The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke Volume 5: May 23, 1881--August 26, 1881

19. Cooley’s Ranch and Fort Apache

410 Chapter 19 ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Cooley’s Ranch and Fort Apache A ugust 25th 1881. The tinkling of bells and the moo-oo-ooing of kine broke our slumbers long before dawn. Gordon, as usual, was first up, and employed his time in looking after his team and greasing the wagon. Smallwood was then called and began preparing breakfast, consisting, as did last night’s supper of mock-turtle soup, milk and eggs, green corn and onions, roasted in the ashes, and canned fruit from our own stores. We squatted on the ground alongside our meal, hoping to be able to eat it with comfort, but a lively spattering of rain drove us within the ambulance. Dishes were handed in and under the shelter of the canvas curtains our meal was finished. Most of the plates and knives had been loaned to us by “Brother” Hunt, who turned out to be a warm personal friend of my old friend, C. E. Cooley, and who evinced a keen interest in showing and explaining everything connected with his jurisdiction. At this point, the Mormons have planted apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries , strawberries and peaches,—all of them certain to be a success, except, perhaps, the peaches. The population is divided into 53 families, numbering 300 souls. Moved out over a fine mountain road, soil gravelly; plenty of succulent black grama covering hill-sides; cedar trees in great clusters. cooley’S ranch and Fort apache 411 The surrounding mesas of black lava. Three miles out from Snow Flake (to the South) was another settlement and 5 m. farther, still another, both small and nestling in little valleys along Shevlon’s Fork. Saw a bevy of little Mormon children, picking wild-grapes; they themselves more than half-hidden in the heavy green masses of leaves. Ten miles from Snow Flake is Redhead’s and 10 miles South of this plat point, is Cooley’s Ranch, the road meanwhile ascending a steeper grade and getting into good pine timber, without undergrowth. This absence of undergrowth and the lack of trailing arabesques of wild vines and ivy renders the beauty of the pine forests of northern Arizona much less weird & solemn than it would certainly be with the added attractions. They have notwithstanding, a witching grace all their own, enhanced by the emerald green of the velvety sward, spangled with myriads of blossoms. The tall, finely proportioned and gently-outlined pines may be compared to the grace and beauty of a refined young maiden, whose delicacy of figure would be marred if concealed by unnecessary drapery. The country as we advanced toward Cooley’s became more and more thickly matted with juicy green grasses, principally black grama. Mocking birds sang on the topmost branches and trembling jack-rabbits sought shelter behind protecting oak and pine trees. A drizzling rain pattered down upon us at noon, but it was as different from the sullen cloud-bursts which had assailed us at nearly all other times that we welcomed its coming with much pleasure. The contour of the plateau was a charming series of gentle hills and dales, the hills carpeted with green grass and flowers growing at the feet of peaceful pines and majestic oaks;—and the dales, watered by babbling brooks flowing through fields of corn and potatoes planted by industrious Mormons. Cooley’s Ranch is situated in a small but exquisitely beautiful park on Show Low creek, a branch of the Shevlon’s Fork of the Rio Colorado Chiquito. The stream derives its name from the circumstance that when Cooley was immigrating to Arizona, in 1864, he reached this spot with a company of friends and was so pleased with its attractions that he concluded to remain and fix his home here. Four of the party began to play a game—High, Low, Jack,—I think—in which Cooley had the Low hand, “Show Low, Cooley,[”] 412 journey’S end said his partner, which Cooley did and upon the suggestion of one of the number he gave the name to the stream.1 At Cooley’s, there are 250 A[cres]. of arable land under fence and the owners are now about to add 30 miles of grazing and arable land by wire and board fencing. The “ranch” consists not only of Cooley’s own dwelling, but of some dozen or fifteen other buildings, occupied by employees. Within two miles of the...