|
Touring America
 Oil, State Capitol
Cattle, Blue Bonnets
Saturday, May 25: Everytime we find a place that has hotdogs, it's Friday. We left 11 o'clock p.m. and arrived in Houston, Texas at 9:00 a.m. Hal drove all the way thru. After settling in a hotel room, we called the Echols and were pleasantly surprised when we heard Larry was home. He called us back and made a date for 7 p.m. that evening. We then travel worn and dirty, went to bed for some rest. Met Larry later in the lobby and he took us to dinner and showed us the Sam Houston Monument, Municipal Airport, Main Street, Gulf Building by night. He was home on emergency leave as his family was being put out.
Sunday, May 26: Eleven o'clock mass at Ascension Church. All the churches we stopped at were all beautiful. After mass, we drove to Larry's house and met his mother and younger sister Elizabeth. Larry took us to San Jacinto Memorial Shaft at San Jacinto Battleground, an elevator took us to the top and one could see for miles. The first floor was a museum of Stephen Austin's treasures. Had homes built to show one how the people's houses, dress and utensils looked. They had a large collection of articles which are interesting and priceless because of their history. After dinner with his folks we stayed a while and met the rest of Larry's family, two brothers and sister Lela. We had a very enjoyable day with the Echols. Editor's Note: The Echols took my folks to dinner. The meal included french fries and Mom asked for a fork. They laughed and told her that in these parts fries are eaten with one's fingers. As the saying goes: When in Rome.....
p.s. Forgot to mention we saw the oil wells in Texas. Saw how they pumped the oil from the ground. Took a picture in front of the oil well. Also visited Rice Institute which covers acres of territory which was donated by its namesake. Next big town - Austin, capital of Texas couldn't see too much - too dark. Fredericksburg and daybreak. Driving we saw Blue Bonnets, Texas state flower, cattle, sheep, cactus and finally arrived in Sancra 8:30 a.m.
"State Industries Cattle and Oil Wells; the State Flower Blue Bonnets; State Capitol Building, Austin; Texas is as large as the combined area of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. It is 17 1/2 times as large as Massachusetts. Its greatest length is 864 miles (about as far as New York to Chicago). Area: 265,896 square miles."
~ Description on the Texas State postcard.
 State Capitol Austin, Texas
Ref: Wikipedia, Texas State Capitol. Wikipedia's description of the impressive Texas State Capitol reads as follows: "The cornerstone was laid on Texas Independence Day, March 2, 1885. Constructed of limestone and pink granite in the Italian Revival Renaissance style, it has 360,000 square feet of floor space, more than any other state capitol building, and is on 2.25 acres of land. The rotunda is a whispering gallery and the south foyer features sculptures of Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin by Elisabet Ney (1833-1907). The building has nearly four hundred rooms and more than nine hundred windows. The dome is seven feet taller than that of the National Capitol at Washington and the building is covered with copper plates." Designed by architect Elijah E. Myers (1832-1909) and constructed under the direction of civil engineer Reuben Lindsay Walker (1827-1890), the original building had a price tag of $3.7 million. The builders were paid in three-million acres of public land in the Panhandle but the actual construction was done by convicts and migrant workers. Seventy miles of railroad was built to haul the granite. In 1888, civil engineer William Munro Johnson designed a Great Walk for the front of black and white, diamond-patterned pavement shaded by trees. An underground extension completed in 1993 added 667,000 square feet of floor space, twice the size of the original building. Located four blocks south of the the University of Texas campus and surrounded by 22 acres of grounds and monuments, the Texas State Capitol houses both the governor's offices and the Texas legislature. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.[40]
When my daughter was a graduate student at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, the temperature exceeded 100 degrees even at 12 midnight. My folks had to be uncomfortable traveling in a car with no air conditioning. When I visited Austin I loved its rolling hills and the music district. Known as The Live Music Capital of the World, Austin hosts live music venues and the long running PBS TV series Austin City Limits. Austinites are generally more liberal than their fellow Texans and encourage small business over conglomerates. On the other hand, the growth of technology corporations in Austin has earned it the nickname Silicon Hills.
 International Border Monday, May 27: El Paso. Some really nice homes in Sancra. Stopped for breakfast and had the car aligned. Next city we're heading for is El Paso. The scenery is quite different from what we are accustomed to. Beautiful breezes when we step out of the car. On our way to Lancaster Hills. Hal sleeping peacefully in the back but wouldn't be if he knew I had the wheel. The scenery pp gorgeous going over Lina Oak Creek that is almost dried up. It is a wonderful sight looking down the valley from Lancaster Hills. Getting a sweet odor from the Cape Jasmine flowers which were picked at Rice's Institute. Crossing many miles and we are approaching Sheffield territory, but, alas, no Roy Rogers or Trigger. Finally, Lancaster. Had a good laugh - saw 10 shacks, 2 Mexican kids, and 2 white men, turned around and we were out of town. Although it is hot in the car, there is a wonderful breeze out. Noticed First Aid Box at intervals along the highway. We're driving through miles of sagebrush and finally arrived at El Paso. Went to one of the coffee shops in one of the hotels. One look at the menu and we ordered a cup of coffee. Steaks $3.50 in beef country. Cabins are also $3.50. Kept a menu from the cafe we ate in. El Paso is very colorful and different in structure.
Tuesday, May 28: Juárez, Mexico. This place is something. Practically tear your clothes trying to pull you in to buy. One outdoing the other. Must have taken lessons at Delancey Street, N.Y. One person said it was his 1st sale today and he'd give us a bargain. The people are very fiery and wear colorful clothes. We bought a few souvenirs. We had parked the car in El Paso and walked across the bridge. Toll for Americans two cents a person. We sent out postcards. Visited the new Catholic church being built. The old Mexican church is 400 years old and is open to tourists for 50 cents each. The Mexicans are real friendly. Wanted to fix Hal with a babe cheap. The country is musical. The men play mandolins, guitars, and sing in the street. Ate in the Santa Fe Cafe. The waiter told us of the legend of how the mission got its name. We had a long chat with him. He said he'd like to go to New York. Leaving Juárez we stated citizenship and crossed the bridge. A Mexican in back of us was called in for searching. From El Paso and into New Mexico. Noticed a lot of farmland. We're riding through the desert and our throats are parched. Soon as we left Las Cruses, the scenery changed as we started to climb the mesa higher and higher. Leaving the valley of La Cruses behind through the car back window we could see how fertile the town was.
 Juárez Cathedral  Old Juárez Mission Ref: Juárez, Mexico Travel Guide The Mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe was founded on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8, 1659) by Fray Garcia de San Francisco. Christian Indians helped Fray Garcia build the monastery on El Camino Real in the El Paso Valley. Constructed solely of adobe, the 17th century Mexican Baroque monastery (a combination of Iberian Arabic and Indian elements) has rectangular decorations, braiding, and circular stairs. Its front and side entrances have simple porticos, thick walls around the doors, and oval Ojo de Buey (English: Bull's Eye) windows. Native Indian art is carved into the ceiling rafters, sacristy doors, candlesticks, and lectern in the chapel. The stone altar rests above a flagstone floor and carved columns crowned by a wide capital frame the wood choir. At the head of the altar is a panel with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in a finely carved wood and glass niche. The construction of the mission was truly a labor of love.[41]
Ref: Wikipedia, Ciudad Juárez. When my folks visited Ciudad Juárez, the city was enjoying a renaissance. From 1940 to 1960, a succession of city mayors created a period of high growth with an industrial development project known as Programa Nacional Fronterizo. Under the program, improvements to infrastructure were made such as arched porticos around the city's main square, new facades for the public buildings, and a new domed Cathedral (referenced in Mom's journal). The city started to decline towards the end of the 1960s due to the Mexican Drug War. Known as the murder capital of the world, an estimated 400k people have fled Juárez because of the violence. Wikitravel has issued the following advisory to tourists traveling to Juárez:[42][43]
"Foreign visitors should not have much to worry about as long as they follow common sense; if you avoid venturing out alone into suspicious areas of town, particularly after dark, making obvious your personal wealth to strangers, and staying well clear of any illegal activity, particularly involving drug purchase/smuggling, you should be fine. Just remember that Mexican police are notoriously lacking in concern for those whose activities are considered "high-risk." The US Border Patrol can also be quite mercurial about these matters, and neither American nor Mexican prisons are very enticing places to spend one's vacation." ~ Wikitravel, JuárezNow we're driving thru mountains desert nothing but space, sagebrush, and looming mountains surrounding us. At this point we were getting dry. It was hard to breathe because of the air, with nostrils tightened and lips parched, we began to think of water. Passed a dead steer some motorist killed. However, we were rewarded with a most magnificent sunset in the mountains. The scenery didn't alter, but we soon found ourselves at the border of Arizona. We kept climbing higher and higher and the stars never looked so prominent. The big dipper on the left, the Milky Way overhead. The sky was radiant with stars and shone like jewels as we came upon the Crook National Forest, place of Coolidge Dam. This was Indian Country, the heart of a Reservation. Parked the car at a lookout point to look over the dam but there was hardly any water. Later we learned Arizona was having its worst drought in history. This was evidenced by the many supposed rivers we passed. They were nothing but dry beds. The air was surprisingly warm in the mountains. Parked in the open air reservation for the night.
Ref: USDA Forest ServiceUnited States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Mom noted that they entered Crook National Forest when they crossed into Arizona. The Crook National Forest was created in 1908 when Mount Graham National Forest merged with parts of the Apache, Tonto, and Pinal Forests. My folks may overlooked the Coolidge Dam from the U.S. Forest Service administered Rim Lake Vista Trail. The panoramic view from the lookout reveals a rocky terrain draped with colorful wildflowers and oak trees. Some spectacular photos of the trail can be seen at the Arizona Hiking Blog site.[44][45]
"Coolidge Dam, Arizona, is on U. S. 180 between Globe and Safford. Maximum height above bed rock 260 ft. Crest length 560 ft. over the three domes and two buttresses, and each spillway is 150 ft. wide. The San Carlos Lake formed by the dam has a storage capacity of 1,200,000 acre-feet, sufficient water to cover the 100,000 acres in San Carlos Irrigation Project in Pinal County to a depth of 12 ft., four times the water required for one year's need. Dam commenced Jan. 1927, completed Oct. 25, 1928 at a cost of $10 million. The reservoir when full will extend up the Gila and San Carlos Rivers for about 20 miles." ~ Description on Coolidge Dam postcard.
 Coolidge Dam Ref: Pima People and National Park Service, Sonoran Desert People. The Coolidge Dam was built during the late 1920s as part of the San Carlos Irrigation Project authorized by the San Carlos Project Act of 1924. The project was necessary to restore the water rights of the Pima/Hohokam Indians along the Gila River which had been appropriated by white settlers up river. The waters of San Carlos Lake stored in the dam provided for the irrigation of 50,000 acres of Indian and 50,000 acres of non-Indian land. Unfortunately, the project failed to accomplish its goal to revitalize the farming economy of the Pima/Indians who date back 6,000 years to their ancient Sonoran Desert ancestors. One of the major prehistoric archaeological traditions in the American Southwest, the Hohokam thrived in the Gila River Valley, constructing canals from the river to their farmlands where they cultivated corn and other crops including tobacco. Like the mound-building Muscogee of Macon, Georgia, the Hohokam lived in large enclaves of houses and utility structures built around a public plaza enclosed by an outer wall. The Hohokam built their walls and buildings using caliche, a natural concrete-like material found under the top soil throughout the southwest. An estimated six million pounds of caliche was used to construct the many-storied Casa Grande (English: Great House between 1200 and 1300 A.D. The purpose of the building is unknown, but it may have been used for ceremonies or council meetings like the Muscogee Earth Lodge. The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, about 56 miles southeast of Phoenix, is under the administration of the National Park Service. Tourist information can be obtained at the website.
When the 1853 Gadsden Purchase made Arizona a territory of the U.S., the Pima/Hohokam prospered growing and selling wheat. However, during the 1870s and 1880s, dams constructed to the north diverted water from the Gila River. Unable to grow their own crops due to the lack of water for irrigation, the U.S. Government gave the Pima Indians rations of canned and processed food that eventually caused the people to develop obesity and diabetes. To this day, the Pima/Hohokam people are the subject of intense studies of type 2 diabetes. The Gila River Indian Community recently became self-governing and is engaged in many diverse enterprises including an ambitious irrigation project. The community confidently states on its website, Gila River: "the community members will once again hear the sweet music of rushing water." [46][47]
The San Carlos Irrigation Project not only failed the Pima/Hohokam Indians, it also caused hardship for another Gila River tribe, the Chiricahua Apache. The tribe opposed the Coolidge Dam because they feared the loss of treaty rights if the dam's San Carlos Lake inundated their land. As the traditional campgrounds of the Chiricahua Apache, the Gila area was integral to their oral traditions, history, and cultural identity. The Apache chief Geronimo (1829 –1909) laid claim to the Gila River lands stating:
"In that country which lies around the headwaters of the Gila River I was reared. This range was our fatherland; among these mountains our wigwams were hidden; the scattered valleys contained our fields; the boundless prairies, stretching away on every side, were our pastures; the rocky caverns were our burying places." ~ National Park Service.
 Ref: Wikipedia, San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.
President Ulysses S. Grant established the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona territory on December 14, 1872, for the Chiricahua Apache tribe. Indian Agent John Clum (1851-1932) attracted 4,200 other Apache Indians tribes to San Carlos to join the Chiricahua. Under his guidance, they formed limited self-rule, tribal courts, and police. Clum used his Apache police to capture Geronimo who had fled south to the Ojo Caliente Reservation in the New Mexico Territory. After Clum resigned in 1877, new administrators released Geronimo and his braves, leading to fifteen years of Indian Wars throughout the American southwest. When Geronimo was recaptured in 1886, he was deported along with the entire Chiricahua Apache tribe to Florida. Various other Apache tribes such as the Pinal Coyotero, the Mimbreńos, and Aravaipa then migrated to the San Carlos reservation. They eventually formed a government together and became federally recognized as the San Carlos Nation under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. The San Carlos Apache Reservation comprises 1.8 million acres in southeast Arizona near the town of Peridot. Currently, 92.97% of Peridot's Native Americans are Apache, making Peridot the most Apache community in the United States. Visit the San Carlos Apache Recreation and Wildlife website for information about hunting, fishing, camping, sightseeing and shopping.[48][49]
 Kiva of Cliff Dwellers Ref: Wikipedia, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
The 649-mile Gila River begins in western New Mexico, flows southwest through the Gila National Forest, and passes the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument near Silver City, New Mexico. Created by volcanic activity, the cliffs are 5,000 to 6,000 feet high in an area of rugged terrain, steep canyons cut by shallow rivers, and forests of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. The Gila Cliff Dwellings were discovered in 1878 by an emigrant to New Mexico, Henry B. Ailman. In an effort to get out of jury duty, Ailman and some friends decided to take a trip up the Gila River. After the discovery, many artifacts and mummies were stolen. One of the mummies, an infant nicknamed "Zeke" was eventually transferred to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. To stop the further destruction of the site, Congress passed the Act for the Preservation of Antiquities or Antiquities Act authorizing the president to set aside land that contained prehistoric and historic ruins by executive order. President Theodore Roosevelt established the 533-acre site as a national monument on November 16, 1907. The Gila National Forest Service became responsible for the administration of the monument in 1975.[50]
Ref: Wikipedia, Mogollón Culture. The interconnecting cave dwellings carved into the Gila Cliffs are attributed to the Puebloan Mogollón people. Like the Hohokam and Mississippian, the Mogollón culture is one of the major prehistoric archaeological cultures recognized in the American Southwest. The name Mogollón comes from the Mogollón Mountains that were named after Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollón, Spanish Governor of New Mexico from 1712-1715. Within the caves, the Mogollón dwellers dug forty-foot-wide circular chambers called kivas that they used for council meetings and ceremonies (similar to the Ocmulgee use of the Earth Lodge in Macon, Georgia). Since the 10 to 15 families who inhabited the caves abandoned the site around 1300 A.D., the cliffs were already ruins when the Spanish explored the Southwest in the 16th century. According to National Park Service, "Most of the wood seen in the Gila Cliff Dwellings today is original! Thirty-one core samples were taken from the wood. Dendrochronology (tree ring dating) indicates that the trees for the Cliff Dwellings were cut down from 1276 to 1287." [51][52]
Ref: Wikipedia, Gila River. The Gila River continues on from the Gila Cliff Dwellings into Arizona just below Peridot on its way to the Colorado River. It turns into a stream at the Gila River Indian Reservation because the Coolidge Dam impounds its water into San Carlos Lake. Since the lake is normally at low levels due to the releases of water for irrigation, it occasionally suffers dry spells. When former President Coolidge dedicated his eponymous dam on March 4, 1930, it had not begun to fill. Looking at the grass in the bed, Will Rogers quipped, “If this were my dam, I’d mow it.” My folks may just have observed typical conditions when they traveled through the area. One anecdote is quite amusing. During World War II, 25 German POW's being held at the Navy’s Papago Park Prisoner of War Camp in Arizona, tunneled 178 feet to freedom. Most were soon captured but three of them had built a collapsible kayak to take the Gila River to the Mexican border. The map they used had a beautiful blue waterway that turned out to be a dry rut.[53]
 
Wildflowers San Carlos Lake near Peridot, Arizona*
*Creative Common License
Administration Building, Rice Institute, Houston, Texas
Main Street Looking North Houston, Texas*
*Boston Public Library
San Jacinto Plaza The Heart of El Paso, Texas
Cape Jasmine, common gardenia originated in Asia*
Territorial Map of Three Ancient Prehistoric Indian Cultures of the Southwest*
*Creative Commons License
Return to Tarry Online HomePrevious | Next
This work has been identified as
free of restrictions under copyright law.
Read Public Domain document here.
Postcard(s) downloaded from Flickr.com
and licensed by Boston Public Library
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
license limiting restrictions under copyright law.
Read about Creative Commons license here.
Don't try to retell history to those who lived it!
|
