Battle of Big Dry Wash

The Bed & Breakfast Alternative

Text by Dianne-Jo Moore Photographs by Richard Maack Arizona is well known for its guest ranches, its elaborate resort hotels, some beautifully restored historic inns, and abundant, conveniently located motels covering a wide price range. But recently still another category of overnight lodging for travelers has emerged, known descriptively enough as "bed-and-breakfast."

The classic B-and-B is a private room in a family home where the owners include breakfast as part of their hospitality. Such accommodations have long been popular alternatives to hotels in Great Britain and Ireland.

Although bed-and-breakfast facilities, once called "tourist homes," sprang up here and there in America during the Great Depression, they did not become common in this country until the 1970s. Today there are more than 10,000 such overnight stopovers across the land.

"And the trend hasn't come anywhere near peaking out yet," says Dorna Nelson, who with Rena Kiekebusch started (OPPOSITE PAGE) Ron Olson, Karen Mynor, and Evelyn Olson enjoy an evening around the patio fireplace at the Olsons' bed-and-breakfast. (BELOW) Inside the house, antique stained glass and furniture grace a bedroom.

Old Pueblo Homestays, a reservation service in Tucson. "It's still catching on in the West," she adds, particularly in Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico, where, industry observers say, Band-B rates run 30 to 40 percent below those of hotels. Artists and antique buffs will enjoy Ron and Evelyn Olson's home in Phoenix. Outside, it is an ordinary ranch-style house, but the minute you see the old wine press by the front door, you suspect you're in for something special. A French brass bed occupies one of the rooms, and on a wall hangs Evelyn's collection of all-white antique-linen clothing. Elegant lamps illuminate the house, and her grandmother's Victorian dresser and chair grace the guest room.

The Olsons also operate a stained glass studio called The Glass Works, and they have designed many windows in the house, including the one in the guest bathroom, with antique glass. An artist herself, Evelyn displays her oil paintings throughout the house: "I do still lifes and landscapes. I use my art in everything I do-the way I decorate the house, the way I set the table."

In the kitchen, cast-iron cookware hangs on the walls, and the open cupboards hold antique dishes. Breakfast won't be served here on some everyday set of stoneware. "Cooking is another area where I like to be creative," she says. "If guests stay here a week, they will have a different breakfast every morning. And each day we will use a different set of dishes and napkins and silverware. Visitors love it."

There's also a choice of where to eat: the dining area with its antique oak table, on the patio under an umbrella, or in the 1880s-style gazebo near a fire pit and heated spa. The gazebo was originally part of the old Jefferson Hotel in downtown Phoenix. The Olsons obtained it from the developers when the hotel was renovated, and fully restored it for their garden.

One of Arizona's more interesting and colorful bed-and-breakfast facilities is Patti and Gerald Toci's Territorial residence in Tucson. An adobe built in the 1870s, it stands in El Presidio Historical District, where local citizens know it as the Julius Kruttschnitt House. The Tocis recently completed a meticulous restoration that took eight years. "We have also created a private court-yard and gardens planted with historically authentic plants, and converted a stable and a carriage house into a guesthouse, furnishing the three suites with period antiques," reports Patti. For the last year, the Tocis have been operating as El Presidio Bed & Breakfast Inn. "And we have truly enjoyed our guests. We are pleased, too, the way they have responded. We've been very busy.' Also in Tucson, Florence Ejrup rents a four-year-old guesthouse that she calls Casa Suecia, which means "Swedish House" in Spanish.

This B-and-B offers 1,100 square feet of living space fully equipped with private entrance, kitchen, stone fireplace, sitting area, king-size bed, television, phone, and elegant bath-and the bonus of a mountain view from its own patio. On the shelves are blue and orange hand-carved wooden horses from Sweden, books about Tucson, pamphlets on what to see and do, a map, and restaurant reviews.

(CLOCKWISE FROM BELOW) Locally known as the Julius Kruttschnitt House, the El Presidio Bed & Breakfast Inn is a Territorial adobe built in Tucson in the 1870s. The comfortable interior reflects the building's meticulous restoration. Frederick and Martha Potter (foreground) from California and the Rev. George and Nancy Wyer of Virginia enjoy breakfast at a gaily decorated table.

"I serve breakfast every morning in the guesthouse or on the patio," says Florence. Dressed in a long white apron, she makes Swedish cinnamon rolls or pancakes. "Swedish pancakes are thin, almost like crepes," she explains. She serves them with fresh fruits and cream. And Florence offers her guests several complimentary extras: "If guests arrive during the day, I give them cold cuts. I always have fresh flowers in the guesthouse, and firewood for the fireplace. And if they want to use my washer and dryer, they can do so at no extra charge."

The Greenway House in Bisbee is another Arizonastyle B-and-B furnished with beautiful antiques. This 28-room mansion, now owned by George Knox and Joy O'Clock, was built in 1906 for John C. Greenway, then manager of the Calumet & Arizona Mining and Copper Company. "He had been a Rough Rider with Buckey O'Neill and Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War," says Joy. Greenway became one of Arizona's most distinguished citizens, and later his widow, Isabella Greenway, served two terms in Congress.

(BELOW) Ornate antiques fill the eight suites of the John C. Greenway House, a 28-room mansion in Bisbee. (OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP) Built in 1906, the Greenway House bas a turn-of-the-century exterior. (BELOW) Owner Joy O'Clock entertains Annette Cordano (far left) and Jack and Laney Schiffler (foreground).

Nestled in the Mule Mountains of southeastern Arizona, the house contains eight suites with private baths. "Every room is different," says Joy. One bed and dresser set has a hand-carved feather design; another is made of walnut with a high headboard. "We have one room with an antique sleigh bed."

The upstairs floors are polished maple, and the downstairs floors are oak. The baths have authentic claw-foot tubs, oak pull-chain commodes, and brass light fixtures. "The woodwork has original stenciling that has never been touched," adds Joy.

Guests can play a game in the original billiard room or listen to music on the 1940s Wurlitzer nickelodeon. Additional perquisites for guests include a Continental breakfast, Arizona wines, fresh flowers, and informal tours of the house.

Now that you've had your appetite whetted, a word of caution: because anyone can open a bed-and-breakfast and quality can vary widely, and because some have restrictions ranging from no pets to no smoking, it's always advisable to deal with a reputable B-and-B reservation agency. We've listed several at the end of this article. They'll explain options,

The Battle of Big Dry Wash

In July 17, 1882, five pursuing troops of U.S. Cavalry caught up with a band of about 60 Apaches in a pine forest in northern Arizona. The warriors had planned an ambush at a dauntingly steep site, where a canyon cut through the Mogollon Plateau. But they were hardly in place when they were discovered by Army scouts of their own race. What ensued was a classic engagement of Savage intensity called the Battle of Big Dry Wash. The clash of arms is not well known, despite two monuments that have stood for more than half a century and detailed accounts by historians Dan Thrapp and James L. Haley. The fact that there is no Big Dry Wash on the Arizona map may contribute to the battle's obscurity; the site was misnamed in Army reports.

The activities of Brig. Gen. George Crook give us a convenient frame of reference for the fight, although Crook was not present. Considered by his superiors to be the country's most effective Indian fighter, Crook was sent to Arizona Territory in 1871 to deal with the "Indian problem."

It was at that point that Crook first explored the Mogollon Rim, a long escarpment running southeast to northwest across the middle of Arizona. Crook traveled the crest of the Rim in the summer of 1871, establishing a new route (later a wagon road) that reduced the distance between Fort Apache on the east and Camp Verde on the west.

Near a relatively low spot in the Rim, 43 miles east of Camp Verde, he located what soon became known as General Springs. Here his party turned north, following an ancient Indian trail that climbed the Rim and eventually wove its way to Navajo country. The Rim helped route the 1882 chase that ended at Big Dry Wash. The spring and the trail also would figure in the engagement.

When Crook left Arizona in 1875 to command the Army's Department of the Platte, he had smashed the resistance of many Apache bands and persuaded Indians to live on reservations. But no sooner had the general taken his leave than some of the Apaches became increasingly restless. Crook later blamed this on government agents' greed and mismanagement of the reservations, which had been shifted from Army to civilian control. Crook charged that many agents were corrupt and in league with dishonest supply contractors.

He wrote, "As soon as the Indians became settled on the different reservations, gave up the warpath and became harmless, the Indian agents, who had sought cover before, now came out as brave as sheep, and commenced their game of plundering."

Crook particularly decried the arbitrary transfer of many White Mountain Apaches to the bleak San Carlos Reservation farther south, where various bands of Indians were thrown together. This was done so that displaced Indians would be more at the mercy of agents and traders, he charged.

In the summer of 1881, rebellious Indians intensified their off-reservation raiding, and a group led by Na-ti-o-tish, a White Mountain Apache, rode along Cherry Creek and through Pleasant Valley. At the Middleton Ranch, the Indians killed two neighbors who had ridden to warn the Middleton family, wounded a Middleton son, and stole 75 horses.

During the ensuing year, tensions steadily heightened. Na-ti-o-tish attempted to start a general rebellion, but not enough Apaches were willing to follow him. So he went on the warpath July 6, 1882, with a force variously estimated at 54 to 70 warriors; 60 seems a likely number. That figure may include six Apache women carried away in a raid on the San Carlos agency headquarters earlier that day.

J. L. Colvig, non-Indian chief of the San Carlos police, led tribal policemen in pursuit. Colvig and his three men were ambushed and killed.

Na-ti-o-tish and his band quickly struck the mining town of McMillen, northeast of Globe. This area represented a sore point with Apaches, for it was one of several places where their assigned reservation was reduced in size after white men found minerals on the land. The miners at McMillen hid women and children in the shaft of the Stonewall Jackson Mine and fought off the attackers.

The Army reacted swiftly. Reading about the mobilization, one can almost hear the blaring bugles and drumming hoofbeats of assembling cavalry, about 350 soldiers from 15 troops based at Fort Apache, Fort McDowell, Fort Thomas, and Fort Whipple.

(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 38 AND 39) The view from Milk Ranch Point above Pine and Strawberry shows typical terrain of the Mogollon Rim country. BRUCE GRIFFIN The inset pictures an Apache scout. ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES (BELOW) Brig. Gen. George Crook, as be looked in 1885. ARIZONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY They were accompanied by 32 Indian scouts under Chief of Scouts Al Sieber, and 150 pack mules. It was a textbook mobilization of force rarely seen in Arizona.

A band of civilians who called themselves the Globe Rangers also took to the field, apparently well-provisioned with alcohol.

The Apache raiders, meanwhile, headed north from the Globe area, riding through Pleasant Valley and the Tonto Basin below the Mogollon Rim. Again they raided the Middleton Ranch and stole more of its horses, as well as the animals belonging to the Globe Rangers, who were asleep in their camp near the ranch.

Northeast of Payson, the Indians killed two horse wranglers, Charles Sigsbee (some records spell it Sigsby) and Louie Houdon, and seriously wounded Sigsbee's brother.

Settlers beneath the Rim "forted up" at a Payson dance hall and at a ranch on the East Verde River. Rancher Lafayette P.

COMING YOUR WAY IN THE MONTHS AHEAD

Where the desert rises into rocky foothills north of Phoenix, two communities of different history and ambience are growing up side by side. They're called Cave Creek and Carefree. We'll have a report. We'll also introduce you to Arizona State University's new West Campus, attend a reunion at Lees Ferry, and take a look at our state's thriving film industry. In September.

A special feature this month: a close look at trends in handsome, waterthrifty landscaping here in the desert. Appropriately, we also visit Phoenix's famed Desert Botanical Garden. We'll pause for some fun at the Arizona State Fair. Finally, we explore one of the Nature Conservancy's most impressive properties, the Muleshoe Ranch. In October.

Adjacent to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in remote southwestern Arizona we find the austere beauty and fascinating animals of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Then, in far different surroundings, we'll travel from the urban Salt River Valley to the high country above the Mogollon Rim on the White Mountain Stage. We'll also sample hot-air ballooning. In November.

SHARE THE ARIZONA ADVENTURE: Start or give an Arizona Highways subscription. Look for details on the enclosed order form.

Holiday Greeting Cards of the Southwest Christmas Classic Cards

Share the spirit of the Southwest this holiday season with these Christmas cards that are ideal for friends, family, and business associates. The cards are a large 514" by 77/8" folded and are packaged 25 to a box (same image) with 26 envelopes. $19.95 per box.

Christmas Cards

Your holiday greetings will reflect the warmth and wonder of Arizona with these scenic Christmas cards. A full 4¹½" by 61/4" folded, the cards are packaged 20 to a box (same image) with 21 envelopes. $7.50 per box. Order your holiday cards today with the attached order card, or write or visit Arizona Highways, 2039 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85009. You can place telephone orders by calling (602) 258-1000 or, toll-free within Arizona, 1 (800) 543-5432.

Nash wrote to a friend a few days later, "When someone came in and said it was only but 10 or 15 Indians which left the reservation, they all went home again, just in time to get murdered." Nash was referring to the family of John Meadows, which returned to a ranch northeast of Payson. When Meadows went outside his house to investigate a noise on July 15, he was shot to death. Two sons who tried to rescue him were wounded, one fatally.

The Apaches now climbed the Rim along the old trail that passed through the low spot near General Springs. In the clearing by the spring, they feasted on stock stolen from the Meadows ranch and tried to determine a strategy for dealing with pursuing soldiers. Na-ti-o-tish may have been misled by an Army tactic. Capt. Adna R. Chaffee's Troop D, Sixth Cavalry, from Fort McDowell, rode white or gray horses. That troop took the lead going up the trail from the Tonto Basin toward the Rim, and it was reported that they "showed up among the green pines like a long string of geese." Indians watching may not have seen the more numerous black and brown horses that followed.

At the foot of the Rim, Chaffee rendez-voused with the first of six troops from Fort Apache under Maj. Andrew Wallace Evans. One unit, Lt. George L. Converse's Troop E, Third Cavalry, also rode white horses.

Chaffee told Evans: "I'm sure that the hostiles are just a little way ahead. Sieber thinks they expect close pursuit, and his idea is that they'll stop at General Springs to fight. Sieber feels they'll expect to cut up even a superior number of troops because of their position."

But the Indians had gone seven miles north of General Springs into the plateau area, a gridwork of ridges and canyons bearing generally north and south. The ridge on the west side of General Springs Canyon, since known as Battleground Ridge, ends where East Clear Creek cuts across the grid. The Apaches crossed the canyon of East Clear Creek and set up an ambush. (Major Evans, reading a faulty 1880 map, gave the name Big Dry Wash to the site.) Lt. Thomas Cruse (later a lieutenant general) wrote in his memoirs: "It looked as if the Apaches were pushing straight on toward the Navajo country, and we cursed the prospect of a tedious campaign in that rough, waterless region."

Chaffee and Converse led the way along the ridge with their troopers on white horses. Civilian packer C. P. Wingfield said an Apache told him later, "They supposed that was all that was after them, so they thought they could fortify, and that the soldiers would ride right into their nest, and they would massacre the whole troop." As unlikely as it seems, Na-ti-o-tish also may have underestimated the Army's Apache scouts, led by Al Sieber. Preceding the soldiers north from General Springs, the scouts detected the ambush. Chaffee sent troops hurrying north along the ridge.

About 3:00 P.M. on July 17, one soldier accidentally fired his rifle and drew answering fire from across the canyon of East Clear Creek. The fight was on. Some soldiers hastily built breastworks of loose sandstone, still visible on the point of Battleground Ridge when the author first visited the site in the 1940s. A monument on the south side would lead a visitor to believe the fight happened there, but it actually took place across the canyon.

When firing broke out, Chaffee reported to Major Evans, who responded, "It's your fight. I give you full control."

Chaffee's troop, another led by Lieutenant Cruse, and some of the scouts went to the right, struggling across the canyon to flank the Apaches. Two other troops and the remaining scouts went to the left. Converse's troop was to hold the point of the ridge and keep the Indians' minds off the flanking maneuver.

During the arduous climb in and out of the canyon, Capt. Lemuel Abbott's soldiers on the left (west) flank engaged an Indian party that seemed considerably surprised. The Apaches were trying to go back across the canyon to deal with Converse's soldiers there. Apparently, the Indians now realized that they were outnumbered and facing superior arms (soldiers used the Springfield .45-.70; Indians used whatever obsolete muskets or hunting guns they had been able to acquire). Members of the Apache flanking party headed for where their horses had been tethered. However, their guards had been killed and their horses had been captured. As Cruse

wrote: “Our men and Sieber wiped out that whole bunch of hostiles [guarding the horses], and we pushed on.’ The battle was now a grueling, tree-to-tree fight. As dusk approached, Cruse spotted a pocket of Apaches 75 yards away across a small ravine. He started after them, lest they escape in the night. Sieber warned him not to do it, that there were many unseen Indians between him and his target. "Why, Al, you have killed every one of them,’ I replied, and instructed my men what to do. As we rushed forward on the other side of the ravine, I soon discovered that, as Sieber had said, there were lots of Indians there, and we had business onour hands. But I had with me Sergeant Horan, Sergeant Martin, and six or eight other old-timers whom such things did not disconcert in the least." Cruse, Lt. George Horace Morgan, and Lt. Frank West later were awarded Medals of Honor for their valor that day. In retirement Capt. Lemuel Abbott was given an additional honorific title of “Captain” for his gallant service on July 17. The fighting at close quarters continued until dusk, when the surviving Apaches slipped away on foot. Only five troops of cavalry actually took part in the battle. Couriers told late arrivals to hold up at General Springs. Cruse said some of the soldiers arrived at daylight the next morning, “much out of temper” because they had missed out. Cavalryman spent the night of July 17 making their way back across the canyon, carrying their wounded, one dead soldier, and one dead scout. Pioneer historian Will C. Barnes, a soldier stationed at Fort Apache at the time, wrote later: “Within a week, scouts reported the presence in nearby White Mountain Indian camps of a number of Indians badly wounded in the fight." The Army decided not to punish survivors, who soon were comparing notes on the battle with soldiers. Standing on the site today, I find it difficult to imagine the Battle of Big Dry Wash. In a wet season, the upper end of Blue Ridge Reservoir, built in the 1960s, extends up East Clear Creek Canyon past the battle site. Lt. Britton Davis reported that the battle scene in 1882 was “park-like, with no underbrush or shrubbery whatever.” But within this writer’s lifetime, brush and thickets of pine saplings have encroached on the site, making even walking difficult. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the U.S. Forest Service used parts of Crook’s old wagon road in building Forest Service Road 300, today’s Rim Road. (You can reach it from State Route 87 north of Strawberry, or from Forest Road 9 east of Camp Verde.) Those agencies also installed two monuments, one on the Rim Road near General Springs and one on the point of Battleground Ridge, where the first shot was heard. At that time, some authoritative accounts of the fight were written, and then it seemed to be forgotten. But in recent years, military history buffs and several experts have begun probing the site. Duane Hinshaw, superintendent of Fort Verde State Historic Park, and Peter Pilles, chief archeologist of Coconino National Forest, have located some of the battle scenes described in official reports and in the memoirs of the officers who fought there. An exhibit at Fort Verde State Park now interprets the engagement and displays some of the artifacts found at the site in recent years: canteens, a picket post, a rifle cleaning rod, and some of the thousands of .45-.70 cartridge shells expended by cavalrymen on that climactic afternoon. Other Apache factions, such as Geronimo’s operating from Mexico, would plague the Southwest for four more years. But organized Apache opposition in the White Mountain region died at Big Dry Wash. And in important ways, the government was rethinking its Indian policy. General Crook had already been ordered back to Arizona by the time of the battle. He would not only pursue such holdouts as Geronimo but attack corruption on the reservations and try to mend some broken promises. Historian Ralph W. Ogle, an expert on U.S. Indian policy and its consequences, wrote, “This fight was more than a victory for the whites; it marked the end of an era in Apache affairs.”