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1 Tiombó to Rancho Viejo The legacy of pirates and priests Gardens in a land of rock and thorns Keeping the cows alive The ranch at Tiombó appears an Eden out of place, an oasis of deep green in a hardscrabble landscape of broken rock and defensive desert scrub. Lying 2,000 feet below the craggy ridge bearing the same name, the ranch has an abundance of water—abundant, that is, for one of the driest places on the continent. Tiombó is not unique in its setting—just a little better off, maybe, than most ranches in this country. The canyons of the Sierra de la Giganta are dotted with palm oases where deep springs surface, and it is in such locations that the rancheros build their family histories. But the gardens of this Eden are what catch the eye. Story has it that the ranch at Tiombó was started by a pirate. The story is plausible on two counts: the sheltered bays of the Gulf of California were a favorite refuge for pirates of Spain’s Manila Galleon trade era, and the mission at Loreto was raided by pirates as recently as 1822. Tiombó, some twelve miles up El Tular arroyo from the coastline, could well have provided a convenient hideaway for a ship’s booty. But Tiombó’s early history has never been recorded, and Ricardo Fuerte is quick to suggest that his family’s ranch may have been started by an honest marinero, not a pirate. Either way, it’s a gem. If there is any treasure still to be found up that canyon—and many locals say there is—it is most certainly the ranch itself, and in particular its relict orchard gardens. 1 2 Chapter 1 According to historian H. W. Crosby, the Jesuit missionaries of the early eighteenth century were responsible for introducing into the Sierra most of the fruits that one associates today with tropical Mexico—guavas, mangos, figs, oranges, limes, papayas, date palms, and numerous others. These fruits, along with many vegetables, were planted in raised gardens or huertas built adjacent to the arroyos where the early missions were established. Before the advent of windmills, the scattered pools located along the otherwise dry streambeds were the only reliable source of water, but the erratic flows of the arroyos could be as destructive as they were beneficial. So the gardens were laboriously built atop stone-fortified banks where soil often had to be imported and the water conveyed from upstream by palm-log aqueducts to small impoundments to be dealt out over time. It could be argued that the introduction of huertas was the greatest single gift of the missionaries, for both the tradition and the fruits persist today. As the missions were abandoned, people of the region gradually spread out wherever water allowed them a living and carried the idea of the huertas with them. Now even the most isolated ranches in the canyons of the Sierra often enjoy an envious bounty of fruits to break the monotony of dried meat, beans, goat cheese, and tortillas that are the staples of their diet. SuchisthenatureofthegardensatTiombó.Whetherpirate or marinero-turned-landlubber was responsible, or whether it was the rancheros that followed, the huertas of Tiombó are no less remarkable than those Crosby writes about. Downstream from a series of natural bedrock pools (deepened today with a cement dam at the lowest one) is a massive, four-foot-high stone wall on the south side of the arroyo, buttressing the terraced gardens built long ago and now providing an oasis of deep shade among verdant mangos, bananas, olives, and palms. Water today is piped overland from its upstream source with long sinuous PVC tubing instead of halved and hollowed palm logs, but the effect is the same—welcomed fruits and vegetables in a land of little rain. But Tiombó, heavily dependent on its livestock like most ranches in the Sierra, is experiencing hard times now due to an extended drought. Rainfall over the previous two years had been far less than normal, and none had fallen during the winter months just passed. Ironically, during dry years like this the existence of perennial springs on the ranch contributes to food shortages for the animals. The springs are so deeply sourced in the mountains that they tend to flow at a near constant rate throughout the year, which is both good and bad. Without the springs there could be no goats or cattle. But when the tinajas...

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