Pipe Spring National Monument: Where Yesterday Lives

BY: William Hafford

History Beckons At Pipe Spring's Old Fort

OCTOBER, 1776 The Spanish priest, his face gaunt from hunger, eyes red-rimmed from the blowing sand, turns in a slow circle, surveying the wild stretch of seemingly endless wilderness. A cold autumn wind tugs at the hem of his dark cassock. “What shall we do, Father?” asks a member of the small band of novice explorers. The priest has no earthly answer. If they do not find water soon, they will certainly die. He goes to his knees in the bone-dry soil. The others join him to pray for deliverance from the awesome geographical trap into which they have stumbled.

In a balmy spring morning in the sunset decade of the 20th century, I sit on the ledge of a high sandstone bluff in the heart of a lonely 9,000-square-mile area of northwestern Arizona and look down on a small rectangular structure far below. Built of native sandstone and scarcely larger than a modern duplex, the building is the old fort at Pipe Spring National Monument. It is shaded by a towering grove of cottonwood, elm, and poplar trees. On its south side, two ponds constructed more than a century ago impound the cold clear waters of an ancient spring that flows year-round. Pipe Spring is an oasis. And, like any oasis, it is significant only when you consider the nature and breadth of the inhospitable land that surrounds it and the indelible tracks of human experience left by the caravans that have passed its way. So, from my vantage point high above the oasis, let us examine some of the factors of geography and human drama that have given Pipe Spring its enduring significance.

(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 38 AND 39) The fort at Pipe Spring also was known as Winsor's Castle, a reference to Anson Winsor who supervised the Mormon Church's cattle ranching operations in the area. It was Winsor's wife, Emeline, Who began the profitable manufacture of cheese at the fort. BOTH BY W. D. WRAY (ABOVE) The peaks that lie north of Pipe Spring are part of the Vermilion Cliffs, but locals call them the Moccasin Mountains because the first white men who arrived in the area discovered Indian moccasin prints around a spring.

CLINT CRAWLEY (LEFT) These Texas longhorn steers have plenty to eat today at the fort, unlike their predecessors. When the grassland Disappeared on the Arizona Strip so did Pipe Spring's thriving cattle industry.

TOM DANIELSEN I have been here since the first glow of dawn listening to the silence. Shortly, they will open the main building at the visitorscenter. Cars will start arriving soon after. But, right now, there is not a single human being in the scene. About 15 minutes ago, I heard the hum of a truck engine on the two-lane highway to the south. But other than that, only a clucking chicken in the outer yard of the old fort breaks the surrounding quiet.

Out there (I make a wide sweep of my arm even though you cannot see it) is an immense amphitheater with scenery that bombards the eye with its beauty. The barren escarpments red, pink, and ochre rise, sometimes more than 3,000 feet above the vast sweeps of sand and sagebrush. The immense pine-covered bulk of the Kaibab Plateau, with elevations above 9,000 feet, dominates the view to the south and east. This is a land of breathtaking beauty but, also, a land so harsh and so isolated from the mainstream of modern life that it has been called the "American Tibet."

More commonly this northwest corner of the state is referred to as part of the Arizona Strip, so named because it is sev ered from the rest of Arizona by the deep vertical canyon of the Colorado River as it snakes its way down from Utah in a southerly direction and then turns west to expand into the mile-deep barrier of the Grand Canyon.

The Arizona Strip, larger than the state of Massachusetts, has a total population of less than 4,500. Nearly all of these people live in Colorado City on the Utah border or in Fredonia 12 miles east of Pipe Spring. Otherwise, this huge expanse is home to fewer than 700 permanent residents.

For nearly 18 years after Arizona became a state in 1912, there was no high-way that connected the Strip to the rest of the state, this because of the deep separat-ing scar. And even today, the reliable old steel bridge crossing the Colorado at Marble Canyon on U.S. Route 89A provides the only Arizona entrance to the area. Built more than 60 years ago, it is viewed with trepidation by most visitors making their first crossing, principally because of its antique appearance and the fact that it spans a chasm more than 500-feet deep.

There is no highway that traverses the Strip from east to west. Thirty-five miles into its interior, the only paved road forks, One arm going in a southerly direction to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the other swinging north to Utah. South and west of these narrow ribbons of asphalt are thousands of square miles that can be reached only by foot, horseback, or (in a few places) dirt roads that are generally unsuitable for passenger autos.

There are four modest "way stations" on the highway that offer food, rooms, and gasoline. Except for a few ranches and a scattering of ancient and crumbling shacks, that's the extent of western civilization's incursion into the Arizona Strip.

If it is lonely, wild, and untamed today, imagine what the area would have been more than two centuries ago. To do this, let us erase all of the man-made elements, the highway, the bridge, the way stations, Fredonia and Colorado City, and the old Pipe Spring fort. Keep the gushing spring with its daily output of more than 60,000 gallons of water and add a few wandering shy, primitive, and nonthreatening Paiute Indians.

If your imagination has accomplished this, then come stand with me on the bluff above the spring and listen to the wind. It is an old wind, the wind of October in the year 1776. A chill wind that hints at early snow. Now, look out there to the west across the flatlands of the Uinkaret Plateau. About 40 miles away and running for many miles in a north-south direction are the often sheer and nearly unscalable Hurricane Cliffs. Several days ago, a tiny band of weary men found one of only three routes up over the cliffs. Now these victims of exhaustion and lack of food shuffle slowly in an easterly direction just south of the ledge upon which we stand.Led by a diary-keeping Spanish priest named Silvestre Velez Escalante, these are the first white men to enter the forbidding land of what would be called the Arizona Strip. None of them are explorers or mountain men. In addition to Padre Escalante, the party includes another priest,Francisco Dominguez, merchants, and porters, all from Santa Fe.

Pipe Spring

On July 29, 1776, they departed Santa Fe, moving north and west through present-day Colorado and Utah hoping to find a suitable trade route to California. But the trip went sour after more than 60 days of unproductive wandering far from any feasible avenue to the Pacific. Early snow in what is now western Utah persuaded them to give up the task and swing south with the idea of crossing the Colorado River and entering more hospitable country.

Many days and many miles later, Paiute Indians told them of the futility of continuing south. The Paiutes described an immense gorge (the Grand Canyon) that lay in that direction, a place so deep that no man could possibly cross it. Convinced, the group went east, up and over the near-vertical Hurricane Cliffs.

Their ascent, while an accomplishment of panic and perseverance, has placed them in a trap. Not only does the canyon of the Colorado River bar passage to the south, but, as it steadily swings north, it also will present a barrier to their eastward travel. Immense cliffs rising to the north complete the snare. But they have no choice; they trudge on, moving through a land that is without a single permanently running stream or lake.

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We can see this little band of men paused in their confused wandering only a mile away from the bubbling spring at the base of our ledge. Father Escalante turns in a slow circle, studying the terrain. “What shall we do, Father?” asks one of the men. The priest goes to his knees; the others join him in a prayer for deliverance. They rise, move on, and finally disappear toward the east, missing the spring and its outpouring of fresh water.

So, one might say their prayers went unanswered. But not necessarily. Without a map, the Escalante party continued on, staying barely alive with stale and muddy water found infrequently in small pockets in the rocks. As though guided by unseen hands, they moved through a narrow gap between the towering 3,000-foot Vermilion Cliffs and the depths of erosion-carved Kanab Canyon, a route that finally led them to the only place in the entire region where the Colorado River could be forded on foot. Thereafter called “The Crossing of the Fathers,” this point would remain, for nearly a century, the only practical route across the wild river.

Escalante and his men, miraculously, had escaped from the trap, but their ordeal defines the harsh and unforgiving nature of the land in which Pipe Spring is located.

During the next 82 years, only a handful of white men entered the Strip. Then, in 1858, explorer Jacob Hamblin was sent south from Utah by Brigham Young, head of the Mormon Church. Hamblin's initial mission was to open trade routes and establish friendly relations with the Hopi Indians. On the trek, he and his men found the bountiful rush of water that Escalante had missed. During the period when they were camped at the spring, Hamblin's brother, a member of the expedition, shot the stem off a pipe at 25 paces and won a bet. With this example of marksmanship, the site earned its name: Pipe Spring.

After its discovery, Pipe Spring became a natural and life-sustaining stopping place for the few who ventured into the wilds of the Strip.

But let us leap ahead to a cold January evening in 1866. Snow is on the ground. Notice, from our vantage point on the ledge, that there are now a corral and a crude dugout at Pipe Spring. A rancher, James Whitmore, his 11-year-old son, and a cowboy named Robert McIntyre live at the spring and maintain a small cattle and sheep enterprise. Take note, also, of the small figure standing in front of the dugout and peering into the gathering gloom. This is young Whitmore. He is concerned. No, he is more than concerned. He is frightened. Believing that marauding Navajos were stealing stock, his father and McIntyre rode out early in the day and have not returned. The boy's heart is banging against his rib cage. Fear races through every avenue of his mind and body. And now . . . listen!

The sound of hammering hooves grows louder with each passing moment. The young boy's ears tell him that there are too many horses coming his way. He turns and races into the dugout, slams and bars the door. Now the approaching horsemen are visible. Look out there, beyond that distant hump of ground! A Navajo raiding party, fierce armed men, coming out of the falling darkness at a full gallop.

The horses come to a sliding halt near the door to the dugout. The raiders dismount. One approaches the door and rattles it. Several of the others mutter to him in their native tongue. The one shaking the door backs off. In a few moments, the band mounts and rides away. The boy inside is fortunate. The Navajos believe it is bad luck to enter the home of a man recently killed.

Night transforms slowly into dawn. The dugout door creaks open, and young Whitmore exits cautiously. We can see he is bundled against the biting cold. Certain that his father and the cowboy have met a bad end, he intends to walk for help, 96 miles to the Utah community of St. George. But, 10 miles into the badlands, he encounters a traveling group of settlers. They take the boy in, and a manhunt is organized.

Additional help from St. George rides out to add to the posse. Soon more than 40 armed men are involved in the search for both victims and perpetrators. The bodies are found under a layer of snow. Then, a few days later, the posse encounters a small band of horseless Paiutes. They have the slain men's clothes and personal effects. But, significantly, they do not have their guns. The Paiutes say that some Navajos on horseback traded them the items. Their story is not believed, and the Paiutes are executed on the spot.

Several years later, it was established that Navajo raiders had, indeed, unloaded the evidence on the hapless Paiutes. The deaths of Whitmore and McIntyre and the killing of the innocent Paiutes typify the atmosphere of turbulence and human drama that has surrounded Pipe Spring since its discovery.

Indian hostilities continued to grow. Navajo raiders were spurred on by the increasing number of cattle being moved onto the Strip. Finally, the Indian problem became so severe that the Mormon Church decided to fortify Pipe Spring.

After purchasing the land from Whitmore's widow, church member Anson Winsor was dispatched to occupy the

Pipe Spring

property and to supervise the church's cattle ranching operations on the Strip.

Construction of the fort began in 1870 and took more than a year to complete. Today it remains almost exactly as it was. It is situated at the base of the ledge where you and I have been standing to conduct our mind's-eye review of historic events. The structure consists of a pair of two-story buildings connected by stone walls and facing each other across an enclosed courtyard. All materials for the fort were obtained locally, the red sandstone quarried from nearby bluffs. Double wooden gates in the thick rock walls were constructed to swing outward, and gun ports were set high on the walls. Emphasizing the significance of Pipe Spring as an oasis is the fact that the fort was strategically built to enclose the spring. The mouth of it lies under the main room of the north building and it flows through a tunnel under the courtyard and into the spring room of the south building. At that point, it moves through an open trough and out a passage in the rock wall to the ponds on the south side. Thus planned and built, the fort had water for a siege of any length.

But no attack ever came. No troops ever occupied the fort. A peace treaty, carried to the Navajos by Jacob Hamblin, was signed and never broken.

Cattle ranching on the Strip prospered, particularly that of the Mormon Church under Winsor's direction. Dairy operations Getting there: From Flagstaff, proceed north on U.S. Route 89 to Bitter Springs. Then take Route 89A west across Marble Canyon and continue on to Jacob Lake. At Jacob Lake, go right on State Route 389 through Fredonia and continue on the same route for approximately 12 miles to the Kaibab Indian Reservation and Pipe Spring Visitors Center.

WHEN YOU GO

Getting there: From Flagstaff, proceed north on U.S. Route 89 to Bitter Springs. Then take Route 89A west across Marble Canyon and continue on to Jacob Lake. At Jacob Lake, go right on State Route 389 through Fredonia and continue on the same route for approximately 12 miles to the Kaibab Indian Reservation and Pipe Spring Visitors Center.

What to see and do at Pipe Spring: There are guided tours on the hour from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. The park also includes a well-stocked bookstore, a coffee shop, and exhibits in the visitors center. Fruit and vegetables raised at the fort may be purchased in season. Picnicking is permitted on the grounds, and park rangers are available to answer questions and provide assistance.

Hours: Open 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. every day of the year except Christmas.

Admission: $1.00 per person. Visitors under 17 or over 62, no charge.

Nearby accommodations: Motels and restaurants are available in Fredonia, Kanab, and Jacob Lake. Similar accommodations also exist on U.S. Route 89A in the vicinity of Marble Canyon. A private campground with hookups is located about a half-mile from the monument.

Other nearby attractions: North Rim of the Grand Canyon is located 45 miles south of Jacob Lake on State Route 67. Lake Powell is just west of the town of Page on U.S. Route 89. The vast areas of the Navajo and Hopi Indian reservations, including Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, lie east of U.S. Route 89. Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Wupatki National Monument are off U.S. Route 89 a few miles north of Flagstaff. For more information: Write Superintendent, Pipe Spring National Monument, Moccasin, AZ, 86022, or call (602) 6437105.

Were set up on the ground floor of the fort. With more than 100 cows on the premises, the production of butter and cheese was an important enterprise. In 1871 Pipe Spring became the first telegraph station in Arizona and, in that same year, famed Grand Canyon explorer John Wesley Powell made the fort his headquarters.

Eventually the Pipe Spring property left the hands of the Mormon Church; while elsewhere on the Strip other ranches turned thousands of cattle out on the land. By the early 1890s, there were probably more than 500,000 cattle on the sweeping range. But with so many, the land was being overgrazed. A fierce drought that began in 1896 and lasted until 1900 further destroyed the grassland and vastly diminished the herds.

Around 1910 the effects of overgrazing very much evident, large numbers of sheep were added to the range. Ultimately, the grass vanished almost entirely, and the stock-raising industry collapsed.

The stockmen who had attempted to tame the wild land of the Strip were forced to abandon their ranches, and with the grass gone, the exposed land started washing away, creating new and deeper gullies and canyons. In a brief period of time, the Strip moved back to a state of semi-wilderness. And it remains that way today.

But the fort at Pipe Spring, unlike the stockmen, the cattle, the sheep, and nearly everything else brought in by man, did not disappear. In fact, it remained in nearly constant use until the site was acquired by the federal government in 1923. In that year, President Harding set Pipe Spring's 40 acres aside as a national monument.

So let's leave our vantage point and walk down the twisting path where more than 120 years ago teams of oxen dragged the roughly quarried stone blocks that form the outer walls of the old fort. Now, the sun is above Echo Cliffs far to the east.

At the bottom of the hill, we are greeted by chickens foraging at the base of the heavy walls. Ducks glide across the shaded ponds under a canopy of sheltering trees, and a steer calls from the nearby corral. Beyond, fruit trees in an orchard first planted by early settlers show their buds.Through a small door in the massive gate, we access the courtyard, cross it, and enter the north building. As we walk, our footsteps provide the only sounds in the rooms authentically appointed in the fashion of the late 1800s. Many of the items remain from the days when the fort was occupied; others are antiques donated by pioneer families.

Upstairs we find a woman dressed in pioneer garb studiously creating a colorful quilt. She is there, she tells us, to answer questions, and, when not occupied withThe Friends of Arizona Highways, the magazine's volunteer auxiliary, conducts tours to exotic Arizona locations. Here is a partial schedule of those trips:

Pipe Spring TRAVEL WITH THE FRIENDS OF ARIZONA HIGHWAYS Photo Tours

Top Arizona Highways photo contributors lead threeto five-day field workshops for advanced amateur photographers. Learn picture-taking techniques from the best while you enjoy Arizona's outstanding scenic attractions. Upcoming Photo Tours include: July 25-28: The unique scenery of the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert is the backdrop for a photographic seminar in the high desert plateau country with Dale Schicketanz.

August 22-25: Join Edward McCain in the cool pine country of northeastern Arizona on a trek to discover the unsurpassed beauty of the wildflowers that carpet Hannagan Meadow.

August 29-September 2: Theresa and Gordon Whelpley explore Canyon de Chelly's prehistoric ruins in the mornings and focus their cameras on Central Navajo Fair & Pow Wow festivities at Chinle in the afternoons and evenings.

October 1-3: Tom Till leads a trip to Monument Valley, a wonderland where light and shadow add drama to the fantastically sculpted sandstone formations.

October 24-27: P. K. Weis and Peter Kresan focus on the myriad wonders in the Chiricahua Mountains, a land of weathered rock sculptures, towering volcanic rock monoliths, and unusual flora and fauna.

For complete information and reservations for these and other tours, telephone the Friends of Arizona Highways Travel Desk (602) 271-5904. Photo Tours are limited to 20 persons.

Scenic Tours

Twoand three-day tours, held in association with the Arizona Automobile Association, are scheduled regularly to the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell. For additional information or to make reservations, telephone the AAA at (602) 274-5805 in Phoenix or 1 (800) 352-5382 statewide.

Longer scenic tours visit the state's most historic cities and towns, significant prehistoric sites, museums, gardens, and nature preserves. For information about these tours, call the Friends' Travel Desk at (602) 271-5904.

TRAVEL WITH THE FRIENDS OF ARIZONA HIGHWAYS

We wind through other rooms, past beds whose slats are rawhide strips. An old spinning wheel stands in place. Well-worn clothes of the period hang on hooks. In the kitchen, the table is set. Pots and pans sit on shelves near the heavy iron stove brought to the fort in 1895.

The woman who had been working on the quilt suddenly appears. She walks with us across the courtyard to the south building, chatting amiably. She tells us that the ground floor, where the spring water runs through, was used primarily for making and curing cheese. Much of the original equipment is still there, and she explains the function of nearly every item, including churns, milk strainers, presses, and a large cheese vat.

Upstairs are three additional rooms. Telegrapher Luella Stewart lived and worked in one of them. Our guide tells us that the first telegraph message transmitted from Arizona was sent from this room.

In step with the mood of a previous century, we tour slowly, leisurely, past hundreds of relics. A baby crib, a harpsichord, a lounge crafted in a Utah cabinet shop in 1878. On the walls are photographs of early Pipe Spring residents.

After our tour is finished, we stand in the courtyard. It is still early, and no other visitors have yet entered the fort. In the quiet, I grow contemplative. The old fort, I tell myself, was built to hold out invaders. But the fierce Navajos never came. Yet, I muse, the fort has served its intended purpose. For almost a hundred years, it has held back an extremely invasive force.

I turn to our guide and verbalize my thought. "This is a very successful fort," I say. "There is an invasive force out there that does not seem able to get inside these walls."

I can tell by her smile that she knows what I mean. "Yes," she replies softly, "the 20th century."

Travel Guide:

For detailed travel information about Pipe Spring and Arizona's many other travel locations, we recommend the Arizona Highways guidebooks Travel Arizona and Travel Arizona: The Back Roads. Both will direct you to exciting destinations and out-of-the-way attractions in the state. Our Arizona Road Atlas, featuring maps of 27 cities, mileage charts, and points of interest, also is very useful for travelers. For information about these and other travel publications, or to place an order, call 1 (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area, call 258-1000.

Answering questions, she works on her quilt. It is quite beautiful.