By Stan Brown
George Crook turned forty-three years of age three months after taking command of the Military Department of Arizona on June 4, 1871. He came with almost twenty years' experience, having graduated from West Point in 1852, fought Indian Wars in Oregon and California, and led Union troops throughout the Civil War. During these years he had risen through the ranks to become a Major General. Upon arriving in Arizona his concern was to confine and defeat the Apache bands that were causing havoc throughout the Territory. Their raids on ranches, cattle herds, military and civilian wagon trains were an unbearable threat to the expanding Euro-American settlements. Furthermore, the white invaders cast eager eyes on the potential grazing and mining opportunities in central Arizona, the stronghold of the Western Apaches.
Crook saw that the army had "Apacheria" pinned on three sides: Forts Apache and Thomas on the east, Forts McDowell and Camp Grant on the south, and Forts Verde and Whipple on the west. He realized there was a need to seal off the northern escape route up over the Mogollon Rim. That strategy could be helped by the development of a military road from Fort Whipple to Fort Apache. This would provide staging points for military forays into the Tonto Basin and assure a quick response by the cavalry to raiding Apaches. It would also create a more efficient supply line for the isolated Fort Apache.
One of the first actions Crook took upon arriving in Arizona was to visit Fort Apache and plan to blaze a trail westward across the Rim to Fort Whipple. The old trail went from Fort Apache to the rim-top ranch of Corydon Cooley, an army scout who, with his two White Mountain Apache wives and children, provided a way station for travelers. From there the trail continued north to Horsehead Crossing on the Little Colorado River (later to become Holbrook), and followed the traditional trails to the Verde Valley. It would save one hundred miles and many days of travel time to forge a route directly west across the Mogollon Rim.
In his autobiography Crook writes, "We left for Verde about the end of August, without a guide, being assured that there was a plain trail all the way, which I soon found out to be pretty much a delusion. Our route lay along the summit of the Mogollon Mountains." ('General George Crook, His Autobiography,' edited by Martin F. Schmitt, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1946/1986 page 166.) What is affectionately called "The Rim" is not a mountain in the usual sense. It is a great escarpment running across the state, tilting down toward the northeast. It forms the southern boundary of the Colorado Plateau, and its sedimentary layers have been eroded to form impassable canyons of limestone and sandstone. The only reasonable route from east to west is to stay close to the edge of the Rim. It is like traveling along the top of the world and affords spectacular views of the great forests at its foot and far mountain ranges to the south.
From Cooley's ranch it became evident to Crook that impossible canyon country laid below the Rim as well as north from the edge of the Rim. The route along the edge was not only relatively level, but there were sinkholes, wetlands and small lakes along the route that could provide water. As the surveying party moved west and more deeply into Tonto Apache country, they experienced a frightening episode. John G. Bourke, the general's aide-de-camp throughout the Arizona campaign, wrote, "We were riding along in a very lovely stretch of pine forest one sunny afternoon, admiring the wealth of timber, looking down upon the ever-varying colors of wild flowers and ever and anon exchanging expressions of pleasure and wonder at the vista spread out beneath us; each one talking pleasantly to his neighbor." ('On The Border With Crook,' John G. Bourke, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Sept. 1971, page 141.)
The officers were riding ahead of the small cavalry detachment, when suddenly arrows began cutting the air around them. The power of the Indian bow and arrow is revealed when the soldiers find one of them buried up to its feathers in a pine tree. Every man leapt from his horse seeking refuge behind a tree. Miraculously none of the soldiers, including Crook, was hit. They began firing at the band of fifteen or twenty attacking Tontos, and as the rest of Crook's party caught up to join the foray, the Indians scattered, disappearing into the forest. However, two of the Apaches became cut off from the others, and were trapped between the soldiers and the edge of the Rim. Crook hoped to capture them and extract information about their people, but the two would not surrender. Bourke continued, "There they stood, almost entirely concealed behind a boulder on the very edge of the precipice, their bows drawn to a semi-circle, eye gleaming with a snaky black fire, long unkempt hair flowing down over their shoulders, bodies almost naked, faces streaked with the juice of the baked mescal and the blood of the deer."
The Indians fired their arrows and then turned to leap over the edge of the Rim. The soldiers were certain they had fallen to their chosen death, but upon looking over saw the natives jumping like mountain sheep from rock to rock and making their way down the almost vertical cliff. A shot by Crook wounded one of them whose arm hung limp and bleeding though he continued to make his escape into the forest below.
The military party found themselves at a place where a well-traveled trail comes up over the Rim and heads north. They could not know it at the time, but just below were the headwaters of the East Verde River. From prehistoric times native people had come this way northward on the Moqui Trail to trade with the Hopi and other tribes. Three years earlier, Col Devin had led a scouting party from Fort Whipple over the Rim and into Tonto country at this spot. He forged a switchback trail over the Rim, calling it "the jumping off place" in his report.
Crook proceeded to follow the Moqui Trail about five hundred yards north from the edge of the Rim, hoping to locate a sign of the raiders. Instead they found a meadow and a wetland fed by several springs. There were signs that this was a frequent Apache camp, and Crook realized it would also make an excellent stopping place on his military road. Thereafter, this place was called "The General's Spring," and later came to be known colloquially as "General Springs."
As they planned for the days ahead, it seemed obvious that the way across the edge of the Mogollon Rim was feasible. It was also obvious that they were deep into enemy territory with a very small detachment. The better part of valor would be to head north and somewhat west until they intersected the old road from the Little Colorado. They followed the old Indian trail north until they crossed a deep canyon, probably East Clear Creek. At that point they headed west and eventually came upon the road to Fort Verde.
Check back next week for the conclusion of the General Crook Military Road.
Our readers' thoughts...
posted May 8, 2007
Love these stories...I live in the Mogollan Rim in the town of Payosn,Arizona...I spent time at the 'jumping off place ' last weekend...It is truely lovely,inspiring,awesome. We collected fossil sea shells along the way.
debbie
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(mil159pa)
Reuse only by permission.
Military portrait of General George Crook, c 1880s.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(mil115pa)
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General Crook's detachment of troops formed at Fort Whipple, c. 1878.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(mil225p)
Reuse only by permission.
Captain J.G.Bourke, Azor H. Nickerson and General George Crook, c.1875.