They say “everything is big in Texas”. From our point of
view, here in Van Horn Texas,(our first stop in Texas), I must say we agree.
There are a number of big hills and they are big, as far as hills go. There are
a few big trees, (palm type) along the way, some as tall as 15ft. We won’t tell
the Texans about other places where trees grow somewhat taller, we wouldn’t
want to destroy their culture of grandeur. They do, however, have many, many,
really big miles of absolute emptiness between their big hills and their big
trees. They also have very big winds. We had to bring the slide-out on our
camper in to prevent the tarp cover from leaving Texas prematurely and after a
night of rock and rolling around in our camper we decided that, because of the
really big Texan winds, we would just stay put here rather than head further
East today. So, sitting here in the camper, not rock and rolling too badly at
present I decided this was a good time to blog and blog I will.
In our last blog from Arizona, I told you that we had gone
to Tombstone, so now let me tell you more about that and other day trips we
took while we were there. Yes, Tombstone, is a unique place to see, but it’s
only really claim to fame is a gun fight at the O.K. corral that lasted about
30 seconds and left three men dead and a couple injured in 1880 something. The
three dead men are buried on Boot Hill, along with many other people who also
died in the area, mostly during the first 5 years of the 1880’s. I had my picture
taken with Wyatt and Vergil Earp and a wooden stature of Cochise. From
Tombstone we drove further south and as has become our custom returned to base
from a different direction, stopping at different places along the way. We stopped
at a nature reserve by the San Pedro River, then an ecological dig where there was
at one time, apparently some evidence of a mass mammoth kill, then, finally to a
historic town site called Fairbank. The next
day we went to a place called Cochise Stronghold. This is a place where the
great Apache chief, Cochise, and over a thousand members of his tribe escaped
to, and from which he led many successful campaigns against the US Army and many
civilians during more than a decade in the 1880’s. They spent more than ten
years living in those mountains and valleys and there is, aside from some
really old graffiti on the rocks, almost no remaining evidence of their time
there. I think that if a thousand white men spent even 10 days in some location
there would be evidence of it for centuries to come. We returned from that trip
along a different route and stopped at place called Gammons Gulch, a movie set
and museum. It is a replica of an old western town set up in the middle of Nowhere
Arizona, and believe me there is a lot of middles of nowhere in Arizona. The
place was set up and is being run by a man named Jay Gammon, who, as a boy
played movie roles alongside his actor father, with some of the Greats like The
Duke (John Wayne), Jimmy Stewart, Dean Marten and so on. He gives a tour of the
place, plays a few old tunes on an old honkey-tonk piano, and then says if you
have enjoyed what you have seen and heard the cost of admission is $7.00 each.
On the next day-trip, we went to a place called Fort Bowie, a fort erected in
the mountain range across the valley from the Cochise stronghold in the last
part of the 1860’s, mainly to protect the water source and to accompany stage coaches
and wagon trains through the Apache country. It was our intent to walk in to
tour the ruins but we were able to find a back dirt road that took us right in,
it was rough but not impassable. There is not much there as when the fort was abandoned
by the Army in the late 1800’s, the neighboring ranchers used it as a good source
for building materials. There is no lumber left, just rock foundation and remains
of some of the adobe brick walls used for the buildings. The fort, in its day,
was quite an elaborate place, it had a steam engine that pumped water from the
creek to cisterns above the fort and provided running water. There was also an
ice making machine deemed an important expense for the good moral of the fort. On all of these trips we did a lot of walking
and the following day we rested, Kelsey was so tired she slept all day.
We left Benson, Arizona on the 9th and drove right through
New Mexico and on into Van Horn, Texas. Tuesday, we made a short drive to
nowhere in particular, as here in Texas there is a lot of nowhere in particular
to drive to. The following day we took a drive into the mountains to a place
called Fort Davis. There is still a town there but the fort was established in
the same time period as Ft Bowie, mainly to protect the transport of people and
freight from San Antonio through to El Paso. It was only one of a number of
forts along that 600 mile stretch through Texas. It is the best remaining
example of the forts in the west. It also, as many did, had a steam engine to
pump water and an ice machine for moral. There are some buildings remaining,
complete with the furnishings. I have already told you about sitting through
the Texas storm last night but we do plan to get underway again tomorrow.
Today, as I sit writing, it has been drawn to my attention
that this is the 68th anniversary of a very important day in my
life. I don’t remember much about that day but I know that both my mother and
my father would have been just elated at the prospect of raising such an
awesome person.
I’ll post some pics then get this published as I would like
to think that some of you are interested.
God Bless. With love
Erwin & Gail
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| Just another graveyard |
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| An unfortunate dude |
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| The three from the Gunfight at the OK Corral |
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| Behind those doors fame was made and is again everyday at noon and two |
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| I got 17 |
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| Four dudes and a dog |
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| Getting ready for a gunfight |
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| San Pedro River not running as fast as it once did |
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| Standing on the corner |
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| The road to a Stronghold |
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| Ready for a walk? |
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| Ya, this is the way they went |
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| You guys coming or what? |
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| Oh, Oh wet feet |
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| Somewhere in them there hills |
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| Jay plays a jingle or two |
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| Jay as a boy with the Duke |
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| Gammons Gulch |
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| Fort Bowie in it's last years |
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| Fort Bowie now |
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| On the way to nowhere in particular Texas |
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| Fort Davis Texas (The town) |
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| Fort Davis (the fort) today |
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| Food for thought |
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| Fort Davis at the end of it's time |
