Today is our last day in the Payson area and we’re going to follow General Crook’s supply route built in 1872 to transfer supplies between two forts. But, we’ve got other items on our lists and are going to check them off one by one.
Gas - gotta get gas. We checked Gas Buddy to see which was the cheapest and Safeway was the cheapest. So we pulled in and started pumping. Oops. We got our bill and it was $.10 per gallon more expensive than we thought. Yikes. Looks like there has been some readjustment. Shucks. Trust Gas Buddy but verify at the pump. We should have known - usually Circle K is the cheapest in these parts. Snookered at the gas pump.
Our first stop is at the Shoofly Ruins, a short ways out of town on a high mesa which gave the original residents not only flat areas for fields but also great views over the surrounding areas. It was a small village between 1000 and 1250 AD with 79 identified rooms holding about 250 inhabitants. They grew squash, beans and corn but also traded with villages from California to Mexico as the pots and turquoise, which have been found around the ruin, attest to. It was mysteriously abandoned in the 1300’s as were many other villages which we have visited over the last few years. The wall around the community is still visible along with some other walls.
We also visited the Strawberry School which is the oldest, still standing school in Arizona. Built in 1884, when Geronimo was still roaming the area, this schoolhouse was in operation until 1916 and served several other functions but was abandoned and in near ruin in 1961. Local residents reclaimed, restored and furnished it with desks, chalkboards, maps and other school-type items.
Finally we turned east onto FR (Forest Road) 300 which is a 1 1/2 lane dirt road which criss crosses the original 200- mile road that General Crook built in 1872 to connect Fort Verde on the west to Fort Apache in the west across the top of the Mogollon Rim. FR 300 plays tag with the original trail and, as we drove FR 300, we continually criss-crossed his trail. His trail has been marked by the Boy Scouts, with upside down V’s on the trees along the trail.
We could either look left or right all along the road and see these blazes. But, because his trail was travelled so heavily that it is lower by a few inches than the rest of the forest through which it goes, we could see the trail without the blazes.
Both FR 300 and General Crook’s road traversed marvelous territory, close to the Rim and through a heavy Ponderosa forest. At times the two roads came close to the actual Rim and we could see over the Rim to the mountains on the other side.
We found the grave of Andres Moreno, one of the two men who were killed on the road. Moreno was a freighter and, in a quarrel with a passenger over who was going to pay for Moreno’s food while he was transporting the passenger to the west, this passenger killed an unarmed Moreno in the back. He spent 6 years in the Territorial Prison in Yuma before a friend of his in the local legislature procured his release. The grave is on the south side of the road and, in a Ponderosa forest with heavy brush, it might have been hard to find except that we had the coordinates: N 34° 27.191, W 11° 23.069. Even then we missed it while driving the road but found it when we got out and scoured each side of the road.
FR 300 is not only 1 1/2 lanes wide, it also is very curvy as it wends its way through the forest, then it comes over a little hill only to descend on the other side. We couldn't see over these hills and only hoped that, if someone were coming towards us, that they were traveling as slowly as we were. Speak of blind corners. It’s a slow journey through the forest but a beautiful drive. And then we came to where the Dude Fire burned through the Ponderosa fire leaving us ’wonderful’ views across the Mogollon Rim.
The facts of the fire are prosaic: it started June 25, 1990, burned 37.5 square miles and 60 homes, including Zane Grey's historic cabin, and was finally contained July 1, 6 days later. The devastation was incalculable: it claimed 6 lives. It was the worst day of firefighting until the 19 firefighter Hotshots from Prescott were killed in the Yarnell fire this year.
The firefighters were trapped in a canyon in terribly rough terrain on a day when the temperatures in Phoenix reached 122° and planes were grounded because no one knew if fully loaded commercial aircraft could operate in that kind of heat.
Those Hotshot teams are marvelous, racing headlong into fires, carrying heavy loads, along steep, rocky, treed canyons, facing the fire with every turn, rescuing those trapped in them, saving lives and property, always putting their lives on the line to save others. For many, this is a volunteer job, for others a career, but for all a calling. They are stupendous. Usually, they stop the fire, but sometimes the fire stops them. And, what a loss.
We pondered this loss as we surveyed the damage that the Dude fire wrought. The very visible loss of the forest we could see, reminding us of the invisible, greater loss, the loss of lives.
Another goal of ours was to find a tunnel, further along FR 300. We had read that a railroad had been proposed from Flagstaff , AZ to Globe, AZ, across the Mogollon Rim, through the Ponderosa forests and through some very rough territory. It was thought that lumber, copper and coal could be transported through this area much more quickly and efficiently than by wagon. The path for the 160 mile railroad plan included a 3100’ tunnel through the solid rock of the Rim. Rough terrain but potential huge profits. We hiked this territory ourselves to find the tunnel and it was rough, rocky, heavily treed and steep. Only 40 miles of railroad and 70’ of the tunnel ever got built before the money ran out and this is it. You can see the end of the tunnel in this picture. Big dreams met reality and the tunnel project was abandoned.
We finished with the tunnel trail about 4:30 and had a choice: retrace the 12 miles of the Rim road we had just driven to get to highway 87 to head home or drive 20 more along the Rim road to get to highway 260 which would take us to highway 87 to head home. At 4:30, after climbing the Tunnel trail and being on the road all day, we chose to retrace our journey so we could get home earlier. Driving the Rim Road just to say we had driven the whole Rim Road held no challenge for us. It had been a busy 3 days and it was time to be heading home to Mesa. Besides we were hungry and all we had in the car were a few old grapes and 3 protein bars.
We had seen all we had planned to see on this day except the elk. We had thought that we might see some elk along this stretch of pine forest but the elk must not have gotten the memo. Or else, they were waiting for us further along the road and we turned back. In either case, we did not see them.
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Glad you located the grave of Andres but did you ever consider that it might be wrong in its placement ? In a cemetery, plots are laid out and people follow that guideline where as in the forest, well whom really knows. The U.S.Forest Service would know since they maintain the Land and Serve the people ! In this case, you're out at sea. At least FOUR men are buried upon the Arizona Rim with NO listing of whom is where ? Since the Andres Head Stone was donated by the V.A., we have step one completed, one wonders,since 1974, how much longer is REQUIRED to ID four graves ? Must be the busiest Forest Service in the U.S.A. Andres is My Great, Great Grandfather, it really disturbs me and others ! WE formed the Moreno Family Group to work with the U.S. Forest Service and solve this issue. now,2.5 years later, we're no closer than a hundred years ago and he's been buried now for some 131 years come JULY 16, 2018. How long must this non-sense continue ? WE only require 3 DNA samples for and ID match. IF you agree please call the Forest Service in Flagstaff, AZ @ 1-928-527-3600. THANK YOU FOR CARING ABOUT A U.S. CIVIL WAR VETERAN .
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