Shanley Camp, Littlefield

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS AZ-3-E. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Littlefield vicinity, Mohave County, Arizona Shanley Camp is located on the Shivwits Plateau about 75 miles south of St. George, Utah, in township 30 north, range 11 west, section 15 (Gila and Salt River Meridian). Its geographic coordinates are latitude longitude (North American Datum of These coordinates represent the southwest corner of the site s cabin.

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS AZ-3-E. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Shanley Camp is the second to southernmost of seven line camps within Waring Ranch, a large cattle-grazing operation on a remote plateau north of the Grand Canyon in the Arizona Strip. Jonathan Deyo Waring assembled the ranch between about and and operated it with the assistance of foremen and hired cowhands into the late Shanley Camp comprises a cabin, a corral, and a fenced-in series of three stock tanks for watering cattle.

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS AZ-3-E. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Shanley Camp, a component site of Waring Ranch, was documented by the Historic American Landscapes Survey of the Heritage Documentation Programs of the National Park Service. The principals involved were Richard O Connor, Chief of Heritage Documentation Programs; Paul D. Dolinsky, Chief of the Historic American Landscapes Survey; and Jeff Bradybaugh, former Superintendent of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. The documentation was produced during the summer of by project supervisor Christopher Stevens, landscape architect, with Anne E. Kidd, architect; Alexander Matsov, architect; and R. Benjamin Lawrence, landscape architect intern. The large-format photography was completed by James Rosenthal. Jet Lowe created the aerial photography.

The historical report was written by historian Michael R. Harrison in SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 2) Related Documentation: For detailed information on specific sites within Waring Ranch, see the following HALS documentation: Waring Ranch, HALS AZ-3 Horse Valley Ranch, HALS AZ-3-A Pine Valley, HALS AZ-3-B Green Springs, HALS AZ-3-C Spencer Camp, HALS AZ-3-D Dinner Pocket, HALS AZ-3-F For additional context on historic ranching and economic activity within the boundaries of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, see: Tassi Ranch and Springs, HALS AZ-2 Pine Ranch, HALS AZ-4 Grand Gulch Mine, HAER AZ-78 PART

Historical Information

Shanley Camp was one in a series of line camps used by Jonathan Deyo Slim Waring to operate his ranch on the Kelly Point plateau north of the Grand Canyon. The history of the camp is given below. For a more complete discussion of the natural and historical context of Waring s entire ranch, see the narrative overview in HALS No. AZ-3 (Waring Ranch). Shanley Camp appears to have been first developed by rancher William Shanley sometime between and Federal surveyors who passed through the area in or noted that Shanley had a camp at Dinner Pocket a mile to the southwest but it and a small corral on line bet. secs.

15 and 22, about 1/2 mile south of the Shanley Camp site, were the only improvements in the township.1 By however, Shanley had built a fence and taken steps to build an earthen stock tank at the site, and he quitclaimed these to fellow rancher and sometime partner Jonathan Waring that year as part of a wider transfer of improvements from one man to the other throughout the Kelly Point plateau.2 Despite Waring s purchase of Shanley s improvements, neither man owned the actual land at Shanley Camp. The surrounding territory was in the public domain until when it 1 Federal surveyors field notes, Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office, Book pp. 72 73, quoted here from a summary document located in the Waring Ranch files, Grand Canyon- Parashant National Monument headquarters, St.

George, Utah. 2 Quitclaim deed from William Shanley to J. D. Waring, Mar. 27, Waring file, Bureau of Land Management Offices, St. George, Utah. SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 3) formed part of a land grant made by the federal government to the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Company. Waring purchased the site from the railroad in Waring appears to have built the camp s cabin in the after purchasing the land, as the lumber for it was reportedly milled at Green Springs, where a sawmill was in operation from Waring sold Shanley Camp back to the government in for management by the National Park Service as part of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.5 Since Shanley Camp has formed part of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. PART II. PHYSICAL INFORMATION A.

Landscape character and descriptive summary Shanley Camp sits approximately 9 miles south of the Waring Ranch headquarters at Horse Valley, about a third of the way down the Kelly Point Plateau. The site is moderately forested with Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) and pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) trees interspersed with fields of scrub brush and grasses. The generally flat landscape contains a row of earthen water reservoirs encircled by fencing, plus a wood cabin and a corral. The site is isolated but accessible via the Kelly Point Access Road, a single-track, rocky dirt road that runs through it and connects it to other points on the plateau. B. Character-defining features 1. Natural features a. Topography: Shanley Camp lies at an elevation of ft.

along the course of a natural drainage the runs southward toward the head of Price Canyon, about a half mile beyond the end of the camp. The silty loam that makes up the soil is heavily littered with basalt rocks. b. Vegetation: Utah juniper trees and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) dominate the site. Also seen are pinyon pines, cholla (Optunia plus a few ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) trees and many grasses. 3 Serial Land Patent No. Mar. 20, [Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co.], Land Entry Files, Records of the Bureau of Land Management (RG National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, Mike Belshaw and Ed Peplow, Historic Resources Study, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada (National Park Service report, Aug.

Santa Fe Pacific Railroad Co., Release beginning Whereas, by deed dated February 1, Waring land files Lake Mead National Recreation Area headquarters, Boulder City, Nev., folder Lands, Waring, part 1 of 2. 4 Belshaw and Peplow, Historic Resources Study, 5 The relevant warranty deed for Waring s sale of Spencer Camp to the federal government appears in Waring land files SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 4) c. Water: A meandering natural drainage runs through the site from north to south. The camp s earthen stock tanks are built along the path of the drainage. After passing beyond the last tank, the drainage continues south for a half mile before emptying into Price Pocket at the head of Price Canyon.

The drainage is dry most of the year, but water collects seasonally in the stock tanks and in nearby Price Pocket. 2. Designed features a. Land use (spatial organization): Shanley Camp is defined by a roughly rectangular fenced enclosure about 250 wide x long that contains a row of earthen stock tanks built along the path of the drainage. The dirt access road runs along the western edge of the enclosure. The cabin lies west of the road toward the north end of the site, and the corral interrupts the fence line on the east. b.

Circulation: Although the access road is the only formal path at the camp, pole gates (all with barbed-wire horizontal tensioning lines in place of cross poles) along the perimeter fence indicate where cattle and ranchers once passed from the surrounding country into the enclosure. Three are clustered at the enclosure s southeast corner, where two lines of fence outside the enclosure define approaches to the gates. Another gate appears at the northwest corner of the site, and a final one breaks the fence about midway along the west side, some 190 south of the cabin. c. Views and vistas: Although the plateau is only about 2.5 miles wide where the camp is, the nearest canyon rim remains of a mile away, and no vistas of the spectacular surrounding canyons are available within the camp. d.

Constructed water features: The primary features at Shanley Camp are the three earthen ponds or tanks created along the drainage to collect seasonal runoff for the purpose of watering cattle. The path of the drainage was modified to create the earthen stock tanks. At the north end of the camp, the drainage curves around a berm of earth left from the excavation of the first and smallest tank, a depression about 80 long x 120 wide. South of this tank, the drainage broadens into a wide, low field 435 long x 200 wide which functions as the second tank. The drainage narrows again at the southeast corner of this field, jogs around another earthen berm, and then widens into the third tank, about 260 long x 180 wide.

A berm varying from 3 to 12 in height made of basalt field stones and earth bounds this final tank along its south edge. The drainage continues its natural path to Price Pocket from the southeast corner of this tank. e. Buildings and structures: Cabin. The 15 x 15 single-room cabin is constructed of 8 x 8 square-sawn timbers stacked horizontally in even tiers with square, lap-jointed corners. The building rests on a native-rock foundation bound together with concrete. It has a high pitched roof with gables to front and rear covered in galvanized-iron sheet roofing. Mineral- surfaced roll roofing partly covers each gables. The interior has a plank floor resting on joists morticed into the sill timbers of the east and west walls.

Additional joists at ceiling height support planks and fiberboard panels inserted to screen the interior of SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 5) the roof from view. Entry is through a single wood door in the south wall. Light is admitted though a three-over-three-light single-sash window cut through the north wall. Two matching windows abut one another on the east wall; one retains its original six-light glazing, but the other has been replaced by a single pane of glass. The window sashes are wood. The cabin was once heated by a wood-burning stove that vented through a metal stove pipe; this chimney is now detached from the roof and hangs suspended by one of its guy-wires in front of the south wall. A thick concrete slab functions as a stoop outside the cabin door.

A 12 x 4 feeding trough, also constructed of 8 x 8 square-sawn horizontally stacked timbers, is attached to the rear (north side) of the cabin. Two iron hitching rings fastened to the exterior of the cabin on either side of the window allowed horses to be tied up at the trough. The eastern ring remains, but the western ring is now missing. Former Mount Dellenbaugh fire lookout Mack Miller told historian Mike Belshaw in that the timber for the cabin was milled on the sawmill at Green Springs, which would date the cabin s construction to the period Corral. The corral at Shanley Camp lies about 290 east-southeast of the cabin, on the east side of the fenced enclosure. The corral forms part of the fence line and is made from upright juniper logs lashed together with barbed wire.

A gate made of milled lumber on the west side of the corral allows communication between the enclosure and the corral. The corral is about 6 tall x 30 across x 55 long. f. Small-scale features: The perimeter fence at Shanley Camp is constructed of juniper- log posts supporting seven lines of two-strand barbed wire. Some areas of the fence contain woven-wire fencing, and parts of the fence are anchored to trees in the landscape. Additional lines of fence radiate northeastward and northwestward from the upper corners of the enclosure. They continue for miles across the plateau, although their exact extent and pattern have not yet been mapped. g.

Archeological sites: National Park Service surveys have found extensive scatters of Native American artifacts from a variety of periods in the vicinity of Price Pocket, just south of Shanley Camp, attesting to a long history of native occupation in the area, particularly in the late Pueblo II period (AD 900 Thousands of ceramic, chipped stone, and ground stone artifacts have been found, plus the remains of a number of rock structures.7 6 Belshaw and Peplow, Historic Resources Study, 7 Susan J. Wells, The Shivwits Plateau Survey: Archeology at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Publications in Anthropology 56 (Western Archeological and Conservation Center, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 14, 220 29. SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 6) PART III.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION A. Primary Sources Land Entry Files. Records of the Bureau of Land Management (RG National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, Waring file. Bureau of Land Management offices, St. George, Utah. Waring Ranch files. Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument headquarters, St. George, Utah. Waring land files Lake Mead National Recreation Area headquarters, Boulder City, Nevada. B. Secondary Sources Belshaw, Mike, and Ed Peplow, Jr. Historic Resources Study, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. National Park Service report, Aug. Wells, Susan J. The Shivwits Plateau Survey: Archeology at Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Publications in Anthropology 56. Western Archeological and Conservation Center, National Park Service, U.S.

Department of the Interior, SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 7) FIGURE PAGES Figure 1. The cabin at Shanley Camp, From Patrick D. Nolan, An Appraisal of the Waring Ranch located approximately 95 miles south of St. George, Utah, Waring land files Lake Mead National Recreation Area headquarters, Boulder City, Nevada. SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 8) Figure 2. The cabin at Shanley Camp, From Western Farm Management Company, Appraisal Report of Waring Ranch, Mohave County, Arizona, for National Park Service, Waring land files Lake Mead National Recreation Area headquarters, Boulder City, Nevada. SHANLEY CAMP (SHANLEY TANK) HALS AZ-3-E (page 9) Figure 3. The stock tanks at Shanley Camp, View looking northeast. Corral visible in the distance at left. From Patrick D.

Nolan, An Appraisal of the Waring Ranch located approximately 95 miles south of St. George, Utah, Waring land files Lake Mead National Recreation Area headquarters, Boulder City, Nevada.