Ghosts of the Wild West: Enlarged Edition Including Five Never-Before-Published Stories

The Lovely Apparition of Fort Davis

THE LOVELY APPARITION OF FORT DAVIS hy should a lovely apparition haunt a desolate fort in Texas?The storyis a strange one and began about the time of the Civil War. Across the West, from the Dakotas to the Texas border , fiom Kansas to California, are strung the forts that were once brave outposts of a wild and lonely frontier, manned by a courageous breed of men. There was Fort Union in New Mexico, Fort Bowie in Arizona, Fort Laramie in Wyoming, and in Texas, Fort Stockton and Fort Davis. Many are the tales that have been told about these forts, but among the most mysterious is a story sometimes heard at Fort Davis. Fort Davis was built as a warning to the Apaches, a protection to travelers from San Antonio to El Paso, and, if need be, a refuge for settlers in the event of GHOSTS OF THE WILD WEST Indian attacks. The fort itself was never directly attacked , but the coaches operating on the route through Fort Davis were often attacked by Indians. Surrounded by a cloud of dust from the hooves of their galloping ponies, they would suddenly dash from behind a rock formation or out of a canyon. With horrifying cries and fiercely painted faces, they fell upon the unwary. Some passengers were lucky enough to reach Fort Davis; others were murdered. The construction of Fort Davis was primitive, for at first it was planned to replace the buildings at a later time. Made of pine slabs set upright in the ground, they had plank or earth-packed floors, roofs of thatched grass or canvas, and glazed windows. There were thirteen houses for married soldiers and their families, a hospital, a stable, a store, and a billiards room. There were some compensations for this rough life-beautiful scenery, fresh water from Limpia Creek, and a large vegetable garden for the garrison. There were also parties and social events for the officers and their wives and families. One of the loveliest young women at the fort was Alice Walpole, the wife of a young lieutenant from Alabama. She was often homesick, missing the blue-green hills and beautiful rivers of her home state. After a long harsh winter in this arid country she found herself filled with longing for the southern spring. She began to think that even in this bleak countryside, somewhere roses might even now be in bloom. Alice decided to find them, and wrapping herself in a long blue wool cape, she left the house on THE LOVELY APPARITION OF FORT DAVIS officers' rom; passed the post garden, and headed toward the mountains. She had always felt tiny and insignificant beside the immense, foreboding mountains and the great stretches of open, empty, desertlike land-the size of one of the calm-faced china dolls she had played with as a child. And, indeed, this land was often hostile. She continued to walk toward the mountains following Limpia Creek, for she had read that there were beautihl white roses blooming in the wilderness beyond the fort. Alice never returned-at least not in human form. A party of soldiers from the fort spent several days searching for her while her young husband was filled with apprehension, then despair. The search party could find no trace of the girl. Late one night a few months later a beautihl young woman was seen walking down the long row of officers ' houses. The west wind blew her cape about her, and when she was greeted by a lieutenant who saw her, he could hardly be sure she replied, for her voice seemed to float anrayfrom him on the wind. There was something familiar about her. He turned to follo\v, thinking she might need assistance, only to have her vanish around the corner of one of the houses. The officer called out, but there was no answer, only the chill night \\rind flinging his words back to him. Then he realized the reason he had turned to followthis woman. She was Alice Walpole! When the lovely apparition returned, she seemed always to seek out the quarters where the southern wives were socializing. And so, far from the red clay GHOSTS OF THE WILD WEST soil of her native Alabama, this girl with the west wind blowing her ghostly cape sometimes came back to seek companionship. She never actually spoke, and the most tangible evidence of her...