Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1893-08-23
Rolling Around the Range.

reSpOndence MINER. w e rose up and departed from PheniX, one William Simpson and l. Will ian had high wagon and a com pound S-legged motor, called Buck and Bill. William carried alfalfa, grain and fruit. carried light summer coat and gall.
 As We crossed the Arizona canal We waved our red bandanas adieu to Salt River valley and plunged into the smoky, dusty, suffocating desert The bosom of the aforesaid desert was still hot, and We made our virtuous bed that night on the historic banks of New river amid
 izzandS, bull-headed ants, SCOT pions, centipedes, hydrophoby skunks, and thousand other biting, stinging, sucking, clawing brutes that have never been classified.
 During the night, Williams grand and gushing soul asserted itself through a series of complex and diabolical snoreS like a prolonged blast on long belled baritone which had been damaged in the battle of Hohoenluiden. When morning came our eyes opened on the gigantic works of the New River Reservoir Co. There were Swo trenches about one hundred feet long. which looked like they had been prepared to receive the proceeds of the late cholera cpl demic at Hamburg. There was no one in sight. There might have been a lot more work done there, but after hunting around with a magnifer for two hours we failed to find 1t. There is ONE legitimate piece of work there, and that is Smith X Co.'S well, which cuts about To miles of the dry drive from Frog Tanks to the Arizona canal.
 After crushing a few tons of nal pal with our wheels we struck the lower dam of the Frog Tank reser- voir company. Here We found about Is men at work. Viewing the whole work over, 1t is pretty evi- dent that if every man connected with the enterprise was gold from the waist down. they might do all the work that has been laid out.
 At this place the smiling face and genial bald head of Bill Zent lit up the surrounding landscape. Bill Is one of the best men who ever camp ed on Arizona seil.to stay, and with his estimable family Is in business at this place. Just above this place Is Old Frog Tank station, where business is prospering under the generous management of MT. Biler. X burley splutters away at the high bluff across the river, night and day, preparing for the foundation of the big Agua FTia dam.
 Right here I want to record one good point in faver of the Agua Fria reservoir enterprise. It has always paid its men, and unlike many other company enterprises which make a great show on paper, its employees don't have to attach every cog on the work every pay day to get their wages, all the same as the Phenix mine, Catoctin mine, etc. There Is some historic ground around Frog Tanks, and it bids fair to again become q locality of pecul- far importance in Maricopa county.
 Just across the river, not long since, lived a deputy sheriff. l don't know what his other name was. His principal holt before becoming deputy sheriff was tripple entry book keeping. He was appointed deputy by the sheriff of Yavapai county. but his head soon swelled up till he could not get through that box canyon below the shelter, so he got his appointment transfer red 10 Maricopa county so he could operate of down in the open coun- try. His gun sometimes fails to go of, but his mouth NEVER does.
 At the risk of having the light ming strike me, hereby assert that there is no road up Castle creek. It is one uninterrupted waste of sand and boulders from the mouth to the shelter. The swish of sand and the jolt of the juvenile boulder assails the ear of the weary pilgrim and makes Buck and Bright curve their backs like a grindstone, but in vain did we search for the road which the Boss" supervisor recon mended Yavapai county to take un- der its wing.
 At the Hot. Springs We found the grove full of people, beneftting by the waters of this truly excellent re- sort. Half mile above the springs, young Tom Campbell, one of the cleverest boys in the land, is run ming a refreshment stand.
 Jim McGinniss' ranch, near the mouth of the Buckhorn, is blooming like the rose.
 At the shelter most of the people seemed to be of on trip. Mir. Fisher and his excellent lady were in Prescott, while the accomplish ed Miss Rilla was preparing a chick en dinner for the survivors.
 Just here 1 am compelled to give my partner away. Mir. Simpson has a ranch, a good team, a lovely family, and ought to be happy, but there was long felt want in his makeup. He wanted a dog. His opportunity came at the smelter. He swiped a iong-haired spike tailed dog, and tied him under the wagon seat. was accessory after the fact, for l tied a gunny sack over the purp's nose to drown his heart broken cries. We hurried of before that chicken dinner was ready, so as to get out of the coun- try with that dog. I sat in the rear of the wagon ready to signal William if the averaging owner should appear back up the gulch with a winchester We got through to the Springs without incident ex- cept busting Bucks wind and spraining Knights of hook. At the Springs we named the dog "Cleve land, and took him out to water. \ man came out of the brush with a gun. He was the owner of the dog. We were lost, but instead of "comin' a shotin' he set 'em up to us for taking the dog away, and said that if we'd take him clear back to Phenix he'd pack us to take the keeley cure.
 At the shelter | met Tom Camp bell. Sr, the prince of whole-souled Hasayempers and one of the cham pions of the late hog in Walnut 1 Grove. Archie Campbell, who has a host |