THE WELCOME MAT IS OUT AT OLD FORT HUACHUCA

Fort Huachuca says 'Welcome'

In a time when state and national parks anxiously count heads and wonder when they may have to bar the gates, an old Army post southeast of Tucson is doing something different. It is putting out the welcome mat and issuing an invitation to all of us to “Come on in.” We love to offer this to the public, says Heinz Steinmann, who leads the business operations of Fort Huachuca's Morale, Welfare and Recreation team. The "this" he refers to includes more than 70,000 acres of mountains, canyons, hiking trails, and fishing and picnic areas. There also are museums, a historic cemetery, and even a haunted house. The surprise that so much of this land and the facilities is available to civilian use.

"They're just not aware of it," says Steinmann of those folks beyond the fort's main gate.

To many nonmilitary people, an Army post can appear to be a place where those who serve and served have special access, leaving the rest of us standing outside in need of a pass. Not at Fort Huachuca. And, as of last summer, visitors no longer even have to stop and check in at the main gate. They just drive right on through into a place of history surrounded by natural beauty.

Fort Huachuca was founded in 1877 and earned its stripes in the Apache wars. Capt. Samuel Marmaduke Whitside picked the site for the new fort, describing it as "the most desirable point for one in all southern Arizona." In addition to the gift of that almost endless vista, the location offered the back-up protection of the Huachucas, game, water, and timber.

"I like the history, the location, the way it has survived in harmony with the adja-cent mountains," says Tim Phillips, exhibit specialist for the fort's two museums.

The Fort Huachuca Museum, housed in two buildings, examines the role of the Army in the settlement of the American Southwest and life of the soldiers. The U.S. Army Intelligence Museum presents the history of military intelligence, in which this fort has long been involved. Fort Hua-chuca also encompasses the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and the Army Signal Command.

Bordering the Fort Huachuca Museum, Brown Parade Field offers another lesson in history. "Typical of the period," says Phillips of the tidy line of houses on Officer's Row, which faces the enlisted men's barracks across the field. In 1977 the entire parade area was designated a Historic Landmark. Reservoir Hill rises only a few minutes drive away. This offers the perfect spot to appreciate the good sense of Whitside's choice. On a clear day, and most of them are in this part of the country, you can see as far as the Dragoon Mountains and be-yond to the peaks of the Chiricahuas, some 60 miles. Back in the 1880s, the view was straight into the enemy's territory.

This is where the post's heliograph sat on its tripod base. Used in the last days of the Apache wars, the mirrored surface ofthe heliograph could transmit messages to other high-positioned stations, a relay system covering hundreds of miles.

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And the cost to the general public for entry to these historic sites? Nothing. Admission from mountaintop to museum is free.

There are some rules this is still the Army no overnight camping, no rock-climbing or rappeling. Restricted areas are clearly marked. A sign warning of "Hand Grenades" quickly takes away any temptation to tromp forbidden paths.

The narrow paved roads into the canyons wind through densely wooded foothills. Breaks in the groves of junipers, mesquites, and firs allow glimpses of the craggy Huachucas towering above. Dirt roads lead deeper and higher into the mountains. Hiking trails, some reaching elevations of 8,000 feet, provide a closer experience with the beauty and the challenge of the Huachucas.

Hikers should check in with the folks at the Sportsman's Center on the road leading into Garden Canyon. Here questions on where to go, how to get there, and will anyone be aiming a weapon in your direction when you arrive are answered with a smile.

"We're a bucketful of information here," promises center manager Josie Eccles.

She also can sell you your fishing license for the trout, bluegill, bass, and catfish in the fort's five ponds and explain the fees for the picnic areas.

A table in lush Garden Canyon costs $3. There is no charge for tables in the calming brookside setting in Huachuca Canyon. And, if a recent visit is typical, there will be plenty of room.

Only a few picnickers were seen enjoying their lunch; a single car was spotted on the dirt road coming out of Huachuca Canyon, while over on a trail in Garden Canyon there was a sighting of two bird-watchers from upper Michigan, binoculars at the ready.

Unlike most other outdoor recreationists, birders do know about the natural riches of Fort Huachuca and their easy availability to the public. They come to this area from around the world, attracted by the Huachuca Mountains, a "sky island" where they can see Mexican and subtropical species of birds not found in other parts of the United States.

Visitors who prefer to focus on what is beneath the land rather than what is above can join John Murray, the fort's archaeologist. Every Tuesday and Saturday, Murray leads volunteers in the excavation of what he believes will prove to be "one of the most significant sites in Arizona.

According to Murray, archaeological evidence indicates the 15to 20-acre site was inhabited first by the Desert Mogollon people at least as early as A.D. 600. Others followed until the abandonment of the village in A.D. 1450.

For those interested in human habitation of a more recent period, there is the historic center of the fort: the parade ground and Officer's Row. The names on the houses may be familiar.

The Pershing House faces the flagpole. Gen. John J. Pershing led forces from this fort into Mexico in the 1916 Punitive Expedition following Pancho Villa's attack on Columbus, New Mexico. Among those who rode with him were the Buffalo Soldiers, African-Americans serving in the allblack 10th Cavalry, who would go on to their own place in military history.

The Crook House sits next door. Gen. George Crook was credited with subduing the Apaches during his command of the Department of Arizona from 1871 to 1875. He returned in 1882 to fight his old enemy. In 1886 he attempted to negotiate Geronimo's surrender. He was unsuccessful.

During the Civil War, Brig. Gen. James Garden Creek tumbles over rocks beneath the colorful bigtooth maples in Garden Canyon, a favorite spot of birders and picnickers.

Carleton led his California Column east across the Southwest with orders to take the New Mexico Territory from the Confederacy for the Union. An advance troop of the column met and fought Confederate troops from Tucson at Picacho Peak, north of that city and elsewhere. A house bearing his name sits on the upper end of Officer's Row. Built in 1880 for a cost of $1,288.67, theCarleton House ranks as the fort's oldest existing structure. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman visited there in 1882. Some believe one visitor never left, a ghost called Charlotte. She holds membership in the small group of haunts said to have remained attached to the fort.

The living, on the other hand, have often wanted off the fort, if only for a few days, three of them at least. The story is that Fort Huachuca is the home of the three-day pass. If not, this certainly was the place where it was needed. Given two days, a trooper could get only halfway toTucson before having to turn back. Given three days, he could ride 30 miles to Tombstone and enjoy a couple of nights and a full day of the delights of that raucous town. Not that he had a lot of money to spend while there.

A trooper in the Territory could earn a whopping $13 a month before deductions for his laundry and the $1 contribution to the company fund.

"Extreme boredom the majority of the time," says Tim Phillips of the trooper's life. "Then you went from that into a situation where it was life and death battle with an

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enemy... who knows how to exist, to survive better than you do.

"He had a tough life," echoes Capt. Clark Hatch. The captain has ridden his own share of the miles once covered by those old troopers. Hatch is a member of B Troop, 4th Cavalry Regiment (Memorial). A volunteer organization, the troop is a recreation of the original Territorial-era B Troop and makes public appearances on the fort and off.

They are true horse cavalry, from their black McClellan saddles to the light-blue britches upon them, the darkblue three-button wool flannel shirts, and the red - not Hollywood yellow bandanas around their necks.

"There is nothing quite like it," says Hatch. "It makes you feel like a part of history."

A more melancholy view of that history can be found in the fort's cemetery. The troopers, the Apache scouts, the soldiers who fought in the wars of the nation and the world, lie buried there as are their loved ones and nameless others. Among them are the children, the infants, those who never did get tough enough to live the life of a frontier fort. One of them was Dallas Whitside, who died at 20 months. He was a son of the man who saw the potential of this place at the foot of the Huachucas.

WHEN YOU GO

Fort Huachuca is at Sierra Vista, 70 miles southeast of Tucson. From Tucson, take Interstate 10 east to Benson; exit at State Route 90 and proceed 30 miles south to Sierra Vista. Follow the signs to the main gate.

The Fort Huachuca Museum is open from 9 A.M. to 4 P.M., weekdays; 1 to 4 P.M., weekends. (520) 533-5736 The U.S. Army Intelligence Museum can be visited Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. (520) 533-1127.

For B Troop information and a schedule of appearances, call (520) 533-2357.

Every afternoon at 4:30, a short ceremony unfolds at Fort Huachuca. The cannon is fired and the flag is lowered to the poignant bugle call of Retreat. Here, too, as it is with the trails, the canyons, the small cemetery, visitors are welcome. All that is hoped for from them, explained one sergeant, is a touch of respect, perhaps a hand on the heart as the flag is lowered.

When asked why this fort is so openarmed to those who don't wear the Army uniform, Lt. Col. Thomas Niemann, the public affairs officer, simply says, "We're neighbors. We very much see ourselves as part of the community."

So when Heinz Steinmann schedules the next concert for the soldiers and families of Fort Huachuca and makes his plans for the annual Fun Fest carnival, we can all expect to be included in the guest list.

"Why not let the public share in it?" Steinmann asks with a grin. Why not indeed.

For hiking and fee information, call the Sportsman's Center, (520) 533-7085. To ask about the archaeological dig, call the fort archaeologist, (520) 533-9089. For information on special events, including the December House Tour and the Fun Fest in September, call (520) 533-4823 Brochures and maps are available at the visitors center, main gate.

JOHN FENESSEY MAKES BEAUTIFUL MUSIC — but Not in the Usual Way

Fenessey never was a musician. He doesn't play an instrument. 'Nope,' he says, 'not one note.' Elegance is a bit hard to come by in Cochise. Out here all you have between your front door and the desert is a wire fence. To the southwest rise the Dragoon Mountains, a "stronghold" in legend and in the reality of the Apache leader Cochise. To the northeast stretches the Willcox Playa, an ancient and usually dry lake bed, flat and desolate.

No, no elegance or Old World charm — unless you count John Fenessey. Fenessey retired here in southeastern Arizona after a lifetime of work in the machine shops of the Philadelphia area. He needed a dry desert climate for a sinus problem. Now, in the house he built with that wire fence out front, John Fenessey makes his bows. Not the kind of bows you might associate with this land, tools of hunting and death. His bows are for violins, violas, and cellos for musicians who play in oh-so-civilized places.

Fenessey never was a musician. He doesn't play an instrument. "Nope," he says, "not one note." He came to bow making by a long and circuitous route.

Born in Austria-Hungary in 1912, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1922. The family's poverty in the new country cost him an education.

"I had to quit school at 14% and go to work as an errand boy for a print shop," he remembers. He would go on to become a tool-and-die maker, cutting, grinding, and shaping metal to specification. He had the precise mind for the work.

Fenessey, now in his late 80s, says he can still measure by touch the width of a cheap sheet of notepaper.

He did have one early connection with the music world, an uncle who played the violin at weddings and dances and in saloons. When Fenessey was a teenager, he tried to make a violin, and his uncle laughed at the results. Still, the kid had a talent for fixing things. The uncle gave him a cello to repair and paid him for the work.

But this was the 1930s, and a young man needed a real job, not a hobby. Then came the '40s and World War II, and a good tool-and-die maker was needed at his machine as long as he could stand. Life and the years went by, and Fenessey ended up in Cochise with the hands still good and a mind tuned for precision work.

The uncle's violin now belonged to Fenessey. He says he thinks seeing it may have brought him back in retirement to what he had begun as a teenager. In 1979 he made his second violin, then 17 more, along with two violas and a cello. He had an example and library books for measurements. All but the cello sold.

"Almost anybody could make a violin," he says of a world where technology now vies with a man's brains and hands for measuring and tuning. Needing a challenge, he turned to the bow that made the instruments sing.

A bow appears to be a simple thing, a stick, a swatch of horsehair strung tight, an adjusting screw at one end that moves the small piece called the frog to change the tension of that hair. But people who use bows know both their complexity and their value.

"All the beauty, all the control over dynamics, over how loudly and softly you play, all the control over how short or long your notes are, all of the phrasing comes out of the bow," explains Mary Beth Tyndall, cellist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Fenessey had that machine shop lifetime of knowing how a material must be created to bend but not break, to be strong yet light. He understood the concept of resistance and flexibility and how to find it, cut for it. He knew about the importance of balance, weight.

He added his own innovation, cutting some of his sticks in a radical triangle rather than the classic round or octagonal shape, improving the bow's playability. He made bows and he made them beautiful.

There are Fenessey bows of black-as-night ebony, gold-andbrown-dappled snakewood, rosewood from Central America. The horsehair he uses comes from the white horses of Russia. The trimmings are gold and silver. But beauty could never be an old tooland-die maker's first concern. "What good is beauty," he asks, "if it can't play right?"

His bows play right.

"They are excellent, excellent," says Dennis Bourret, director of the Tucson Junior Strings. He owns two Fenessey bows. "He's really a significant innovator."

Musicians around the world order Fenessey bows. He makes about a dozen a year and charges less than the going rate.

"You seldom see a new bow, a handmade bow, on the market for under $1,500," says Bourret.

Fenessey prices his from $275 to $850. He says he would rather make as many bows as he can for those who want them than a few for those who can afford them.

"I liked the way the Hungarian gypsies were able to express themselves on a violin," he muses about a world so far from his desert home. "They could make you cry."

Then again, John Fenessey, that may have been their bows.

Author's Note: For more information on John Fenessey's bows, write to him at Rural Route 1, X47 Cochise, AZ 85606.