Tucson, AZ - Fort Lowell

Several days ago, I dusted and vacuumed the inside of he RV so thoroughly that I twisted my back. No hiking for this old lady so it must be off to another museum, Fort Lowell. Small museum but they had a lot of items there not only describing life as a soldier at the fort but also the life of kids and women who lived there.

Originally the fort was established as a permanent post near downtown Tucson in 1866. However, there were too many temptations in town and the fort commander moved it further away from town in 1873. The troops escorted wagon trains, protected settlers, patrolled the borders, guarded depot supplies, served as a major supply depot for southern AZ posts and conducted offensive operations against the Western and Chiricahua Native Americans. Sounds like a heavy load but there was lots of down time.

Troop strength averaged 150 officers and enlisted men. Peak strength reached in 1886 during the Geronimo Campaign was 257. When the Apache Wars ended, the Army saw no further need for Fort Lowell. Tucson rallied to save the post but on Feb 14 (Valentines Day) 1891 the last soldiers left the fort and it was decommissioned and abandoned. Since 1963 the AZ Historical Society has operated a museum at the fort site and has rebuilt several of the buildings. There are still several walls left from the original buildings. This is a corner of the band building.

The fort hospital was the largest ruin still standing.

with some adobe bricks inside.

The only women who could be at the fort officially were the laundresses and the wives of the officers.
When the built the post, the ceilings were strips of linen tacked to the adobe. Unfortunately, lots of little insects, birds, bats, etc. got in here and when you slept, you could hear them and see them running across the linen. OMG, I just hope they don’t fall. Here’s what it looked like when you were in bed looking up. Oh, yeah, there were some leaks in the ceilings.

Meals differed between the enlisted men and the officers. On the right is an officer’s meal while on the left is an enlisted man’s meal. Beans, hardtack and bacon jerky. Sometimes soft bread. No wonder they got sick.

Here’s my favorite picture from the fort. Note how the cameraman got all faces visible.

Here’s the menu. Where are the veggies, the fruit?

Here’s how they ground their coffee while out in the field - beat it to death in a sock. Clean or dirty sock? Don’t even ask.

Here’s an enlisted man’s personal items. Now, what, pray tell, is ‘Medicated Paper?’ Want to take a guess?

Well, it’s better than a corncob or a leaf or whatever was readily available.

For many years Americans employed the readily available pages of the popular Sears Catalog. It came free in the mail and even had a handy hole in the corner to make it hang easily on a nail in the outhouse. It wasn’t until 1857 that Joseph Gayetty began selling “medicated paper” made of hemp with added aloe. Proud of his invention, Gayetty had his own name printed on every sheet.

Outshining Gayetty’s product, was the invention of toilet paper on a roll, popularized by two brothers in 1890. They declined to put their name on any part of it, however, and just sold the product directly to hotels and drugstores.

There were several officers wives and children who lived here.

The soldiers had many scouts from a rival tribe to the Chiricahua’s led by Geronimo. They were promised their freedom but got nothing. In fact, when they were out helping the soldiers in the campaigns, their families were being moved to Florida with Geronimo’s tribe.

Interesting visit and the AZ Historical Society has put together a good collection of items from this period.

But, we’ve got to get in our 4 miles and the nearby wash trail looks like a possibility.
Cool hummingbird in a tree. I didn’t think they stopped long enough for me to ever get a picture of one.

Both Gary and I remember the wash with water in it the last time we were in Tucson. Today, there was little. You could look ‘upstream’ and see none

and then look ‘downstream’ and see just a little.

We thought this was an artsy bench but I tried sitting on it and it is no bench. Cool, artistic rendering of a river in the nearby park.