Monument in the Mountain

MONUMENT IN THE MOUNTAIN The Chiricahua is a study in rocks and history

IT'S JUST A SHORT hop from El Paso to Tucson in one of the great, silvery airliners which wing steadily across the Southwest. Hidden in this broad lumbar region of North America, its spine, the Continental Divide, remains unnoticed, even from the air. But just to the west, beyond the Arizona-New Mexico line, the rugged Chiricahua Mountain Range, sprawling toward Mexico, lifts itself suddenly out of the desert. Like claws sheathed in the green velvet of pine, juniper, and manzanita; pinnacles, turrets, and spires of dark grey rock reach up toward the startled passengers gazing down upon the bastions of the Range rising sharply beneath them. As the ship sweeps in, crosses the summit, and drones westward, an amazing panorama is spread out below for a few exciting minutes; a panorama of deep canyons and sharp ridges lined and studded with a spectacular array of immense perpendicular rock figures among which the clamor of the plane's motors echoes and reverberates.. It is this strange galaxy of nature-carved images covering 17 square miles of canyon, cliff, and crest that has been reserved under perpetual protection as Chiricahua National Monument.

As the big transport roars westward, a group of riders on a broad trail winding among the rocks of Rhyolite Canyon below rein in their horses to watch the modern plane flashing overhead; a sight which seems strangely incongruous as if an intruder from another world. Relaxing beneath the benign influence of the quiet surroundings, the pattern of sun and shadow on the trail where it passes beneath the low-hanging branches of Chiricahua Pine, Emory Oak, or Arizona Cypress, and the unhurried gait of their mounts, they have forgotten, for the moment, the war and the myriad of worries and problems of daily life.

Puzzled and astonished by the multiplicity and variety of the rock pillars and spires, they have listened with absorbed interest to their guide's explanation of the forces of nature which have been at work for hundreds of thousands of years preparing the material and sculpturing the amazing figures which surround them and which line the canyon wall as far as they can see. They have noticed strange flowers and have been surprised to learn that, isolated from other ranges as they are by the surrounding plains, the Chiricahua Mountains contain an astonishing number and variety of plants. They have been reminded that here, in these rugged canyons, the famous Chiricahua Apache warchiefs, Cochise, Geronimo, and others, led their tribesmen into Corregidorian retreats so inaccessible and so well defended that it took the power of the United States army many years to dislodge them. Today, only the occasional full-throated roar of airplane motors breaks the peace and quiet of a rugged terrain which once resounded to bursts of rifle fire and the sharp commands of cavalry officers. But the violence of Indian warfare was as nothing in comparison with the convulsions of nature which took place here in ancient Tertiary times. The region, then, according to geologists, was relatively level, perhaps sloping slightly to the west. Suddenly all Hell broke loose and, accompanied by violent earthquakes, molten lava burst through the crust of the earth and spread over the plain. From some of the vents, cinders and volcanic ash were blown into the sky to fall as a blanket over the hardened lava crust. Eruption followed eruption, occasionally in close succession, again with centuries intervening. Some of the lavas cooled at a rate to cause vertical shrinkage cracks to form in regular patterns throughout the solidifying mass. Many of the rhyolitic lava blankets were relatively thin and small in extent, others widespread and many feet in thickness.

Gradually the eruptions became less violent and finally ceased. leaving a great volcanic field made up of layered lavas differing in extent, thickness, and in the composition of the materials of which they were made. But Nature still was not content with the desolation she had created. Gargantuan stresses and strains developed in the earth's crust, the resulting tortuous movements slowly lifting and tilting great lava-capped blocks to form mountains. In this tremendous terrestial labor, the Chiricahua Range was born.

The old adage, "All that goes up comes down," applies to mountains, too; and no sooner had the range taken shape than the agencies of erosion began their slow but endless process of wearing it away. Rain and snow beat upon the rocks; running water, tooled with particles of stone, chiseled loose by freezing and thawing, scratched and abraded the surface everywhere; soil formed, accumulated in pockets, and plants gained a foothold. Erosion bit deeply along the shrinkage cracks made when the lavas had cooled; and horizontal planes, which once had been the surfaces of successive lava flows, proved especially susceptible to the solvent action of water. As Time spun its century hand again and again around the face of the geologic clock, cracks were widened to fissures, fissures were enlarged to breaches, some of the breaches became gullies, and a few of the gullies grew to be canyons. Along these canyon walls, erosion has continued its attack and is still busily engaged in its ceaseless task of carving what remains of the ancient rhyolite beds into columns, pillars, and spires; the rough blocks which the more delicate hands of wind, sun, and rain are sculpturing into the weird forms of the immediate future. Some of these forms the imagination of man will christen with popular names, and photographers will submit their images on paper to editors to illustrate the magazine articles of tomorrow. Today and for centuries to come, Chiricahua National Monument will exhibit all stages of erosional activity in the rhyolitic lavas, from the talus remains of a collapsed pinnacle to the sheer cliffs where the fingers of time and frost are plucking at fresh cracks and crevices.

Above a green blanket of oak and manzanita chaparral, Cochise Head may be seen from all parts of the monument.

In addition to the spectacular balanced rocks and weather-worn figures, and the scenic attractions of cliff and canyon, erosion has laid bare a variety of records of the turbulent past. Exposed beds of volcanic ash are mute reminders of violent eruptions of long ago, while a trailside ledge of peculiar, spherical pellets locally called "petrified grapes" present testimony whose geological evidence has not yet been satisfactorily interpreted. At one point along the Bonita Canyon Highway, red shale deposits mark the spot where upwelling lava once blocked an ancient stream channel, deposits of silt in the resulting impounded waters forming shale beds of today. Later infiltrations deposited gypsum producing a network of white veins. At other places, erosion has uncovered contact belts between extruded lavas and sedimentary rocks resulting in metamorphized zones and, in some cases, deposits of metal ores.

When Tertiary disturbances buckled the earth's crust to form the Chiricahua Mountains, Nature's selection of a location placed this chain at some distance from other ranges; a mountain island in a desert sea. During the centuries which have intervened, plants gradually gained a foothold and provided vegetative cover for the slopes. Exposure, slopes, type of soil, elevation, moisture, and other conditions combined to provide a great variety of habitats which were occupied, as time passed, by plants whose seeds were brought in by the wind and other agencies, and could survive under the conditions they encountered. Because the range was relatively isolated, certain plants common to similar locations elsewhere apparently never found their way into the Chiricahuas, while others, in passing through thousands of generations, have undergone evolutionary changes making them different from their relatives in other places. The similar gradual establishment of an animal population also has resulted in the presence of certain forms unique to the area. These "different" plants and animals of which the Chiricahua Red Squirrel is noteworthy, are referred to by scientists as products of isolation. On the other hand, the Chiricahuas are occasionally visited by wanderers among birds and mammals from distant, although similar, mountain ranges to the southward. These zoological vacationists, of which the Thickbilled Parrot, Coppery-tailed Trogon, and Mexican Jaguar are the most notable examples, are classed as "invasion" forms.

Although the unusual creatures of any area are given the spotlight of publicity, there are many common varieties of birds and mammals in Chiricahua National Monument which are more or less in evidence. Band-tailed Pigeons nest throughout the area; three varieties of jays are both seen and heard; nuthatches, warblers, towhees, grosbeaks, woodpeckers, flycatchers, tanagers, swallows, swifts, and many others are abundant. Such varieties as orioles, the Painted Redstart, and Vermilion Flycatcher make brilliant flashes of color among the greenery of canyon bottoms, while monument birds range in size from the tiny humming bird and bush-tit to the great Golden Eagle.

Constant protection, a privilege accorded all wild creatures in every national park and monument, is showing its influence at Chiricahua, especially among the Arizona White-tailed Deer which are becoming quite unafraid and are frequently seen by visitors along the highway in Bonita Canyon. Occasionally the tracks of a bear, cougar, or wild turkey are found. Smaller animals, especially the rodents, are common. These include squirrels, chipmunks, wood rats and kangaroo rats, rabbits, skunks, badgers, coyotes, and foxes.

Together with nine species, five of which are pines, and the oaks with seven different varieties. One botanical authority has stated that Chiricahua National Monument contains a greater range of plant life than any area of equal size in the country. Be that as it may, the pleasant all-year climate, wealth of plant and animal life, and the weird, spectacular rock formations all made readily accessible by seven miles of well-kept mountain road and 14 miles of graded trails makes Chiricahua National Monument a refreshing interlude in the journey of tourists traveling the highways or railways of southern Arizona.

From a transcontinental air liner, the passenger gets only an intriguing glimpse of a great jumble of picturesque rocks. The motorist who follows Bonita Canyon Highway to Massai Point Because, then, of its great diversification of habitat from open, sun-drenched slopes and chaparral-covered ridges to tree-choked canyon bottoms with spring-fed pools, and from valley floors at an elevation of 5,300 feet to densly forested mountain peaks 7,300 feet above the sea, Chiricahua National Monument offers an enormous variety of plant and animal life. This assortment is augmented by the rare forms which are present because of the operation of natural factors governing isolation and invasion.

Preliminary plant collections for the monument herbarium made, principally, during portions of two summers, total 507 different species representing 80 botanical families. Interesting examples include the fern group with 14 representatives, the conifer-nationally famous. The well-planned trails system of the monument leads the visitor, by several loop trips, to all of these features. On the Echo Canyon Trail is "Old Devil-face." Rhyolite Trail passes "Totem Pole" and "The Mushroom." From Sara Deming Trail, it is only a short scramble to the top of a ridge where "The Sheep" surveys his petrified pastureland. But in the Heart-ofRocks section, Nature has gone into sculpturing with reckless abandon. Entrance to this rare bit of unbelievable imagery is guarded by "Big Balanced Rock" a 16-ton behemoth supported by a base only inches in diameter. And among the concourse of hulking pinnacles lining the head of a tiny canyon are found "Pinnacle Balanced Rock," "Thor's Hammer," "Old Maid," "Duck-on-a-Rock," "Punch-and-Judy," and several others. From a high point reached on the Heart-of-Rocks loop trail, the most scenic vantage point of the monument except, perhaps, the summit of Sugar Loaf Peak, looks down upon the entire rockrimmed length of spectacular Rhyolite Canyon.

But even the super-interested enthusiast who covers every foot of the trails and explores much of the rugged country in between, fails to see one of the most interesting features of Chiricahua National Monument. For within the bulky volume of American History is a chapter on the Apache Wars, a stirring record of the last stand of the American Indian against the inevitable domination of the white man.

For centuries, the Chiricahua Mountains and surroundings were the ancestral home of the Chiricahua (meaning Great Mountain) group of Apache Indians, a predatory and warlike tribe. Living on wild animals and native plants, these resourceful people moved from place to place according to the requirements of the season and the presence of food. Occasionally they raided the Opata, Sobaipuri, Pima, and Papago; rancheria Indians who farmed the alluvial lands bordering streams in the wide desert valleys. With the coming of the Spaniards who brought European grain and domestic animals, the Apache found increased incentive to pillage.

Stolen horses greatly enlarged the power and widened the range of Apache activities, and the southeastern corner of what is now Arizona became a Chiricahua stronghold under the vigorous leadership of the bold and wily Mangus Colorado. With the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, and opening of the area to settlement by United States citizens, Apache raiders became an ever increasing hazard. However, it was not until 1860 that active warfare flared as the results of the unfortunate arrest of Cochise, then chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, at Apache Pass, a station on the Overland Mail Route of the famous Butterfield Stage Line at the north end of the Chiricahua Mountains. A leader of great power and personality, Cochise in his anger became a master tactician and strategist of guerilla warfare, his ferocious raiders ever on the alert to swoop down from retreats deep in the Chiricahua Mountains upon small bands of travelers, prospectors, or others passing through or stopping in the vicinity. Homes of ranchers and settlers were burned, one by one; the ranchers killed, their cattle driven off, and their families either murdered or carried away by the Indians.

The late Neil Erickson, who served as top sergeant of Troop E, 4th U. S. Cavalry at Fort Bowie.

Pioneer cemetery at mouth of Bonita Canyon, last resting place of Neil Erickson, Indian fighter, rancher, and Forest Service employee.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THESE PIONEERS THEY CAME WHEN ONLY THE BRAVE DARED COME THEY STAYED WHERE ONLY THE VALIANT COULD STAY BORN IN SWEDEN, AMERICANS BY CHOICE-NOT BY ACCIDENT OF BIRTH. THEY LOVED THEIR ADOPTED COUNTRY AND SERVED HER WELL.

NEIL SERVED FIVE YEARS IN THE ARMY DURING THE INDIAN WARS AND THEN TWENTY FIVE YEARS AS AN OFFICER IN THE UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE THEY CARVED A HOME FROM THE WILDERNESS. WITH THE WARP OF LABOR AND THE WOOF OF DREAMS THEY WOVE A PATTERN OF LIFE AS BEAUTIFUL AS THE SUNSETS AND AS ENDURING AS THE MOUNTAINS THEY LOVED SO WELL.