedly trailed them reputed to be a dead shot with several others before fleeing and surrender.” against Lucero. Lucero was unaware that “Two men were seen to run Manhunts & Massacres, volume 2 in the Wild West Collection to the old Spanish town of a rifle.” into Arizona. But the fugitives woke up With his ability to read the Manuel, in company with away after convincing published by Arizona Highways Bavispe, Sonora. The fugitives Delaney was on the run from One of them, an Anglo firing. So did Guadalupe Robles, whispers and rumors that ran Acuna and Miranda, was themselves that their victim Books.

34 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 35 Buckey O’Neill

light snow was falling, turning arriving, they found horse the ground white. From the tracks that matched the ones at darkness, a voice ordered him the ranch. One of the horses to lift his arms. The fireman had been shod with the toe out looked up to see two men, of line. Another had three nails their faces masked with on the inside of the shoe Buckey O’Neill neckerchiefs, pointing pistols at instead of the usual four. Still his chest. A moment later, he another had been shod with a A POSSE CAPTURES THE CANYON DIABLO TRAIN ROBBERS saw three men walking toward secondhand shoe, causing the him. The one in the middle nail heads to protrude. BY MARSHALL TRIMBLE was engineer Wood. Two From the descriptions and grizzled, hard-looking men prints, Barnes was pretty sure carrying six-guns walked on he knew the identities of two of istory, romantic wit. He had a vibrant, magnetic a train. He shared his plan with circled around to the north. either side of him. the train robbers. folklore and bizarre personality that inspired loyalty the other three, then quietly Along the way, they made a The masked bandits led the He and Broadbent found the H coincidences mix and devotion from men and drew his pay and rode out. costly mistake by burglarizing two trainmen to the express car COLLEGES COMMUNITY OF SOUTHWEST STUDIES, MARICOPA DEPARTMENT spot where the outlaws had together to make this tale. Years women alike. He camped that night in Box Will Barnes’ ranch at the mouth and threatened to blow it up A Santa Fe train stopped to divide the loot. after a train robbery, legendary He also had a strong sense of of Box Canyon, where the with dynamite if the messenger crossing at Canyon Diablo Barnes found some torn Wells Sheriff Buckey O’Neill and one justice and would fight readily Chevelon River forks with the inside refused to open the door. Fargo envelopes, a five-dollar of the bandits he caught died for a just cause. And, as the Little Colorado River. The fireman pounded on the gold piece, and silver coins that on the same battlefield, four who pulled the 1889 train Barnes and his friend, Bill door and identified himself. with its whistle blowing. diamonds, too. Later, he the robbers had evidently lost fighting for the same cause. robbery would learn, he had Broadbent, picked up the They heard the bolt slide back. Snow continued to fall as the knocked the ashes out of the in their haste. Buckey O’Neill was one of the tenacity of a bulldog. thieves’ trail and followed the The door opened, and four train robbers rode south a pipe bowl on his boot heel and The bandits tried to cover the most remarkable characters O’Neill was only 19 when he tracks toward Winslow. Just messenger E.G. Knickerbocker few miles, then halted to build the diamonds were lost. their tracks with a variety of to ride in the cavalcade of rode into Phoenix on a burro in outside of town, the tracks stuck his head out. A step away a fire and divvy up the spoils. means. They tied bits of saddle 1879. He was a printer or veered west toward Sunset from him was a Wells Fargo The loot came to about $7,000 n Winslow, Will Barnes had blankets to their horses’ hooves. typesetter. Pass. The two cowpunchers sawed-off shotgun, but the in cash along with some I gone to the railroad station They fell in with a herd of wild Six years later in Prescott, he knew they couldn’t follow the messenger wisely surrendered. jewelry. Any jewelry that might and telegraphed authorities in range mares and drove them for started a small livestock trail in the dark, so they rode The outlaws fired several be recognized was buried to be Holbrook about the burglary a distance. And they rode The masked newspaper, the Hoof and Horn. into Winslow for the night. warning shots to keep the retrieved later. (The jewelry at his ranch. Then he and through dry, rocky washes. But He cut a colorful swath along Meanwhile, the outlaws curious passengers from was never recovered and likely Broadbent headed for a local the two stubborn trackers kept bandits led the “Whiskey Row,” made friends picked their way through the leaving their cars. And, just for remains where it was cached.) hotel to get some sleep before cutting trail until they picked easily and liked politics. In rocks and brush until they devilment, one bandit fired a Smith’s share of the loot resuming the chase. About up the shod tracks again. two trainmen to 1886, he was elected probate reached the steel rails of the shot into the wall of the station included a pair of diamond midnight, they were Barnes and Broadbent judge. Two years later, he was Santa Fe’s main line. The four house, sending the agent earrings. He took the diamonds awakened by the dispatcher, followed the outlaws’ trail elected sheriff of Yavapai men followed the tracks until scurrying for cover. out of their settings and put who told them about the train south for several miles before it the express car COLLEGES COMMUNITY OF SOUTHWEST STUDIES, MARICOPA DEPARTMENT County. O’Neill had been in they caught the orange glow of J.J. Smith and Dan Harvick them in his pocket. Later, he robbery. bent around to the north and and threatened office just three months when William O. “Buckey” O’Neill a lamp in the window of the climbed into the car and reached in for some tobacco Barnes and Broadbent loaded crossed the railroad tracks the sensational train robbery at tiny train station. They reined ordered the messenger to open dregs to fill his pipe and their horses on a stock car and about 15 miles west of to blow it up Canyon Diablo occurred. in their horses, dismounted, the safe. Knickerbocker accidentally dropped in the headed for Canyon Diablo. On Winslow. By this time, their It seemed that for case- Canyon with the wind howling built a small fire and waited for claimed it was on a time lock horses were about played out. with dynamite hardened Hashknife and blowing freezing sleet. the train. set by Santa Fe officials and he Barnes suspected the train cowpunchers Dan Harvick, Next morning, huddled over a That night, March 20, 1889, couldn’t open it. Smith then robbers were headed for Lee’s if the messenger Jack J. Smith, Bill Sterin and small fire, he watched a lone engineer Charles Wood eased motioned with his pistol Ferry on the Colorado River. John Halford the northern rider approach. He nodded the Santa Fe Eastbound No. 2 toward the Wells Fargo box The two trackers rode on to inside refused to Arizona winter of 1888-89 stiffly as J.J. Smith came riding across the spindly trestle over and told Knickerbocker to Lee’s Ferry, where they were would never end. Day after day, in. In a couple of days, as Canyon Diablo. The train was empty its contents. disappointed to be told the open the door. they gazed across that expected, Sterin and Halford but a short distance from the The two outlaws stuffed outlaws had not crossed the windswept plateau, impatiently also appeared. station at Canyon Diablo where their pockets with valuables river at that point. But the waiting for spring roundup. The four desperados spent the crew would take on water and rejoined Sterin and fugitives had crossed without Like it did to most cowhands, the next few hours huddled and fill up the wood box before Halford, who still were holding the ferryboat operator seeing Arizona history. He earned his the winter hibernation and around a blazing fire, their going on to Winslow, 25 miles their guns on the fireman and them. They had bribed a man nickname from his inclination riding the grub line made them backsides to the bitter cold away. Wood stared at the face engineer. The bandits forced to cross on the ferry and camp to “buck the tiger” or bet surly. They all were broke and while they made plans to rob of his pocket watch. It was a the two trainmen to walk with for the night. Then, when the against the house in faro. A reduced to playing cards with the eastbound Santa Fe at few minutes before 11 p.m. them to where their horses ferryman went to sleep, the dashing figure, he stood about dried-up beans for stakes. Canyon Diablo two days hence. At 11 o’clock sharp, Wood were picketed. After the four man stole the boat and brought 6 feet tall and had dark brown With life so tedious, Harvick Then they set out. throttled down the locomotive bandits were mounted, they let the desperados and their hair and a stylish mustache. began to think of easier, more To cover their trail, they rode at the Canyon Diablo station. the trainmen go. A few COLLEGES COMMUNITY OF SOUTHWEST STUDIES, MARICOPA DEPARTMENT horses across under cover of Women loved his handsome exciting ways to make money. south towards the Mogollon The fireman, lantern in hand, minutes later, the locomotive The Canyon Diablo posse: (from left) Carl Holton, darkness. looks, infectious smile and He came up with a plan to rob Rim, turned west, and then climbed down the ladder. A was racing toward Winslow Jim Black, Buckey O’Neill and Ed St. Clair At Lee’s Ferry, Barnes and

36 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 37 Buckey O’Neill

Broadbent were met by Sheriff captured, but Smith and O’Neill and a posse from Harvick made a run for it. They Prescott. The two weary leaped over a bluff and cowmen then rode back to bounced down to the canyon Holbrook. floor. The two were able to O’Neill and Deputy Jim dodge the lawmen the rest of Black had been in Flagstaff that day and through the night, Geronimo’s Cattle when word came of the train crawling through brush and robbery. They were joined by over rocky crevasses. Finally, A STOLEN HERD VANISHES special Deputy Ed St. Clair of they arrived at a small watering Flagstaff and Carl Holton, a hole, footsore, thirsty and tired. BY SHARON S. MAGEE detective for the Santa Fe. The They bathed their swollen posse left for Canyon Diablo feet in the cool water and were on the morning of March 22, about to leave when a shot n May 1883, Geronimo a small house. Before supper, two officers a moment of 1889. By then — two days after crashed into a rock, peppering promised Gen. George two civilians strolled out of the despair. Upon hearing their the robbery — a $4,000 reward COLLEGES COMMUNITY OF SOUTHWEST STUDIES, MARICOPA DEPARTMENT them with pieces of granite. I Crook he’d round up his ranch house. One told Davis he snores, though, Davis sent a had been posted. Hashknife cowboys in Holbrook Weary and dispirited, the two far-flung people and bring was the U.S. marshal for the scout to awaken Geronimo. They picked up the outlaws’ outlaws surrendered. By this them from Mexico to the San Southern District of Arizona. Soon scouts and warriors trail and followed it north to time, the lawmen had been in Carlos Reservation in Arizona. The other was the customs surrounded Geronimo, Davis Lee’s Ferry. During the chase, time after the outlaws had fled. charged toward the lawmen. the saddle for three weeks and By October, Crook began collector from Nogales, Arizona and Blake. Davis told the the posse dispatched a Navajo Finding them gone, the posse O’Neill jacked the lever on 600 miles. wondering if Geronimo had Territory. They had come to Apache leader he should start courier to alert communities in put spurs to their horses and his Winchester and brought Fearing the death penalty, stood him up. Crook sent Lt. arrest Geronimo and his men immediately for the to be on the lookout for rode hard into the night. At down Smith’s horse. With that, three of the outlaws pleaded Britton Davis to the border for the murder of Arizona reservation, that the two men the fugitives. (By the late Wahweap Canyon, the posse bullets began buzzing around guilty in exchange for prison with some scouts to escort the citizens and to confiscate the had come to collect $1,000 for 1880s, sheriffs were appointed found fresh tracks and warm like hornets. One shot hit sentences. On June 5, 1889, errant Chiricahua Apache to cattle. The marshal told Davis, the cattle. If Geronimo refused U.S. deputy marshals, allowing campfire ashes. Nearby was a O’Neill’s horse between the each of the three marauders the reservation and protect him “I order you to arrest them and to pay, the civilian officials them to cross county, state or steer carcass. They followed the eyes. The animal went down, was sentenced to 25 years at from the up-in-arms ranchers take them with their smuggled would simply take the livestock territorial lines in pursuit of the Yuma Territorial Prison. and miners. stock to Tucson for trial.” to Tucson for sale. outlaws.) But they got out after just a few Finally, a ragged line of Davis replied that he obeyed Geronimo angrily said he Word of the four fugitives years behind bars. Dan Apaches straggled across the orders only from General Crook. was going back to bed. He had had reached residents of the Harvick was released on border. Geronimo rode up to “I am going to have those come in peace and had found little Mormon community of Fearing the death penalty, Christmas Day, 1896. John Davis and said he had made Indians,” the marshal told nothing but trouble. Let them ARIZONA STATE ARCHIVES STATE ARIZONA Cannonville, Utah, located in Halford and Bill Sterin were peace with the whites. So why Davis, “and then I am going to try to take his cattle. He the valley just east of Bryce three of the outlaws freed nearly a year later, on was an escort needed? Davis Geronimo see that you answer to the intended to stay. “Then he Canyon. Not long after, the November 1, 1897. explained that he was federal court for your refusal to contemptuously demanded to four men rode into town. The pleaded guilty J.J. Smith, who had escaped concerned only about some animals for three days. Davis obey my order.” know why I had disturbed him Mormons treated them with while being returned to drunken white men who might agreed to one. To Geronimo’s Fuming, Davis stayed for a trivial talk that meant reserved kindness, fed them in exchange for Arizona, was brought to trial in try to harm them. Geronimo complaints, Davis replied that outwardly cool. Then, a friend nothing,” Davis said. and offered them a place to November 1889. He pleaded grudgingly accepted his the Mexicans could still cross and fellow officer that Davis A sergeant of scouts stepped sleep. The four hard-looking prison sentences. guilty and received a 30-year explanation and shook hands, the border after him. had invited to the ranch, J.Y.F. up. “He was of a tribe hostile to strangers cautiously accepted sentence — the extra five years Davis said. Davis said that Geronimo “Bo” Blake, rode in from Fort the Chiricahua, and he hated the hospitality and settled in On June 5, 1889, were added for his escape. Davis then asked about a growled, “Mexicans! My Bowie. Blake outranked Davis Geronimo from the depths of for the night. While the trail- Nonetheless, Smith was dust cloud, thinking Mexican women can whip all the and ordered him to remain at his soul,” Davis later wrote in weary train robbers were each of the three marauders freed before the others. He was soldiers were on their trail. Mexicans in Chihuahua.” the ranch. If Geronimo would his book, The Truth About sleeping, the local constable, pardoned and released from “Gando,” Geronimo said. But Geronimo, Davis said, move out with the cattle, Blake Geronimo. along with a posse of farmers, was sentenced prison on August 13, 1893, on “Cattle.” He had stolen 135 was low on ammunition. would escort him. The scout spoke rapidly to got the drop on them — briefly. condition that he leave Arizona head of Mexican livestock for Again Geronimo harrumphed, The challenge was to get Geronimo. The situation Somehow, J.J. Smith was able to 25 years at the and not come back. trading on the reservation. “I fight [Mexicans] with rocks Geronimo to move without became so tense that interpreter to turn the tables. He nabbed As for Bill Sterin, he enlisted This alarmed Davis. Driving and keep my cartridges to fight alerting the two civilian Mickey Free dared not speak, the constable, who then told Yuma Territorial Prison. in the First United States cattle meant the Apaches and the white soldiers.” authorities. “The plan looked so Davis never knew what the his band to throw down their Volunteer Cavalry — the Rough soldiers had to go slowly and The next day they started, simple,” Davis later wrote. “So scout had said, but Geronimo guns. The outlaws then took Riders — when war broke out follow main routes, where they making 18 to 20 miles a day. does flying.” became subdued. supplies, fired a few indignant tracks up the canyon and pinning the sheriff to the with Spain in 1898. So did could find feed and water but But at Sulphur Springs, After supper, Davis and Davis took advantage of the shots in the air, and — spotted Smith, acting as ground for a few nervous Buckey O’Neill. Both bandit also face greater threat. But Geronimo said he would go no Blake joined the civilians, change and of Geronimo’s changing directions to confuse lookout. moments. The furious gunfire and sheriff were killed in the Geronimo refused to leave the farther until his cattle had offering to share Blake’s good pride. Knowing the Apaches the posse — turned back Unwittingly, the outlaws frightened the outlaws’ horses, Battle of San Juan Hill. herd. Knowing that any dispute rested. If Davis wanted to go on Scotch whisky — and making “could leave me standing where toward Wahweap Canyon and had boxed themselves in. causing them to stampede could send the wary Chiricahuas ahead, fine, but he would stay. sure the civilians drank most of I was and I would not know Lee’s Ferry. Surrounded on three sides into the brush. Now the gang Adapted from the book The Law back into Mexico, Davis agreed Davis agreed to just one day’s it. When the officials said good that they were gone,” such was of the Gun, volume 4 in the Wild Sheriff O’Neill and his posse by steep cliffs, they was afoot. West Collection published by to let the herd come along. respite. night, the marshal bedded their skill at swift, silent desert rode into Cannonville a short spurred their mounts and Halford and Sterin were Arizona Highways Books. Geronimo asked to rest the They camped at a ranch with down on the porch, giving the travel, Davis gibed that the

38 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 39 Geronimo’s Cattle

Apaches probably couldn’t get Apache. We . . . got everything sat up. He looked around. know, but he guessed they were away undetected anyway. He ready to move. It did not take Stunned, he jumped up and at least 40 miles away by now. added what a good joke it 10 minutes. Not a dog barked. called his friend. Still in “You are lying,” the furious would be if the officials awoke Not a baby cried. We tied underwear and bare feet, the marshal accused. in the morning to find all children’s feet together under two climbed to the roof, “Perhaps I am, but you can’t Apaches and cattle gone. the bellies of the horses. We scanning the countryside prove it,” Davis said, smiling.

Something like a smile tied small children to adults. . . . through binoculars. Not an Riding hard, Davis caught up Volume 1 Volume 6 appeared on Geronimo’s face. At first we moved slowly, very Apache, not a single stray calf, with Blake and the Apaches #ADAP6 #AWWP8 Davis sent the pack train on slowly . . . because of the cattle. not even a puff of dust in sight. two days later, and he soon its way. When he returned to But after we got out of hearing, The two angry men delivered the entire band, with the house, every Apache had we put boys with lances to confronted Davis. He shrugged, cattle, to reservation officials. disappeared. keep the cattle moving, and we explaining that during the Kaywaykla, an Apache boy made time.” night Blake, as his superior Adapted from the book who understood some English, Near the house, Davis sat on officer, had taken charge of the Geronimo!: Stories of an later told the story from the a box and held his mule’s Apaches. He had moved them American Legend, volume 11 in the Wild West Collection Volume 2 Volume 7 Apaches’ view: “If any people bridle in one hand. As the sun and the cattle out. Where he #AMMP7 #ASCS9 published by Arizona Highways knows how to be quiet it is the rose, the marshal stirred and had taken them Davis didn’t Books.

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Volume 11 ufus Nephew, or Climax cattle and expertly altering the amount. So he altered it to raise removed some tobacco. He #AWGP2 Jim, as he was called, brands, Jim brought his booty his pay to what he considered a loaded up on a plug and put the R for his favorite brand of to a mine company butcher in fair number. tobacco bag down on the check. chewing tobacco, was a Clifton. He got a check for the Knowing that Jim’s A moment later, he grabbed notorious crook and cattle beef, but was unhappy with the rebranding work was too the bag, with the check stuck Volume 5 Volume 10 #AWTP8 #ABTP2 rustler throughout eastern expert to win on a rustling to the bottom. He returned the Arizona in the 1890s. charge, the district attorney bag inside his shirt, but with In addition to his genius went after him for check his fingers concealed, he balled with a running iron — a kind forgery. It looked as if the law the check up, leaned over and of branding iron that could would finally win its first spit into the spittoon beside his Meet the roughest woman ever to wear men's buckskins *Use promo code obliterate original brands and conviction against the chair, and as he straightened WWFR-NET3 Hold the fort with the toughest rancher ever imprint a new one — his notorious Climax. When the up, he slipped the only Offer expires July 31, 2003 to fight back the Apache Raids particular skill was removing prosecutor pulled out the evidence against him into his Fight off a cougar attack bare-handed handcuffs and leg irons and check and had it introduced as mouth and ate it. with the bravest woman Geronimo ever knew picking locks. He possessed evidence, Jim elbowed his The judge ruled the check such ability as a frontier counsel and told him to object. admissible, but by then, its Root for the kindly preacher with the meanest fists in Tombstone Houdini that no jail could hold The young lawyer bounced to remnants were sailing through 1 Log on to arizonahighways.com him ­for long. his feet, and a vigorous Jim’s digestive system. Case 3 Easy Ways “Climax Jim is the most ­argument ensued. In order to dismissed. Call toll-free at 1-800-543-5432 To Order 2 (in the Phoenix area or outside the U.S., call 602-712-2000) slippery bird in the Southwest,” fully engage in the debate, the Adapted from the book Complete & mail the attached order card said the Solomonville Bulletin. prosecutor put the check on a Rattlesnake Blues: Dispatches 3

But his most creative work ARCHIVES STATE ARIZONA table in front of the defendant. From A Snakebit Territory, See Our entire Wild West Collection Online at ArizonaHighways.com volume 8 in the Wild West came in a Graham County Rustler Rufus Nephew, Amid all the shouting, Jim Collection published by Arizona * May not be combined with any other discount offer. Quantities limited. Shipping and handling not included. courtroom. After rustling some a.k.a. Climax Jim reached into his shirt and Highways Books.

40 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 41 raid back to the F. gnava nest. A slave raid? attempt to grab her. The P. breviceps queen’s assembles any scattered F. gnava pupae into The workers of P. breviceps have lost the two main defensive adaptations are power- a neat pile and triumphantly stands on top of ability to forage for food, feed their brood or ful mandibles for biting her attackers and a it. At this point, colony takeover is complete. queen, or even clean their own nest. To com- repellent chemical (pheromone) secreted It has occurred to me that this abrupt pensate for these deficits, P. breviceps have from a gland in her abdomen. appropriation of the colony could be accom- become specialized at obtaining workers With the worker opposition liquidated, the plished by what I call a “chemical heist.” The from the related genus F. gnava to do these P. breviceps queen seizes and kills the F. gnava P. breviceps queen would acquire F. gnava chores for them. This is accom- queen chemicals during the very plished by the slave raid, in act of killing and licking her. which P. breviceps penetrate the To test this idea, I repeated F. gnava nest and capture the the study, but with a twist: To resident’s pupal brood. Back at each laboratory nest, I added a the P. breviceps nest, the kid- dead F. gnava queen that had napped brood is raised, and the been frozen for five minutes, emerging F. gnava workers then and then defrosted. The results assume all responsibility for were exactly as I had predicted. maintaining the permanent, Upon entering the nest, the P. mixed-species nest. They forage breviceps queen ran past the for food and regurgitate it to attacking workers, pounced on colony members of both species. the motionless F. gnava queen To better understand the evo- and proceeded to bite and lick lution of social parasitism in her, just as if she were alive. ants, I have focused on the After about a half hour of work- bizarre way in which P. brevi­ ing over the dead F. gnava queen, ceps queens establish new colo­ the P. breviceps queen was again nies. For example, free-living promptly groomed by the F. (that is, nonparasitic) ants have gnava workers and permanently a straight­forward process of accepted as their new queen. colony-founding by queens. Christine Johnson, one of my After a mating flight, an insem- students, has since confirmed inated female excavates a cham- that during the act of killing the ber, lays a few eggs and then F. gnava queen, the P. breviceps nourishes her larvae with stored queen does acquire a “chemical nutrients.­ When the first brood cocktail” from the vanquished matures into adult ants, these female. workers feed the queen and the A common question is why larvae of her subsequent broods. don’t the F. gnava slaves run But this sequence will not away, perhaps back to their own work for a parasitic queen ant nest. The answer is that these such as P. breviceps, because she ants are not “enslaved” in the Slave-Driving Ants is, after all, a parasite. She can’t human sense. Their situation is feed herself, much less can she more like that of “adopting a raise her own larvae. Her only baby.” Because they are snatched on a Mission to recourse is to invade an F. gnava as pupae and raised in a P. brev­ colony, kill the host queen and iceps colony, the F. gnava work­ One parasitic colony subjugates get the workers to accept her as ers become imprinted with the another for a mutually happy life their queen. The resident F. gnava odors of the host ants. In the sub- Survive workers will nurture the brood terranean world of ants, where text and photographs by HOWARD TOPOFF of the P. breviceps queen until her vision is virtually useless, a fam- worker population is sufficiently ily — even one that’s composed n 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Mountains of southeastern Arizona, where large to supplement the slave [opposite page] Two male suitors court the red queen of a slave-raiding of different species — is defined Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery each afternoon I wait for an ant to emerge force by staging raids on other Polyergus breviceps ant colony in southeastern Arizona. The males die soon by an arsenal of chemicals that is F. after mating, while the queen invades a hapless Formica gnava ant colony. in America, but the ant world took little from her subterranean nest. gnava colonies. [top] A slave-making P. breviceps worker ant emerges from a raided colony secreted by the ants and applied notice. That’s right, I’m waiting for one ant, but Because colonies of F. gnava carrying an F. gnava pupa. to all nest mates. Slavery among ants may be one of the she’s no ordinary creature. The colony’s sur- and newly mated P. breviceps [above] An unpigmented worker slave ant emerges from the pupal stage of In ants, you see, the family development. When mature, she and other slaves will darken in color and most unusual forms of social behavior to have vival depends on this single ant — called a queens are very easy to collect, I assume all the tasks of the mixed-species colony. that sprays together, stays evolved, but workers of the species Polyer- scout — who has one Herculean mission: to have been able to make detailed together. gus breviceps — which are all female — live emerge from her nest, travel up to 150 yards, observations of the takeover process in lab- queen. Immediately after the host queen’s exclusively on slave labor and would die search under rocks and leaf litter for a dis- oratory nests. Within seconds after being death, the F. gnava nest undergoes a remark- Howard Topoff is professor emeritus of biopsychology I at Hunter College of the City University of New York. without workers of the Formica gnava species guised subterranean nest of F. gnava ants, find placed inside an F. gnava nest, the P. breviceps able transformation. The F. gnava workers He lives in Portal and continues his research on social to take care of them. I spend my summers her way home, and then lead about 2,000 queen bolts for the F. gnava queen, literally approach the P. breviceps queen and start insect behavior at the American Museum of Natural conducting field research in the Chiricahua pumped-up P. breviceps workers on a slave pushing aside any F. gnava workers that groom­ing her. The P. breviceps queen, in turn, History Southwestern Research Station.

42 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 43 hen six of us step off Cape Final on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon W for a weeklong backpack, we’re instantly transformed into wide-eyed children exploring a ravishing terrain. Our goal rests on the summit of Vishnu Temple, the high peak ris- ing alone and razor-sharp at the Grand Canyon’s eastern end, summit elevation 7,533 feet. But all of us know, without ever saying it out loud, that although the climb represents an objective easily explained Dancing with Lightning on to outsiders, the real prize lies in the anticipation of the unknown. Mighty In spite of the landscape’s obvious grandeur, some nonbackpack- ers ask, “Why would you grunt around with that mass of gear, sleep on the ground and stay out in the rain?” Backpacking is an excuse to be outdoors, of course, but there are deeper answers. George Steck, dean of Grand Canyon backpackers and vishnu templeText and Photographs by Gary Ladd author of Hiking Grand Canyon Loops: Adventures in the Backcountry, says that for him, “It is the challenge, the chance to sleep at the foot of Vishnu Temple, it to grapple with the physical and mental would appear that not even 40 years of mis- obstacles of the natural world.” Good answer. adventures have been sufficient to quell the Outdoorsman Daryl Willmarth, a long- urge to explore. time friend, occasional river boatman and Dawn comes. After a quick breakfast, we backpacker, says it’s simple: He sees back- leave our backpack gear by the pools but packing as a chance to “scratch, cuss, spit, safeguard it from wind, rain and rodents. All stink and grunt unimpeded as real men, of us but Kerry leave just after 7 a.m., mov- and liberated women, are wont to do.” Who ing fast with daypacks, each loaded with a could argue? gallon of water, food, maps, jackets and flash- Yet the best answer may come from lights. (Kerry has chosen to climb 2,000 feet Maureen DeVeny, a Tucson hiker and river- solo to the top of Krishna Shrine, another runner. She’s not a hotshot backpacker, and nearby peak. He is nursing a sore ankle, and when she does pack, she complains a lot. he has scaled Vishnu before.) But, covertly, she loves it. DeVeny says back- We head up the canyon, climb up a steep packing allows her to be childlike again, talus slope, contour into a limestone ravine, just following her nose, listening to a little scramble up the crevice to a saddle, take a voice whispering, “Let’s see where this goes.” break there, then begin a long journey up Simple as that. through the Supai Sandstone ledges. Then again, Steck, Willmarth and DeVeny [preceding panel, pages 44 and 45] Viewed from Mather Point on the South Rim of the Still climbing in the shade of the west- stayed at home for this expedition. Grand Canyon, a forest fire’s smoke shrouds all but the knob atop Vishnu Temple, emerging facing slope, we move up into the Hermit above the Canyon’s ridges. Author Gary Ladd and five other experienced climbers trekked Four days are required to approach the to the base of Vishnu Temple to attempt the daunting ascent to its peak. Shale and Coconino Sandstone. Tilting slabs base of the peak of Vishnu Temple. The [above] Team member Mike Coltrin surveys Nevills Rapids from a rocky cliff. of ancient desert sands blanket layers of old first two days are killers, requiring rappels, [below] A view from the North Rim exposes the craggy walls surrounding Vishnu Temple. red mud. Up higher, there’s a maze of sandstone fins and chutes — closely spaced steep routes between towers of rock. This tangle of false leads thwarts many would-be climbers. For them, a shot at the summit slips out of reach as dead ends eat up the daylight. But both Coltrin and Macias have been here before, so the confusion of routes does us no harm. On we climb to a narrow flat bench. Again [above] Climbers Brenda Baker and Coltrin retreat from the cliff’s edge above Hance Rapids. we rest, this time in the sun, and the effect is not pleasant. As best we can, we hide next to rock outcrops and beneath our hats. Clouds bushwhacks along the Colorado River, nasty base of operations, a snug, watered haven loiter nearby but fail to intervene. No matter. climbs and hairy descents. The third and from which we will aim for the summit. The summit, now only 400 feet above us, fourth days are the opposite: embarrass- It is quiet in camp this evening before comes into view. It softly sings our names. ingly easy, although not for Jacek Macias, tomorrow’s summit attempt. The sky is clear, The eastward view is staggering as we Bob Kerry and Mike Coltrin, who scale irre- the air still. After dinner and conversation, cross the flat platform of rock. There’s Unkar sistible buttes and cliffs along the way while we slip into our sleeping bags. Once more Rapid, Tanner Canyon, Comanche Point. the rest of us simply plod toward the next I’m struck by the privilege of sleeping on Then we begin another scramble, this one camp, hoarding our energy for Vishnu the floor of Grand Canyon, on the gravel up a shaded ravine of cracks and chock- Temple and moleskin for our feet. and bedrock of the ancient Earth, looking stones. Ahead of us, Macias and Coltrin soon Kerry, a retired attorney, has written several back in time to the stars. No need of a roof. move out of sight. The Bakers and I stick climbing articles for Arizona Highways; Coltrin Not even the fabric of a tent. Breathing in together. is a retired railroad worker. Both live in Tucson. and out with the wind is all that’s required The ravine takes us close to the summit — Macias works as a quality control manager in on this serene night. this is good. But, once out of its confines, a Chicago machine shop. As they walk along, When I was a boy in Rocky River, Ohio, we’re surprised at the altered demeanor of all three shamelessly ogle every summit. I was for a while a church acolyte. Between the sky. Black clouds gather — and this is Finally, at the end of the sunny and hot duties at the beginning and end of the ser- bad. Just then, someone whoops from the fourth day, I wander alone along the floor vice, my sidekick and I explored the great top, Coltrin or Macias. of Vishnu Canyon. I come to a series of pools building and its many annexes. We prowled Two final obstacles block our way. Brenda, cradled in sandstone half a billion years old through basements filled with abandoned Dave, then I scale the first, a knobby cliff where, just beyond, Dave Baker and his pews, dusty storerooms and stairs leading to about 10 feet high. This places us on a nar- sister, Brenda Baker, are setting up camp. locked doors. There was even a labyrinthine row platform 3,300 feet above our camp, Dave owns an outdoor equipment store in route up into a tight, sweltering chamber 5,000 feet above the Colorado, 20 feet below Tucson, and Brenda is a biochemist from where we could almost touch the great the summit. San Diego. The three of us round out the stained glass window. Every Sunday we The final pitch, already gained by the climbing group. probed a bit farther into unknown territory. leaders, proves less tricky, but it’s highly The Vishnu Canyon spring becomes our And never once got caught. Now, as I try exposed. In other words, a misstep would be

arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 47 curtains. Coltrin lowers a rope and Brenda [left] Buckwheat blooms at the North Rim’s Cape Royal. Vishnu Temple rises from the Canyon floor. goes to the summit on belay. [above] Summer monsoon clouds shoot bolts of lightning along the South Rim and shadow the Canyon beyond Vishnu Temple. I’m next. As I’m getting tied in, there’s a flash and BANG. Lightning. A torrent of cussing comes cascading down from above. squirm out of their hidey-holes. I go up. the attractiveness of my bald spot. The three climbers on top dive into cracks Brenda climbs down. Dave comes up. We are just 2.5 miles from Cape Royal, yet and fissures. Down below, Dave and I cozy up The summit is flat but highly fractured, nearly two hard days are required to get us to the cliff. It begins to rain. only 6 or 8 feet wide and maybe 25 feet long. back to the Rim. We carry water from the We’re surrounded by air and a lot of bro- A climber’s register glints from a rock cairn. Vishnu Canyon spring to a camp on a dry ken, pointy rocks. Every one of the pointy As I sign in as a member of the 22nd ascent saddle beneath Angels Window. Straight rocks, dozens of them, buzz with electricity. group, I ask myself, is this my last mark? above us, behind metal railings, we can make Together they sound like sizzling bacon, a The still-spitting rain leaves welts on the out clean and tidy tourists. For their con- sound and an image I find troubling. The register sheet as I write. Above us, a new sideration, Coltrin finds it fulfilling to boom rope in my hands hisses, and I drop it to set of ominous clouds drifts into position. out with his most authoritative heavenly the ground. Metal objects, wristwatches In haste we take a few pictures and then voice, “PLEASE . . . STEP BACK . . . FROM especially, crackle with electrical energy. I scramble down. THE RIM.” realize that neither Dave nor I may ever The descent is like a tumble down a stu- At 3 p.m., we, too, are just tourists on the reach the summit of Vishnu Temple and pendous set of wrecked stair steps. Once Rim standing in the golden glow of quaking that the three up there on top probably wish again we feel like toddlers hardly able to aspens in late September. But as I drive home they weren’t. Nothing is as I expected it cope with a world made for giants. Then through the dazzling trees, they seem over- would be. Dave and I listen while Macias there’s another bolt. BANG. Missed again. done; my few minutes on the summit of continues to provoke the fates with back In a few hours, we’re back in camp, trad- mighty Vishnu has numbed and humbled talk, his Polish accent adding an extra zest. ing tales with Kerry who has successfully normal passions. Finally, he slides down the rope to join us climbed Krishna Shrine. We’re all exhila- Do I enjoy dodging lightning bolts? Of at the foot of the cliff. rated although emotionally spent. course not. But in our scuffle with inscrutable Close call. Dave says he felt an invisible Yesterday morning we envisioned a forces on that skyscraping peak, we held our shirt ripped from his bare arms. We all felt a leisurely lunch hour on the summit, sur- own. I admit, we were lucky, but luck is an “force field” pass by. We are now, like it or veying the rugged topography of eastern active partner in all endeavors. And, as not, in that supernatural realm where the Grand Canyon in an all-encompassing view. Winston Churchill once observed, “Nothing Titans play their games. Here on Vishnu But the lightning threat prohibited serious in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at with- Temple, today, our Earth is a magnificent study. Mostly I remember my somewhat out result.” and terrible game board. frantic picture-taking, my fear that the reg- In 15 minutes, the dark clouds have wan- ister sheets would blow from my hands out Over the years, Page-based Gary Ladd has climbed other Grand Canyon peaks, including Nankoweap Butte, dered away and the sizzling has stopped. into space, and trying to imagine — from a The Battleship, Brahma Temple, Cheops Pyramid and Osiris Macias returns to the top, Coltrin and Brenda bloodthirsty lightning bolt’s point of view — Temple. None proved as memorable as Vishnu Temple. arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 49 [opposite page] During a summertime White Mountains trek, members of the Arizona Mushroom Club found an edible aspen bolete (left) among an unknown species, which wisely was not harvested for dinner. Experts advise refraining from eating any mushroom foraging for unless it is accurately identified as edible. [clockwise from right] Mushroom connoisseurs describe the cavernous yellow morel as having a pleasantly mild flavor. Although some species of coral fungi are edible, beware, as many of them may cause gastric upset. Most desirable when young and unexpanded, the shaggy mane is an excellent edible that some f ng say tastes like asparagus. Mushroom Collectorsu Delight in a Tasty Find, but Shun thei Toxic Kind n a mist of raindrops filtering down through my hand, pushing up from its bed through ponderosa pine, Douglas fir and aspen trees, the pine needles and leaves. we spread out with our assortment of wicker A knife blade flashed and the lobster was collecting-baskets, net bags and cardboard tossed into a collecting basket — along with Iboxes. We were hunting wild lobsters on an oysters, hawk’s wings, turkey tails, wood ears, Text by Kelly Tighe August day in the forest near Big Lake, in the chanterelles, king boletes, chicken of the White Mountains of east-central Arizona. woods and honey mushrooms — all wild edi- Photographs by Marty Cordano “Here’s one,” someone called out. Voices ble fungi prized by members of the Arizona echoed through the forest as we gathered Mushroom Club. round. It was a lobster all right — the brilliant More than 300 mushroom enthusiasts “Day-Glo” orange color was unmistakable. It make up the Phoenix-based club. From was a big one, heavy and solid and as large as senior citizens to families with toddlers, club

members share two loves — tramping through Arizona’s forests and enjoying the taste of wild mushrooms. Their quarterly newsletter, “The Arizona FUN-GI” (as in “fun guy”), is filled with mushroom lore, new discoveries, quizzes, cooking tips and recipes. The group’s greatest fun is going out on mushroom-hunting field trips several times a year. Forays are often spur-of-the-moment affairs, based on reported sightings by club members. Depending on rainfall, there may ­gathering place and an embarrassing silence about the club. His children had found an be a spring hunt for morels and one or two will follow. Similar to asking a fisherman interesting mushroom and wondered about late summer outings in the White Moun­ about a secret fishing hole, this question it. Bingham joined a crowd of some 40 avid tains or along the Mogollon Rim. If rain has qualifies as a major social blunder. Even the club members surrounding Dr. Chester been plentiful, baskets can fill with a great club foray locations are secret — never Leathers, the club’s founder and president, variety of mushrooms. revealed until all members reach the pre- and his wife, Rose Mary. Like Bingham, many The group finds delectable and deadly poi- arranged meeting place. of them had a mystery mushroom in hand, sonous mushrooms in Arizona. Identification On that rainy August day members gath- hoping for identification. Leathers didn’t dis- experts help ensure that a novice’s first meal ered at the Big Lake store parking area, where appoint them. of fresh-picked mushrooms won’t be his or they were approached by a large man with a There were so many people around him her last. white beard. Chuck Bingham of Show Low that all I could see of the doctor was his hand Ask any mushroomer about a favorite had seen a poster and wanted to know more in the air, holding up each specimen as he

50 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 51 [above right] The small pinkish aspen bolete [left] A good edible, the honey mushroom grows most commonly under aspen trees. must be well-cooked. Be cautious, however, as [below right] The lobster mushroom is actually there are poisonous look-alikes. a fungus that parasitizes other mushrooms. It changes the shape and the taste of the mushroom that it grows on. The host should be forests, fairy tales, wizards and magic. identified before this species is eaten. Beyond the thrill and the fascination is the fact that mushrooms have been gourmet fare since ancient times. Boletes, chanterelles and called out the Latin and common names. A morels, all of which grow in Arizona, are microbiologist, retired from Arizona State high-priced items in stores. University, Leathers has visited the White After the morning foray in the forests Mountains for many years to study mush- around Big Lake, everyone drove back in a rooms, identifying 12 new species of coral monsoon downpour to the visitors center. mushrooms in the process. Jim and Doris Plos arrived with an impres- Scott Bates, then a graduate student at sive collection of the highly prized chan­ Ari­zona State University, thought that after he terelles. Members unloaded their baskets, moved from Ohio to Arizona he would never admired each other’s trophies and exchanged see another mushroom. Three years ago he accounts of how and where each was found. discovered a mushroom growing in his yard There were fragile coral, chunky king boletes, and contacted the Arizona Mushroom Club. white shell-shaped oysters, clusters of honey Bates designed and maintains the group’s mushrooms, orange lobsters, delicate and impressive Web site. No one knows how fluted golden chanterelles and a giant Boletus many species of mushrooms are found in barrowsii with a cap 12 inches in diameter. Arizona, but Bates is compiling a list that The variations of color, shape and texture contains almost a thousand. were amazing. With mushroom books in Jim and Doris Plos, a retired couple from hand, members discussed a variety of features Scottsdale, have been club members for five as each fungus was examined. When they years. One of their favorites — the honey were done, 23 edible species had been iden- mushroom — can be frozen or dehydrated tified along with several poisonous species, for later use. Like most members, they had set plus some whose edibility was unknown. their sights on chante­relles and king boletes, At lunchtime, the newcomer Bingham two of the most sought-after mushrooms in arrived cradling something in his arms — a Europe and North America. Chante­ relles­ are quivering, slimy-looking prize that resem- especially prized for their delicate, fruity, bled something between a sea sponge and a apricot­like flavor, while king boletes have an giant brain. Leathers congratulated him and earthy, nutty flavor. Both can be tricky to explained that the cauliflower mushroom, or identify, but the chanterelles especially so, “wood lettuce,” is edible, and club members because there is a “false chanterelle” that looks described how to prepare it. In return, the almost the same to the untrained eye. club collected Bingham as a new member. In a lecture presented the evening before at mushroom’s shape, color and characteris- mushroom collectors sometimes refer to After the foray, several collectors offered tics of its stalk all play a part in identifica- themselves)­ are not ordinary people, and me mushrooms, including two treasured tion. There are many good books on mushroom gathering could almost be con- chanterelles, king boletes and a chicken of Before eating a mushroom, accurate identification is critical. Misidentification can lead to death, or to such severe mushroom identification, such as Mushrooms sidered an “extreme sport” — maybe not on the woods — but I was hesitant. Despite Demystified, by David Arora. the same level as hang gliding and bungee reassurances that these were safe mush- gastrointestinal symptoms that you might wish you were dead. Wild mushrooms can be delectable or deadly poisonous. Even properly identified mushrooms are jumping, but mushrooming has inherent dan- rooms, I remembered Leather’s warnings. not always safe. Anyone can have a toxic or an gers if you are careless and make a mistake. Mushroom­ roulette? Not for me, thanks. allergic reaction. Leathers recommends always Why would anyone risk possible poison- Later that evening, as I walked through my the Big Lake Visitor Center, Leathers ex-­ underground plant may produce fruit for dotted with small white spots that is very performing the “edibility test”: Never eat more ing or allergic reaction, just to munch on a yard in Alpine, I saw something poking up plained that mushrooms are the fruit or the many years. toxic to humans. than a teaspoon to start. Continue to eat your mushroom? According to club member Jim through the pine needles, something bright reproductive parts of fungi growing under- “There are old mushroom hunters and Some people believe that white mushrooms normal foods at each meal, but do not mix Warnecke, every wild mushroom has its own orange and enticing. Forgetting earlier doubts, ground. Since the fungi do not produce bold mushroom hunters, but there are no are safe to eat and that brightly colored mush- mushroom species or eat more than the rec- flavor and texture. As with many gourmet I plucked the lobster and took it to the seeds, the mushrooms appear aboveground old, bold mushroom hunters,” Leathers rooms are poisonous. According to Leathers, ommended amount at each step during the foods, the hint of different flavors captures the kitchen. The inside was crisp and white. Two to release spores. The actual underground joked, as he explained the importance of however, this could be a fatal mistake. The edibility test. Wait eight hours. Then try a tastebuds. “It’s the thrill of the hunt that makes thin slices, sauteed in butter — delicious. plant is a mat of interwoven, rootlike fila- accurate identification. Misidentifying a “destroying angel,” a graceful white mush- tablespoon.­­ Wait an additional eight hours. it for all of us — it’s like an Easter-egg hunt Editor’s Note: Contact the Arizona Mush-­ ments called hyphae, which make up a larger mushroom can lead, if not to death, to such room that belongs to the genus Amanita, is Then try half a handful. If you experience every time we go out,” explained Warnecke. room Club at P.O. Box 3136, Tempe, AZ mass called the mycelium­ . A mycelium can severe gastrointestinal symptoms that you deadly. In contrast, the king bolete, which headache,­ watery eyes, upset stomach or The danger, it seems, is outweighed by 85280-3136; www.geocities.com/azmushclub. range in size from an inch to more than might wish you were dead. has a reddish-maroon-colored cap, is con- other gastrointestinal symptoms, don’t eat the enchantment. Mushrooms are ancient many acres. He quashed some of the fallacies about sidered worldwide to be one of the most any more of the mushroom. If you pass the and mysterious and have secret and fasci- Kelly Tighe of Alpine has authored several hiking While some mushroom species are short- mushrooms,­ such as the belief that if a desirable mushrooms. test without adverse symptoms developing, nating lives. Like forest jewels, some are guides, including the first guide to the Arizona Trail, and lived, others have been known to exist for squirrel eats a mushroom, then the mush- So, how does a beginning mushroom you have demonstrated that it might be okay graceful and lovely to look at, while others her most recent, Best Trails In and Around Kartchner Caverns State Park. more than a century. Harvesting the mush- room must be safe for human consump- hunter know which mushrooms are safe to for you to consume this species of mushroom may appear slimy and hideous. Some fungi Marty Cordano of Bisbee says this assignment was a room is like picking an apple — it doesn’t tion. In fact, squirrels will eat Amanita eat? Always go with someone who is experi- in a small quantity. glow in the dark, while others form “fairy first — never before has he eaten his subject after harm the plant that produced it, and the same muscaria, a beautiful bright-red mushroom ­enced in identifying mushrooms. The It would appear that “mycophiles” (as rings,” bringing to mind images of bewitched ­photographing it.

52 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 53 destinationby CARRIE M. MINER / photographs by GEORGE H.H. HUEY

SHORTLY AFTER THE RETURN OF THE NAVAJO empire as the oldest continuously operating HUBBELL Indians to their homeland in 1868, after four trading post on the Navajo Indian Reservation. TRADING POST years of internment in Bosque Redondo, New “Their remote posts were oases in the desert, Mexico, tenacious traders set up shop in the landmarks in an unmarked wilderness,” Continues remote northeastern corner of Arizona remarked Frank Waters about the Navajo Territory. These traders provided goods in traders in his book Masked Gods: Navajo and INDIAN exchange for Navajo wool, textiles and other Pueblo Ceremonialism, first published in 1950. TRADITIONS handmade wares, forging links for the Navajos “They were bankers, doctors, interpreters, to the outside world. schoolteachers, art agents, representatives of and Remains an One of the most successful and popular of an encroaching white civilization to the these Anglo men was John Lorenzo Hubbell, Indians, and champions of Indian tribes Oasis of History who at the height of his career operated more against an inimical government.” than 30 posts on the reservation, two The Hubbell Trading wholesale houses and several curio shops on Post continues to reflect the California coast. Today, the Hubbell [left] Opened by its rich past, still John Lorenzo Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in in 1878, the Hubbell operating much as it did Ganado stands as a testament to the Hubbell Trading Post, now when Hubbell greeted operated by the visitors at the door. He National Park Service, opened for business in bullpen with its cast-iron stove and the offers locals and visitors alike an 1878 when he acquired wareroom to the original building before opportunity to shop several ramshackle selling it back to Hubbell in 1895. for one-of-a-kind buildings of a trading Hubbell moved his base of operations to native-handcrafted post. In 1883 he built Ganado and began adding more buildings to items. [below] This 36-by- the first two stone the 160-acre homestead, including the massive 62-inch Ganado Red rooms of the currently barn, which at the time was the largest barn in style Navajo rug, existing structure. Two northern Arizona; a blacksmith shop; a stone created by Evelyn years later, Hubbell sold bunkhouse; and his sprawling adobe home. Curley, is identical in pattern to those the post to his business The home resembles the Spanish-style influenced by John partner, C.N. Cotton, hacienda of Hubbell’s boyhood home in New Hubbell during the but remained involved Mexico. trading post’s glory days. in its management. The residence wasn’t the only thing that Cotton added the large reflected Hubbell’s upbringing. He treated his entire empire as an immense feudal patron system, conducting his affairs much in the same manner as a Spanish lord. He employed Navajos to work the gardens and granary. He hired Navajo drivers to run his freight lines, and he brought Mexican silversmiths to the posts to teach their techniques to the

Navajos. [top] Museumlike in Hubbell created the popular market in politicians, prominent artists and famous appearance, the rug Navajo textiles, taking apart old blankets to writers. Many of the visiting artists made gifts room offers historic learn techniques, documenting traditional of their work to Hubbell, who was an avid art and modern Navajo textiles, as well as patterns and introducing finer wools and collector. A number of these pieces, including works by Hopi and bright colors into the larger rug styles. The the famous red Conte crayon portraits of Zuni artists. pattern called Ganado Red, which came Indians rendered by Elbridge Ayer Burbank [above] Wagons about under Hubbell’s influence, ranks and dozens of small oil paintings of Navajo parked outside the trading post remind among the most significant patterns to come rugs representing many artists, hang on the visitors how freight out of this period. It can still be found in walls of his home and trading post. once traveled to this abundance in the trading post’s rug room. A walk though the preserved 1890s remote corner of the Don Lorenzo, as he was often called (“Don” buildings today is a walk through the past. state. being a Spanish term of respect), was known Hubbell’s fine early American furnishings still for his generous hospitality; he entertained grace the five-bedroom home, which is

arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 55 “We’ve been married so long we think other tribal members seeking to sell items to alike. For instance, even when we disagree the trader. Harnesses still hang from the bullpen’s beams, cloth and tools crowd the now, we both think I’m wrong.“ * walls and grocery items fill the cases. Nearby, a visitors center offers books on the region and a chance to talk with a weaver working at her loom. When Hubbell died at age 78 on November 12, 1930, the community he served gathered EARLY-DAY ARIZONA to honor his memory. He was buried near Heat Strokes B y G a r y B e n n e t t MARSHA: “When I get to Heaven I’m going to ask Shakespeare his beloved trading post on Hubbell Hill if he wrote these plays.” next to his wife, Lina Rubi, and his close FRED: “He may not be there.” Navajo friend, Many Horses. At his funeral, MARSHA: “Then you ask him.” an old Navajo man paid tribute to this friend Coconino Sun, January 16, 1925 of the Navajos, saying: “You wear out your shoes, you buy another pair. When the food is all gone, you buy more. You gather melons, the defendant’s cabin. in the middle of the floor for a while, and more will grow on the vine. You grind “I’ll ask him, but it’s asking myself, ‘What in the heck am I your corn and make bread, which you eat. highly irregular,” the here after?’’ And next year you have plenty lawyer commented. Lucile Bogue, El Cerrito, CA more corn. But my friend Don “Why do you want him [above] The jewelry Lorenzo is gone, and none to to do that?” TALES OF TOMBSTONE room of the trading post offers a rustic take his place.” “Well,” replied the We asked readers for Tombstone jokes. setting for shoppers The Hubbell family ran the post defendant, “I figure I’ve Here are some of their submissions: to view and purchase until it was sold to the National got a better chance of pieces handcrafted on Park Service in 1967 and avoiding the noose if saw a sign outside one of Tombstone’s the reservation. I’ve got the home court motels that said, “Rest in Peace.” [right] More than a Congress mandated that the new I century after its site should be “operated along the advantage.” John Kriwiel, Oak Lawn, IL grand opening in lines close to those that were in Shooting blood from his eyes, he could take out a can Ruth Burke, Bowie several ramshackle effect when it was an active at 40 waddles. One only need mention the IRS. he Old West, believe it or not, buildings, the trading post fills a sprawling Hubbell Post.” And so, even in KISS AND TELL Tactually had health insurance for cobbled-together this modern world — where the bought a dozen long- retired cowboys. It was started by complex of rooms and Indian trader no longer plays the GOING TO RUIN Istemmed yellow Wyatt AARP. buildings. many roles Hubbell once uring a trip from Tucson to Phoenix, roses for a special friend and decided described as “everything from D our 7-year-old daughter, Audrey, to deliver them to where she works. n old-time judge in Arizona was carpeted with Navajo rugs and decorated with merchant to father confessor, justice of the was showing off her reading skills Upon arriving at the reception area, A noted for levying fines for any Indian artworks. A few retired national parks peace, judge, jury, court of appeals, chief by reeling off the contents of every I noticed a small group of women infraction of the law. Once he sat as horses occupy the massive barn. The trading medicine man, and de facto czar of the domain road sign. standing near the door. One of the both judge and coroner over the body post itself still runs much as it did in the over which he presides” — the traditions of the “Casa Grande Ruins National women asked if she could help me, of a stranger found dead in the woods Location: 318 miles 1870s, catering to Navajo, Zuni, Hopi and trading post live on. Monument,” she announced from the and I asked for my friend. As she with $40 in gold and a six-shooter in ­northeast of Phoenix; 176 Unusual backseat. She paused. “Mommy, why approached, I handed her the bouquet, his pocket. The judge fined the corpse miles northeast of Flagstaff. Perspective would they do that?” and she kissed me on the cheek. The $40 for carrying a concealed weapon. THINGS TO DO IN AND NEAR GANADO Getting There: Take By Linda Perret Vicki Lewis Thompson, Tucson group of women still stood nearby, and Both by Herm Albright, Indianapolis, IN Interstate 17 north to Canyon de Chelly National about traveling on the I heard one of them whisper, “She’s Flagstaff. Turn east on Monument Located near Hopi Indian Reservation. he spines THE SHORT AND TALL OF IT kissing the flower delivery man!” Interstate 40 to U.S. Route Chinle, 38 miles north of Admission: $3, adults; TO SUBMIT HUMOR from a fter living in Arizona for quite some Jon London, Mesa Send your jokes and humorous Arizona anecdotes to 191 near Chambers. Drive U.S. 191 north the Hubbell Trading Post, $1, children. Open Humor, Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ to the junction of State Route 264 in this sacred monument can Mondays through Fridays, barrel A time and talking to the old-timers, Ganado. Take State Route 264 west a 85009 or e-mail us at [email protected]. We’ll a m p m T be seen along the North 8 . . to 5 . . Second cactus can be I’ve discovered there is scant THE ULTIMATE QUESTION half-mile to the trading post, which is on pay $50 for each item used. Please include your name, and South rim drives and Mesa, (928) 734-2401. used as difference between a cowboy story and s I’ve just celebrated my 90th address and telephone number with each submission. the south side of the highway. on guided tours into the phonograph a fairy tale. Here’s the tip-off. A fairy birthday, you’ll surmise that Hours: Open daily except Thanksgiving, canyon. The visitors center Navajo Nation Museum A Christmas and New Year’s Day from 8 a.m. is open daily from 8 a.m. and Visitor Center needles. tale begins, “Once upon a time . . . .” my Tucson daughter, Sharon, is to 5 p.m. in the winter, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. to 5 p.m. except Situated 29 miles east Just don’t be A cowboy story begins, “No kidding, no spring chicken. So when she said in the summer (Mountain Daylight Time). of Ganado, the museum Reader’s Corner Thanksgiving, Christmas surprised if all folks, this really happened.” recently that she’d been spending Lodging: There is no lodging in Ganado, and New Year’s Day; and visitors center offers the songs start Gordon Burhop, Phoenix a lot of time considering the River-rafting can be a very but there are several places in Chinle, Chinle, (928) 674-5500. [above] Multihued auction at the Hubbell essential information which is 38 miles north on U.S. Route Spider Rock casts long Trading Post will be on about traveling around sounding like Hereafter, I was more than startled. ­educational vacation. For instance, 191, and in Window Rock, which is 29 Native American Art shadows at Canyon August 23. Ganado, the Navajo Nation. Open “Tumblin’ HANGING AROUND “Why? Is something wrong?” I every time my mom got wet I miles east on State Route 264. Auction In May and de Chelly National www.friendsofhubbell.org. Mondays, 8 a.m. to ­ learned a new word. Unfortunately, Travel Advisory: The Hubbell Trading August, the Friends of Monument. 5 p.m.; Tuesday through Tumble Weeds.” n Old West horse thief asked demanded. I’m not allowed to use any of them. Post is located on the Navajo Indian Hubbell Trading Post host randy prentice Hopi Cultural Center Fridays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; A his attorney if the circuit-riding ”Whenever I go from one room to Reservation, which observes daylight- a lively auction selling Sixty-three miles west of Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 judge would hold his hearing at another,” she said, “I have to stand Send us your river-rafting jokes saving time, whereas the rest of Arizona Indian arts and crafts, ­baskets and pottery. Ganado on State Route p.m.; closed on tribal does not. including Navajo weavings,­ Preview of items from 264 stands the Hopi and national holidays; and we’ll pay you $50 for each one Additional Information: (928) 755- Hopi kachina dolls 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.; auction Cultural Center, the place Window Rock, (928) * From the Witworks® humor book Marriage Is Forever . . . Some Days Longer by Gene we publish. 3475 or www.nps.gov/hutr/. and Navajo and Hopi begins at noon. The next to glean information 871-7941. Perret. To order, call toll-free (800) 543-5432, or visit arizonahighways.com

56 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 57 adventure backroadby SAM NEGRI / photographs by JERRY SIEVE

“HULLO, HULLO. ANY TURKEYS HERE?” A Loop Road No response. Around Was I foolish to expect wild turkeys on a road that runs around the base of something GOBBLER PEAK called Gobbler Peak? Not at all, said Doc Bradberry, who lives at in the White Nutrioso, in the White Mountains of east- Mountains central Arizona. “They’re out there almost every day around 4p.m.” Provides a I was an hour early, but the sky was overcast and stormy, and it certainly looked like 4p.m., Glimpse of contrary to what the turkeys might have thought. LOCAL HISTORY, Never mind. Even without turkeys, there was plenty to see and think about on the scenic Elk, Turkeys back-road loop from Alpine to Nutrioso and Williams Valley. Frankly, thinking was not high on my list of entertainments when I left Alpine on U.S. Route 191 headed north, but after 9 miles I came to Nutrioso. It was Nutrioso’s name that [below] West of set the little gray cells in motion. Nutrioso is a Nutrioso in east- central Arizona, cattle version of three Spanish words, which, if graze on lush spelled out properly,­ would be nutria y oso, pastureland near meaning “otter and bear.” People around Gobbler Peak. Nutrioso claim nutria means “beaver,” but my [opposite page] Pink moisture-loving lady’s dictionary says it ­actually means “otter.” thumb blooms among “Well,” said 80-year-old Richard Rogers, “the clumps of marsh grass otter and the beaver are brothers.” and sedimentary rocks Or sisters, for that matter. I will not question beside Rogers Reservoir.

Rogers’ knowledge. His grandfather, Hank right at the fork. This will take me alongside can also loll about, go fishing in the Black River Sharp, homesteaded a farm and ranch in Nutrioso Reservoir. A half-mile later a gravel or stand around gawking at elk and colorful Nutrioso in 1904. Rogers’ family has been in road should be on my left. It’s unnamed at that birds if you want to make a morning out of it. Nutrioso so long that he probably knows point, but I know it’s going to become Forest I drove up the gravel road until I saw a large every beaver in the area on a first-name basis. Service Road 88, the road through Dry Valley green barn in a field to my left — Hank Sharp’s When I reached Nutrioso, I left U.S. 191 and around Gobbler Peak to Williams Valley. Dry Valley homestead, the place where he had and turned left on Auger Canyon Road. I had Driving this loop from Alpine can be done in raised seven children single-handedly. Sharp’s a plan: As soon as I turn left, I’m going to go an ordinary sedan in a couple of hours, but you wife, Anna Mae, had died three years after the

58 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 59 couple settled in Nutrioso. Sharp was 52 years old at the time. His two oldest daughters were 15 and 13; the youngest of the seven kids was 5 months old. According to a biography written by Virginia J. Rogers, Sharp told his daughters that if they would promise to help him, he would never remarry. He kept his word and they kept theirs. Sharp died in 1942, when he was 87, and was buried next to his wife in Nutrioso cemetery. Sharp’s house burned down many years ago. Subsequent owners built the green barn and other structures visible today. The current ­owners, archaeologist Doc Bradberry and his wife, anthropologist Rebecca Vogt, bought the place in part because of its historical and scenic [opposite page] Sunflowers turn their value. If you stand where Sharp’s house once faces toward the early stood, the view is exhilarating — Escudilla morning light at Mountain to the east, Gobbler Peak to the west Nutrioso Reservoir. and Noble Mountain to the south. [left] Beyond a field of oxeye daisies, a I left the Sharp homestead and headed west green barn and three up FR 88. About 2 miles later, I passed a small smaller buildings pond listed on maps as Rogers Reservoir. Sharp mark the location of Hank Sharp’s original and his son-in-law, Floyd Rogers, built the Dry Valley homestead. reservoir and dredged a canal from the top of the hill all the way down to a pond on the homestead. loan. When the bank refused him, Schultz Warning: Back road A mile beyond Rogers Reservoir, 88 veers pulled a gun and took the money anyway travel can be hazardous if you are not prepared for west and eventually meets Forest Service Road because, as Rogers explained, “He didn’t want the unexpected. Whether 285, where I turned left. I followed it to its his mother to starve.” He even promised to traveling in the desert or junction with Forest Service Road 249 and repay the bank. Schultz fled and escaped the law in the high country, be turned left again. The road travels the rolling for a period of time, in part because Hank Sharp aware of weather and road conditions. Make sure you and your meadows of Williams Valley; 5 miles later I and Rogers’ parents gave him food and shelter. vehicle are in top shape and you have came to Three Forks. Arizona’s drought Lawmen eventually tracked down Schultz plenty of water. Don’t travel alone, and continued when I made this trip, but at Three and killed him in the vicinity of what is now let someone at home know where you’re Forks on the Black River, braided streams still Blue Lookout. According to one account, he going and when you plan to return. Odometer readings in the story may vary meandered southward to Diamond Rock and came out of a cabin with his hands in the air by vehicle. Buffalo Crossing. and was shot by someone with an itchy finger. Additional Information: Apache- Off to my left, according to the map, lies a Deputies draped him across a mule and tried to Sitgreaves National Forests, Alpine spot called Boneyard northeast of Lake Sierra get him to Springerville on that warm summer Ranger District, (928) 339-4384. Blanca. The Chriswell family spent the cold day, “but the body began to rot so they buried winter of 1878 locked in their cabin by heavy him near Coyote Creek,” Rogers said. snows, subsisting­ by eating their few cattle. The Linger as long as you like at Schultz’s lonely bones were shoved out the window where they grave. You may be joined by elk or even wild remained for many years, bleaching in each turkey, and when you return to FR 249, you’re spring’s sunshine. only 11 miles from your starting point at Not shown on the map is a place right next Alpine. to the Boneyard that was known as Clabber To Springerville City. In the summer, Rogers said, ranchers

would corral their cows there, and the women KEVIN KIBSEY would milk them and make cheese. Clabber is S 191 N I A sour or curdled milk. T Escudilla N U O Mountain About a mile east of Lake Sierra Blanca, Forest M Nutrioso Reservoir Service Road 276 heads south. I didn’t take that TE HI Nutrioso route because at the time I didn’t know about W the ill-fated Oscar Schultz. Rogers later told me 8 Gobbler R 8 Auger E a F Peak st Cyn. Rd. that Schultz’s grave is clearly marked about F or W APACHE-SITGREAVES 5 k il 2 miles down that road. Schultz, a cowboy of 8 liam NATIONAL FORESTS 2 Boneyard s Valle R y German extraction, lived in Springerville during F Lake Sierra B la Blanca the early 1920s. c k START HERE In Rogers’ version of the story, Shultz needed FR 249 FR 276 Grave site money to send to his mother in Germany. He Three Alpine 180 Forks Ri ve r went to the bank in McNary and asked for a $92 To Clifton 191 arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 61 experience

Festivals,arizona powwows and get-togethers / by CARRIE M. MINER

Raising Flagstaff ARIZONA IS RODEO COUNTRY. THE WORLD’S you can’t ride him, throws you to the July 4; Flagstaff Wannabe oldest running — and still active — rodeo is ground, stomps on your leg and puts a horn The most often-repeated story about the BULL RIDER in Prescott. And the professional bull riders through your ribs. Would that get your ­naming of the town of Flagstaff involves a hold an event each year in Tucson on their way ­attention?” group of Boston colonists who skinned a tall Is ACHIN’ to the national finals. “It’s not a dangerous sport,” I told her. ponderosa pine tree to use as a flagpole for ANN DUNLOP Why do I know this and why do I care? She insisted, “It is dangerous and you’ll their centennial celebration of America’s Members of ALL OVER Because I’ve decided to become a bull rider. get hurt.” ­independence. Legend has it that flying the Seligman Days with a Brownie Troop 835 That’s right. I’m a city kid who’s only been “I won’t,” I said. “You’ve got to remember, share their patriotic to Take On colors from that high point inspired the parade, live spirit in an old- on a horse one time — to get my picture bulls are nothing but dumb animals.” name of the mountain town that grew up entertainment,­ ­ fashioned a ‘MEAT taken on a pony in front of my row She said, “Okay, so intellectually, it’s a around the historic site. raffles and kids’ Independence Day house — but I’ve decided to ride bulls fair fight. But physically, you’ll get hurt.” Relive the patriotic spirit of that games. Information: parade through GRINDER’ for a living. I told her again, “No, I won’t. I’m too historic downtown ­celebration at an old-fashioned Independence (928) 422-3939. Flagstaff. I want to impress my wife. She smart for those bulls. I’ve got it up here.” I PAUL GILL PAUL Day Parade through Historic Downtown fell in love with these bull-taming pointed to my brain. Photograph in Arizona’s Flagstaff. Information: (800) 842-7293. Weaving Traditions cowboys while watching them on She said, “That’s not the part that’s going ‘Sky Islands’ July 25-26; Prescott TV. Their toughness and resiliency to get hurt.” Barroom Brawl In the Navajo Indian story of creation, the attracted her. The television I said, “You’re making a whole big Join Arizona Highways Director of Photography July 11-12; Willcox benevolent Spiderwoman, one of the Holy commentator interviewed one thing about this, and it’s not really that Peter Ensenberger Most Old West aficionados don’t link the People, taught the Navajos the art of young rider who had just big a deal. It’s just like riding a bike. You November 1-5 on a Earp brothers to Willcox, but this southeast ­weaving on her loom made of lightning, been thrown. sit on it, you keep your balance and you ­photographic journey to Arizona farming community marks the only sunbeams and white shell. In Navajoland, He said, “Well, I think I broke a get off.” the mountains of southeastern Arizona. Among Arizona’s best-kept secrets, these spot where an Earp was buried in Arizona weaving represents a way of life. To this day, leg, busted two ribs, probably She said, “True, but when you get off a “sky islands” harbor distinct species of soil. In the dark morning hours of July 6, Navajos continue to card and spin and sprained my ankle and dislocated bike it doesn’t try to stomp on your head.” plants and animals and contain dramatic 1900, Warren Earp and John Boyett set the weave wool honoring Spiderwoman’s gift. a shoulder, but I’ll do better­ I ignored her comment and went on, rock formations and vibrant fall color. We’ll photograph the magnificent stage for murder. According to the Arizona Experience the magic of Navajo weaving with my next ride in about half “And you only have to stay on the bull for ­bigtooth maple trees of Ramsey Canyon in Range News, the two exchanged threats ­traditions at the 4th Annual Navajo Rug an hour.” eight seconds.­ Just eight seconds.” the Huachuca Mountains as well as the ­earlier at the Headquarter Saloon. Boyett Auction held at the Smoki Museum. My wife said, “Now, that’s a real man.” She said, “Yeah, but that’s eight seconds creekside cottonwoods of the Chiricahua left, but returned armed and ready for a Information: (928) 445-1230. I thought, what’s left of him. But it was longer than the bull wants you on there.” Mountains. The Chiricahuas were featured by Arizona Highways magazine in challenge. Earp advanced on Boyett with an then that I decided to devote my life to “You can’t talk me out of it,” I said. “The November 2002. Between the two locations­ open coat, saying that he was unarmed, but Other Events riding ferocious­ bulls. smell of the arena, the roar of the crowd we’ll pass through five life zones where when Earp refused to back down, Boyett Gary Ladd Photography Exhibit; June 20-September 28; When I told my wife, she was beckons­ me.” you’ll be able to capture nature’s whole shot him in the heart. Grand Canyon South Rim Village Historic District; (928) delighted. I haven’t heard her laugh that She said, “Let me try to unbeckon you array of colors on film. 638-7888. At Kolb Studio, images from the Arizona For more information or a free workshop Learn more about this lesser-known Earp Highways book Grand Canyon: Time Below the Rim and other vigorously in years. one more time. What’s your nickname?” brochure, contact Friends of Arizona brother and the events leading to the fatal work by Gary Ladd representing different photo processes.­ “You’re gonna be a what?” she “The guys call me ‘Pinky’ because I Highways at (602) 712-2004, toll-free at showdown at Warren Earp Days. Activities “A View From the Mountains” Photo Exhibit; June 28- said when she finally got the choking, wear a lot of pink golf clothes.” (888) 790-7042 or visit their Web site at include a parade, carriage rides and historic September 7; Wickenburg; (928) 684-2272. Michael chortling and chuckling under control. “And you’re going to be going up www.friendsofazhighways.com. Collier’s photography from the Arizona Highways book The ­reenactments of the shooting and the hearing­ Mountains Know Arizona: Images of the Land and Stories of BURRESS RICK “A bull rider,” I said. against 1,500-pound creatures with OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS that followed. Information: (520) 384-2272. Its People. She laughed harder. nicknames like ‘Hurricane,’ ‘Jack the September 23-27 & October 23-27 World’s Oldest Rodeo; July 1-6; Prescott; (928) 445- Apparently, she didn’t have Ripper,’ ‘Meat Grinder.’ You’re no match Enter the twisting, colorful corridors of Routes and Rails 3103. Six days of rodeo contests and activities. the choking, chortling and for them, Pinky.” Arizona’s slot canyons July 4th Parade and Rodeo; July 4-5; Eagar-Springerville; September 29-October 3 July 26-28; Seligman (928) 333-2123. Parade, fireworks and rodeo. chuckling controlled. “I’ve got to go buy a cowboy hat,” I said, Explore the unusual landscape of the Since the mid-1800s, the town of Seligman Sidewalk Egg Frying Challenge; July 4; Oatman; (928) In the book I said, “You’ll be laughing out of and grabbed my car keys and left. Grand Staircase/Escalante National has been a transportation crossroad — from 768-7400. Frying eggs with solar heat. Grandchildren Are the side of your mouth when I come home A moment later I came back into the house. Monument Fourth of July Celebration; July 4; Bisbee; (520) 432- So Much Fun We October 2-5 the pioneer-traveled Beale Wagon Road to the with a championship­ buckle.” My wife said, “What happened?” 6000. Parade, ballgames, fireworks and mining contests. Should Have Had Discover stunning vistas at the Grand kitschy kicks of U.S. Route 66. In 1886, the She said, “You’ll be eating soup out of the I said, “Oh, I forgot my orthopedic pillow. Hopi Marketplace; July 5-6; Flagstaff; (928) 774-5213. Them First, Canyon’s Toroweap campground town was known as Prescott Junction because Hopi arts and crafts, social dances and live entertainment. author Gene side of your mouth when you come home You know how my back aches if I don’t it was the linking point for the railroad tracks Prescott Indian Art Market; July 12-13; Prescott; (928) Perret notes, with your jaw wired shut.” use that pillow when I’m driving. Do you 445-3122. Cultural presentations and Indian crafts. “True love is to Prescott. When tracks were laid from Ash Cornfest; July 19; Camp Verde; (928) 567-0535. Corn- I said, “You don’t think I can do this, know where it is?” Fork, the rails leading to Prescott were reading a do you?” She said, “It’s upstairs in the drawer with eating contest, cowpie throwing and corniest joke contest. children’s book removed and the town changed its name to Arizona Highland Celtic Festival; July 19; Flagstaff; aloud to your 3-year-old grandchild She said, “No. In fact, I don’t know how your tennis elbow brace, the bandage you honor the Seligman brothers, who owned (928) 779-3817. Live entertainment and ethnic food. while other adults are in the room.” the people who do it can do it.” wear for your bowling injury and the inserts White Mountain Native American Heritage Art To order this book ($6.95 plus the expansive­ Hashknife Cattle Company. Festival; July 19-20; Pinetop/Lakeside; (928) 367-4290 I said, “When people tell me I can’t do you wear to keep your feet from hurting Celebrate the town’s heritage at shipping and handling) or other Perret ­something, that’s when I want to when you play golf.” or toll-free (800) 573-4031. Indian arts and entertainment. humor books, call toll-free (800) 543- 5432. In Phoenix, call (602) 712- do it more.” “Thanks,” I said. Note: Dates and activities could change. Before planning to attend events, phone for fees and to confirm days and times. 2000. Or use arizonahighways.com. She said, “How about if the bull tells you She said, “No problem, cowboy.”

62 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com arizonahighways.com ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 63 KENDRICK MOUNTAIN Kendrick Peak WILDERNESS 180 TRAILHEAD of the month FR 190

FR 171

FR 245 by TOM KUHN / photographs by ROBERT G. McDONALD hike COCONINO NATIONAL 40 FOREST

KAIBAB FLAGSTAFF 66 NATIONAL 40 FOREST To Phoenix THE BLUE GROUSE FLUSHED 17 KEVIN KIBSEY The 3.5-mile noisily from cover beside the KENDRICK trail. They set their stubby wings and glided like the historic cabin from becoming cinders in the ghosts into the protection of the ponderosa pine Pumpkin Fire by wrapping it completely in heat MOUNTAIN TRAIL trees that blanket the upper slopes of 10,418- resistant material. I found the door open for foot Kendrick Peak on the boundary of the public use and the interior swept clean. Offers Sunny Kaibab and Coconino national forests, 17 miles At the summit, after an hour’s climb on a well- Vistas and a northwest of Flagstaff. This extinct volcano is marked trail, we met a Forest Service firefinder one of the few places in the state where you can in the steel tower. He stood watches during the Chance to See see these hefty timberline­ birds. fire-danger months of summer, scanning the The chances of seeing a “blue” — at 3 pounds, landscape for traces of smoke. He was glad for BLUE GROUSE the second largest of the North American our company and put on the coffee. We became grouse — increase in autumn there, after a statistic, too, since Kendrick’s firefinders count early frosts flatten the visitors. In most years, underbrush and strip the fewer than 800 hikers aspens of their leaves, make the summit because the trail is not well known. The low human count suits the blue grouse that feel right at home at 10,000 feet. The firefinder said the birds forage in the

[left] Aspen trees small openings around brighten the meadowlands his steel tower. He’d also seen a black east of Kendrick Peak near bear a few days before. Flagstaff. From the tower, look 40 miles south [above] The door is unlocked and visitors are to Bill Williams Mountain across vast welcome at the one-room ponderosa parks. To the east, view the firefinder’s cabin built lava slopes of Humphreys Peak just 10 around 1912 and now miles away. listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Below the summit, headed down, [opposite page] Beyond a we met a hiker accompanied by his pine-covered ridge, the Australian sheepdog, Cowboy. He was San Francisco Peaks Location: Approximately 17 exposing the birds. Though training in Kendrick Peak’s thin air for stretch across the horizon miles northwest of Flagstaff. much of their habitat of an eastward view from an 11-day expedition at the Cordillera Getting There: From burned during the Kendrick Peak. Blanca in Peru. He told his age, 55, Flagstaff, follow U.S. Route 180 to Forest Service Road Pumpkin Fire of May like a brag. 245, and turn left. Head 2000, the grouse are returning to Kendrick Peak. Beckman, the same age, had climbed to about west for 3 miles to a Phoenix lawyer Curtis Beckman and I 18,000 feet in the Ecuadorian Andes. They junction with Forest Service Road 171. Turn right, driving north, then west for traveled light with daypacks containing lunch, swapped climbing stories before we moved on. 2.5 miles to Forest Service Road 190. water and binoculars. Several trails lead to A flock of noisy ravens rode the thermals 20 feet Follow FR 190 about 1 mile to the Kendrick’s summit, but we chose the 3.5-mile above us, their shadows doing an eerie dance on trailhead. Kendrick Mountain Trail because it’s shorter, the ground. Additional Information: Kaibab National Forest, Williams Ranger District, sunnier, easier and offers the best vistas. The Summer and fall are best for climbing (928) 635-5600. trail begins at a parking lot and latrine at the Kendrick, but beware of summer lightning end of Forest Service Road 190. storms. Plan for three hours going up, two This trail was once used to pack in supplies hours down. Look into the woods near the for firefinders staying in a 1912 one-room log trail, and you may see blue grouse sprinting cabin at 10,000 feet. The Forest Service saved through the brush.

Before you go on this hike, visit our Web site at arizonahighways.com for other things to do and places to see in the area.

64 JULY 2003 arizonahighways.com