Tales of the Past Lure Rail Travelers

THE WILD FRONTIER COMES ALIVE ABOARD THE SAN PEDRO AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILROAD

John Rose and I stood in the bar car of the San Pedro and Southwestern Railroad's excursion train as it rolled through the high desert between the Whetstone and Dragoon mountains. Weekdays Rose is a real estate developer in Sierra Vista; weekends he puts on a striped railroader's cap and becomes the train's "talk boy," a raconteur who brings the landscape to life with an animated narrative on the history and lore of southeastern Arizona. For Rose the 27-mile journey from Benson to Charleston, an unpopulated spot near Tombstone, unfolds like a movie reel. As the nine-car train rolls through the landscape, he sees not only mesquite bushes and cottonwoods and adobe ruins but also a cast of characters who walked through the San Pedro Valley and into the pages of legend and history.

"To understand the American identity," Rose said with enthusiasm, "you have to come to the West; and to understand the West, you have to come to this valley." As we passed the west side of the Dragoon Mountains, a natural stronghold where warring Apaches once took refuge, he added: "If you were to go anywhere on Earth and the people knew the name of only one Native American, it would be Geronimo; and if they knew the name of one Old West lawman, it would be Wyatt Earp. If they knew one gunfight, it would be the 30-second O.K. Corral shoot-out. If they knew of only one Old West gambler, it would be Doc Holliday, the dentist turned killer. If they knew the name of one Old West town, it would be Tombstone."

The excursion train, which started up in the spring of 1994, makes a smooth fourhour jaunt through the countryside that for several years was the stomping ground of many of the West's most famous good and bad guys, and Rose talks about them as though they were all personal acquaintances. Minutes after leaving the railroad's small depot and gift shop at Benson, Rose pointed out the Whetstone Mountains to the west, and suddenly the reel was rolling again.

In those mountains, he told some 200 passengers over the public address system, Wyatt Earp killed the notorious bandit Curly Bill Brocius. The execution of Brocius, he said, was Earp's way of avenging the assassination of his brother Morgan Earp, who had been shot in the back while playing pool at Robert Hatch's saloon and billiard parlor in Tombstone. That wasn't what Wyatt contended, however. He said Curly Bill was a stagecoach robber, and he had a warrant for his arrest. And when he found him, the outlaw and his companions opened fire. There are at least four versions of what happened in that gunfight somewhere between the Whetstone and Mustang mountains, and, 100 years after the fact, Rose's version is as good as anyone else's.

Some 20 miles south of the place where the gunfight reportedly occurred, we approached Charleston, once a town far more dangerous than Tombstone, and Rose brought his Earp-Brocius story full circle. After Curly Bill was killed, he said, his body was taken to Charleston and buried in a secret grave, which has never been found.

No one knows for sure where Curly Bill ended up, but if it was at Charleston, at least his final resting place is scenic. In fall the giant cottonwood trees at that bend in the river blaze yellow and orange. The spot is so special that in 1986 it was set asideas part of a National Riparian Conservation Area, a giant Nature preserve that extends along the river from the vicinity of St. David to the Mexican border.

A couple of years ago, The Nature Conservancy, a private conservation organization, designated the San Pedro River area as one of the "Last Great Places" in the Western Hemisphere. (See Arizona Highways, May '96.) It's an area rich in wildlife, and throughout our afternoon journey Rose advised passengers to watch for mule and white-tailed deer and javelinas in the brush along the tracks. The javelina "looks like a pig on steroids," Rose said in one of his thumbnail summaries.The San Pedro and Southwestern runs parallel to the river the full distance from Benson to Charleston, though the stream sometimes hides behind hills and dense vegetation. Like the Santa Cruz River that passes

SAN PEDRO AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILROAD

(PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 38 AND 39) Scenery and frontier history lure passengers aboard the train for the 54-mile round-trip excursion along the San Pedro River between Benson and Charleston.

(TOP) Towering cottonwoods turned golden in early autumn make "The Narrows" a visual highlight of the day.

(ABOVE) Real estate development occupies John Rose weekdays, but on weekends, he's the trip's lively narrator.

(RIGHT) Just before The Narrows, the train approaches a river crossing obscured by vegetation.

SAN PEDRO AND SOUTHWESTERN RAILROAD

Through Tucson, the San Pedro enters Arizona from Mexico and flows from south to north. In a way, it is an upside-down river because it drops about 2,500 feet from the point in the south where it enters Arizona to the point in the north, near Winkelman, where it joins the Gila River. Long ago the river developed a reputation that sets it apart, based on the belief that even when it is reduced to a mere trickle, just prior to the summer rainy season, the San Pedro still manages to sustain one of the richest wildlife populations in the United States.

This rare river in the desert supports between 250 and 275 species of birds, 80 species of mammals, and 30 to 40 species of herptiles (reptiles and amphibians). Among the birds are great horned owls, Harris' hawks, vermilion flycatchers, blue grosbeaks, summer tanagers, warblers, thrashers - and gray hawks, which is why the railroad named its diesel locomotive Gray Hawk.

The terrain through which the train passes also holds a treasure trove of fossils from the end of the last Ice Age, some 40,000 years ago. Archaeologists working in the San Pedro Basin have uncovered numerous bones of long-extinct mammoths, giant elephants that prehistoric men hunted with spears. One of the most famous mammoth kill sites in North America is located at Hereford. (See Arizona Highways, Nov. '92.), roughly 20 miles southeast of Charleston.

We rolled through this countryside at a comfortable speed until we reached the turnaround point at Charleston, some 10 miles southwest of Tombstone. There the engine was uncoupled and reconnected at the rear end for the return journey.

As we waited for the engine to rejoin the train, I looked toward the old bridge that spans the river west of the tracks and wondered what it would be like there after sundown. Total darkness, I decided, as there are few inhabitants hereabouts. In fact, the only permanent "inhabitant" was one I'd heard about nearly 20 years ago. I was in Sierra Vista and knew I'd be headed to Tombstone that night along the Charleston Road, a lonely rural route that forms a diagonal line connecting the two towns. I mentioned this to a friend who lives in Sierra Vista.

"I'd be careful of that road," he said.

"Yes, it's kind of twisty here and there," I agreed. I'd driven it many times.

"That's true," he said, "but that's not what you have to be careful of. You gotta watch out for the three-headed horse."

I checked his eyes and decided he was sober. "The three-headed horse?" I repeated. He offered the following: "Many years ago, three men on horses crossed the Charleston Road near the narrow bridge over the San Pedro River. A truck came barreling along and hit them, killing all three.

"Now whenever there is a full moon, a horse with three heads appears on the bridge. The horse, which has one red eye, one blue eye, and one yellow eye, shines a light into your car to see if you are the truck driver who killed the three horsemen."

I didn't believe the story, of course, but I nearly jumped out of my skin when a blast from the train's whistle brought me out of my reverie. We were continuing our journey, heading north back to Benson.

However, about eight miles above Charleston we stopped again, this time for an entertaining 45 minutes at Fairbank, a ghost town that was an important junction when the line connected Benson with Mexico. A branch line extended from Fairbank to the mines at Tombstone, where N.K. Fairbank, owner of the Grand Central Mining Co., resided. In a mesquite grove surrounded by the ramshackle remains of Fairbank, we enjoyed a cowboy lunch (it cost $7) prepared by the nearby Ironhorse guest ranch.

We also had a chance to see "Bullwhip Smith" in action. Bullwhip is actually Jerome Smith, an actor who worked Renaissance fairs for many years before he and his wife, Terry, became regular performers living and working at the Ironhorse. In the melodrama they put on during my trip, Terry played the part of Bullwhip's sister, a young lady who was very pregnant, and another thespian, Bobby Stevens, played the role of the sheriff. Bullwhip was determined to find the miscreant who had put his sister in a family way and then vanished. Sister eventually sniffed the lowlife out - an unsuspecting passenger, whose wife did not seem particularly surprised by the allegation.

WHEN YOU GO

Before and after the skit, the Ironhorse Westernaires serenaded us with old-time cowboy songs.

Following this relaxing interlude, the train started again for Benson, slowly passing the remains of the Presidio of Santa Cruz de Terrenate, one of the most remarkable historic sites in southern Arizona. The presidio reminds us the Spanish were the first Europeans to settle the land along this train route. Later, in 1821, it became part of Mexico after the country gained its independence from Spain. When the Spaniards controlled southern Arizona, known then as Pimeria Alta, they established three presidios, or forts, including the one at Terrenate. Its ruins, more than 200 years old, lie exposed on a hillside adjacent to the railroad tracks.

Gradually the train meandered to the northern border of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. A few miles before we returned to the tiny depot at Benson, Rose concluded his monologue on history, the vegetation, the reasons for washes, and the absorption rates of desert soils, and started singing over the P.A. system.

This ride through the high desert makes a relaxing diversion, and Rose is clearly one of the more popular ingredients. Toward the end of the journey, passengers received a questionnaire asking what they liked or didn't like about the experience. "I've been astounded at the positive response," said Rose, whose popularity with the passengers ranks just a notch below that of Wyatt Earp.

The four-hour 27-mile ride operates Thursday-Sunday, departing Benson at 11 A.M. Enclosed cars are heated and air-conditioned. If you're going to sit in an outside car in cooler months, bring a blanket. Passengers also can bring lunch if they prefer not to buy the barbecue meal at Fairbank. Snacks and beverages can be purchased on board. Benson is three hours southeast of Phoenix via Interstate 10, or 50 minutes east of Tucson. Rates and reservations: (520) 586-2266, or write the railroad, P.O. Box 1420, Benson, AZ 85602.

Other Train Excursions: Grand Canyon Railway offers day trips from Williams to the Canyon. Packages that include guided ground tours and overnight lodging at the Canyon also are available. Information: toll-free (800) THE TRAIN.

Verde Canyon Railroad offers four-hour, 40-mile excursions through the Verde Valley. Overnight in Sedona packages are available. Information: toll-free (800) 293-7245.