Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1904-11-16

I p4dAb6 anu SCNOAdl
 very steep, hard grades to climb. We
 reached Camp Verde at ' 80 in the evening, dusty, tired and hungry. We stopped with George Hance and fam
 fly, very pleasant and home like place. Mrs. Hance, a very affable lady, and her charming daughters made our stay very pleasant. Dir. Hance, man of remarkable memory, possessing fine conversational powers, gave us a very interesting history of early Arizona.
 A few years ago when Camp Verde belonged to Uncle Sam it was beaut- iful fort situated on an elevation ov- erlooking the country for miles around. After the hostiIities with the Indians ceased the camp was abandon ed. Some of the government buildings were purchased by the citizens, others are in state of decay. Camp Verde i; now a wide awake little village, 1.-two stores, postoffice, church, school building, two saloons, and an eating house. There are many fine ranches around Camp Verde. MT. Head from New York state, very genial and en- tertaining gentleman of the old school. has charming home, laLd we'll irri- gated, crops fine. All he lacks to make his home complete is wife. He en- t9rtained us pleasantly by showing us his fine collection of Indian relics, and telling us many interesting events which happened during the early days of Camp Verde. He told us a little event that happened quite recently which may be of interest to our read CTS A Tonto Indian woman married Mohave Indian man, which was a violation of the Indian laws. One day while the Mohave men were away from 1 the camp, a number of the Tonto men swo jped down on the women-threat- ened them with death if they made an outcry-carried off the Tonto bride. The husband came to Mir. Head, they always advise with him when they need advice, they look upon him as cZar or great mogul, 10 know what he should do to recover his wife. MT. Head promised to look into the mat ter and find the best way out of the trouble. MT. and Mrs. Wales Arnold, early settlers, thirty five years so- Journers, have a charming ranch home, they are we'll preserved, broad mind ed, advanced people. Both are very fine conversationalists, and related to us many thrilling Indian events which they had passed through and many narrow escapes of having their scaIps lifted which made our hair bristle. MT. Price, mail and stage driver, has fine location and says that if some company will put road through the valley he would give them allthe land they needed for depot and other build ings.
 We drove out to the MonteZuma cas- tie Cliff dwellcrs' ruins, three and one half miles from Camp Verde. High above the creek stands the white cliffs, a very imposing and beautiful si yht. The castle contains twenty two rooms, is reached by means of three ladders, each about thirty feet long. At the top of each ladder is landing, lead ing into the dugo its or rooms. At the top of the third ladder is the cas- tie proper. The front is walled up with cobble stones and mud, the door about four feet high, window and loop holes for peeping out and shooting their enemies. A few years ago a number of mummies were dug out of the walls of this castle. The ladders were placed there by gentleman who was visiting the castle in the interest of the Smithsonian institute. We left the castle at o'clock in the after noon for the Montezuma we'll or rather a stopping place just beyond the we'll, which is twelve miles from Camp Verde. Taking the advice of visitor at the castle, we took a short cut through the canyon instead of return ing to the main road, the way we come. We lost our way, wandered around for some time before we struck the road so our short cut proved to be a long cut, delaying us quite good deal. The road over the mountain was very good and the scenery fine. Two miles from our destination the shades of night fell upon us just as we reached deep canyon through which we had to pass. The moon, just waking, shining dimly through the trees, was not of much assistance to us; one of the party .had to get out and locate the road. After many mis- givings we reached the bottom of the canyon, found ourselves in a rocky creek bed. We saw a light shining from a window of small house and