Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic ExpeditionLanman, Charles
History
Farthest North: The Life and Explorations of Lieutenant James Booth Lockwood, of the Greely Arctic Expedition
Lanman, Charles
Arctic regions; Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-1884); Lockwood, James Booth, 1852-1884
The few events of his trip along the coast to Yuma were to this effect:
Soon after leaving the Golden Gate, he experienced a storm that was far
from pacific in its character, far worse than any he had witnessed since
leaving New York; he visited Magdalena Bay, which impressed him as a
barren, miserable place, chiefly noted for its want of houses, and yet
of some importance as the shipping port of a dye-wood found in that
region; he also stopped at Carmen Island, where large quantities of salt
were found in the dry bed of a lake, and at Cape St. Lucas, but brought
away no favorable impressions from any of these remote places. With Yuma
City he was better pleased, describing its houses as small, one-story
affairs, built of adobe, more Mexican than American in character, and
its streets as far more dusty than those of Washington City; and the
mountains surrounding the city as very imposing. The Colorado reminded
him of the Red River—the channel winding and running between great
mud-flats and islands, all constantly changing, and abounding in many
kinds of water-fowl. He was interested in the Indian inhabitants, whom
he pitied for their poverty and degradation; occasionally seeing a
number of squaws reclining like quadrupeds on the mud-flats or in front
of their tiny oval huts.
The sojourn of Lieutenant Lockwood in Arizona lasted into the summer of
1874, and from the letters which he wrote home from Post McDowell may be
gathered some interesting particulars, illustrating his habits of close
observation in regard to men and events.
His journey from Fort Yuma to Camp McDowell was full of interest and was
greatly enjoyed. He had for companions two brother officers and three
ladies; traveled by ambulance, making marches of only about fifteen
miles; camped out every night, Lockwood himself sleeping on the ground
outside. As the country was very desolate and barren, they traveled
generally along the valley of the Gila, but their last march was over
desert land forty-five miles wide. They saw many relics along the route,
mounds, ruins, and immense ditches for irrigation. One immense pile of
rocks, called the Painted Rocks, was entirely covered with pictures of
lizards, Indians, beasts, and birds—supposed to represent a great battle
in which the Apaches conquered the Maricopas. There were also along the
road graves of men murdered by the Indians. One grave, near Gila Bend,
was of a man named Lumley, a station-keeper, murdered by two
Mexicans—his successor exhibited a knife, used by one of the murderers,
which had been found, and he pointed out the spot where Judge Lynch had
disposed of the only criminal that happened to be captured. While the
travelers did not spend any money at hotels, they were obliged to pay
from twenty to thirty dollars for being ferried across the Gila and Salt
Rivers at different points.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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