Bisbee daily review., 1921-08-07

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 I'm afraid fl we don't start home pretty soon, we'll get into trouble with muddy roads," observed the camper to a forest guard one day The guard in question was a young man. raised in the nearby country whose principal vocation was COW. punching. His answer was typical.
 Well. brother" he declared. ''I don't wish you any bad luck. but shore hope it'll Iain like hell"
 And it did.
 When it gets wet in the higher reaches of the White Mountains, it IS wet all over. The trees reek of wat CT and when a rider. covered as well as possible, with a slicker. strikes the branches of an overhanging tree ne feeis as though he has just taken an imITCnptu shower bath.
 UnderfOot the roads turn to a soft consistency of mud and water. In addition there appearS to be some thing in the soil that gives it a sur lace. closely resembling that of a pa latial ballroom. That isn't all. for, Oif the beaten tracks. the roads are m rely tracks where wagons and ma chimes have made their way. Exces-
 
 be made. with a high center. Dur ing a rain and immediately following it. these tracks get soft. A car wheel N ill sink. and the axle encounters mud. at best, and sometimes rocks, at worst.
 Slow Travelling
 We were fortunate.
 Leaving the camp, at the foot of old Baldy. We started toward Cooley. Up at 4 o'clock in the morning, we had packed by and at o'clock were on our way. We left Springer vile to the northeast of us, crossing the main fork of the Little Colorado at Sheep Crossing. Although heavy thunder clouds hung on the horizon and had been threatening, in similar fashion, for several days, they failed to materialiZe.
 It was slow work to the forks of the main road between Cooley and SpringeTville. A distance of approXi- mately II miles we negotiated in about an hour and a half. The road was typical. It was a good trail and could be negotiated in dry weather by an automobile, but we pity the machines that attempted the route since the rains set in. We can pie ture them, their wheels entirely sub- merged in mud, their curtains swing ing in the chill breeze, with stray cattle looking on with that quizzical expression that range stock assume upon sighting motorist in trouble.
 Once on the Springerville-Coole road, we imagined our troubles to be over. For three miles the highway was a joy. At Sheep Springs 1t be- came the old road again and from that point into Cooley we lodged pine trees and rocks, along the side of the road, and hoped that the rain god was still busy with his morn ing's correspondence. A couple of drops was all we received and we drove into Cooley in a slight rain, having made four miles in three hours and 35 minutes.
 Cooley
 Cooley, named after an old settler in the country. once an officer Tn the army. is essentially a lumber camp. Iii is quiet now; the machinery is at a standstill. The bunk houses and shacks for the employed of the lumber mill are largely vacant. A couple of obliging men take care of all the trade in the store of the company; a store that would do cred if to many communities ten times the size of Cooley.
 It has been said that Tom Pollock, long power in Northern Arizona, dropped in the neighborhood of $3,- 900 GOO in the lumber enterprise at Cooley and in the railroad that con meets it with the Santa Fe's main line at Holbrook. The plant compares very favorably with any of its kind in the county. Machinery of the lat est and most expensive design in every process of the work was put in. Great buildings of reinforced con crete dot the landscape, a mill pond breaks the monotOny of pine trees and an occasional dwelling, that be- sDeaks pleasant surroundings and modern equipment, comes into the vision.
 Timber for use in the mill at Coo lev is purchased from the Fort Apa- che Indian Reservation. It is hauled into the mill by dinkey engines ana, in finished form, sent to the main line over the Apache railroad. About the time the mill was running prop erly. the boom ceased to be a boom and became a crash. The Apache Lumber Company suffered, with all others. Being war baby, however if had no surplus on which to tlde over the period of depression. !,