By James H. Riddle
The date was May 15th, 1890, and the Army's Department of Arizona had just completed a major heliograph practice; it was, in fact, the largest the world had ever seen. I call it the "Volkmar Practice", after the man responsible for it, Col. Wm. J. Volkmar, the Assistant Adjutant General and Chief Signal Officer for the Department of Arizona. Although the practice lasted only sixteen days, preparations for it took months of reconnaissance and preparation.
Involved in the long range signaling maneuvers were twenty-five heliograph stations stretching from Whipple Barracks near Prescott to Fort Stanton near Ruidoso, New Mexico. My guess is that close to two hundred men were involved, both cavalry and infantry.
Best known of these men today was, perhaps, John J. Pershing, a young lieutenant who was in charge of the Fort Stanton heliograph station during the maneuvers. "Black Jack" Pershing was later named General of the Armies of the United States; only George Washington was ever similarly honored!
Another man, long since forgotten, but deserving special recognition was Corporal Daniel Williams of the 10th U.S. Cavalry, one of two "Buffalo Soldier" regiments . He is singled out because of his race, he, apparently being the only known black signalman placed in charge of a heliograph station. This occurred during the practice at the very busy Fort Cummings station when its officer in charge fell seriously ill and had to be transported to Fort Bayard for treatment. Williams was commended in a report of the station activities written by the officer. I hope to present this evidence to the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico for consideration of the unnamed hill manned by Williams' detachment being named for the corporal. Fort Cummings is now a national park, and the hill is in sight and within easy hiking distance from the fort.
The heliograph is a remarkable instrument using one mirror, and frequently two, for flashing coded signals over great distances. The sun is its light source, and its projected rays are interrupted into short and long flashes. These "dots and dashes" are made by the opening and closing of a shuttered screen as with a signal light on a ship, or by quick movements of a mirror hinged on its sides. Code, similar to the Morse Code of today, was used. The instrument can transmit as far as the eye can see. For greater distances, intermediate mountaintop stations are necessary. For example, communications between Ft. Whipple and Ft Verde (at Camp Verde) required two intermediate stations: Bald Mountain, we now call it "Glassford Hill", and Squaw Peak.
The distance, between Whipple and Fort Stanton was well over 400 miles, and required eight intermediate stations: Bald Mountain, Baker's Butte, Mt. Reno, Mt. Graham, and Bowie Peak in Arizona, and Camp Henley, Fort Cummings, and San Andreas in New Mexico. Branch lines were made to Forts Bowie, Lowell, and Huachuca in Arizona and Bayard in New Mexico. Some of the mountain stations had no names, so names of nearby encampments or forts were used.
Forts Verde and McDowell were withdrawn from the practice due to closures taking place just before the practice. The BIA Superintendent at the San Carlos Reservation, a civilian, understandably refused to allow the Army to operate a station on "his" reservation. Nevertheless, mountaintop stations within view of these places were included in the exercises.
Besides Bald Mountain, several other stations have new names: Mt. Reno, for example, is now called Mt. Ord. Changes like these produced many challenges as I began my search for well over fifty stations that once flashed their signals across the southwest.
"Bald Mountain", a perfect name for the prominence was renamed "Glassford Hill" in honor of the Department of Arizona's first Signal Officer, 1st Lieut. William A. Glassford. Lt. Glassford worked with the heliograph, possibly as early as 1885, when he first reported to Fort Whipple.
Granite Mountain, instead of Glassford Hill, might have been Whipple Barracks' connecting heliograph station with the outside world except for the efforts of 2nd Lieut. C. W. Fenton, of the 9th Infantry, for it was he who reconnoitered the 1890 heliograph line that would extend from Whipple Barracks to Ft. Verde. It was Fenton's honor to report that Bald Mountain (Glassford) would be a superior station to Granite, and what they probably called "Baldy" would also be able to connect with Bakers Butte north of Payson. Not only would Baldy shorten the line twenty miles, but it would also be much easier to ascend than Granite Mountain. I'm sure the young lieutenant was greatly relieved when Bald Mountain was chosen for the station instead of the towering Granite Mountain.
During Fenton's reconnaissance, he 'talked' with Whipple's 1st Lieut. L. D. Tyson, also of the 9th Infantry, and then made contact with the Fort Verde unit on Squaw Peak on March 15, 1890. He had with him a detachment of four signalmen, and at 11:45 a.m. exchanged messages between Whipple and Verde.
Contrary to popular opinion, Glassford Hill is not visible from the foremost portion of Prescott Valley. The mountain seen I call "Lessor Glassford", or "East Glassford," it being about fifty feet less elevation than Glassford, is, however, all part of the Glassford Hill complex. If you want to be sure it is Glassford, look for the radio towers on its top.
The 1890 practice was the first time the heliograph was put to work over such a large area since General Nelson Miles used it extensively in his campaign against Geronimo in 1886. A handwritten message regarding its use during the 1886 campaign is dated June 6, 1886, and is from Major Beaumont, Ft. Bowie's commander, to General Miles in Willcox: "Heliograph reports four indians going south passed station No. 5 - Antelope springs at dusk last night. I have ordered Budd to send Couriers to Hub Ext at Bisbee Canon and Budd to Cross sulphur springs valley south of West and try to strike trail and follow - it is out of my dist. but I suppose my troops are nearest to no. 5."
Numerous rumors have persisted regarding the use of the heliograph in Yavapai County. One is that it was used by the Army against Indians. I have been unable to uncover any documented evidence that the mirrored communications device was ever used against any Indians in the southwest except during the Geronimo campaign. The heliograph did not arrive in the Prescott area in any quantity until almost ten years after the Indians on the Date Creek and Camp Verde Reservations had been forced to march to the San Carlos Reservation in 1875, a trek now called "The March of Tears" by the Prescott Yavapai Indian Tribe. Accordingly, there was little, if any, need for protection from the Indian people in the Prescott and Verde areas after 1875. This is not to say there wasn't any heliograph activity in the area, there may have been, but I've simply been unable to find any reliable evidence.
Its also been reported that there was a heliograph station on Mt. Union. Again, I have been unable to find any evidence to substantiate this; besides, such a station would not have been visible from either Fort Whipple or Bald Mountain, so that any direct communications between it and those stations would have been impossible.
Finally, there have been persistent stories regarding a heliograph line running between Fort McDowell or Fort Whipple to Fort Union in northern New Mexico. Such lines were discussed, but they were neither reconnoitered nor constructed.
There was, however, reconnaissance for a line between Fort Mohave southwest of Kingman and Whipple Barracks. Lance Corporal Green left a dairy of the exploration, which took place in May 1890, which would have been during Volkmar's practice. Corporal Green was among several men from Fort Mohave who volunteered to establish the signal line for heliograph, flash lantern, flag and torch communications between Fort Mohave on the Colorado River and Whipple Barracks at Prescott. The distance was stated to be 166 miles. His detachment left the fort on May 6th with a lieutenant, a sergeant, Corporal Green, five privates, and one trumpeter and passed through the town of Hardyville located eight miles above the fort on the "left bank" of the Colorado . A four-mule team and wagon left the fort on the day before with the detachment's provisions and bedding, and a teamster and cook.
The men traveled from Mohave to Whipple, and while en-route climbed two mountaintops, which were deemed suitable for communications stations. As described in the diary, the first site appears to have been on Rocky Peak near Union Pass eighteen miles west of Kingman, and the second was on Hualapai Peak ten miles southeast of Kingman. The Hualapai Peak station would have been visible from Granite Mountain, which, in turn, could have connected directly with Whipple or Glassford Hill. The heliograph line distance from Fort Mohave to Granite Mountain via Rocky Peak and Hualapai Peak would have been only 131 miles, with the longest distance, 63 miles, being between Hualapai Peak and Granite Mountain. There is no record of the line ever being installed.
Next week: what we do know about the heliograph stations at Whipple and Glassford.
James Riddle is an outdoorsman who is considering publishing a guide to the Heliograph stations in the Southwest. He may be contacted at 445-4245 or kd7aoi@arrl.org.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(Book 335-09 Mil) Reuse only by permission.
The network of Heliograph stations (a system to send messages over great distances using sunlight reflected off mirrors) covered much of Arizona and New Mexico as shown by this map. Glassford Mountain, between Prescott and Prescott Valley, was the site of the station that Fort Whipple used around 1890. This map comes from an original at the Army Library at the Pentagon.