USA > Arizona > The resources of Arizona; a description of its mineral, farming, grazing and timber lands; its rivers, mountains, valleys and plains; its cities, towns and mining camps; its climate and productions; with brief sketches of its early history etc > Part 1
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THE
ESOURCES OF 19612 ARIZONA
OFT-WITH-S.F.
SEE PAGE 48
PRESCOTT, CAPITAL OF ARIZONA.
BANCROFT - LITH - S. F.
THE
ST
esources of Arizona
A DESCRIPTION
OF ITS MINERAL, FARMING, GRAZING AND TIMBER LANDS ; ITS RIVERS, MOUNTAINS, VALLEYS AND PLAINS; ITS CITIES, TOWNS AND MINING CAMPS ; ITS CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS ;
WITH
BRIEF SKETCHES OF ITS EARLY HISTORY, PRE-HISTORIC RUINS, INDIAN TRIBES, SPANISHI MISSIONARIES, PAST AND PRESENT, ETC., ETC.
L
1
SECOND EDITION : ENLARGED AND ILLUSTRATED.
ERRITO
ZONA
LIBRARY Ur LU
CONSEILA.
DITAT DEUS
NOV
1883
1863
No ... / .... .. CITY OF WAS NGTON.
COMPILED BY V PATRICK HAMILTON, UNDER AUTHORITY OF THE LEGISLATURE. 1883.
201
F811 . H2 :
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1883,
BY PATRICK HAMILTON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
A. L. BANCROFT & CO., PRINTERS, San Francisco.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
A Historical Sketch
7
Pima County
129
Yuma
"
I35
Maricopa "
139
Apache
140
Tucson.
44
Prescott
48
Grazing
168
Wood and Water
19I
Climate.
198
Yuma
57
Florence
58
Globe
60
Clifton .
61
Mines and Mining
64
Cochise County .
74
Yavapai
66
89
Graham
103
Pinal
66
IIO
Gila
118
Mohave
66
124
PAGE
Physical Features
16
Fauna and Flora.
33
Counties and Towns
43
Agriculture
143
Tombstone
50
Phoenix
54
Wages and cost of Living
208
By Railroad and Stage
212
Schools, Churches and Society 22 I
Civil and Military
227
The Indian Tribes
232
The Early Spanish Mission-
aries
247
Pre-Historic Arizona
256
What can I do?
265
A Look Ahead
272
TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Prescott, Capital of Arizona-Frontispiece. PAGE.
Ruins of Casa Grande. 16
Grand Canon of the Colorado. 32
City of Tucson. 48
City of Tombstone
64
Street in Globe
So
Town of Clifton 96
Silver King II2
Some Natural Productions 128
Street in Phoenix.
I44
· Town of Yuma 160
Natural Bridge. 192
Yuma Indians. 208
Phoenix School House 224
Apache Scouts 240
Church of San Xavier 272
1
TO THE READER.
'HE pamphlet published two years ago by authority of the Legislature, created such a demand for information relat- ing to the Territory, in all parts of the Union, that the session of 1883, provided for the issuing of another edition. This edit- ion-enlarged and illustrated-is now presented to the public. It has been entirely re-written, contains a great deal of new mat- ter, and is much fuller in detail and more comprehensive in scope than the first publication. Indeed, it may be considered an entirely new compilation.
The information it contains is fresh and reliable, and has been gathered by a tour throughout the Territory, and a personal visit to every city, town, mining camp and farming settlement of in- portance within its borders. Authorized by the representatives of the people, paid for out of the public treasury, and sent forth with the stamp of authority and the sanction of law, the truth has been sought, and the facts presented, and the statements made can be relied upon.
It is not claimed that the publication is exempt from the errors inseparable from a work of this nature, but it is believed such errors have been reduced to the minimum, and are of but minor importance. A perusal of its pages, it is hoped, will convey to the reader some definite idea of the grand resources of the least known political division of the American Union. As will be seen, it has made rapid progress in wealth, population and ma- terial developments during the past two years.
The opening of railroads is fast bringing its hidden wealth and its great natural advantages to the notice of the capitalist and the immigrant. To them the following pages are addressed with the belief that the facts they set forth will be sufficient to show the
6
TO THE READER.
opportunities for the investment of money and muscle in the com- ing country of the southwest.
To Rt. Rev. Bishop Salpointe of Tucson; Hon. Donald Robb, of Globe ; Lieut. M. P. Maus, U. S. A .; Geo. W. Brown, Esq., Tucson ; Paul Riecker, Esq., Tucson; Ridgeley Tilden, Esq., Tombstone; H. C. Hooker, Esq., Sierra Bonita Ranch ; Ivy H. Cox, Esq., Phoenix; M. P. Romney, Esq., St. Johns ; D. L. Sayre, Esq., Clifton ; Arthur Lang, Esq., Tombstone, and Hon. R. C. Brown, Tucson, the author is indebted for assist- ance in the collection of the information herein contained, and tenders his sincere thanks for the same. The illustrations pre- sented have been taken from photographic views kindly furnished by G. H. Rothrock, of Phoenix; D. F. Mitchell, of Prescott ; J. C. Burge, of Globe, and C. S. Fly of Tombstone.
PATRICK HAMILTON.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, Sept. 5, 1883.
A HISTORICAL SKETCH.
The adventures of Cabeza de Vaca and Marco de Niza-The expeditions of Coronado and Alarcon-The Explorations of Antonio de Espejo-Father Kino establishes the first Mission-Founding of the Presidios of Tucson and Tubac -Aban- donment of the Missions-The Gadsden Purchase-Efforts to establish a Territorial Government-Origin of the name " Arizona"-Break- ing out of the Civil War-A Territorial Government estab- lished-Trials and Hardships of the Early Pioneers- The Apaches placed on Reservations.
A RIZONA is an olden land with a modern history. That it was once the home of a semi-civilized race, there is ample evidence in the ruins left by its former occupants, in nearly every valley and mountain range. The origin and history of the people who once held sway in this remote region of the western world is lost in the mists of antiquity, and the twilight of time gives to their modern successors but a dim con- jecture as to who they were, whence they came, and what were the causes which led to their complete extinction. These ques- tions suggested themselves to the first Europeans who penetrated the territory now known as Arizona, nearly three hundred and fifty years ago, and the answers to them were as indefinite then as they are to-day. There is every reason to believe that the most interesting epoch in Arizona's history lies buried in those mysterious mounds which are an enigma alike to the savant and the sightseer; and the relics which are dug from them, suggest mutely, yet eloquently, the time when every valley smiled with peace and plenty ; when mountain and mesa were covered with flocks and herds; when towns and cities beautified the plain, and a happy and contented people enjoyed the gifts of boun- teous nature in this favored land. This was the golden age of Arizona; but not even tradition gives a whisper as to the causes which brought to so sudden an ending, a civilization at once so extensive and so unique.
The modern history of the region now embraced within the limits of Arizona Territory, begins with the advent of the early Spanish adventurers. More than a quarter of a century before their countrymen laid the foundations of St. Augustine, and long . before Captain John Smith established the "first families" at
8
THE RESOURCES OF ARIZONA.
Jamestown, or the Puritan Pilgrims had sighted the inhospitable shores of Massachusetts Bay, the daring Conquistadores had penetrated the wilds of Arizona and New Mexico. To Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, belongs the honor of being the first European to set foot upon Arizona soil. He was a member of the expedition which accompanied Pamphilo de Narveaz to the coast of Florida, in the year 1538. This leader, imbued with the wild spirit of adventure, which was the leading characteristic of the men whose conquering swords added a new world to the crown of Castile and Leon, met with only disappointment and disaster. Instead of the golden treasures and the Fountain of Perpetual Youth, which his excited imagination had pictured as lying hidden in the Land of Flowers, he found a barren and in- hospitable region whose swamps swarmed with venomous and repulsive reptiles, and whose every breeze bore upon its wings the deadly malaria. In his haste to get away from a country so uninviting, he abandoned to their fate five of his followers, who, it is supposed, were absent on some expedition when the vessel which carried Pamphilo and the other adventurers hoisted sail and bore away for Vera Cruz. Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca was one of the five unfortunates whom de Narveaz so heartlessly deserted on the wild and desolate shore of the Florida Penin- sula. They waited many days, anxiously looking for the return of their leader, but as he was never heard of more, it is supposed he perished, with all his companions, at sea.
Nuñez and his comrades were left in a desperate plight, before them stretched hundreds of leagues of treacherous sea; behind them lay an unknown region of vast extent, never yet pressed by the foot of a European. A council was held, and as they had neither compass nor provisions, it was resolved to pen- etrate the wilderness to the west and make an attempt to join their countrymen in Northern Mexico. They waded the swamps and bayous of Florida, passed through the Indian towns of the region now embraced within the States of Georgia and Alabama, and were treated kindly and furnished with provisions by those savages. They discovered and crossed the Father of Waters two years before De Soto stood upon its banks and found a fitting resting-place beneath its turbid flood. They traversed the great plains of the West, passed up the Arkansas River, entered what is now known as New Mexico, visited the pueblo towns on the Rio Grande, pressed on westward and entered the Zuni and Mo- quis villages. After a short stay in the pueblos of the last-named tribe they turned their faces southward, passed through Central Arizona, were the first white men to see the ruins of Casa Grande and the Pima settlements on the Gila, and, after many privations and numerous adventures, succeeded at last in joining their coun- trymen at Culiacan, in Sinaloa.
They gave glowing accounts of the country over which they passed, and their highly-colored description of the "Seven Cities of Cibola," the Moquis towns, and other points on the
9
A HISTORICAL SKETCH.
route, aroused the spirit of adventure and cupidity among the restless Spaniards, ever ready to face any danger or undergo any hardship that promised glory or gain. The pious ardor of the zealous missionaries was likewise fired by the tales which Nuñez and his fellow-travelers told of the hordes to the northward, steeped in pagan idolatry and awaiting the coming of those who would lead them to the true God. An adventurous pioneer of the cross in the western world, Padre Marco de Niza by name, listening to the stories told by Cabeza de Vaca, resolved to satisfy himself as to their truth or falsity. Early in 1539, the good Father, under the patronage of the Viceroy Mendoza, and accompanied by a few followers, set out from Culiacan in search of the "Seven Cities of the Bull." They passed through the country of the Pimas, up the Santa Cruz, by the present sitc of Tucson, across the valleys of Central Arizona, into the coun- try of the friendly Yavapais, over the great plateau, and, after a long and arduous journey, their eyes were at last gladdened by a sight of the mysterious " Seven Cities." Father de Niza sent forward a black attendant, named Estevan, to the first city to notify the chief of his arrival and the peaceful nature of his mis- sion. It is said the black Lothario became a little too familiar with the Moquis maidens, which so incensed the warriors that they dashed out his brains with their war clubs. The Father, hearing of the fate which had befallen his dusky follower, did not enter the city, for obvious reasons. He set up the emblem of Christianity, named the country the New Kingdom of San Francisco, and returned to Culiacan.
The public mind throughout New Spain was wrought up to a high pitch of excitement by the news which Padre de Niza brought on his return. The desire to extend the dominion of the Cross, produced in the breasts of the fathers a spirit of holy adventure; and the thirst for gold and glory possessed alike the belted knight and the sturdy man-at-arms. The Viceroy Men- doza became infused with the spirit which surrounded him, and fitted out two expeditions to explore the marvelous country to the north; one by land under Vasquez de Coronado, and the other by sea under Fernando Alarcon. In April, 1540, Coro- nado marched out of Culiacan with nearly a thousand men, the greater number being Indians. He entered Arizona by the valley of the Santa Cruz, and passed by where Tucson now stands. He visited and examined the ruins of Chichiticala, which he named Casa Grande, followed the Salado to its junction with the Verde, up the latter stream to the Valley de Chino, and thence across to the San Francisco mountain country. From there he passed into the valley of the Colorado Chiquito, and finding large quantities of wild flax growing on its banks he named the stream "Rio del Lino." From that point three days' march brought him to the first of the Moquis Villages, forty- five days after starting from Culiacan.
The rich and populous cities which the adventurers expected
IO
THE RESOURCES OF ARIZONA.
to find proved to be but a collection of poor and insignificant villages. The houses were small, built in terraces and laid in rough stone as they are at the present day. The province con- tained seven villages each governed by a chief. The people were peaceful, intelligent and industrious. They raised good crops of corn, beans and pumpkins; cultivated fine peaches, wore cotton cloth and dressed deer-skins, and were in no respect ma- terially different from their descendants, the Moquis and Zunis of the present day. At one of the towns which he named Granada, the inhabitants offered resistance, and Coronado took the place by assault. Large quantities of grain were found in the store- houses, and every room was well supplied with domestic utensils, fashioned of baked clay. But he failed to find the treasures of gold which he had been led to believe existed in such vast quan- tities in the "Seven Cities."
Disappointed in his quest, the Spanish leader turned his face eastward. He visited the New Mexico pueblos on the Rio Grande, which he found larger and more populous than those of the Zuni and Moquis, and whose customs and mode of life were exactly similar. But among them, as among the tribes first visited, there was a notable dearth of the royal metal, and save a few silver and copper ornaments, their dwellings were en- tirely destitute of the wealth they had been reported to contain. Coronado explored the country as far east as the Canadian river, and north to the fortieth parallel of latitude, and in the spring of 1582, after two years of profitless wanderings, the expedition returned to Culiacan.
While encamped in the San Francisco mountains, Coronado sent out two detachments to explore the country to the west. One of these, commanded by Captain Diaz, discovered the Great Colorado below the Cañon and followed it to its mouth. Don García López de Cárdenas was sent northward with a com- mand of twelve men, and was the first white man to gaze upon the wonders of the Grand Cañon.
The expedition of Alarcon set sail about the time Coronado marched. It was intended to co-operate with the land forces, but there was little concert of action in the movements of either. Alarcon discovered the Gulf of California, which he named the Sea of Cortez. He also discovered the Colorado and the Gila rivers. Not being able to steam the current of the former stream, he manned two boats and ascended it some ninety leagues to the mouth of the Grand Canon. He then set sail and returned to Mexico.
It was not until 1582, that any further efforts were made to explore the region known to the Spaniards as " Arizuma." In that year Antonio de Espejo led an expedition toward the North. He penetrated to the region of the Rio Grande, traveled up that stream some fifteen days and named the country Nuevo Mexico. He passed through many pueblos, and turning westward, visited Zia and Acoma. The former place he speaks of as having a
II
A HISTORICAL SKETCH.
population of 20,000 souls, "and containing eight market-places and better houses, the latter plastered and painted in diverse colors." The Zuni pueblos were next visited and named Cibola. From this point, Espejo traveled westward to the Moquis towns, where he was received most hospitably and presented with baskets of corn and mantles of cotton cloth. Tarrying here but a short time, he again journeyed on, and forty-five leagues south- west of Moqui, on a mountain easily ascended, he discovered rich silver ore. The mines were situated near two rivers, whose banks were lined with great quantities of wild grapes, walnut trees and flax "like that of Castile."
There can scarcely be a doubt that one of those streams was the Rio Verde, and that the mines were situated at no great dis- tance from it, probably in the region of country now known as the Black Hills. This is the first authentic account we possess of the finding of precious metals within the limits of Arizona, and to Antonio de Espejo must be awarded the honor of the dis- covery. He was the pioneer prospector of our Territory, and little dreamt what magnificent results were to flow from his find. History is silent as to whether the old cavalier set up his " monuments" and marked his "claim," but as he shortly afterwards returned to Zuni, it is presumed he did not consider his discovery of sufficient importance to merit much attention. From Zuni, Espejo retraced his steps to the Rio Grande, and crossing over to the Rio Pecos, descended that stream to its mouth and then returned to Mexico, where he arrived in 1583.
A century elapsed after these explorations, before any effort was made to establish a permanent settlement in "Arizuma." In 1686, the Jesuit missionary, Fray Eusebio Francisco Kino, left the city of Mexico and journeyed to the north, with the intention of spreading the light of Christianity among the wild tribes of Sinaloa and Sonora. Being joined by Padre Juan María Salva- tieraz, the two pious friars pushed on to the country of the Sobahipuris, and in the year 1687, the first Mission within the territory now known as Arizona, was established at Guevavi, some distance south of Tucson. The Mission of San Xavier del Bac was founded about the same time, or not long after. The zealous propagandists preached the gospel truths to the tribes living along the Gila, many of whom ranged themselves beneath the banner of the Cross. Fray Kino and another priest pushed their apostolic peregrinations to the Gulf of California, and calculated the width of that desolate sea to be about fifty miles, from shore to shore. In one of their visits to the Gila, they tried, but unsuccessfully, to establish a Mission near the ruins of Casa Grande. In 1720, or thirty years after the founding of Guevavi, there were nine Missions, all in a prosperous condition within the present limits of the Territory. The population of those Missions was almost entirely composed of converts from the Pima tribe, who took the name of " Pápago," (baptized) and a few subjugated Apaches. The Missions were prosperous, and
12
THE RESOURCES OF ARIZONA.
the untiring labors of the pious Fathers brought forth good fruit in the peaceful and industrious Indian colonies which grew up about them. But they were subject to constant raids from the untamed Apache; and in 1751 an outbreak occurred among the Pimas, many of the priests were killed, and several of the Missions destroyed. After this insurrection, the vice-regal gov- ernment established the presidios of Tucson and Tubac, and maintained therein small garrisons for the protection of the neighboring Missions.
In the year 1765, a royal decree was issued at Madrid ordering the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain and her colonies. This was a severe blow to the Missions in " Arizuma " and one from which they never recovered. The decree was not carried into effect until 1767, when the last of the followers of Loyola were driven from the scenes of their labors and triumphs in southern Arizona. In May, 1768, eight Franciscan friars arrived in Tuc- son, from Mexico, to take the place of the expelled Jesuits. On their arrival, they found the Missions in a declining condition and subject to frequent attacks from the savage Apache. Life and enterprise seemed to have fled with their founders, and they maintained an uncertain and constantly harassed existence until the breaking out of the war for Mexican Independence. Being deprived of the fostering care and protection of the vice-regal government, they rapidly declined, and were finally abandoned by a decree of the Mexican government in 1820. During the regime of the Mission Fathers, a number of settlements were established in what is now southern Arizona. Besides the presidios of Tucson and Tubac, the flourishing haciendas of San Bernardino, Babacomari, San Pedro, Calabasas, and Arivaca, were rich in flocks and herds, but after the abandonment of the Missions, they were despoiled by the savages and deserted by those who escaped the tomahawk and the torch.
By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1847, all that portion of the Territory, north of the Gila river was ceded to the United States. At that time there was not a single white inhab- itant in all that vast region stretching from the Gila to the Utah boundary, and from the Colorado of the West to the present line of. New Mexico. Northern and Central Arizona was an untrod- den wild and the unconquered Apache was lord of mountain, river and plain. The few inhabitants who cked out a precarious existence within the miserable presidios of Tucson and Tubac, were the only inhabitants of the country, then called Pimicra Alta. In 1854, that portion of the present territory lying south of the Gila was acquired from Mexico by the treaty negotiated by James Gadsden, then Minister to our sister republic. The price paid for the purchase, embracing some forty thousand square miles, was ten millions of dollars. A good deal of ridi- cule was cast upon Mr. Gadsden for throwing such a sum upon a " worthless desert," and it was generally considered that the Mexicans had decidedly the best of the bargain. But although
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