USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. I > Part 17
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The work of the survey was finished late in 1855, with monuments established, save where the Rio Grande itself was the boundary line. The scientific data taken by the expedition probably was as important in its way and as valuable as the definition of the line itself. The best description and illustration of the flora of the boundary region extant is contained in the second volume of the report, edited by John Torrey, from memoranda made by members of the party. The chapter on cactus is especially fine, and was edited by Dr. George Englemann of St. Louis, whose name has been perpetuated in the well-known Englemann spruce of the mountains of Arizona.
SURVEY OF CAPTAIN SITGREAVES
The first cross-country survey of northern Arizona was made in 1852 by Capt. L. Sitgreaves, who was sent out with instructions to follow the water course of the Zuñi River through to the Gulf. This order, of course, he could not exe- cute. but. leaving the cañons to the northward, he followed the 35th parallel to the Colorado and thence marched south to Fort Yuma. The Captain, who was accompanied by several experienced scouts, headed by Antoine Leroux, traversed a region that had been covered many years before by Spanish explorers and by Padre Garces. Still, the expedition was of large importance, not only as of being the first American mapping of the region, but as serving to show the practica- bility of the route followed, both for the building of wagon roads and railroads.
In his narrative, Captain Sitgreaves referred to the prior passage of a little- known military expedition, one commanded by "Lieutenant Thorn, who escorted Mr. Collier to California in 1849." Camp debris left by this party was found not far from Zuñi. He stated that Chevelon's Fork was so known to trappers "from one of that name who died upon its banks from eating some poisonous root." The escort was commanded by Brevet Maj. H. L. Kendrick. The names of both soldiers. honored by Whipple, now are borne by two lofty peaks of the San Francisco Mountain locality. There was continual trouble with thievish Indians, but the only member of the party killed by Indians met death at the hands of Yumas, who had met the Captain with professions of good-will. Camp Yuma was reached November 30, after the explorers had eaten many of their mules.
There should be passing reference to an exploring trip made in 1849 by Lieutenant Beckwith, who, with Doctor Randall, worked from Zuñi to the Pima villages. Thorn was drowned in 1849 at Fort Yuma.
AUBREY, "SKIMMER OF THE PLAINS"
A volunteer survey across northern Arizona was made by François Xavier Aubrey, who, July 10, 1853, started eastward from Tejon Pass, Cal., with a party of about eighteen.
His journey had little incident as far as the Colorado River. Beavers were
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so abundant that they cut the ropes with which a raft had been bound together, allowing the timbers to float away, necessitating the building of a second raft before the crossing of the whole party was accomplished. Indians were con- stantly in sight and a constant guard was kept on the camp. Gold was discov- ered in a gully near the river. July 31 notation was made of the finding of a river known to the Mexicans as Rio Grande de los Apaches, but called by the Americans the Little Red River and said to join with the Colorado a short dis- tance below. Assuredly this was not the Little Colorado, though it might have been Bill Williams' Fork.
The record for days thereafter carried notations of continued attacks by Indians, assumed to have been Mojaves. A number were killed as they approached too near the camp to discharge their arrows and a couple of the Americans were wounded. It is difficult to follow the course of the party, for no names are given of localities between the Colorado crossing and the Zuñi villages. On August 7, however, the mountain region must have been struck, for Aubrey writes of cedar, pine and piñon. A few days later, "we found our- selves surrounded by cañons, apparently from one to four thousand feet deep; at least we sometimes could not see the bottom." The indefinite nature of the directions given seem to indicate that the party struck a little farther south, passing near where Prescott now stands, possibly over the headwaters of the Verde and along the southern edge of the Mogollon plateau.
Aubrey's own narrative follows :
On August 15 breakfast was taken near a camp of Carrotes (Coyotero Apaches). As soon as the mules were saddled, at a given signal, forty or fifty Indians, apparently unarmed, and accompanied by their squaws and babies tied to boards in their arms, very suddenly charged upon us and attempted to destroy the whole party with clubs and rocks. The signal of attack was the taking of my hand in farewell by the chief, which he held with all his strength. As soon as these first Indians commenced to fight, about 250 more rushed from behind a hill and brush and charged upon us with clubs, bows and arrows. I thought for a few minutes that our party must necessarily be destroyed, but some of us having disengaged ourselves, we shot them down so fast with Colt's revolvers that we soon produced confusion among them, and put them to flight. We owe our lives to these firearms, the best that were ever invented, and now brought, by successive improvements, to a state of perfection.
Twelve of us, just two-thirds of the party, were severely wounded. I, among the rest, was wounded in six places. Abner Adair, I fear, is dangerously injured. It was a very great satisfaction to me to find that none of our men were killed, nor any of the animals lost. We bled very much from our numerous wounds; but the blood and bodies of the Indians covered the ground for many yards around us. We killed over twenty-five Indians and wounded more. The bows and arrows that we captured and destroyed would have more than filled a large wagon.
Before the attack commenced, the squaws kept the clubs, which were from eighteen to twenty-four inches long, concealed in deer skins about their children. When put to flight they threw their babies down into a deep, brushy gully near at hand, by which many of them must have been killed. This is the first time I ever met with a party of Indians accom- panied by their wives and children. The presence of the latter was evidently to remove from our minds all suspicion of foul play on their part. I was never before in so perilous a condition with a party in all my life. On this occasion, which will be the last, I imprudently gave my right hand, in parting, to the Indian chief. The left must answer for leave-taking hereafter.
We have thus far had so much ill luck to encounter that our arrival at our destination must be much delayed. First our men fell sick, then our provisions were damaged in the Colorado; latterly a man shot himself through the knee; our mules' feet, for want of shoes,
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were worn out; and to crown all, today, two-thirds of the party were badly wounded, and all have barely escaped with their lives. We are now subsisting entirely on mule meat, and do not get as much of that as we want. We are without salt and pepper, and in their absence it requires a stout stomach to digest our fare. But nobody complains, and the pos- sibility of not doing what we have set out to do, has never entered the minds of our party. We traveled five miles this afternoon, with the Indians at our heels shooting arrows at us every moment.
August 27-Made fifteen miles east, crossing two streams, which are branches of the Gila. We met Indians today, who, I think, are not Apache Tontos, as they do not speak any Spanish, and refuse to answer our questions. We obtained from them over fifteen hundred dollars of gold for a few old articles of clothing. The Indians got gold bullets for their guns. They are of different sizes, and each Indian has a pouch of them. We saw an Indian load his gun with one large and three small gold bullets to shoot a rabbit. They proposed exchanging them for lead, but I preferred trading other articles. Whether these Indians made these balls themselves, or whether they were obtained by the murder of miners in California and Sonora, I am unable to say.
August 28-Traveled ten miles east over a good country; met with more Indians, and traded for some horse meat by giving articles of clothing in exchange. We traded also for a few hundred dollars worth of gold. Today a mule broke down and an Indian gave me for it a lump of gold weighing a pound and a half, less one ounce. The Indians are so numerous they would destroy the party if we allowed them the least chance. But we are very vigilant, and select camps on elevated places, consequently we are unable to make any examination for gold in the sands of the country. The Indians call themselves Belenios (Gileños).
September 6-Continuing northeast over a good road and level country for twenty-five miles, we reached the Indian town or pueblo of Zuñi, where we met with a hospitable and civilized population, from whom we obtained an abundance of good provisions, over which we greatly rejoiced. We have subsisted for a month on mule and horse flesh, and for the most of the time on half or quarter rations. But as I have reached this place with all my men, I feel satisfied.
Aubrey, already known as one who has won for himself in the Southwest a reputation as a fearless and rapid traveler, and was called "The Skimmer of the Plains" for a journey of 800 miles in five days and thirteen hours. He was killed in an affray in Santa Fé August 18, 1854, by Maj. R. H. Weightman, who in 1861, a Confederate Colonel, died in the battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo. Aubrey's name was perpetuated by a town, now dead like himself, located on the Colorado River at the mouth of Bill Williams Fork, and also by one of the streets of Prescott. The Atlantic & Pacific road was built through Arizona much on the line indicated by him.
WHIPPLE'S RAILROAD RECONNOISSANCE
In March, 1853, the Thirty-second Congress appropriated $150,000 to be used by the Secretary "to make such explorations and surveys as he may deem advisable to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean." To this sum later were added appropriations of $40,000 and $150,000. The Secretary of War then was Jef- ferson Davis, later chief of the Confederacy. He selected as leader of the exploring party to traverse approximately the 35th parallel, Lieut. A. W. Whipple of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, who had had experience in the Southwest on the Gila with the Bartlett party.
Several routes from St. Louis and Vicksburg were considered, but the real start of the expedition, in July, 1853, was from Fort Smith in northwestern Arkansas, from which a practicable route was found across the plains.
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The personnel of the party included Lieut. J. C. Ives, topographieal engineer, who had charge of the working survey section, and Jules Mareou, geologist. The work was most thoroughly done, and the report of the expedition includes a elose study not only of the topography of the country passed over, but of its habits and customs, geology, flora and fauna and climatology. The railroad work inelnded specifications of distances and even eontours.
From Albuquerque, left November 8, 1853, westward the route at no time was far distant from that of the present Atehison, Topeka and Santa Fé railroad system, being up the Rio Puerco and down the stream of the same name on the western slope to the present site of Holbrook; thence to the San Francisco Springs, past the present Flagstaff, and around the northern and western slopes of Bill Williams Mountain, where great difficulty was experienced in finding a satisfactory grade. This same difficulty hardly has been solved to this day. Thenee the course veered somewhat to the southward, in respect to the opinion of Captain Sitgreaves that a satisfactory route could be found down Bill Wil- liams Fork, the Verde at first being mistaken for that stream. Bill Williams Fork finally was found, after more or less blind exploration of the western hills. From one of the illustrations, it would appear as though a eamp had been made close to the granite pinnacles north of Preseott, now known as Point of Rocks. From the mouth of Bill Williams Fork it was found necessary to work up stream thirty-four miles to seeure a site for a bridge, found near some needle-shaped peaks, probably the very point the Santa Fé later chose, though its route through western Arizona was north of that taken by Whipple.
From the Colorado westward the road to-day probably follows the trail made by Whipple, leading through Cajon (box) Pass where it was determined a five- mile tunnel might have to be dug. Thenee the way was clear to Los Angeles, where was found a town of 5,000 people. The balance of the way to the coast at the port of San Pedro, was surveyed by the simple process of tying a rag to the spoke of a wagon wheel.
A short time before this, Lieutenant Williamson, working from the north- west, had outlined a feasible railroad route from San Franciseo through the San Joaquin Valley and Tah-ee-chay-pah Pass and to the Mojave River, where con- neetion was made with the Whipple survey. The Southern Pacific later utilized this survey wholly, though Williamson's prediction that no tunneling would be required in crossing Tehachipi Mountain did not prove correet, while, on the contrary, Whipple's fears of a long tunnel did not prove well founded when the Santa Fé built its line through Cajon Pass.
On the entire trip aeross Arizona, nothing but good treatment was received from the Indians of all sorts, though the Yampais, otherwise ealled Yabapais, were found very eoy indeed. The Zuñis were most hospitable and sent guides with the vanguard of the party. Smallpox was found in Zuni, and several of the party later had light attaeks of the disease, but messengers sent to the Moqui towns returned with sad news. It was declared that "smallpox had swept off nearly every male adult of three pueblos. In one remained only the cacique and a single man from a hundred warriors. They were dying by fifties per day ; and the living, unable to bury the dead, had thrown them down the steep sides of the lofty mesas upon which the pueblos were built. The wolves and ravens had congregated in myriads to devour them. The infected bodies had even
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affected the streams. The young of the tribe had suffered less, few cases among them having proven mortal."
In what was called Lithodendron Park was discovered the Petrified Forest "where trees had been converted into jasper." There was difficulty in travers- ing the valley of the Little Colorado, which had been called by Coronado "Rio del Lino" (Flax River), beyond which was encountered the obstacle of Canon Diablo. San Francisco Springs, on the southern slope of the mountains of that name, were reached December 27, 1853, after fatiguing travel through deep snow. Ten miles beyond, until the new year, a camp was made at LeRoux's Springs, named after the principal guide of the expedition.
The region just west of Bill Williams Mountain was named by the explorers "The Black Forest." This name it appropriately bears to-day, due to the color given the landscape by the dense growth of juniper. Leaving the Black Forest there was a waterless journey across a plain, called "Val de China." "China" was given as a Mexican name for the grama grass found luxuriantly growing within it-hence the origin of the present name of Chino Valley.
About the only information concerning topography was received from a Mexican guide, Savedra, who, twelve years before, had journeyed into the coun- try with a trading party of Moquis. A large flock of turkeys was found in one valley passed, wherein the stream was promptly given the name of Turkey Creek. A prominent peak was called Mount Hope. The Sierra Prieta (Black Range) on the eastern side of the Verde was so named by Whipple, and moun- tains farther to the westward where some ruins were found were called the Aztec Range.
February 7, following down Bill Williams Fork, which had been entered a number of days before, was passed the mouth of the Rio Santa Maria. Upon the right was a volcanic cone, which was named Artillery Peak. Wagons had to be abandoned on the failing of tired mules, but, finally, on February 20, 1854, the expedition made camp upon the banks of the Colorado River. Whipple wrote: "It was a beautiful view that burst upon us as we ascended the hill and first beheld the Colorado sweeping from the northwest to unite with Bill Wil- liams Fork, almost beneath our feet. One long and loud huzza burst spon- taneously from the men, sending a thrill through every nerve, and dreamy fore- bodings were cast upon its waters and all felt relieved from a burden of anxiety." In the valley of the Colorado were found friendly Chemehuevis and Mojave Indians, who traded with the party, although with notable shrewdness, and who helped in the crossing of the river by means of improvised rafts.
SURVEYS ON THE GILA ROUTE
Engineer A. B. Gray, in February, 1855, made a report to the directors of the Texas Western Railroad Company, a corporation then three years old, rec- ommending a route across Arizona about on the same line later followed by the Southern Pacific, though favor also was given a line that had been run farther south through Tubac.
A survey for a railroad was made in 1854 by Lieut. J. G. Parke, whose escort of dragoons was commanded by Lieut. George Stoneman. He laid out several routes to the eastward from the Pima villages through Tucson and across the San Pedro, whereat was taken what was known as Nugent's trail, not far from Vol. 1- 9
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the present Southern Pacific line. The road laid out by the Mormon Battalion and generally followed by California immigrants, was around the hills to the southward and even below the Mexican line.
Parke's explorations were supplemented later by a survey made by J. B. Leach and N. H. Hutton, who found a much shorter and even easier route down the San Pedro to a point near the present Mammoth, from which was laid off a straight desert road westward. This work was completed in 1858 and a part of the road thus laid out was utilized by the Butterfield overland stage service in the same year.
BEALE LAYS OUT A WAGON ROAD
Naval-Lieutenant Edward F. Beale, no longer a sailor and bearing a Cali- fornian title of "General," in 1857 accepted a commission to survey through New Mexico on the 35th parallel. The expedition, which started in Texas, espe- cially is notable for its use of camels, a feature elsewhere elaborated upon. Rocks, gravel and lava had little effect upon the barefooted camels, though the mules and horses needed constant reshoeing. Beale had to pick his own way westward beyond the Little Colorado, observing in his report that, "We, unfor- tunately, have no guide, the wretch I employed at the urgent request and advice of every one in Albuquerque and at enormous wages being the most ignorant and irresolute old ass extant." The course was around the base of San Fran- cisco mountain and then a bit to the northwest, between Mounts Kendrick and Sitgreaves. With the party was Lieut. Thorburn, U. S. Navy, whose name was given to a mountain northwest of Sitgreaves.
Beale spent several months recuperating his party at Fort Tejon, Cal., and returned to the Colorado, with his camels, January 23, 1858. There he unex- pectedly found Captain Johnston, with the steamer General Jesup, sent to ferry him over. The steamer had brought also from Fort Yuma an escort of fifteen soldiers, under Lieutenant White. Beale wanted to test his road in winter. He was pleased to find that even the Indians had begun to follow the trail he had left. The backward journey was changed so as to leave Sitgreaves to the north. Only a little snow was found, the season in the mountains apparently having been a mild one. The final paragraph of the report read:
"A year in the wilderness ended! During this time I have conducted my party from the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and back again to the eastern terminus of the road, through a country for a great part entirely unknown and inhabited by hostile Indians, without the loss of a man. I have tested the value of the camels, marked a new road to the Pacific and traveled 4,000 miles without an accident."
Beale was sent out again in the fall of 1858, from Fort Smith, Ark., appar- ently with instructions to prepare a wagon road, rather than mere exploration of a region now appreciated as available for transportation uses. April 15, 1859, he arrived at LeRoux Springs and at the Colorado May 5, doing much work on the road selected and making a number of changes from the route traversed before. He worked back by the same ronte, starting from the Colo- rado June 29, 1859, reaching Albuquerque just a month later, making the return journey at about the rate of speed of the average emigrant train and subsisting his horses and mules only upon the grass of the country.
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The only trouble with Indians was in the Mojave conntry. The redskins stole a mule and killed another. Beale, simulating fear, hastily moved his camp after the Indian attack, but left a number of his men concealed in the rocks. In the morning, the Indians, in glee over driving the white men away, came down to the dead mule and to see what damage they had done; whereupon, in the language of Beale, "Our party fell upon them and killed four, returning to camp before it was ready to start in the morning, bringing bows, arrows and scalps as vouchers. It was a good practical joke-a merrie jest of ye white man and ye Indian." This episode whetted the sporting appetite of the party. May 1, Beale led toward the Colorado a foot party of thirty-five of his men, with three camels for a baggage train. The distance of twenty-five miles to the river was covered in six hours and then the road builders started out to whip the whole Mojave nation. It was with real disappointment that the white warriors soon thereafter ran into men of their own color, who told them that Colonel Hoffman had made a peace treaty with the Mojaves and that Major Armstrong was close at hand with a force of soldiery.
Beale was one of the most distinguished men of his time. When a midship- man, he was sent, a member of a party of forty, to meet General Kearny's advancing column and later, with Kit Carson, made his way harefooted, through two hostile Mexican lines, to seek reinforcements from Commodore Stockton. If these reinforcements had not arrived, Kearny undoubtedly would have met serious disaster. Beale, for his bravery, in February, 1847, was sent back with Carson as escort, bearer of dispatches to Washington. When he rejoined the Pacific fleet again he was honored, in August, 1848, by designation, on the part of the navy, as bearer to the national capital of the news of finding gold at Sutter's Fort, taking his message and $3,000 worth of gold nuggets across Mexico. An army officer had been sent on a similar mission, but was distanced by Beale. Beale's warm advocacy of camels may have been influenced by the fact that it was he who presented the subject to Jefferson Davis. When the last of the camels in California were sold by the War Department, the animals were bought by Beale, then Surveyor General of California and Nevada, and were sent to a ranche he had acquired near the Tejon Pass, whence he later drove to Los Angeles behind a tandem camel team. In 1876 he was appointed Minister to Austria and his life was ended in honor and wealth. Though he early resigned from the service, his father and grandfather had been officers in the navy, the latter having been the famous Commodore Trnxton, who com- manded the frigate Constellation. Today that name is borne by Truxton Cañon, down which the Santa Fe railroad leaves the middle plateau region of northern Arizona.
The Beale lands in California, comprising 276,000 acres, still known as the Tejon Ranchos, in 1912 were hought by Los Angeles capitalists, including Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, Gen. M. H. Sherman, Harry Chandler, Stoddard Jess, R. P. Sherman and O. F. Brant. Though Beale considered his holdings in the light of a veritable principality, it is doubtful if he ever dreamed their ultimate value. His camel road is an automobile highway that passes from San Francisco through the rancho to Los Angeles, orange groves, vineyards and cultivated fields cover thousands of acres and beneath lies what experts have declared the largest lake of oil in the State.
CHAPTER IX SOUTHWESTERN FILIBUSTERS
Attempts of Pondray and Raousset de Boulbon to Establish French Colonies near the Border-Walker's Expedition-Crabb's Great Plans and Their Disastrous Terini- nation-Grant Oury's Dash.
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