The Disguised Life of Charley Parkhurst

Researched by TVR Facebook Fan Weekly Contest Winner: Sandy Osborne.

From 12 Renowned Women of the Wild West, by the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.: Times were rough for ladies in the Wild West, so this crackerjack stagecoach driver decided to live most of her life as a man. Born in 1812, Parkhurst lived well into her sixties, in spite of being a hard-drinking, tobacco-chewing, fearless, one-eyed brute. She drove stages for Wells Fargo and the California Stage Company, not an easy or particularly safe career. Using her secret identity, Parkhurst was a registered voter and may have been the first American woman to cast a ballot. She lived out the rest of her life raising cattle and chickens until her death in 1879. It was then that her true identity was revealed, much to the surprise of her friends.

From The Real Mountain Charley, by Ed Sams:

Charley Darkey Parkhurst, known in life as Cockeyed Charley and in death as Mountain Charley, was one of the greatest stagecoach drivers of the Old West — who just happened to be a woman. Weighing close to 175 pounds and just five feet in height, Charley had big arms, but a thin voice and preferred sleeping in stables with the horses rather than going out with the boys. Nevertheless, Thomas Edwin Farish, who rode with Parkhurst in 1870, called Charley, “as good a driver as could be found anywhere.” According to well-known western writer Joseph Henry Jackson, Charley was “as skillful, as resourceful and as hard-boiled as any driver in the Sierras.” Mary Chaney Hoffman, writing for the American Mercury, elaborates:

He was Charley Parkhurst, one of the most celebrated whips of the early days. He was known up and down the coast of California, in the mining towns of the Sierra Nevada and wherever the tales of the Argonauts were heard. He was accounted one of the coolest and most daring of all that brave band of stage drivers.

Add to these professional accolades the distinction that Charley was the first woman to vote in a United States Presidential election some fifty-two years before women were granted the right to vote.

Mountain Charley began life as Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst, born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, during the year of 1812. Legend has it that she was abandoned by her parents and placed in an orphanage from which she later escaped disguised in boy’s clothing. The trick worked so well that the disguise was continued. Charlotte found work as Charley in a livery stable own by Ebenezer Balch in Worchester, Massachusetts, where the runaway earned bed and board cleaning stalls, washing carriages and scrubbing floors: “Anxious to learn all she could about horses, the stable hand grew to understand them by carefully watching every move made by the stage drivers, who drove Concords [stagecoaches] into Worchester.” Ebenezer Balch found promise in his young protégé and soon taught Charley the art of driving, first two-in-hand, then four-in-hand, and later six-in-hand horse teams. When Balch bought the Franklin House and the What Cheer Stables, Charley went with him to Providence, Rhode Island, where Parkhurst’s reputation was made. In time, Charley Parkhurst became known as one of the best coachmen on the eastern seaboard, and coaches were often hired only on condition that Charley drive. At this time, Charley’s “favorite team was the best in the stables, six perfectly matched grays.”

Then came the first threat of exposure. One January, at a dance in Pawtuxet, while waiting outside in the cold for the passengers to return, Charley’s hands froze. Unable to drive, Parkhurst had to call upon another driver, Liberty Childs, to take over the coach. Liberty Childs is described by MacDonald as Charley’s “proud friend.” Whether due to the shame of asking for help or the joshing that came from needing it, shortly thereafter Charley left New England and relocated in Georgia, where the young whip enjoyed a reputation of “sure-handed driving.” Perhaps Liberty Childs learned Charley’s secret when Charley was rescued from the cold. Perhaps not. Nevertheless, throughout Charley’s career in Northern California, the doughty driver would be known by the characteristic long-fringed, beaded gloves worn summer or winter that adorned the small, smooth hands that seemed to disgust their owner.

Once in Georgia, Charley drove for Jim Birch, who was getting ready to come west and operate the California Stage Company. Charley came along, saying, “I aim to be the best damn driver in California.”

Parkhurst arrived in San Francisco in 1851. Nearly forty years old, Charley walked off the gang plank at the pier, wearing gloves to hide a pair of woman’s small hands and a pleated shirt to hide a woman’s figure. The trip had been an uneventful one, except for Charley’s presence on board. The curious figure attracted several admirers. On board the steamer R.B. Forbes from Boston to Panama, one John Morton of Morton Draying and Warehouse Company of San Francisco pronounced Parkhurst, “an agreeable ‘companion de voyage’ who had been a stage driver in the East and who came to California to drive a stage between Stockton and Mariposa.” Even more telling was the comment made by European traveler John Charles Duchow while traveling with Charley in Panama. Craig MacDonald reports that Duchow’s journal contains this entry on May 18:

He calls himself Charles Clifton but passengers on board call him ‘Thunderbolt.’ He says the reason for passing under an assumed name was that he was an important witness in a case and wishing to have nothing to do with it, adopted a false name to get out of the way. He told us that he’s married to a Boston merchant where he is keeper of the American’s house… In short, he is a very queer fellow indeed!

If Charley Parkhurst indeed traveled west under the alias of Clifton, as MacDonald believes, then here is the clue to the riddle of Charley’s lifelong secret. There was a court case in which Charley was named as an important witness, perhaps even a correspondent. Shortly after death when the secret of Parkhurst’s sex was revealed, the San Francisco Call wrote that Charley’s life was “a story of a fair maiden in New Hampshire becoming disappointed in love and leaving her native state disguised in the habiliments of the sterner sex.” Could it be that a woman had married a prosperous and proper Boston banker, tired of an unhappy marriage keeping house and escaped in men’s clothes, a disguise that had always succeeded before? No specifics are known, except that for a short while after driving stage in Georgia, Charley returned up north to New England before heading for California.

Whatever the reason, Charley found a home in California. The early 1850s were still bustling with gold fever, and Charley was a part of the excitement, driving stage coaches through the wildest boom towns of the Gold Country — Rough and Ready, Grass Valley, and Placerville. By the mid-1850s, Charley tried new routes from Oakland to San Juan Bautista, and by 1856, Parkhurst lived at Searsville in San Mateo City.

During this time, Charley received an injury and a celebrated nickname of “Cock-eyed Charley.” Mabel Rowe Curtis reports that in Redwood City, “he was kicked in the face by a horse he was shoeing. The accident cost him his eye and ever after he wore a black patch over it, earning him the sobriquet of ‘One-Eyed Charley’.” Lee adds, “From then on people called him ‘One-Eyed Charley,’ but not in his presence, of course.” There are various stories explaining how Charley lost the left eye, but all sources agree that the horse that caused the mishap was Charley’s lead horse Pete. The bland episode of the horse kicking Charley while being shod turns lurid in one retelling that had a nail misfire and take out the eye. Another more romantic explanation for Pete’s behavior is a rattlesnake. According to Patty Stoker, the horses became skittish and Charley had stopped the coach to soothe the lead horse Pete, when a rattler shook its tail, frightening Pete and causing him to kick Charley.

This injury did not end Charley’s love of horses or desire to ride the western stage. In the 1860s, Charley was back driving the stage from Tahoe to Placerville and Sacramento to Mariposa. A respected driver throughout Northern California, Charley was entrusted with special missions by Wells Fargo. According to Mabel Rowe Curtis, “Such was Charley’s fearlessness and attention to duty that Wells Fargo once sent him to New York with a quantity of gold which he delivered safely.”

Finally, in the late 1860s, Charley retired from riding the stage. In the Monterey Peninsula Herald, Parkhurst was quoted to say: “I’m no better now than when I commenced. Pay’s small and work’s heavy. I’m getting old. Rheumatism in my bones — nobody to look out for old used-up stage drivers. I’ll kick the bucket one of these days and that’ll be the last of old Charley.”

Settling down as a land owner in Santa Cruz County, Parkhurst ran a stage station and ranch as well as working as a lumberjack during the winters, earning as much as five dollars a day when younger men earned only three. It was here in Santa Cruz County where Charley had another risk of exposure. Sometime during the 1860s, while working for Andy Jackson Clark, Charley came home “stone drunk,” and Mrs. Clark asked her seventeen-year-old son to put Charley to bed. According to Ms. Helen T. Tarr (Clark’s granddaughter), the boy returned in a dither exclaiming, “Maw, Charley, ain’t no man, he’s a woman!” Mabel Row Curtis writes, “Those good people, sensing Charley’s humiliation if confronted with the fact that he was unmasked, never mentioned it to a soul until after Charley’s death.”

In 1879, Charley succumbed to cancer of the tongue. Legend has it that the old stagecoach driver died alone, but actually Charley was tended by the Harmons, who were neighbors, and by one Frank Woodward, with whom Charley had raised cattle and gulched wood. In a letter to the Register Pajaronian, George Harmon relates that his father Charles came close several times to being told the secret of Parkhurst’s life, but each time the old-timer drew Harmon close to the sickbed, the invalid would wave him away, saying it would keep. And so the secret was kept until Charley’s death. Even Frank Woodward, the business partner and longtime companion, seemed shocked to learn Charley’s true biological sex. Reports were that Woodward “waxed profane to the extreme when he learned of the deception that had been practiced on him so many years.” However, news of Charley’s secret identity traveled remarkably slowly, giving the local papers a chance to eulogize and give tribute to this remarkable character. On December 28, six days after Charley’s death on the twenty-second, the San Francisco Morning Call wrote:

He was in his day one of the most dexterous and celebrated of the famous California drivers ranking with Foss, Hank Monk, and George Gordon, and it was an honor to be striven for to occupy the spare end of the driver’s seat when the fearless Charley Parkhurst held the reins of a four-or six-in hand. . .

Later newspapers sounded a less fond, more perplexed note after a Watsonville doctor discovered that Cock-eyed Charley was a woman. Not only did the attending physician proclaim Parkhurst “a graciously endowed female,” but “further examination revealed that old ‘Cock-eyed Charley’ had given birth to a child.” Immediately, some gentlemen of the press proclaimed Charley a hermaphrodite, but “the coroner’s findings disagreed.” The Watsonville Pajaronian wrote on January 8, 1880:

Rumors that in early years she loved not wisely, but too well, have been numerous and from the reports of those who saw her body, these rumors receive some color of truth. It is generally believed that she had been a mother and that from that event, dated her strange career.

In a similar vein the Santa Cruz Sentinel opined: A mother she is represented to have been, and it may date back to that proud eminence from which virtuous women alone can fall, fall by the deception of some man monster, but there must have been a cause, a mighty cause.

Some editors seem to take personally Charley Parkhurst’s life of disguise. One editor in Rhode Island wrote rather acidly: Charley Parkhurst died of a malignant disease. She could act and talk like a man, but when it came to imitating a man’s reticence, nature herself revolted, and the lifelong effort to keep from speaking, except when she had something to say, resulted at last in death from cancer of the tongue.

The Yreka Union wrote less dramatically, but perhaps more reasonably, “She may have been disgusted with the trammels surrounding her sex, and concluded to work out her fortune her own way.” Furthermore, in the town where Charley first found fame, the Providence Journal wrote: “Charley Parkhurst was one of this city’s finest stage drivers. The only people who have any occasion to be disturbed by the career of Charley are the gentlemen who have so much to say about ‘women’s sphere’ and the ‘weaker vessel’.”

The San Francisco Chronicle threw up its hands at conjecture and offered this comment as a fitting epitaph: “It is useless to waste time in conjectures as to what led the dead to take up the cross of a man’s laboring life.”

Whatever the reasons that caused Charley Parkhurst to pursue this unique career, the remains of this famous stage driver were buried in Watsonville’s Pioneer-Odd Fellows cemetery. In 1954, after the old cemetery had grown into neglect, the Pajaro Valley Historical Association discovered the Parkhurst plot, and Charley’s remains were removed and reburied with an historical marker erected in 1955.

The Cycle of a Cactus -Part 2

by Rick Hartigan

photos by Roni Ziemba / ziembaphoto.com

ANTICIPATION

The winter rains are a memory. Fat with their absorbed moisture, the cacti wait. The temperature has begun to rise. Unimpeded by clouds, the desert sun warms the hills and valleys for the coming pageant. The stage is set for the annual flower show.

The icon of the Sonoran Desert, the saguaro cactus, is preparing for its leading role in the production. Standing over ten feet tall, those saguaros mature enough to flower await the signal to produce their buds, blossoms and fruit in the weeks to come. Their tops and arms show no hint of it yet.  But it’s coming. Every spring, like clockwork, the flowers appear. But for the moment, we wait.

Anticipation is the first in a seven-part series following the cycle of one particular Saguaro cactus at the ranch. We will watch the buds form, the flowers bloom and then die. Then comes the fruit and its stages. We hope you enjoy following along!

BUD

They are subtle when they first appear, almost shy. Tiny, marble-sized bumps among the spines at the tops of the saguaros and the tops of the saguaro’s arms become crowns of buds within a few days. The waiting continues. Some of the saguaros at Tanque Verde Ranch have shown their flowers this year, but the promise is now there on our saguaro. All about, the cacti are preparing their display. The prickly pear present their flower buds and new pads together on the rims of the mature pads. Their flowers open along with those of the saguaros. The diminutive hedgehog has begun presenting their magenta cups. With a carpet of annuals about them, the cacti continue the Sonoran Desert’s flower show.

Bud is the second in a seven-part series following this particular cactus through its seasonal stages.

Rick Hartigan is a Naturalist at Tanque Verde Ranch and is also a Public Information Officer with the Central Arizona Incident Management Team. (Which is the long name for a fire team that travels the country dealing with forest fires.)

Great-horned Owls

Part-one of a two-part series

Text and photos by Marcia Warwick

Great-horned owls occur throughout North America as well as Central and South America.  They are one of the most widespread species of owls, residing year round in their territories, with the exception of the ones farthest north, who will move southward in fall and winter.

These owls have feathery tufts, which are sometimes mistaken for ears. They can be found in woods, coniferous mountain forests, desert canyons and riparian habitats, marshes, city parks.  Here, at the Tanque Verde Ranch, we have two pair that reside in separate riparian habitats that are within a comfortable distance to take our guests on nature and/or bird walks to listen to them calling, find them and view them.

they are calling to each other, their calls are great for identifying male from female.  The female’s call is slightly higher than the male’s. During mating season, which is January or February through April, their calls are almost constant. If they are in close proximity, you can ID the male and female by size. The female is larger than the male. She weighs approximate 4  1/2  pounds to his 3 – 3 1/2 pounds. They mate for life.

Great-horned owls roost (perch) during the daytime. They are nocturnal, becoming active hunters at night. They have incredibly sensitive hearing. These owls have feathery tufts, which are sometimes mistaken for ears. Their ears, which are on each side of their head, are asymmetrical, i.e., the right ear is slightly facing up and higher than the left, which is lower and slightly facing down. This is truly “surround sound”.  Also, the facial discs around their eyes aid in hearing directing sound to their ears. By moving or tilting their heads until the sound is of equal volume in each ear, the owl can pinpoint the distance and direction of the sound.

Their eyesight is amazing. They can see at night as well as we can see during an overcast day. Contrary to popular belief, owls cannot turn their heads completely around. Their eyes are fixed; they cannot move their eyes up, down, or side to side. The owl has to move its whole head. They can rotate their head 260 degrees.

More to come… Watch for info about Great-horned owls Hunting, Breeding and Nesting, with photos of baby owls nesting in one of the Tanque Verde Ranch’s Riparian habitats. So cute!

The Cycle of a Cactus – Part 1

by Rick Hartigan

photo by Roni Ziemba

ANTICIPATION

The winter rains are a memory. Fat with their absorbed moisture, the cacti wait. The temperature has begun to rise. Unimpeded by clouds, the desert sun warms the hills and valleys for the coming pageant. The stage is set for the annual flower show.

The icon of the Sonoran Desert, the saguaro cactus, is preparing for its leading role in the production. Standing over ten feet tall, those saguaros mature enough to flower await the signal to produce their buds, blossoms and fruit in the weeks to come. Their tops and arms show no hint of it yet.  But it’s coming. Every spring, like clockwork, the flowers appear. But for the moment, we wait.

Anticipation is the first in a seven-part series following the cycle of one particular Saguaro cactus at the ranch. We will watch the buds form, the flowers bloom and then die. Then comes the fruit and its stages. We hope you enjoy following along!

Driving a harness horse!

by Steve Shaw

photos by Roni Ziemba

Build this picture in your mind as you read these lines…. “They moved so smoothly that it was hard to tell who was leading except that the pair of large horses walked ahead of the man. The horses matched his speed, as well as each others, in a calm, yet watchful, stride. The man’s touch on the lines was as soft and subtle as his voice when he spoke, thanking his working friends for making his own efforts easier and pleasurable.”  These words were spoken by L.R. Miller, an accomplished teamster about driving a horse under harness power.

Here at the ranch, we use a work harness rather than a buggy harness for our hands-on demonstrations. The biggest difference between the two types is that a work harness is of a much heavier construction and uses a collar and hames (a pair of curved metal (or sometimes wooden) pieces lying on the horse collar of a horse harness, taking the pull from the traces) instead of a breast collar. The collar and hames must not only fit the horse, but must fit each other as well. Proper fit can make the difference between a comfortable, happy horse, or a sore horse that may get choked down. The collar is made of leather and most are filled with animal hair or straw. The collar should fit against the horse’s lower neck and have the thickness of a hand between it and the horse’s neck, allowing room to breathe and swallow. The hames can be made of hard wood or steel and fit in a groove built into the collar and are secured into place with leather straps. The tugs are attached to the hames and reach about three feet behind the horse with tug chains attached at the ends to hook the horse to the load being pulled. The other parts, such as the harness body, brichen, quarter straps, pole strap, yolk strap and back pad all serve a purpose, but only secondary for pulling. A work harness consists of 13 main parts an comes in 5 basic sizes.

Now here is the really interesting part: You imagined that the horse pulls the load, didn’t you? In fact, the design of the harness converts the push into pull. When the horse pushes against the collar, pull is created. But it is the pushing that drives the outcome.

If you’ve never driven a horse under harness, it is an experience you will long remember. Until you feel the raw horsepower that you control in your hands, you can only imagine it.

Steve Shaw is Programs Director at Tanque Verde Ranch. He moved here from Nebraska where he owned and operated a carriage business in downtown Lincoln.

2,000 Mile Trail Ride

English riders to follow Western pioneers’ 2,000-mile cattle trail

12:26 PM CDT on Sunday, April 4, 2010

By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
eaasen@dallasnews.com

The English may be prim and proper, but they’re just wild for America’s Wild West.

They yearn to escape their congested roads and hop on a horse and roam where the land is wide open and the big sky seems endless.

For some, seeing old Western movies isn’t enough. They have to explore it like the pioneers did back in the day.

And for a lucky few, that westward journey starts Sunday – after training for weeks in Frisco.

They’ll saddle up at Fort Belknap, a couple of hours west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There, they’ll travel by horse and follow in the footsteps of two Western pioneers, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, who blazed a cattle trail nearly 150 years ago through Texas, New Mexico and points north.

For six months and almost 2,000 miles, these English men and women expect to venture through dust, mud, heavy rain, hail and lightning storms. They may encounter a horse skull or two and snakes.

James Locke and a team of riders make plans for a 2,000-mile journey along the cattle trails.

They couldn’t be happier.

The inaugural trek, called The Long Ride, is a chance to sit on a horse in the middle of nowhere and ride the way riding was meant to be done, said James Locke, who is leading the expedition.

“The ride is honoring your heritage and the memory of the people who made this country what it is today,” he said.

About a dozen riders, almost all English, will be rotating in and out throughout the expedition. They’ll be roughing it – it’s the Western way, after all – camping under that never-ending sky. A truck will accompany them, carrying feed, water, food and other essentials.

“If they get a shower, they’re going to be lucky,” Locke said. “A bucket of cold water on the back of the truck when nobody’s looking, and that’s it.”

The Long Ride was sparked a few years ago at a dinner party, when one woman who had seen Rawhide declared that she wanted to ride a trail across America.

Locke, who has been leading expeditions around the world for nearly 30 years, said he had a better idea. He wanted to follow the Goodnight-Loving Trail. He was intrigued about the trail after reading about the trailblazers and watching the Lonesome Dove miniseries.

“The American West is alive and well in England,” said Locke, 66.

In 1866, Goodnight and Loving drove longhorns from Fort Belknap in Young County. The trail continued through Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

The Long Ride, however, plans to travel beyond the trail, ending in Montana.

As Locke planned his trip through the American West, he was introduced to Robert Liner, who operates the Horse School in Frisco. Liner was intrigued and volunteered to host the riders and help them train. He rounded up horses and other supplies.

Liner hopes the trip inspires others.

“The horse is a silent steward to teach us of our own compassion,” he said. “I’d like to think the spirit of the horse unifies people.”

Traveling companions

Locke and his riding partners wouldn’t be able to venture west without Ranger, Peppy, Dancer and Gentleman.

Ranger is the boss horse who’s even-tempered and gentle. Dancer is a chowhound – point him to the horse feed and he’ll be fine. At first, Gentleman was afraid of everything. Now, he’s a softie. Peppy loves to be by Dancer’s side.

Last week, they rested along a fence, enjoying a breeze, as their riders stood nearby.

Horses are free spirits, said Emma Payne, who’s riding with Locke.

“You watch them running and you wish you could be like that,” said Payne, donning a bandana, jeans, chaps, boots and an Australian bush hat. “They run for miles, and they don’t seem to get tired.”

But before hitting the trail, the English riders had to learn how to ride horses American style.

“We’re very stiff and uptight,” Locke said. “Your riding is much more laid back.”

In England, riders put more equipment on their horses, making it restrictive for the animal. Riders perch on their horses, making it difficult to stay on for long periods of time.

“In America, there’s a better partnership with the horse,” said Lisa Waller, another English participant in The Long Ride.

When Payne wants to ride in her home country, she has to walk a horse down a busy road, with cars flying by, to a small patch of precious earth.

That won’t be an issue on this American trek, where she’ll roam the empty land for miles and miles and miles.

“The horses, the camping,” she said, “it’s heaven.”

FAQ’s of TVR Fishing

by Rich Stanton

photo by Roni Ziemba

What kind of fish are in Lake Corchran?

Largemouth bass, the top predator and most popular warm water fish species in America;  channel catfish, fast growing and hard fighting;  bluegill sunfish, prolific breeders and fairly easy to catch, preyed upon by the bass;  redear sunfish, closely resemble bluegills, harder to catch;  grass carp, also known as white amur, a vegetarian fish named after the Amur River in Asia, used to control aquatic vegetation, very difficult to catch; and last but not least, gambusia, also known as mosquitofish because they eat mosquito larvae, a small minnow which is an important part of the diet of young bass, bluegills, and redears.

What’s the biggest fish in the lake?

The grass carp are by far the largest species.  As of this writing the largest ones are approximately thirty six inches in length (That’s three feet!) and weigh about eight pounds.  They are capable of eating two to three times their weight per day making them invaluable in controlling the aquatic grasses.

How big are the other species?

The largest bass caught and measured was twenty inches.  The biggest catfish was twenty-two inches and weighed about three and a half pounds.  The jumbo bluegill was nine inches and fat.  Only one redear has been caught and it was only a few inches long.

What do you use for bait?

Oddly enough, cheese is the favored bait, and recently small pieces of breakfast sausage have been added, thanks to Steve Lee, an expert angler from England.  Both baits work remarkably well. They are easy to put on a hook, unlike worms which can be tricky, and some folks find impaling worms onto hooks distasteful or cruel.  Also, the fish have shown no preference as to which kind of cheese they like best.  Some of the ranch guests prefer to use artificial baits, especially for the bass, and a small assortment of plastic baits are provided.

Is Lake Corchran a natural lake?

Nope, it’s man-made just like almost all of the other lakes in Arizona.  Only Mormon Lake and Stoneman Lake, both near Flagstaff in northern Arizona, are natural lakes.  The water in our lake is pumped in from wells on the ranch property.

Do you stock the lake?

That seems to be a simple question, but the answer isn’t so simple.  Stocking of fish is used for a few reasons, the most common one being for anglers to harvest fish, especially in waters where the fish will not reproduce.  Another reason for stocking is to get a fishery started.  The fish have to come from somewhere.  Finally, stocking is used as a fishery management tool, sometimes to create a better balance of species sharing the same waters.  At Tanque Verde Ranch we have stocked to get the fishery going again and to balance numbers.  Since we practice catch and release we don’t need to stock for harvest.  The fish population will reproduce naturally and continue to provide excellent angling opportunities in the future.

U.S. Census in the 1800′s

By Bob Cote

2010 marks another year of census taking in the United States; in fact, this census, taken every 10 years, will be the 23^rd census since 1790.

Reading an article by David A. Norris in ‘True West’ magazine, I discovered that census takers in 1840 were paid two cents per name that they added to the population rolls, writing down each person’s name, age, gender, birthplace, occupation, and parent’s name. Obviously, in the unsettled and oft times unlawful west, a census taker’s life in Southern Arizona was a lonely and dangerous occupation, long hours and long rides between isolated settlements.

The1860 census in Arizona filed by Marshall D. J. Miller mentioned that fewer people existed at the time of filing than at the time of recording the information. His notes stated “Mr. Ward since killed by Indians”, John Power “assassinated by employees”, and another man “probably dead from wounds received by hostile Indians soon after I left his farm”. Miller’s census also recorded another individual’s $1,100 net worth of personal property, including “two Yuma Indian scalps with long plaited braids” valued at $100 each.

The 1880 census from Tombstone, future site of the gunfight at the O. K. Corral, noted Virgil Earp’s household, including his brother Wyatt S. (age 32); both were listed as “farmer’. At the same time the Clantons lived in Charlestown, Arizona, and Billy’s occupation was listed as “keeping dairy”. Billy’s brother Ike turned up in Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, as a “farmer”. Frank and Thomas McLaury, who both died at the gunfight, were noted as “stock raiser’. Bat Masterson was recorded in Dodge City, Kansas, as a “laborer”.

Defining occupations was always a subjective exercise. Cowboys were often recorded as “herding cattle”, “stock raiser”, or “laborer”, while town prostitutes were frequently listed as “Ogles fools”, “Diddles”, “Squirms in a deck”, or “Does horizontal work”. Comparing yearly census figures is fascinating as well:

Arizona City	1870	1880	2000
Globe		704	7,486
Phoenix		1,708	1,321,045
Prescott	668	1,836	33,938
Tombstone		973	1,504
Tucson	3,224	7,007	486,699
Yuma		1,200	77,515

Today, many historical researchers peruse census records to trace the journeys of individuals as they made their way across the United States. The data collected by today’s census takers will not be of public record until 2082, for all personal census information remains closed for 72 years.

Early Blooming of the Pincushion Cactus!

By Rick Hartigan

Photo by Roni Ziemba

Everyone is familiar with the Saguaro Cactus, if not by name then at least by it’s tall profile, holding its arms up to the sun. It is the stereotypical plant of the desert southwest. When you hike or ride about Tanque Verde Ranch, it is all about you, telling you by its presence that you are in the Sonoran Desert. Enjoy the sight, but don’t forget to look down. Cactus come in all sizes. The diminutive pincushion cactus, the Arizona Fishhook, is here to be admired as well. Usually the last of the cactus to bloom, it has already begun to display its beautiful pink flowers, the first of the cactus display this year.  You must look closely about you to find it. It is hiding among the rocks and other cactus, but it is there for those with the eyes to see it.

Sonoran Desert Basics

by Marcia Warwick

For many people the word “desert” brings to mind dry, sandy, baron and lifeless. Our desert, the Sonoran Desert, which is a “living desert”, encompasses southern Arizona, northwest Mexico and most of the Baja Peninsula. It is well known for its splendor and, of course, the amazing giant Saguaro cactus.

The abundant varieties of cacti and other vegetation, as well as wildlife, that call the Sonoran Desert home, not only survive the harsh unforgiving desert climate, but also thrive in it.  This desert is the most diverse habitat in the world. The remarkable biodiversity of flora and fauna can be observed on the hiking trails here at the Tanque Verde Ranch as well as those in Saguaro National Park, which is right next toTVR. Our trails take us into the desert wilderness to experience the splendor of nature. indigenous to the Sonoran desert.

We’ve had only trace amounts of fall/winter rain in the past 4 years. This fall and winter we have had extremely significant rain, which we must have in order to have a spectacular wildflower display in the spring. We are looking forward to about 750 different varieties of wildflowers in April, May and mid-June. There will be a rhapsody of wildflowers all over the desert terrain.

As always, we look forward to the summer rains, which bring most of the rain that we receive all year. It is called the monsoon season.  The winds change direction over the Gulf of Mexico and the Sea of Cortez and push north to the southwest. The air, which is warmer that the bodies of water, condenses and form clouds that become thunderheads when they reach the Sonoran desert, and so the rains come.  They fill the dry washes and become rivers, create waterfalls, produce large pools of water in the mountains.  The cactus become plumper and all other vegetation become greener.  Here at the Tanque Verde Ranch, which is nestled in the comer of the Rincon and Catalina mountain ranges, we experience the summer rains as we observe spectacular sunsets in the west and somewhere in between there are double rainbows.  It is truly magic….nature at it’s best!

For those of you not familiar with our area, here is a great map to help you find your way!