The Erickson's first moved into the tiny house in the left of the display case in Bonita Canyon. The small stone fort was built as a refuge from later threats of Indian raids though Cochise had recently surrendered, so the battle now was mostly between them and Mother Nature. You can see how the ranch house progressed into the enormous guest house on the right that enveloped the original 1880's home. It was young Hildegarde that turned it into the guest house in 1917, serving meals and lodging to visitors from all over. Lillian continued serving them until the 1970's.
In 1903, Neil Erickson got a job with the National Park Service, and in 1917 his job took them away. The three children continued with the ranching. Finally, Lillian and her husband were the only ones left at Faraway.
Lillian and her husband, Ed Riggs, married in 1923. They would take long walks in Bonita Canyon. According to Lysa Wegman - French author of the National Park Services' Faraway Ranch Special History Study - on one trip "they pushed into ... a tangled, boulder-strewn area impossible for horses to walk through. There they were amazed to find remarkable rock formations only a short distance for Faraway Ranch." That's when she dubbed this area the Wonderland of Rocks.
Both Ed and Lillian were college educated and knew how to get the Federal government to set aside this mountain for future generations to appreciate. Chiricahua National Monument is the result. If you want to take a tour of Faraway, the Park Service interpreters give a five-star walking extravaganza of scenery and information.
Lillian, as a young woman, began to lose her eyesight and her hearing. By 1942 she was blind. Even so, every day, Lillian would sit down at her typewriter and record the day's events. She said, "Just now it seems of small note to record the happenings of the last few days. Fifty years hence, it may be significant. If any of the doings of us common folks are ever significant." Her diary is now in the Library of Congress!
Lillian must also have had a sense of humor. She would play cards with the guests, but if she was the dealer ... well, her cards were marked in braille. (What a hoot!)
I was very surprised (but I don't know why: http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/11/fort-huachuca-arizona.html) to discover that the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry were sent to this area in 1885 to prevent the Chiricahua Apaches from using local water sources, to guard the mail, and to protect settlers and their livestock from raiding Apaches. While here, the soldiers built a monument to President James Garfield who was assassinated in 1881. They wrote inscriptions onto some of the stones that were used which Neil Erickson later rescued from souvenir hunters and incorporated the stones into a fireplace he was building. You can now see those inscriptions when you tour Faraway Ranch. (Very cool!)
Once again the Lord has blessed our travels with surprise after surprise - and, as usual, His best is yet to come.
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