USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 31
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The Roosevelt Lake has been made a bird preserve by national proclamation. The Casa Grande ruins and certain cliff dwellings have been protected as national monuments. Between Phænix and Tempe a tract of 2,000 rocky acres was set aside by the interior department in March, 1915, as the Saguara National Park.
WORK OF THE SURVEYORS GENERAL
When Arizona was made a territory in 1863, it was included within the official district of Surveyor General John A. Clark of New Mexico, who visited
LOGGING WITH THE "BIG WHEELS" IN THE FOREST NEAR WILLIAMS
YELLOW PINE IN THE MOGOLLON FOREST
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the new country in 1863 and would appear to have made a rather extensive trip about two years later for in a report of May 24, 1865, he told of visiting, on a conical hill at the junction of the Gila and Salado, the monument estab- lished in 1851 by A. B. Gray, United States surveyor, in the course of the international boundary survey. The monument and the hill upon which it was erceted having such commanding position, Mr. Clark announced that he had selected the monument as the initial point from which surveys of the new territory would be made. On this same trip Clark recommended that the Apaches be placed on a reservation below Pueblo Viejo on the Gila, which would have included the present Safford district.
The first surveys on the established Gila and Salt River base line and meridian were made in 1867 and the first township surveys a year later. Some of these old surveys, especially in the mesquite forests of the southern valleys, appear to have been made by the "mark-on-a-wheel" method and have been found most inaccurate.
With the new officers of the Territory of Arizona came a surveyor general, Levi Bashford of Wisconsin, but nothing can be found to indicate that he did anything in an official capacity. It may have been that Congress gave him no support in the office, for in July, 1864, Arizona was made a part of the district of the surveyor general of New Mexico and $10,000 was appropriated for the survey of public lands in Arizona. In 1867 Arizona was attached to the survey district of California. At the same time the land district of Arizona was created. July 11, 1870, Arizona was made a separate surveying distriet, and on the following day John Wasson was named as surveyor general. He entered on the duties of his office November 5, 1870, and served three terms until August, 1882. Wasson was succeeded by J. W. Robbins, who died in 1883, when the office was filled by Royal A. Johnson, who held the place till December 11, 1885. To succeed Johnson, President Cleveland appointed John Hise of Globe, whose place was filled in July, 1889, by the reappointment of Johnson. The democrats coming in again in 1892, the office went to Levi H. Manning, who resigned in April, 1896. Then a special consideration of competency was shown in the selection of George Roskruge, who had been chief draughtsman under Wasson, and who was one of the best known surveyors of the territory. With the incoming of the republican administration in 1897, the place was taken by George Christ, who had been the first collector at the Port of Nogales. In 1901, Hugh H. Price was made surveyor general and in March, 1902, the office was removed from Tucson to Phonix, where the records were housed in the terri- torial capitol. On the removal of Mr. Price, 1903, Major Frank S. Ingalls of Yuma, was appointed and now is in his third official term. Mr. Ingalls is a civil engineer by profession, his experience dating back to 1878. He has been superintendent of the territorial penitentiary and also a member of the Legis- lature.
In 1870 a land office for Arizona was established at Prescott and notation has been found of the official existence, during the following year, of W. J. Berry as register and George Lount as receiver. The former in 1873 was succeeded by W. N. Kelly, and Kelly and Lount were still in office as late as 1881. The Gila land office at Florence was opened June 2, 1873, with Levi Ruggles as regis- ter and Martin L. Styles as receiver. For a while Charles D. Poston was
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register, but the office in his time was very far from being lucrative. In 1881 the Florence office was removed to Tucson, where it remained until 1906, when both Arizona offices were consolidated at Phoenix.
One of the last general surveys made by the United States in the Southwest was that of Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler of the corps of engineers, who, in 1871, headed a large party that platted much of the country between Reno, Nevada, and Tucson, running lines that aggregated 6,327 miles, covering 83,000 square miles of territory. The report of the expedition is extremely well written and is very interesting from both scientific and literary standpoints. Whether in- tentionally or not, the expedition followed the general line of the great rim of the Mogollon Mountains, the great uplift that divides Arizona into two climatic zones. Toward the northwest it was traced as forming one of the walls of Diamond Canon, there crossing the Colorado and extending indefinitely toward the northwest into Utah and Nevada.
CHAPTER XLV
PRESIDENTS AND PUBLICITY
Visits to Arizona Made by Hayes, Mckinley, Roosevelt and Taft-Expositions, Fairs and Fiestas-How Shark Island Swallowed Arizonans-Santa Teresa's Power- Clifton Foundlings-Arizona's Subdivisions-Utah's Aspirations-Census and As- sessment Figures.
Arizona has been honored by visits from four Presidents of the United States. The first was in October, 1880, by Rutherford B. Hayes, who started the since common fashion among Presidents of swinging around the great circle. Gen- eral Hayes came from the West. He had to leave the railroad for the passage of a stretch within New Mexico, for the Southern Pacific had been completed eastward only to a point near Deming. This wagon journey was made in army ambulances. At Maricopa, on the 23d, was made a stop of several hours, in order that the President might confer with a number of Indian chiefs who had becn gathered there. A more than sufficient guard was provided by a troop of the Sixth Cavalry from Fort McDowell, led by Capt. Adna R. Chaffee, in later years the hero of campaigns in Cuba, the Philippines and China. The Presi- dent was accompanied by a large part of his official family, including the then commanding officer of the regular army, Gen. Wm. T. Sherman.
It is said that at this Maricopa stop Sherman evolved what later was credited to many sources. Standing on the platform of a railway coach, he snorted as he looked over the plain and ejaculated : "What a hell of a coun- try!" The remark was heard by Capt. W. A. Hancock of Phoenix, who mildly retorted : "Why, General, it is not such a bad country; we have to the north a rich agricultural valley and mines. Possibly Arizona is a little bit warm, but all she needs is more water and better immigration." Again Sherman snorted : "Huh! Less heat! More water! Better society! That's all hell needs." It is to be deplored that General Sherman died before he could see the agricultural valleys of Arizona, well watered and with a much better class of people settled within them, utilizing the heat for the growth of almost every imaginable product of the soil. The conference with the Indians led to nothing at all. Several thousand Indians had gathered, mainly Pimas, Maricopas, Papagos and Yumas, all peaceful tribes, and the principal query of their chiefs was, why the bad Apaches should be given rations while they had nothing. At Tucson. the President was dined and at other points along the road enter- tainment was offered, though the route of the railroad was not departed from by the party. It is therefore doubtful whether President Hayes gained a much better idea of the country than that expressed by his military aid.
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PRESIDENT MCKINLEY SEES A MINE
There was a long interval before a chief executive of the nation again entered Arizona. May 7, 1900, President William McKinley entered 'Arizona on the Southern Pacific from the East, making the journey at night through to the Congress mine, seventy miles northwest of Phoenix, where Gov. N. O. Murphy had provided unique entertainment in a view of the operation of the deepest gold mine of the Southwest. The President did not go to the bottom of the 3,000-foot shaft, though the greater number of the members of his party were dropped into the bowels of the earth in decorated ore cars. But the President walked through the upper workings and through the mill, and in the cyanide works witnessed the pouring of a bar of gold bullion weighing 1,221 ounces. Mrs. McKinley was presented with a small gold bar as a souvenir of the visit and each lady in the party received a small gold nugget.
The return to Phoenix, May 8, was delayed until nearly 2 p. m. owing to an accident to the motive power. At the capital city had been gathered thou- sands of people from all over the territory, who were given only about a three- hour view of the chief executive. In that time, however, Major Mckinley, with his characteristic kindness of heart, submitted to being rushed through a pro- gramme that involved a formal luncheon, a parade, a visit to the capitol and a trip out to the Phoenix Indian School, where a thousand tired little redskins unintentionally thumbed their noses as they extended to the President the honor of a military salute. The presidential train left at 5 o'clock and Yuma got only an evening glimpse of his passage.
During the greater part of his stay in Arizona, while his special train was speeding along the Southern Pacific lines, the safety of the President lay in the hands of a woman, Mrs. Nona Pease, a dispatcher in the general superin- tendent's office at Tucson, who handled the train all the way from Tucson to Yuma.
ROOSEVELT MADE FOUR VISITS
Colonel Roosevelt has made four trips into Arizona. On the first he was on a westward leg of a journey to the coast and found time only for a visit to the Grand Cañon, May 6, 1903. There he was met by about 800 Arizonans, includ- ing a number of Rough Riders, led by Gov. A. O. Brodie, who had been the regiment's lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Roosevelt, in an address on the steps of the old Grand Canon Hotel, asked for the preservation of the Cañon with its wild beauty unmarred by any of the coarser works of man. He said, "I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage or hotel or anything else to mar the wonder of its grandeur and its sublimity, the great loveliness and beauty of the Cañon. Leave it as it is; you cannot improve on it; not a bit. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children and for all who come after you as one of the great sights which every American, if he can travel at all, should see." The President was given a beautiful Bayete Navajo blanket by the people of Flagstaff. He presented diplomas to the graduating class of the Flagstaff High School and in return received from the class a buckskin Navajo boot. handsomely marked and adorned with a silver buckle. With the boot
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ROOSEVELT SPEAKING FROM THE STEPS OF PHOENIX CITY HALL This building served for a time as the Territorial Capitol
,
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was a bit of verse written by Harrison Conrard, county superintendent of schools, which read in part :
Drawn from the deer that track our wild, Tanned by the skill of a brown-hued child; Shaped by the magic of his best hand- Accept this tribute from us, who bring Our loyal love with its offering.
A number of Civil War veterans at Bisbee, knowing Roosevelt's inclination toward the wild, had thoughtfully presented the President with a large and rather smelly black bear, but this was sidetracked at Phenix and shipped to the zoological gardens at Washington.
The second visit made by Colonel Roosevelt was a far more important one, for he came, March 18, 1911, to dedicate to the cause of agricultural advance- ment the great dam and water storage reservoir, to which had been given his name. Colonel Roosevelt on this trip again visited the Grand Canon. He and Mrs. Roosevelt spent a day with their son, Archie, who was a pupil in a private school at Mesa, but the rest of the time the Colonel had activity assuredly of a strenuous sort. The trip from Phoenix to Roosevelt was made by automobile and absolutely without accident to any of the twenty-four cars that constituted what was termed the official party. Several hundred automobiles made the trip, but the traffic was handled by the Reclamation Service officials in a marvelously efficient way and there were few accidents.
The return to Mesa was made the next day, which happened to be Sunday, and Monday was almost wholly devoted to Phoenix, including a speech on the plaza, an address to children and another in connection with the dedication of Bishop Atwood's St. Luke's Home for consumptives. At the plaza meeting he had assured the people of their right to try out any method of government they saw fit to choose and even to insist upon the recall of judges, something to which Taft had expressed bitter opposition. He was the guest at an elaborate luncheon tendered him by about twoscore of the Arizona members of his regi- ment. Departure was over the Santa Fé for Los Angeles at 4:20 p. m. Colonel Roosevelt made a rapid trip through Arizona in September, 1912, while cam- paigning as the progressive candidate for the Presidency, speaking at Phenix. The fourth trip was for pleasure, in August, 1913, into the wilds north of the Grand Cañon. The Colorado was crossed by cable at the foot of Bright Angel Trail. After a season of bear and lion hunting, return was by way of Lee's Ferry, in time to see the Hopi snake dance.
PRESIDENT TAFT AND THE GRAND CANON
In 1909, by the use of considerable influence and no small amount of diplo- macy, President Taft was induced to alter his itinerary and to include Arizona's capital within his hurried trip across the territory. The presidential train, coming from the West, reached Phoenix on the morning of October 13. It was met at Yuma by Governor Sloan and an official party and was escorted by the governor and a somewhat changed committee northward to the Grand Cañon. The presidential train was stopped back of the capitol building and its occupants were driven to the capitol, where there was a brief reception. Then the Presi-
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dent was taken to the plaza, where he addressed a tremendous crowd. The address particularly covered the subject of approaching statehood and a blunt warning was given that any constitution containing freak measures such as had been adopted in Oklahoma could hardly expect approval at his hands. There was to have been an address to the school children, but Major Archie Butt thought he saw danger somewhere in the crowd and the party went on to the Indian School and thence to Alhambra, where the train was regained. The two-score of Arizona politicians and business men who had come along to do the President honor saw little of him, however, on this northern trip, wherein the President showed a preference for bridge rather than for political conversa- tion. There was a brief stop at Prescott, that the President might address a gathering at the courthouse, and then the Grand Canon was reached.
The President had his first view of the canon about 9 in the morning. Solidly braced upon his puttee-incased legs, the President looked for a few moments until he found the proper word. It was, "Stupendous!" Roosevelt had said, "Awful." There was another pause till someone in the rear remarked some- thing about the contact of the two greatest of their kind and the ice was broken. There was a picnic luncheon at Grand View to the eastward and a sunset trip to the westward, in all giving thirty-five miles of riding to bring appetite for an elaborate banquet, tendered the President and his party that evening by Governor Sloan. At the supper, following some pleasant remarks by the specially honored guest, Postmaster-General Hitchcock made a keynote speech that rather bound upon the President fullest support of statehood. The wishes of Arizona were presented at the banquet board by Chief Justice Kent, Frank M. Murphy and former Congressman Marcus A. Smith, the last named expressing a hope that the constitution of the state that was about to be should follow close upon the plans of the Constitution of the United Sates, which he declared "a God-given document." The President went eastward that evening, Governor Sloan continuing with him to Albuquerque. Much pleasant publicity had been expected in Arizona by reason of the presidential visit. In reality, about all that was printed in the eastern papers served to continue the impres- sion that the territory was a land of Indians, dust and desolation.
EXPOSITIONS THAT ARIZONA HAS HONORED
Probably the first exposition in which Arizona had representation was that of Vienna in 1873. A resident of Prescott, Chas. A. Luke, wanted to go back to Europe with something of an official stamp of credit, so an act was passed by the Seventh Legislature giving the governor authority to appoint a com- missioner to the Vienna Exposition, such commissioner to act without compensa- tion for his services and to have no authority to impose any liability on the territory by virtue of his appointment. Despite the restrictions of the act, later legislatures had before them a bill for the commissioner's expenses and, finally, in Zulick's administration, there was an appropriation of $2,400 to satisfy the insistent claim. The exhibit mainly comprised ore specimens contributed from Northern Arizona mines.
Gov. Safford recommended participation in the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, but little was done beyond private showing of special products. At $2,200 expense to the volunteer commissioner, Supt. John A.
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Church of the Tombstone Mining & Milling Co., an exhibit of mineral products was made in August, 1882.
In 1883, at Denver, was a large exhibit of Arizona minerals, under charge of Frank M. Murphy and Douglas Gray, who later took the exhibit to Chicago. All the incidental expense was borne by the commissioners or by mining com- panies. Under the same commissioners, the exhibit was again moved, in Decem- ber, 1884, to the World's Fair at New Orleans, where it was said to have been approached only by the showing made by the Republic of Mexico.
Bonds to the amount of $30,000 were issued for an exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, where Wm. O. O'Neill headed a com- mission that took the first general display of Arizona products. At St. Louis in 1904 also was an exhibit, largely agricultural in character.
At the first San Francisco Exposition, the Midwinter, Arizona secured first premium on an exhibit of oranges from the Salt River Valley.
The state authorized no official participation in 1915 in either the San Francisco or San Diego exhibitions. A bill appropriating $100,000 for exhibits at both fairs was killed in the State Legislature, largely because of labor union opposition to San Diego.
Exhibits have gone from Arizona to irrigation congresses and to the Irriga- tion Exposition at Chicago, but probably no prizes won in such surroundings ever gave such solid satisfaction as when, in 1914, at the Dry Farm Congress at Wichita, Arizona's exhibit received first prize among the states, an immense gold loving cup, donated by the Chicago Chamber of Commerce.
ARIZONA STATE FAIR AND LOCAL FAIRS
Early in the '80s a fair ground was established south of Phoenix, near the river, and in addition to horse racing, generally of the quarter-dash variety, there was a display of agricultural and home products.
May 14, 1884, in Phoenix was organized the Arizona Industrial Exposition Association, which held its first fair on the grounds south of the city, opening November 10. The gross receipts of the week were $1,706.
The present Arizona State Fair has a history reaching back only to 1905, when the Arizona Legislature, at the suggestion of a number of residents of Phoenix, passed an act establishing a fair, providing for three commissioners and appropriating $7,500 for premiums and maintenance and $15,000 for permanent improvements, to be effective on provision by some Arizona locality of suitable grounds. These grounds promptly were provided by an association of Phoenix business men, who contributed $25,000 for the purpose at a banquet provided by J. C. Adams, who, thereafter, served for a number of years as president of the association. The first fair opened December 25 of the same year. In 1910 the state purchased of the association, for $30,000, the fair grounds and improve- ments northwest of the city, the price being about one-half the real worth of the property. The present value of the grounds and improvements have been appraised by a late fair commission at $175,000, though their total cost to the state has been less than $100,000. The site proved to have been happily chosen, inasmuch as there may be indefinite extension of the grounds westward upon a tract of 640 acres now owned by the state. The racing track is one of the fastest in the United States, now holding the winter records for trotting and pacing. In
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connection with the fair, annually for seven years was held a Los Angeles-to- Phonix automobile road race, started by the offer of a silver cup by the Arizona Republican. The races have been run under the supervision of George P. Bullard, a Phoenix attorney. The annual struggle became widely celebrated as a "Desert Classic," embracing, as it did, almost every condition of good and bad road, from the boulevards of the coast to the shifting sands of the desert. Also there have been automobile races from San Diego, El Paso and from a number of Arizona cities.
The Northern Arizona Fair was established in Prescott as a permanent insti- tution in the fall of 1913. About the same time was organized the Southern Arizona Fair Association, which has provided an extensive racing and exhibit plant near Tucson. Of late, county and district fairs have been popular in many localities. Especial mention should be made of the annual agricultural fair held by the Pima Indians at Sacaton.
FIESTAS, RELICS OF MEXICAN DAYS
In Southern Arizona a relic of the Mexican occupation was found in the annual fiestas, which continued for years, especially in Tucson and Phoenix. The greatest fiesta of the Southwest was held in Magdalena, Sonora. Another was in Nogales, Sonora. In Phoenix, starting on June 24, the saint's day, and termi- nating on the Fourth of July, was the Fiesta de San Juan. But the greatest in Arizona was at Tucson, the Fiesta de San Agustin. The basis of a fiesta was a religious feast, but in effect it was nothing more than a time of merrymaking, of joyous dissipation after frontier standards. At Tucson or Phoenix about two acres would be needed for fiesta grounds. Within would be from two to four temporary barrooms, a couple of places to eat, with Mexican dishes prominent on the bill of fare, and then about a score of gambing games of every sort. While faro, as usual, held the place of honor, at fiestas always especial stress was upon roulette, chusas and monte, while the manager of "tin horn" devices called loudly for patronage from the passerby. A most inspiring sight would be that of some Arizonan, possibly high in official circles, intoxicated to the point of preternatural solemnity, escorted from gambling game to gambling game and from bar to bar by a Mexican "raw-hide" band, usually composed of a fiddle, a guitar, a cornet and two drums, large and small, made out of sections of barrels. Ordinarily the stationary gambling games of the towns were considered "square," for they had reputations to sustain and their managers were men among men in their own communities, content to take the ordinary favorable percentage that belonged to their side of the table. It might be noted, incidentally, that the discovery of crooked dealing might have been disastrous to the dealer. But at fiestas all the restrictions were down. Strange gamblers were in attendance, going from one fair to another, and there rather was expectation that crooked dice were used more often than not.
Acting Governor N. O. Murphy in 1889 recommended abolition of fiestas, call- ing them "aggravated nuisances, outrageous and disgraceful" and at the same time made strong expression against legalized gambling. Fiestas were forbidden by legislative decree in the session of 1891 and the strongest supporter of their suppression was Fred G. Hughes, president of the Council, and himself a profes- sional faro dealer. The gamblers claimed that the fiestas brought too many com-
MAIN STREET, PHOENIX, 1872
PRINCIPAL HOTEL (GARDINER'S) PHOENIX, IN 1872 Photo by Gentilly who had Carlos Montezuma as servant
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