BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT ARIZONA f I• Harqua Hala Letters The story of Arizona~s forgotten Smithsonian Observatory Pieter Burggraaf CULTURAL RESOURCE SERIES No. 9 1996 .,, ,.,..~""'--'~ .---.::.~... - ' - " -·........... ~- .... HARQUA HALA LETTERS The story of Arizona's forgotten 1920's Smithsonian Institution Observatory By Pieter Burggraaf Cultural Resources Series Monograph No. 9 Published by the Arizona State Office of the Bureau of Land Management 3707 N. 7th. Street Phoenix, Arizona 85014 May 1996 Contents Preface V Introduction IX I. The Legacy 1 2. Finding a Mountain 9 3. Moving In 17 4. Aiming at the Sun 25 5. Near Disaster 31 6. Aldrich Returns 37 7. From the Comfort of L.A. 49 8. Moore's Attitude Arrives 59 9. Troubles With Knight 67 10. After One Year 77 11. A Voice From Stockton 89 12. Taking Care of Lightning 97 13. Plans for Continued Work 107 14. Settling Down Until 1925 115 15. Fin ally, Good Results 125 11 HARQUA HALA LETTERS 16. A Wire to Wenden 133 17. Ready for a Real Test 141 18. Changing the Staff 149 19. Paul and Bill 157 20. The Moores Return 165 21. Moore Versus Greeley 175 22. Round Two 183 23. Between Assistants 191 24. Worthing Spits! 199 25. Changes in the Wind 205 26. Pushing for California 213 27. Good-by Harqua Hala 221 28. Epilogue 227 29. Period Photographs 233 List of Photographs Harqua Hala Mountain from the business section of Wenden, Arizona 234 Harqua Hala field station on August 26, 1920 234 Charles Abbot and others packing equipment to summit 235 Fred Greeley and Loyal Aldrich at Harqua Hala field station 235 The observing equipment at Harqua Hala field station 236 Weather damaged field station circa December 1920 236 Dr. Charles Greeley Abbot at Harqua Hala field station 237 Mr. Ellison's mining camp on Harqua Hala Mountain 237 Chella Moore at Ellison's Harqua Hala mining camp 238 Alfred and Chella Moore on the Harqua Hala croquet court 238 Alfred and Chella Moore at the garage 239 Erecting radio aerials on Harqua Hala Mountain 239 Lillian Abbot, Chella Moore, Alfred Moore and Fred Greeley 240 Campers from Wenden, Arizona, on Harqua Hala Mountain 240 Mr. Ellison and George, the horse 241 The makeshift telescope on Harqua Hala Mountain 241 Harqua Hala field station circa June 1924 242 Harqua Hala field station at the height of its development 242 Ill IV HARQUA HALA LETTERS Preface I have lived in Arizona, in three separate moves, for over thirty years. I was first ex­ posed to Arizona's nature and history in Florence, where I lived as a youngster. I am also an amateur astronomer; my brother-in-law introduced me to the wonders of the night sky when I was a teenager. My interests in Arizona and astronomy fit together nicely with the events that have led to writing this book. One night, I don't remember the date, while observing the sky out in the desert of the Harquahala Valley west of Phoenix, my observing companion, Mike Toye, casually mentioned that Gary Weisner, a local independent geologist, had told him there was an old observatory on nearby Harquahala Mountain. 1 My first vision was of an abandoned building with a classic white dome that once held a telescope. I didn't think much more of the site until one day in the summer of 1990, while my wife and I were returning from u trip to Laughlin, Nevada, driving through the Harquahala Valley, I thought I saw a glint of something on top of Harquahala Moun­ tain. I began asking questions. My first inquiry went to Dr. John McGraw at the University of Arizona's Stew­ ard Observatory in Tucson. By letter McGraw told me, "The Harquahala astronomical site was used by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory many years ago, princi­ pally as a solar observatory. I'm afraid I know very little about this site, though I have seen pictures of it in books." McGraw referred my inquiry to Dan Brocious, the public information manager at Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, the modern site of the Smithsonian Astro­ physical Observatory, south of Tucson. In turn, Brocious referred me to the book lighthouse ofthe Skies,2 a comprehensive history of the Smithsonian's efforts to meas­ ure the so-called solar constant; 3 here there were the pictures of the "observatory" on Harquahala Mountain, a building quite different from my first vision. The book, how­ ever, provided only a few details about this site. I was determined to go there myself. Gary Weisner told me of the few times he had been to the site and suggested that I call the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for more information. I dreaded making this can because I thought the BLM was a police department that kept people off government land. I was very wrong~ the BLM is doing a good job of managing our "public" land. 1 Today, the adopted spelling is "Harquaha]a" (one word), the convention used here in the Preface. Back in the 1920s, the accepted spelling was "Harqua Hala" (two words), the convention used in all other chapters. 2 Bessie Zaban Jones, Lighthouse of the Skies, The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory: Backgrowid and History 1846-195 5, Smith­ sonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1965. 3 Discussed in Chapter l, the solar constant is a measure of the amount of heat the sun sends to the earth V Vt HARQUA HALA LETTERS At the BLM's Phoenix District Deer Valley office, Jack Ragsdale put me in touch with Rich Hanson, supervisory outdoor recreation planner of the Lower Gila Resource Area. While Hanson cautioned me that access to the site was via a difficult four-wheel road, he encouraged me to go and faxed a map to me. I was on my way. Early one Saturday in November 1990, Mike Toye and I left Phoenix for the summit of Harquahala Mountain. It took us two hours to drive to the base of the mountain and then over an hour to go ten miles to the mile-high summit. Only in the last mile or so could we see the odd building prominently placed at the summit of this barren, mile high peak, so typical of the many mountains in the Sonoran Desert. Up close, the narrow two-story structure was odder still. It was completely cov­ ered with corrugated steel, except for a door with bars on the south side. It certainly didn't look like an observatory, instead more like an old barn. Two concrete water tanks, sagging gutters, an empty secondary foundation, the remains of wooden attach­ ments and the building itself gave Mike and me the impression that wind, rain and snow had taken their toll. A BLM sign at the site identifies this building as a 1920s field station for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. That day, in November 1990, was a relatively nice Arizona day, yet at the top of the mountain the wind was miserable. I could only imagine how difficult living on this mountain had been for those who operated the field station. I was determined to find out more about this site. Back in Phoenix I made an appointment with Cheryl Blanchard, archaeologist, at the BLM. In the late 1970s the BLM stabilized the building on Harquahala Moun­ tain and had it placed on the National Register of Historic Places. To support this ef­ fort they had gathered what records they could find and documented the stabilization work with photographs. Blanchard let me sit down in a conference room and pour through the BLMJiles. In these files I first saw a few period letters and photographs obtained from the Smithsonian Archives. I was beginning to find the level of detail I was looking for about the beginnings of the Harquahala site. My next inquiry went to the Smithsonian Archives in Washington, DC. They didn't reply for a month, but it was well worth the ,vait and the real turning point in what was by then a legitimate research project. Archivist William Deiss sent me addi­ tional period letters about the Harquahala site, including an unpublished compilation of letters from one observer to his family, and copies of dozens of period photographs. Deiss advised, "There is additional material here, and I think that you should consider coming here to look at it. This material may be too voluminous to photocopy." What kept me going was the fact that few in Arizona seemed to know about the Harquahala observatory. The few that did, had no idea what it had been used for. I felt I had an opportunity to contribute to written history~ my first effort was an essay, writ­ ten in the fall of 1991 and published in the 1993 spring issue of The Journal of Preface Vil Arizona History. In addition, I presented the essay orally with slides at the 1993 Ari­ zona History Convention in Bullhead City. In the spring of 1992 I got a call from Jane Pike, an archaeologist at the BLM. Pike was putting together a brochure about the Harquahala site and wanted to look through my records for anything that might help. During our first meeting I casually mentioned that I thought there was more information at the Smithsonian Archives that could lead to a book, but proper evaluation of this material would involve a trip to Washington. To my surprise, Pike mentioned that possibly the BLM would sponsor such a trip. Before I knew it, I signed on with the BLM as a volunteer research assis­ tant. Early in August 1992 I flew to Washington and the Smithsonian Archives, and spent the better part of a week combing through records related to Harquahala Moun­ tain and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's efforts to measure the solar constant.