Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life by a New England WomanSummerhayes, Martha
History
Vanished Arizona: Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman
Summerhayes, Martha
Arizona -- Biography; Arizona -- Description and travel; Summerhayes, Martha, 1844-1926; United States. Army -- Military life
In the distance we saw the "divide," over which we must pass in order
to reach Camp Verde, which was to be our first stopping place, and we
looked joyfully towards the next day's march, which we expected would
bring us there.
We thought the worst was over and, before retiring to our tents for the
night, we walked over to the edge of the high mesa and, in the gathering
shadows of twilight, looked down into the depths of that beautiful lake,
knowing that probably we should never see it again.
And indeed, in all the years I spent in Arizona afterward, I never even
heard of the lake again.
I wonder now, did it really exist or was it an illusion, a dream, or the
mirage which appears to the desert traveller, to satisfy him and lure
him on, to quiet his imagination, and to save his senses from utter
extinction?
In the morning the camp was all astir for an early move. We had no
time to look back: we were starting for a long day's march, across the
"divide," and into Camp Verde.
But we soon found that the road (if road it could be called) was worse
than any we had encountered. The ambulance was pitched and jerked from
rock to rock and we were thumped against the iron framework in a most
dangerous manner. So we got out and picked our way over the great sharp
boulders.
The Alsatian soldier carried the baby, who lay securely in the pappoose
cradle.
One of the cavalry escort suggested my taking his horse, but I did
not feel strong enough to think of mounting a horse, so great was my
discouragement and so exhausted was my vitality. Oh! if girls only knew
about these things I thought! For just a little knowledge of the care
of an infant and its needs, its nourishment and its habits, might have
saved both mother and child from such utter collapse.
Little by little we gave up hope of reaching Verde that day. At four
o'clock we crossed the "divide," and clattered down a road so near the
edge of a precipice that I was frightened beyond everything: my senses
nearly left me. Down and around, this way and that, near the edge, then
back again, swaying, swerving, pitching, the gravel clattering over the
precipice, the six mules trotting their fastest, we reached the
bottom and the driver pulled up his team. "Beaver Springs!" said he,
impressively, loosening up the brakes.
As Jack lifted me out of the ambulance, I said: "Why didn't you tell
me?" pointing back to the steep road. "Oh," said he, "I thought it was
better for you not to know; people get scared about such things, when
they know about them before hand."
"But," I remarked, "such a break-neck pace!" Then, to the driver,
"Smith, how could you drive down that place at such a rate and frighten
me so?"
"Had to, ma'am, or we'd a'gone over the edge."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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