J. Ross Browne's "Adventures in the Apache Country"

"This is one of the most beautiful and picturesque edifices of the kind to be found on the North American continent. I was surprised to see such a splendid monument of civilization in the wilds of Arizona."

PERHAPS one of the most thrilling accounts of early-day Arizona to be preserved in print are the impressions of J. Ross Browne, a literary man from California and a traveler in his "Adventures in the Apache Country," published by Harper & Brothers in 1868. Though Arizona apparently "wasn't worth much" at the time, Browne had visions and hope for a bright future for this then wild country. He was an artist as well as a writer and the series of word sketches anddrawings contained in this volume are very comprehensive and altogether interesting; with vivid realism, irony, and a sprinkling of enlivened humor, especially in his drawings. He portrays the desolation of sparsely set-tled Arizona and the privations and hazards encountered.

By the way of introduction he explains that the account of his travels in Arizonaoffers a "new programme of exploration and adventure possessing peculiar charms in the absence of accommodations for travelers, and extraordinary advantages in the way of burning deserts, dried rivers, rattle-snakes, scorpions, Mexicans, and Apaches; besides unlimited fascinations in the line of robbery, starvation, and the chances of sudden death by accident."

By Joseph Miller

"Looming up on the side of the hill, in bold outline against the sky, stood a rude cross upon which hung the dried body of an Apache, crucified about two years ago by the Maricopas. It was a strange and ghastly sight."

He relates how Mr. Gadsden was ridiculed for purchasing from Mexico for the United States that area which is now Southern Arizona for the fabulous sum of ten million dollars; being accused of wasteful folly in acquiring such an arid waste and especially in light of the fact that the country was infested with hordes of blood-thirsty Apaches.

Browne came to Arizona at the critical period-the beginning of the territorial days. The American settlement was sparse. Scattered here and there were a few mining camps and stage stops. A few hardy souls risked life and property; lured to this desolate region by reports of fabulous mineral wealth.

During this time Browne states that "Arizona possessed at least the pretense of military protection," and that "it soon became infested with the refuse population of Sonora . . . what the Apaches left undone in the way of murder and robbery they seldom failed to complete . . . nor was that all. The most desperate class of renegades from Texas and California found Arizona a safe asylum from arrest under the laws. The Vigilance Committee of San Francisco did more to populate the new Territory than the silver mines . . . it was literally a paradise of devils."

It is explained that naturally for the reason of these conditions the progress of the country was slow, and with the wonderful resources and climate equal to that of Italy, the misfortunes suffered were unparalleled in the history of our territorial possessions.

After twelve days of travel from Los Angeles, Browne reached Fort Yuma, near the site of the present city of Yuma, then known as Arizona City. He dwells at length on the wonderful winter climate and says, "Perhaps the fastidious people might object to the temperature in summer, when the rays of the sun attain their maximum force, and the hot winds sweep in from the desert. It is said that a wicked soldier died here, and was consigned to the fiery regions below for his manifold sins; but unable to stand the rigors of the climate, sent back for his blankets."

A Review of an artist-traveler's trip through our land in the 1860's.

Describing Gila City, now a ghost town, a few miles up the Gila river from Arizona City, he regards it as a very pretty place where gold was found in abundance in the adjacent hills a few years prior to his visit there and that when the news leaked out over a thousand hardy adventurers surged in to the area.

"Enterprising men hurried to the spot

Arizonian in Sight of Home.

"An artist with an arrow in his back may be a very picturesque object to contemplate at one's leisure, but I would rather draw him on paper than sit for the portrait myself."

With barrels of whisky and billiard-tables; Jews came with ready-made clothing and fancy wares; traders crowded in with wagon-loads of pork and beans; and gamblers came with cards and monte-tables. There was everything in Gila City within a few months but a church and a jail, which were accounted barbarisms by the mass of the population. When the city was built, bar-rooms and billiard-saloons opened, monte-tables established, and all the accommodations necessary for civilized society placed upon a firm basis, then the gold placers gave out Gila City collapsed. In about the space of a week it existed only in the memory of disappointed speculators.

Illustrations from reproductions of sketches in Browne's "Adventures in the Apache Country."

Coming upon the graves of the Oatman family which site is a short distance from the present city of Gila Bend, Browne dwells at great length on the tragedy that befell this family of unfortunate emigrants, deserted along the way by other groups of emigrants on their way to California of which they had heard glowing accounts. Almost exhausted from exposure and hunger, they were suddenly attacked by a band of Apaches who killed three of the party, left another for dead, and carried two daughters away captive. The injured youth, regaining consciousness, struggled for days, (Turn to Page 32)

Casas Grandes

"This grand old relic of an age and people of which we have no other than traditionary accounts looms up over the the mind with a strange perplexity as to the past."