THE WATERS OF THE SAN BERNARDINO

In a parched country where water is the all-important asset of any ranch or settlement, the San Bernardino Ranch is as rich as Croesus. Here in the middle of a broad desert valley that straddles the Arizona-Mexican border in southeast Cochise County, water flows freely and constantly-regardless of the dry seasons-from at least seven springs and ten Artesian wells.This abundant water has drawn Apaches and Span-ish explorers, frontier trappers and American soldiers to the ranch which is just eighteen miles east of the present city of Douglas, and about that far from the ancient pass through the Guadalupe Mountains on the New Mexican border.

On this oasis the cottonwoods have grown to amazing girth and reach their sunlit branches a hundred feet into the clear blue sky. The thick willows cluster around the ponds and trickling streams. Several large tanks, which are fed by the springs and Artesian wells, quench the thirst of a herd of Black Angus cattle and many wild deer, peccories (known locally as Javalina hogs) and bob cats. These pools also attract a great variety of birds and countless frogs whose songs and croaks only emphasize the stillness of the surroundings.

The Spanish adventurers and the early trappers from the east have left no records and few traces of their presence. There are, however, many artifacts-evidences of past Indian inhabitants and archaeologists from the University have expressed their interest, although they have done no real digging there.

The high mesa north-east of the house is called the "Mesa de la Avanzada," meaning mesa of the advance guard. From here one can see sixty miles north to the Chiricahua Mountains and fifty miles south into the Bavispe Valley of old Mexico-even to the pass between two mountain ranges which is the location of the Angostura Dam. It is believed that there was once a detachment of Spanish soldiers stationed on the mesa-perhaps an advance guard from the presidio at Fronteras. About a mile across the Mexican border are some adobe ruins which are thought to be the remains of an ancient chapel-or maybe a stamp mill. The story goes that some Mexicans on burros came and spent the night there about fifty years ago. They dug a box of gold bullion out of the heap and left without explanation.

The San Bernardino-along with many other Southwestern and Sonoran places-was named several centuries ago by the first Spanish explorers in honor of a Christian saint. An unknown Jesuit priest, whose Rudo Ensayo of esuit priest, 763 was recently republished by Arizona Silhouettes, speaks of the San Bernardino ranch by name and locates it as north of Fronteras. Because it was in Apacheland, it was impossible for the Spaniards to maintain their hold there. The springs were an important watering place for the Indians and they were not going to give them up easily.

In 1773 Captain Juan B. de Anza. who commanded the Spanish fort at Tubac, was quartered at the ranch while he was leading a campaign against the Apaches. He wrote a letter to Mexico City with a San Bernardino heading.

In 1822 Ignacio Perez gained title to the land-a grant of 73,240 acres-signed by the Spanish Crown. It is said that he paid the equivalent of ninety dollars for the whole San Bernardino Valley.

During the war between the United States and Mexico, Lieutenant-Colonel Cooke led a battalion of about 350 Morman volunteers from Santa Fé to San Diego. The purpose of this difficult undertaking was to establish a wagon trail across the southern route to the coast and to join the battle for possession of California.

Two old-time mountain-men, Pauline Weaver and Antoine Leroux, guided the Morman Battalion down the Rio Grande, across the Mimbres Valley of New Mexico and over the Guadelupe Mountains to the San Bernardino Ranch. There is a plaque on the road now which tells of their visit in December, 1846. They found no inhabitants on the ranch-the Mexicans had again abandoned it to the Apaches-but there was plenty of beef on the hoof and plenty of water. What a welcome sight it must have been to the weary, hungry, thirsty soldiers!

After the war and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, John Bartlett headed the First Boundary Commissionwhich was to survey and draw a new line between United States and Mexican territory. They must have wandered a bit, for, in his Personal Narrative, he tells of his visits to the San Bernardino in May 1851 and August 1852.

SAN BERNARDINO

He writes that he found “a collection of adobe buildings in a ruined state of which nothing but the walls remain. One of these buildings was about one hundred feet square with a Court in the center; and adjoining it were others with small apartments. The latter were doubtless the dwellings of peons and herdsmen. The whole, extending over a space of two acres, was enclosed with a high adobe wall, with regular bastions for defense. Being elevated some 20 or 30 feet above the valley, this hacienda commands a fine view of the country around.” In August of the next year Bartlett met Colonel Garcia with two hundred troops from Tucson at the springs of San Bernardino. He was on a campaign against the Apaches.

After the Gadsden Purchase was ratified in 1854, the new international boundary ran through the ranch and put about one-fourth of the land in the United States territory.

Major Emory headed the Second Boundary Commission that surveyed the new line. He wrote in his report to Washington this description of the San Bernardino Ranch: “This basin, forming, as it is said, the head of the Yaqui River, here shows a wide, flat plain, extending from north to south, and having a breadth of three to five miles. On its western slope is situated the deserted settlement of S B. Adjoining this ranch are numerous springs, spreading out into rushy ponds, and giving issue to a small stream of running water. The valley is covered thickly with a coarse growth of grass.” The Gold Rush to California was in full swing, and many cross-country travelers who followed the Morman trail to the promised land paused at the San Bernardino where water was so plentiful. Miners and prospectors began to move into Southern Arizona too.

About the time the soldiers had the Indians under control, the boom town of Tombstone sprang up out of the hills and desert and mushroomed into a wild and lusty city of 15,000 people. John Slaughter from Texas had visited this country two years before, but it was the silver city of Tombstone which lured him to drive his herd of 1800 Texas longhorns across the Rio Grande and settle his family in the San Pedro Valley. With the help of his steel courage and his trusty six-shooter, he traded in cattle and built up a considerable fortune. He spotted the San Bernardino Ranch with its plentiful supply of water, and in 1884 he bought the whole grant from the descendants of Perez. Slaughter claimed 8,688 acres north of the border, but only 2,366 were approved by the United States court of claims. He added to this by various homesteads and patented mining claims.

In the eighties Tombstone and the whole of Cochise County were so infested with cattle rustlers, gamblers and lawless men that it was unsafe for respectable people. John Slaughter, known to be a fearless and competent fighter, was drafted into the sheriff's office. He served four years and gets the credit for bringing order out of chaos.

At the close of his term of office-in 1890-he moved his family and ranch hands to the San Bernardino, and it became Slaughter's Ranch.

It was he who drilled the Artesian wells. At a depth of about 550 feet he tapped a tremendous underground water supply. He piped ten wells to the surface and let flow more than enough water for his settlement and his large herd of cattle. His brand, a Z marked on the right shoulder, was the first to be registered in Cochise County.

John Slaughter built a rambling adobe house, worthy of a frontier cattle king, and established a village for the cowboys and those who served him. There were large barns and granaries, workshops and a blacksmith forge, “una tienda” or store, and a school. He even had a post office in the main house.

He built a concrete and rock dam near the house, which retained the water from several springs and created a lake. Imagine the surprising charm of a swimming pool surrounded by graceful willows and wild roses on an isolated desert ranch!

This pool and Austin dam, which he built farther north, filled an elaborate system of irrigation ditches. At

At one time he had five hundred acres under cultivation. Corn, wheat, oats, barley, cotton and beans grew in these fertile fields. A group of Chinese lived on the ranch and raised large gardens of vegetables. They supplied the “big house” with fresh produce every day, and sold the surplus to the grateful housewives of Douglas-a city that grew up at the turn of the century. Some of his Mexican workmen tended the large orchards and vineyards. The oldtimers still remember the delicious quality of the peaches and muscat grapes, and the luscious goodness of the strawberries and water melons from the Slaughter's table.

Mrs. Slaughter kept her ice-house and storeroom well filled with a rich variety of meat, poultry, butter, cheese and good food. What wasn't grown on the ranch was freighted in by wagon loads from Tombstone, Bisbee or Douglas. The cooks, always Chinese, prepared a feast every day in the week.

The Slaughters became famous for their hospitality, and entertained all who came without making any distinctions as to their importance. There were cross-country travelers and prospectors, mining engineers and writers, health seekers and politicians. Some of their more famous guests were General Pershing of the United States Army and President Obregon of Mexico, Senators Henry Ashurst and Mark Smith and many army officers. Slaughter and his cowboys did their own Indian fighting, but several times the U.S. soldiers camped on the ranch grounds. In May, 1896, some Apaches from the San Carlos reservation broke away and painted a trail of blood down through the San Bernardino and into Mexico. A detachment of the 7th Cavalry followed. They stopped long enough at Slaughters to enlist him as a guide before they followed the Indians south.

Again in 1916, during the trouble with Pancho Villa, a detachment of soldiers from Camp Harry J. Jones in Douglas was camped near the house to protect the family from Mexican bandits. The Mexicans made themselves at home on the part of the ranch that lay south of the border, but nothing could be done about that.

About 1920 when Mr. Slaughter was no longer able to do much active ranching, he and his wife moved into Douglas. He died the following year. The ranch was leased, but the buildings, orchards and fields were neglected and began to deteriorate. It does not take the desert long to reclaim its own, but the water continued to flow.

In 1937 the ranch was divided and sold. Dr. Manuel Calderon of Agua Pricta bought the Mexican land, and Marion L. Williams of Douglas purchased the ranch and buildings which lie in the United States. His holdings amount to almost 15,000 acres. He has restored and modernized the big house with the wide veranda. The rock outbuildings remain and the dam near the house. For awhile his family lived there, but for one reason or another, they have moved back to Douglas. Only a cow-boy-caretaker lives there now.

The Williams, father and sons, graze their Black Angus cattle on the northern part of the ranch. The farming now consists of an annual crop of barley and a permanent pasture.

Morris Browder, one of the family, has developed a hobby of bee-keeping into a small business. This year he collected, strained and bottled 1500 pounds of honey. Connoisseurs of Douglas gladly buy up his whole crop and especially like the thick, light colored first drawing which is a true mesquite honey. The bees thrive on the ranch where water is plentiful, and Mr. Browder says a much bigger crop is possible if it were desirable.

Regardless of the ebb and flow of human history on the ranch, the springs, lake and running water of the San Bernardino keep it a famous stopping place for birds of many kinds-and so also the bird-watchers. Dr. Herbert Brandt from Cleveland published a beautiful bird-book in 1951 entitled Arizona and Its Bird Life. In his chapter on the Slaughter Ranch he calls it “the most interesting bird oasis in all the 10,000 square miles of Southeastern Arizona.” Dr. Brandt counted one hundred and forty-one different species in ten visits during April and May. He saw transient and nesting birds and a surprising number of water birds. He identified ten varieties of ducks besides grebes, herons, egrets and coots. In April, 1948, he counted eleven different shore birds on their way to the Arctic-birds which he knew nested in the Yukon River Delta or the Alaskan highlands or the Bering Sea or the St. Lawrence River banks. Besides these he saw an amazing variety of Arizona and Sonora nesting birds. He says it is the only place in the desert where he could record a daily catalogue of fifty to seventy birds.

In the desert of Southeast Arizona, where water is so scarce, the springs of this oasis have brought recorded history and fame to the San Bernardino Ranch. It is a stage on which have been enacted the succeeding tableaus of an historical pageant. It makes a modern visitor conscious of the past and also curious about the future.