Tonto Apaches and Mohave Indians

In 1851, Tonto Apaches captured Olive and Mary Ann Oatman and, as happened a lot, they were then traded to the Mohave Indians that lived along the Colorado River.  (The river is now the dividing line between Arizona and California.)  Olive survived five years of drought, starvation, and death by illnesses only to be traded to a white man.  What's cool is that that white man had been sent by her brother, Lorenzo.  That man had been searching for Olive for over a year.

Have you ever watched a cable TV series, "Hell on Wheels?"  (It's not for children...)  One of the female characters in the series was once a captive of Indians and carries a chin tattoo as a symbol of her earlier acceptance into an Indian community.  Interestingly enough, that tattoo is vaguely familiar to the one Olive Oatman carried to her grave...


In 1857, Lt. Beale noted in his personal journal that he believed a military presence in the Kingman area would be necessary to protect emigrants from Mojave Indian aggression.

In 1858, just a few months after Lt. Beale and his men (and camels!) finished their survey work on the wagon road, folks were already heading west.  When one of these groups made it back to Albuquerque, one of their men wrote a letter to the editor of his back-home newspaper:

The Indians came running from every quarter out of the brush, completely surrounding the camp, and attacked us.  They kept up a continued shooting of arrows for near two hours and part of them, having driven off all the stock except a few near the wagons, they all left ... Miss Bentner had been found dead, her clothes torn off and her face disfigured.  From this and the fact of an Indian shaking some scalps at us, which he had fastened on a pole, we supposed that they (the Bentner family) had all been killed.  Mr. Alpha Brown was also killed and eleven wounded (including a small girl who was shot through the shoulder with an arrow) ... We concluded to return the way we had come ... Out of near four hundred head of cattle, we saved seventeen head, and out of thirty-seven horses, probably ten..."  
Despite much hardship most of the group made it back to Albuquerque, walking most of the way.

Fort Mojave was established the next year - just as Lt. Beale had warned would be necessary.

ObamaCare

I don't think I've gotten political on my blog, but this ObamaCare thing...  Well, you know that Granpa is in the hospital working every day with cardiologists and other doctors - all over the country.  There is not ONE that thinks national health care is a good idea.  There are even some who have changed professions!  Please, go to this site and "sign" the petition.  Donate or don't donate (but all things you believe in have a price), and the book you get for donating is by Mark Levine - arguably the smartest man in the room!

http://www.dontfundobamacare.com/

Kingman Museums

There are three museums in Kingman - and one price gets you into all three!!  We started at the Route 66 Museum. (Of course!)  This mural pretty well tells the whole story.  Guess we don't even need to go inside, huh?

Silly people!  Of COURSE we have to go inside!! 

All of the American Southwest is full of artisans.  A local artist did this mural, portraits of every American President and their First Ladies (not always their wives, by the way) which are shown in the Mohave Museum here in Kingman, and even a depiction of Mount Rushmore.  It's really great artwork if you ever get a chance to see it up close.

The Route 66 Museum, in part, tells the story of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl migration of America's Great Plains farmers to California.  There are even huge panels quoting pages from "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's famous novel about those times.  It's a good museum - but not nearly as good as the Mohave Museum that we spent a couple of hours in a few days later!

Here at the Mohave Museum they have everything from Native Americans in the area to the blacksmith's shop outside to the story of World War II and Arizona's part in that event. 

I'll be sharing parts of this story with you over the next few days!

Kingman Turquoise

Our friends that we met in Hawaii but that now live in Texas (see what a great influence we are?!), were excited to discover that we would be in Kingman, Arizona for awhile.  Seems Paul is a turquoise aficionado and knew that the very best turquoise on earth (literally) is found in the mines around Kingman!

An ancient myth has it that turquoise comes from a mythical beast, the Corprus, which eats the earth around copper deposits and eliminates turquoise.  (Couple that with the ancient American Indian myth - http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/10/huron-indian-myth.html - that tobacco originally grew wherever a woman sent by the Great Spirit sat, and you have I-don't know-what!)

Early ancient history says that turquoise came only from Persia (today's Iran) and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.  It's unique color is what qualifies it as a gemstone.  With the exploration of the New World (the Americas) deposits were discovered that were of the same or possibly better quality as Persia's.  This is so true that, even if you buy something labeled "Persian Turquoise," it may simply mean that it is of the highest quality regardless of its origin.

Copper must be present for the signature turquoise color to be created.  Obviously, copper is a better financial investment, but turquoise is pretty lucrative as a raw stone, hand-crafted ornament, highly polished jewelry, or carved figurine.

There are also different types of processing that you might find a stone has gone through.  Raw turquoise may be pretty crumbly, so a particular piece may have been "stabilized."

It was probably not until the late 1800's that it began to be incorporated into jewelry, and the first piece created is thought to be a belt that a white man asked a Navajo craftsman to fashion for him from silver coin.  Previous to that, the Navajo simply worked turquoise into solid beads, carvings, or inlaid mosaics.

Today the majority of the world's finest quality turquoise comes from the United States, the largest producer of turquoise.  Some of the gemstone-quality material goes for as much as $2,200 per kg.  It, as I said, is sometimes pretty fragile and must be recovered by careful extraction using hand methods.  It can also be found in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada.

The Kingman mine is owned by the Colbaugh's and you can purchase the raw mineral directly from their outlet store.  What you really want to do, though, is get hand-crafted jewelry made by today's descendants of native Americans who still work with silver and turquoise.  One just has to be very, very careful that you aren't sold something "made in China."  Variscite and faustite are minerals that are turquoise in color and shading, but they are a separate mineral species.  This, I think is where caveat emptor comes in (buyer beware!)

Test - And please tell me if you no longer want to hear from us :(

One of our sons is getting his notice of a new post - in triplicate - in a text message to his phone!  That is NOT the plan.  It should come to your email address.  That way it costs you nothing, and you can delete it if you don't want to read it.  (You can also ask me to remove you from my "Circles," and that should keep you from even getting a notice.)

So, I'm sending this test post.  I really, really, REALLY do NOT want to bug anyone with my goofiness.  Please let me know if you don't want to receive my emails...

Internet Explorer vs. Mozilla Firefox

A thought came to me while taking a shower last night.  It was like the proverbial light bulb going off:  Try using Internet Explorer rather than Firefox to access the Internet.  My blog is Google based, so maybe whatever was driving me nuts won't happen.  It's worth a try...  So, before going to bed I gave it a shot.

Well, whaddya know!  Everything worked slicker than snail snot.  (That's an old Texas saying, too.)

But, before I go killin' myself working up a "real" post, I'm gonna use this as a test case.  If I can't get it to post right with Firefox, I'll try again with Internet Explorer.  If you get duplicates today MY SINCEREST APOLOGIES!  Just delete me, and please forgive me.

Here goes nuthin'.

*********************

Okay.  With Firefox, when I clicked "Publish," the site froze up.  I'm going to try Internet Explorer.

Problems, Problems, Problems

Ah, tis a Monday for sure!  I'm about ready to toss the Blogger concept and my laptop into the pool.

Cooler minds usually prevail:  I think I'll go shopping instead.  (Not to cause you the grief I'm having, darlin,' I'm leaving all methods of purchase at home.  :)

First Kingman Housing

We arrive in Kingman (not by camel though), and are surprised to discover that the lodgings I have contracted for are fifteen miles away from the hospital.  That's fifteen miles up the straightest, flattest, loneliest road you can imagine!  It's so straight that the law says you have to have your headlights on day and night to catch the attention of what other drivers might maybe be out there.  With that kind of traffic congestion you can guess that it's only 15 minutes to work, though, so all is good.

You can see in this almost-sunset photo that we are in a valley that is flatter than a flitter (as we say in Texas), but there are mountains all around us, literally 360 degrees all around us.

Our little community, Valle Vista, is on it's own golf course, has its own community swimming pool, tennis courts, and has some mighty fine homes in it - including ours.  Not to brag, because we are paying a pretty penny for this one, but it is beautifully decorated, too.  (I suppose the owner being an interior designer has something to do with that. :)  The community is right on the famous Route 66, which pleases Granpa greatly.

The front yards throughout the community are not lawns, they are beds of pebble with cactus of umpteen varieties growing out of them.  For the most part they are expertly landscaped.  I'm surprised that I like it so much; they are really pretty.  Our yard is a bit sparse on vegetation.


 This home is across the street - and for sale!

Rock-filled landscape wouldn't work in East Texas though, because in no time at all grass and weeds would be growing up through those pebbles.  Here in Kingman, the days are around 100 degrees, but the nights cool off to the upper 60's.  In Texas, you're lucky to get night time temperatures down to 80, and those pebbles would be radiating heat 'til the sun comes up - and then just get hotter.

Our back yard here IS grass and rose buses and a vine-covered patio that is so refreshing!  There's a large glass-top table and six chairs, and a breeze blows all the time.  It's like a combination of the best and the best.

I want the whole family to come visit because we have two extra bedrooms with king-size beds, a dining room table that seats six, a sectional sofa that seats - oh, my goodness, maybe a dozen if you're a close family!  And it is excellent seating, firm but soft, even holds my big backside up. The sectional ends in a chaise lounge that I have claimed as my own!  (Not really, as I spend most of my time at a table and chair next to the sofa doing my computer work - but occasionally I come out from behind the desk and hug up to Granpa on the sofa.  (Yes, grandparents do still hug up - that's another reason you have to marry the right man or woman from the get go...)  And the sunsets are beautiful!

Camels in the Cavalry

Back in the day, when Lt. Beale, a Navy officer, was ordered by the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers thru the War Department, to build that wagon road I was talking about, he was given secondary orders to "test the feasibility of the use of camels as pack animals in the southwestern desert."
 

Beale Survey Team

Now, my first question is, what's a Navy officer doing working for the Army?  Next, what's a Navy officer doing in the desert?  And finally, what does a Navy officer know about camels?! 

Regardless, Lt. Beale must have been a good officer because he did exactly as he was told.  In 1857, Beale and his team took a herd of 25 camels and rode from Fort Defiance in Apache Territory in Arizona to the Colorado River, did his thing along the way and then took the camels to the Benicia Arsenal in California.  The camels legendary ability to go without water proved invaluable.  They were super-duper strong and could move quickly across terrain that horses had a terrible time in.

But how did the camels get to Fort Defiance in the first place?  That's a pretty cool story in itself!

Seems as early as 1843 the War Department was being lobbied to use camels as pack animals.  By 1847, the lobbyists finally got the attention of a Senator, one Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.  (Yup, THE Jefferson Davis who later became President of the Confederate States of America!)  Even with Davis' support the camel lobby got nowhere with the War Department - until 1853 when Davis was appointed Secretary of War for the United States under President Franklin Pierce.  (Kind of ironic, huh?  Future President Davis of the Confederacy as Secretary of War for the Union.)  Now Pierce and Congress had to take this camel thing seriously.

You have to remember, even as late as the mid-1800's folks back East thought the southwest was some huge desert like the Sahara.  That's why Davis, and eventually Congress, ultimately decided to give those ol' camels a chance.  In March of 1855, Congress appropriated $30,000, and said, go buy your camels.

Well, here we go again.  Major Henry C. Wayne of the ARMY was put on a ship in 1855 and told to go buy some camels.  (We have the Navy in Arizona and the Army on a ship.  I don't know about you, but I'm confused!)  He left New York aboard the USS Supply, and sailed off for the Mediterranean.  They ultimately purchased 33 camels:  two Bactrain (those are the ones with two humps), twenty-nine dromedary, one dromedary calf, and one booghdee.  (Huh?  Whats a booghdee?!  Ah, ha!  It's like a mule!  Its a cross between a male Bactrain and a female dromedary.  Who knew?!  I wonder how many humps they have??)  Wayne was also smart enough to hire five camel drivers.

In April of 1856, the Supply landed safely in Indianola, Texas.  All the camels were in better health than when they were originally purchased!  That's pretty cool!  But, then again, they ARE called Ships of the Desert, so maybe they just naturally took to the sea.  (LOL.  I don't think that's the reason.  It was just a funny thought!)

One successful trip calls for another and by the first of 1857, forty-one more camels landed in America.  During this time there were some births and deaths of a few camels, so the grand total of camels in the United States Army now came to seventy.  Camp Verde in Kerr County, Texas became their home.

The first time, some of these camels were used was by Lt. Beale.  Then in 1859 they helped the Army survey a shorter route across the Trans-Pecos region of Texas to Fort Davis, and again during a survey of the Big Bend area of Texas.  In 1860 there was another survey done of the Trans-Pecos area that utilized the unique gifts of the U.S. Army Camel Corps.

Things were going so well with the camels that the Department of War requested another 1,000 be purchased, and there was a bill before Congress to do just that.  Then all ---- broke loose and the Civil War was on!  Jefferson Davis, of course, left the United States for the Confederacy, and the new Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, ordered the Camel Corps out of existence.

Now then, what does one do with a bunch of camels that freak out horses and mules with their behavior and smell?  Well, Beale had taken such a liking to the animals that he offered to keep the whole lot of them on his property.  Stanton, however, ordered them sold.  Some went to private owners, some "escaped" into the desert, but Beale bought some, including his favorite, Seid.  A few years later, during rutting season, Seid fought with another camel - and lost.  His bones, believe it or not, were sent to the Smithsonian!

Feral (domestic animals that have gone free in the wild) camels were sighted as late as 1941 throughout Texas and the Southwest - some apparently even made it to Canada!  There is even talk of GHOST camels being seen.  Now that would scare the britches off of ya'!

Hadji Ali, lead camel driver hired by Major Wayne in 1855, died in 1902, and is buried in Quartzsite, Arizona.  His grave marker is a pyramid-shaped monument with a metal profile of a camel on top.  Quite fitting, don't you think?

The End of Bearizona - Fabulous!

There were at least a half dozen juvenile bears (bear?) in this enclosure.  They were all up moving around, climbing on the rocks, and, see that stock tank in the middle?  I don't know if that was for drinking or ... maybe the bear doesn't know either...

Silly boy!

I guess he needed to rest after his bath, because he climbed up on some rocks, leaned back, rested his arm on his leg, and just surveyed the world for awhile.  He seemed mighty satisfied with what he saw...

Then we came to the baby bears!  (Well, this was labeled as "K - 12.")  The first ones we see are up a tree.  The next picture is also of a baby bear, but look! at the size of those paws!!  I guess they're like Momma always said about dogs:  look at a puppy's feet if you don't know what breed it is because they will grow into their feet.  She meant, giant feet would mean a giant dog.  I'm guessin' this is gonna be a giant bear for sure!
 

This bear stayed up the tree the whole time we were there.  Others were walking around, still others were sleeping, and we were only a few feet away all of it.  This was a way-cool place.  I would absolutely recommend it to each and every person out there!  Outstanding!

Red Fox, Swift Fox, Peacocks, Porcupines, Badgers, Bobcats, Beaver ...

Bearizona just gets better and better!  Meet Yazzi and Francis.  Here is where it gets confusing:  Yazzi is a swift fox; Francis is a marbled red fox.  Now why would someone name a fox that is white, a marbled red?

Yazzi - a Swift Fox

I had never heard of the Swift Fox before.  He gets his name because he can run up to 30 mph! They are both only the size of large housecats.  They used to range from Mexico to Canada, but that area has now shrunk to only 40% of what it was.  There are reintroduction efforts under way on Indian reservations that are very successful though, so not to worry everyone!

Francis - a marbled red fox

Wandering free were peacocks and their babies.  Well, I guess this was actually a peahen and her baby.  These guys 'n gals have a reputation of being very aggressive, but here they were as tame as a chicken - but then, we didn't try to pick one up or mess with its baby!  And, yes, even the babies have the pretty feathers on top of their heads.





Now, who would have thought to look up a tree for a porcupine?

And here's a lil' feller I've never seen stuffed or alive!  A badger - the bad boy of the Plains!

That coat of fur over his back is as thick as a horsehair saddle blanket.  It instantly reminded me of an armadillo.  I would not want to tangle with this guy anywhere!  He was up running around while most everyone else at Bearizona was sleeping.

Look at how long this bobcat's back toes are, and how big his front paw is!  I love the silly tufts of hair at the ear tips.  What's that all about??

This is a beaver.  I've never seen one up this close.  Look at that flat paddle of a tail!  Again with the sleeping...

I think this raccoon was playing opossum.  If you look really close you can see his eye is open just a bit.  Check out those feet, too.

They also have a Birds of Prey in Flight show, but it didn't fit into our time frame...

The Bears

Now, we're expecting to see a couple of bears.  Most everything has been asleep or not moving around a whole lot, so even if we see some bears we figure they'll be sleeping.  Guess what?

Aww, isn't he adorable?!  But, even sleeping, there were so many of them.  I want you to notice that there are no pesky insects buzzing around him.  I highly commend "Bearizona" for the level of their care for all of these animals.  Even horse owners have trouble keeping down the bot flies (unless they give them a medication that kills the larva in their poop.)  This place is not your average zoo, folks.  I am so glad on so many levels that we stopped here.  Thank you, Granpa, you are the BEST!

We've seen lots and lots and lots of bear in our time of vacationing, but never a sleeping bear.  They're funny!  And just like us humans!

Look at the size of those paws!!  If these guys had been up walking around we would not have ever gotten this photo!  I'm glad they were snoozing!

I would bet there were a dozen or more bear here, but, we discover, there are even more in the walk-around part - along with lots more species of Arizona critters - some that we had never seen before !  We are definitely getting our money's worth.  If you're ever in Arizona...

But you'll have to come back again tomorrow to see the rest of the animals.  (I hope I'm not boring you with the photos...

Bearizona - Bears in Arizona

So we're rolling down the Interstate across Arizona.  The scenery and the clouds are just beautiful.  I keep asking myself, are we really going to live in Arizona, the desert southwest, the Mojave!  Well, yes, for at least three months anyway.

There aren't a lot of billboards out here. (Thank you very much.) But occasionally I see one talking about Bearizona.  That's a weird name.  It takes me a few billboards to get comfortable with it.  Seems it's one of those wildlife parks where you drive through - with your windows rolled up I hope!

We've been making excellent time, and I for one would really like to stretch my legs a bit.  I see another billboard, and I decide, what the heck, I'll see if Granpa will stop.  He checks his watch and the mileage left until we reach Kingman.  He says, why not, and we exit.  Now, the "why not" is always contingent on how many miles off the highway someplace is.  We are both amazed to discover it's right next to the Interstate.  Irresistible, eh.

I love the wood carving at the entrance. (Don't miss noticing the fish in the scene!)  There's no welcome center - just pull up and pay your money.  So much for stretching my legs.  Hmm.  The price is a bit much for my liking, but we're here, and I do love those bears...

The first thing we see are Dahl sheep.  (Now, their sign said "Doll" sheep, but I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt that they just did that so tourist would know how to pronounce their name.  We first came across these guys in the Canadian Rockies.  There's no mistaking them for domestic sheep or Big Horn sheep or any other kind of sheep.  These are definitely Dahl's.)

There is a veritable flock of these guys, including babies.

Next it says we will see burros.  A tourist may think this is a burro, but seeing as we have one at home, we know better.  (Geez, you just can't trust anybody these days!) It's known as a Crucifix donkey because of the markings across the shoulder and down the spine look like a cross.

Our Mordecai is a much happier donkey that this guy!

This, however, is a burro:

We cross a gated cattle gap and search for the next animal.  What's that under the pile of fallen timbers?  It's a wolf!!  Do you see it? A white wolf !!  Christopher, our youngest son, had a white wolf.  (Didn't fit too well with our flock of chickens and guineas when he came to visit - but he was a way cool "dog!") 

Whisper had yellow eyes, just like this guy.

As long as everyone's tummy is full I guess that you can get the lion to lay down with the lamb (or wolf with a sheep.)  But, just in case someone wants a midnight snack, Bearizona has super tall fencing and the gates that they close between species at night.  There is a whole pack of wolves here, not just this one.

(Are you gettin' tired of the pictures yet?  This placed is so amazing that we took a zillion of 'em.)

Next up, just to match the white wolves, we find white buffalo.  A whole bunch of 'em!  How'd they do that??  I thought white buffalo were super-rare.

 Granpa liked this picture the best.

They had the standard dark brown buffalo, too, but I just can't show you everything!  Next up:
Big Horn sheep.  There's no mistaking these guys either!  Again, there are lots more than what's in this picture - including babies.  There were babies of all the different species - I guess because this place has been here for three years and these guys (and gals) just keep reproducing.  Works for me!!

Ohhh.  It's bears you wanted to see!  We'll, you ain't seen nuthin' yet!  There are bears, bears and more bears - and a place to stretch my legs.  You can't call it all a petting zoo, though there is one in there.  But you really won't believe what comes next.  See you tomorrow!

The Butterfield-Overland Stagecoach Line

Formally it was known as Wells-Fargo, but the stagecoach portion got the nickname "Butterfield Line" because John Butterfield was the president of the operation.  

In 1852, Wells-Fargo began delivering mail out to the American west by steamship and/or overland by railroad to the end of the line.  Then the mail went on by stagecoach.  Until the stageline, communications east and west had been twice a month.  By 1857, there was twice a week delivery.  (And we get upset when a text or email isn't delivered in two seconds!  Spoiled brats, we are!)

In the beginning, Wells-Fargo contracted independent stagelines to carry their stuff:  the Pioneer Stage Line, the Overland Mail Company, Ben Holladay's Overland Express.  Once it was confirmed that this would be a viable method of delivery, "Butterfield" began owning their own coaches or buying up the fore-mentioned companies in order to assure timely deliveries, and built it into the largest stagecoach empire in the world.  Now, Wells Fargo is forever linked with the six-horse Concord Coach racing across the vast plains and high mountains of the West.

The Butterfield Line ran from St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco.  In 1860, the Pony Express was established to run from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, delivering mail in just 10 days.  See our post at http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-pony-express-and-split-rock-wyoming.html.  Eventually Wells-Fargo would operate the Pony Express route from Salt Lake City to Sacramento.

Traveling day and night at a whizzing 5 to 12 miles an hour, the stage only stopped to change horses and let passengers have a meal of coffee and beef jerky - a delicacy of sorts today, a necessity back then.  After 25 days of this (Let's see YOU live a month on coffee and beef jerky!) passengers and mail would finally be delivered to San Francisco.  The roads traveled were not your interstate highways of today.  They were dry, dusty, rough and dangerous.  One had to have a mighty good reason for taking off through the American West!

By 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed and the Wells-Fargo stagecoach endeavor lost out to the never-tiring "iron horse,"  Into the early part of the 1900's, though, they continued stagecoach service in rural parts of the West where railroad tracks didn't go. Of course, Wells-Fargo lives on today as a solid banking institution.

Cibola - The Seven Cities of Gold

The tremendous wealth of gold that the Spaniards stole from the Aztec of Central America and the Inca of South America led them to hope more precious metals would be found in North America.

When the Franciscan priest, Marcos de Niza, told the Spanish government in Mexico City that he had actually seen the fabled Cibola, they wanted to believe him.  “It is situated on a level stretch on the brow of a roundish hill,” the friar said. “It appears to be a very beautiful city, the best that I have seen in these parts.”  That's pretty specific, and he was willing to act as a guide to the very location itself.

In 1541, when conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado and his men got to the site all they found was a lil' ol' adobe pueblo.  (How embarrassing!  To sail all the way from Spain! only to find a mud hut!)

Well, no quitter was Coronado.  He spent the next two years searching the American southwest for those cities made of gold.  He and his men - in those metal suits of armor conquistadors wore back then - traveled thousands of miles on horseback and by foot in search of gold.  They went as far as present-day KANSAS!  No gold.  Sorry, guys.  It was like buying a lottery ticket nowadays: 1 in 475,000,000 chance to win!

Actually, it was worse.  Coronado had to go back to Spain empty handed, flat broke and deep in debt.  I'll bet that was a miserable sail back across the Atlantic!!  Worse still, he had to tell the investors back in Spain, who went into debt themselves to finance the expedition, that he had found nada.  The gold was there, they just didn't look underground in, oh, say, Colorado!