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Category Archives: Did You Know
Old Camp Rucker
All this talk of border crossings has made me think of a wonderful book called “Cowman’s Wife”, written in the 1940’s by Mary Rak. It’s the story of her husband and herself ranching in the remote Rucker Canyon of the Chiricahua Mountains. They bought the ranch sometime in the 1920’s but it already had a rich and varied history.
In 1878 it was the site of a military supply… Continue reading
The Life of a Vaquero
How time flies when you’re having fun!! Our fun at the moment is more rain – following on from last week’s news. So far we have had 3.70 inches for January, which may not seem much to you, but to the high desert it’s bounty indeed. When the first day’s rain was over, I rode up to the South Fork Tank, high up in the Noonan Canyon. Predictably, it was… Continue reading
Posted in Did You Know, Latest News
Tagged Arizona History, chaparreras, cowboy boots, desert rains, dogs, Grapevine Canyon, guest ranch, horses, jaquima, la reata, Noonan Canyon, ranch life, valquero
5 Comments
The Butterfield Trail
Photo taken by Preston Sands. Used with permission.
Thank you to Hike Arizona for allowing us to use this image of the Butterfield Trail.
Last time I talked about the Spanish settlers’ early encounter with the Apaches and the history of the San Bernardino Ranch, which took us to the early Continue reading
Posted in Did You Know
Tagged apaches, Arizona History, Butterfield Trail Arizona, Coshise, Hiking Arizona, San Bernadino Ranch
3 Comments
Slaughter Ranch
I talked last time about the Dragoons Culture people, who disappeared from here around 1450 AD and archeologists aren’t really sure why. One theory is a 40 year drought – and, having experienced a 12 year one, which we fervently hope is ending, I can certainly appreciate that. The other theory is that they were driven out of here by the Apaches, who were gradually moving down here from the Continue reading
Dragoons Culture
Did you know?? In our history snippet, let me tell you a bit about the early Indians who lived here, about 1200 to 600 years ago, the Dragoons Culture. They were a bit like the Anasazi or the Hohokam tribes, but enough different that they merited their own name, the Dragoons Culture. They were agriculturalists, and lived in villages, one of which was about ¼ mile east of my house Continue reading
Posted in Did You Know
Tagged anasazi, apaches, Arizona History, cochise, desert southwest, dragoons, history, tortillas
2 Comments
Dragoon Soldiers
Over the past year or so, we have had “history evenings” at the ranch, and I generally begin with the reason why our Dragoon Mountains are so called. They were named after the dragoon soldiers, who were mounted infantry. The dragoons rode their horses to the enemy, and then dismounted for the battle. The command of “Horses Continue reading
Posted in Did You Know
Tagged Arizona History, Civil War, Dragoon Mountains, Dragoon Soldiers, Grapevine Canyon
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Arizona Part of Mexico?
As a regular feature, I thought I would share with you each time a little snippet of local history.
So – did you know that our part of Arizona very nearly wasn’t Arizona, but Mexico?? When, following the Mexican-American War, by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, the United States acquired the rest of the west which had not been