Faraway Ranch, East Bonita Canyon Road (east of the entrance into the Chiricahua National Monument from Arizona SR 181), Willcox

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS AZ-10. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

East Bonita Canyon Road (east of the entrance into the Chiricahua National Monument from Arizona SR Wilcox, Cochise County, Arizona. Located within the Chiricahua National Monument (Center of Erickson Cemetery, Google Earth, Simple Cylindrical Projection, (Center of Main House of Ranch Complex, Google Earth, Simple Cylindrical Projection, Figure 1. USGS Map of Faraway Ranch Historic District (USGS, annotation: Erickson, Figure 2. Schematic plan of Faraway Ranch Historic District (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 2

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS AZ-10. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Faraway Ranch is significant for its association with (1) women s history, (2) African American history and (3) Anglo American pioneer history. (1) Women s History The landscape of Faraway Ranch reflects the achievement of a Swedish immigrant to Arizona at the end of the nineteenth century and the subsequent achievement of her daughter during the until the These two women shaped the social and economic patterns of the land from the end of Arizona s Apache wars through the middle of the twentieth century. Emma Sophia Peterson Erickson Emma was born in Sweden in into a well-to-do family. Her mother died when she was born, her father remarried, and her stepmother mocked her dreams of becoming a teacher. With financial assistance from her brother, Emma emigrated to Chicago.

Knowing little English, she worked as a servant for a number of years, then left to become a dressmaker. Subsequently she took positions with families in Colorado and in other places in the West. Eventually she found work for officers families at Fort Craig, New Mexico, where she was introduced to another Swedish immigrant, Neil Erickson, who was serving in the army during the Indian campaigns of the early The couple began an long correspondence, in which Emma tried to convince Neil to remain in the army as a career officer. In Emma came to Fort Bowie, Arizona, to work for an officer s family, but shortly thereafter she found a position running a boarding house.

Meanwhile she was looking for a ranch of her own, and in she purchased a cabin in nearby Bonita Canyon from an earlier settler named Stafford, whose own cabin lay to the east. This one-room cabin had been built by a squatter named Newton, for whom the adjacent wash is named. By this time it was clear that Neil and Emma would be married. Emma had planned to file a homestead claim on the land surrounding her cabin, but when she went to Tucson to do so, she discovered that only one member of a family could file on a single homestead. Not wishing to embarrass her future husband by putting him in the position of living on her homestead, she arranged for Neil to file the claim after their marriage. From the beginning Emma insisted on an orchard as well as decorative plantings around the house.

The Ericksons raised cattle and laid out a vegetable garden. Having found a place to settle, Emma took on the role of social organizer among 1 For the most part, this information for this is drawn from Betty Leavengood, "Faraway Ranch: Chiricahua National Monument Headquarters: A Survey of the Correspondence in the Riggs-Erickson Collection," (Collection of Lauri MacMillan Johnson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 3 the rancher families in Bonita Canyon, arranging splendid Christmas parties and showing others how to preserve fruits and vegetables. The main house was enlarged a number of times, eventually becoming an area showplace with a collection of exotic flowering trees, shrubs and perennials setting off a grass- covered yard.

Emma and Neil had three children, all of whom received an excellent education, thanks to Neil s appointment as a forest ranger in the Chiricahua Forest Preserve, at that time a national forest adjacent to Bonita Canyon. Of the three, the oldest, Lillian Sophia, was the one who would take over leadership from her mother in the following generation. Lillian Sophia Erickson Riggs Lillian, born in went to Galesburg, Illinois, to stay with relatives while completing high school in Then she returned home to teach school for five years, briefly dating (in a local rancher s son, Ed Riggs, who sixteen years later would become her husband.

After teaching in local schools for five years, she returned to Galesburg to complete a degree at Knox College in In Lillian s sister Hildegard came up with the idea of charging for the numerous guests who stayed with them while they took advantage of hunting, camping and riding in the Chiricahua Forest Preserve. At first Lillian was opposed to the idea because she felt that people might look down on them, but when she saw how successful the project was, she became enthusiastically involved. With money from Lillian s work as a teacher and income from the guests, the sisters were able to purchase the adjacent Stafford homestead to enlarge their business.

During this period, Lillian came up with the name Faraway Ranch , because it was so god-awful faraway from everything .2 Emma and Neil moved away from the ranch at this time to follow Neil s Forest Service appointments, and the two girls ran the boarding enterprise on their own. Although men are frequently mentioned in connection with the development of western dude ranches, it is clear that in this kind of economic undertaking women excelled as organizers, publicists, managers and entertainers.3 When Hildegard married in and moved away, Lillian took over the guest ranch. In she married Ed Riggs, whose first wife had died of smallpox. Together they began to develop the facilities, building a swimming pool and a tennis court and adding additional cabins for guests.

In time, their efforts led to the designation of the Wonderland of Rocks as the Chiricahua National Monument in 2 Ibid., 35. 3 Lysa Wegman French, Chiricahua National Monument: Faraway Ranch Special Use Study (Santa Fe, NM: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Intermountain Regional Office Cultural Resource Management, Historic Preservation Programs, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 4 Many guests returned year after year to enjoy riding, hiking and picnicking. Lillian took advantage of her mother s memories of her early years in Bonita Canyon in marketing her enterprise, emphasizing the Apache threat and other aspects of the Wild West. Visitors toured the Monument on horseback, picnicked and swam.

At night movies or slides were shown on the side of the main house, or sing-alongs were held in the parlor. Faraway also remained a working ranch with around 200 head of cattle, and guests had the opportunity to participate in ranch work, sometimes to the chagrin of the working cowboys. Lillian, like her mother, was an astute businesswoman, and she kept in touch with her guests with frequent updates and an annual Christmas letter. Despite this, the were hard. Competition increased as many neighboring ranches also began to take in guests. By Lillian became completely blind as a result of on-going medical issues after a fall from a horse in Still, she did not give up.

She tried to learn braille and learned to type, writing a fictionalized account of her life.4 She inspected her cattle and accompanied her guests on fieldtrips, recognizing locations by memory and instinct. Lillian continued to manage the property on her own after the death of her husband in relying on the help of a neighbor, J.P ( Andy ) Anderson. But during the the ranch became more a retreat for old friends and trusted visitors than a completely commercial enterprise. Despite her failing health, the ranch continued to function until the late When family members died, they were buried in a private cemetery at the mouth of Bonita Canyon. This cemetery, with its metal fences, headstones and Arizona cypresses reflects characteristic burial practices of the period.

Lillian, however, was buried in the Riggs family cemetery, outside the canyon. Summary Two generations of strong women adapted the landscape of Bonita Canyon to their needs as they responded to changing demands and economic options. As a northern European immigrant woman, Emma set out to fashion a better life in a new country, working and saving in order to achieve a secure economic and social position. The main ranch house with its landscaped yard reflects her achievement. Her daughter Lillian preserved her inheritance by developing the property as a guest ranch, improving the facilities to create a resort with activities drawn from the resources offered both by the land and by her mother s story.

The presentation of the ranch as part of the legend of the Wild West and the development of the Chiricahua National Monument reflect her work. During a period dominated by the stories of male achievement, both women left their signatures on the land. 4 Lillian Erickson Riggs, Westward into the Sun (Tucson, AZ: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Western Archeological and Conservation Center, 5 A.T. Steele, "The Lady Boss of Faraway Ranch," The Saturday Evening Post no. 37 FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO.

AZ-10 PAGE 5 (2) African American History A military camp was established in Bonita Canyon during the final United States campaign against the Apaches in During this year, Buffalo Soldiers African American troops of the Tenth Cavalry were stationed here to guard a spring in the canyon, as well as to observe any movement of potential hostile groups through the area.6 The military camp highlights the role played by African American soldiers in the development of the Arizona borderlands. In the United States Colored Troops who had fought in the Civil War were disbanded. A year later, however, Congress passed an act leading to the formation of six regular regiments of segregated African American troops, one of which was the Tenth Regiment of the U.S.

Cavalry.7 These troopers were dubbed Buffalo Soldiers by the western Indians, who compared their hair to buffalo hides. As had been the case also during the Civil War, white officers commanded the troops. In the entire Tenth Cavalry was ordered to Arizona to defend the United States borderlands against the Apaches. General George R. Crook masterminded the final campaign against the group of Apaches led by Geronimo, a leader of the Chiricahua Apache band. Crook s strategy focused on controlling desert water sources and the trails that linked them, thereby limiting possibilities for the Apaches, who had fled to Mexico, to cross the border back into the United States. In the spring of General Crook was replaced by Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles, but the strategy remained the same.

One of these water sources a perennial spring was located in Bonita Canyon. The level topography of the lower canyon also offered an excellent site for a military camp, and a natural lookout with a 360 view of the area from the sharply rising hills to the south provided an outstanding observation post. This lookout was enhanced by the strategic placement of shaped stones. H Troop of the Tenth Regiment was deployed to the canyon to monitor the spring as part of what the troops referred to as the waterhole campaign .8 Captain Charles L. Cooper commanded the troop, and he and his daughter Forestine took up residence in the squatter s cabin on Newton s Wash. At one point, E Troop, commanded by Captain Joseph M.

Kelley, joined H Troop, and the number the soldiers in the canyon rose to over a hundred men with attendant horses and mules. The canyon could not supply adequate feed for them, and hay was imported through nearby Fort Bowie. The Staffords, whose homestead claim included the spring, provided vegetables and beef to the camp to supplement 6 Information in this section is drawn for the most part from Martin D. Tagg, The Camp at Bonita Ca on: A Buffalo Soldier Camp in Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona (Tucson, AZ: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Western Archeological and Conservation Center, 7 Ibid., 25. 8 Ibid., 36. FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 6 canned food supplies.

The soldiers duties included serving as couriers and tracking down small groups of Apaches who stole horses or were merely passing through. The day-to-day routine, typical of most isolated frontier posts, provided little of on-going interest. It has been suggested that this monotonous existence may have fostered construction of a memorial to honor the assassinated president James A. Garfield. Garfield had commanded African American troops during the Civil War and was known to respect the abilities of his soldiers. This monument was an approximately 10 x 10 x 10 stepped structure constructed of hand carved native rhyolitic stones, many of which included names, initials or other symbols.

It had deteriorated badly by the early and Neil Erickson tried and failed to interest NPS in maintaining it. Eventually Lillian and Ed Riggs had the remaining stones incorporated into a fireplace in the main house in an attempt to preserve them. Archaeological investigations of the located the monument base, which is still in place. Summary The presence of the Tenth Cavalry in the canyon as part of the final campaign against the Apaches provides a context for the subsequent homesteading of Faraway Ranch after the war. Although the larger tale of the Buffalo Soldiers in Arizona does not appear to have been assimilated into the stories told by Lillian Riggs in her efforts to place the guest ranch within the framework of the Wild West, the Apache conflict most certainly was.

The site of the military lookout became a favored location for visitor photographs, and the carved stones of the Garfield monument became a conversation piece when viewed in the chimney of the dining room of the main ranch house. The story of the military camp in Bonita Canyon illustrates one of the many roles played by African Americans in Arizona. (3) Anglo-American Pioneer History The Stafford log cabin and surrounding landscape represent the earliest known homestead established in Bonita Canyon. The cabin was built in by former soldier Ja Hu Stafford9 and his teenage wife Pauline Madsen Stafford.

At the time they arrived in the canyon, the conflict between the United States and the Apaches had not been resolved, meaning that the couple faced both the possibility of Apache attack and the opportunity to sell produce and beef to the troops posted to nearby Fort Bowie. In they also sold supplies to the 9 Ja Hu is a variant spelling of the Biblical name Jehu. FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 7 military camp in Bonita Canyon itself.10 After serving in the army from Ja Hu operated a public house in Oregon, ranched and worked as a salesman. He then traveled to Colorado and, in to Utah. His age is not certain, but he was probably around forty when he met and married twelve-year-old Pauline Madsen, the daughter of a Mormon immigrant from Denmark.

Both Ja Hu and Pauline were baptized into the Mormon faith before they left for Arizona in They found a place of tall grass and a good source of water in Bonita Canyon, and, with winter settling in, they constructed a one-room cabin of unpeeled logs adjacent to the creek. The threat of Indian attack was always with them during the first years, for the Chiricahua Apaches, led by Geronimo, were hiding out in the surrounding Chiricahua mountains after an uprising at the San Carlos reservation in northern Arizona. According to Stafford family tradition, the well was located inside the cabin for security, and at times it is possible that the Staffords took shelter at Fort Bowie, some thirteen miles to the northeast.

The final scare took place in when the Chiricahua Apache Massai stole a Stafford horse as he came through the canyon with his pregnant wife, whom he was escorting to the San Carlos reservation. Initially the Staffords raised chickens and put in a garden, which was watered by a spring to the east of the cabin. By some accounts, this was a hot spring that made it possible to grow vegetables even in the winter. Unfortunately, this spring disappeared with the Great Sonoran Earthquake of and an irrigation ditch from the creek was dug to replace this resource.11 Produce and eggs were sold to Fort Bowie and, later, to the military camp in the canyon. By the time Ja Hu proved up on his homestead claim in the couple had planted an orchard and were running cattle.

The Staffords first child a daughter, Reveley - died at birth; she was buried in the southern part of the homestead, which had by that time been planted as an orchard. Subsequently they had six more children, five of whom lived to adulthood. Although they added a second room to their cabin before the cabin was very small for such a family. Finally, in Ja Hu added a lean-to addition to the west side of the house.

Pauline died in childbirth in and the youngest Stafford child lived for only 10 Material in this section is drawn from Dewey Livingston, "A Pioneer Log Cabin in Bonita Canyon: The History of the Stafford Cabin: Historic Resource Study." (San Francisco: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, I regret that the digital format of this publication makes it impossible to cite individual pieces of information with page numbers (there are none). 11 In Ja Hu made a claim for all water on his homestead, plus a right of way for an irrigation ditch to his garden. FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 8 several months, cared for by Ja Hu.

After the death of this child, Emma Erickson, living just to the west, assisted Ja Hu in raising the other children; they referred to her as Mother Erickson or Grandmother Erickson . After Ja Hu died in his daughter Clara continued to manage the homestead, becoming involved in an argument with the Forest Service over grazing rights. (The Monument was a National Forest at the time.) Lillian became interested in the property and purchased it in using it to house additional visitors to the guest ranch. During the guest ranch period, the cabin served as the eastern anchor of guest facilities surrounding a meadow (formerly the orchard). A garage was added, and the addition was moved to enlarge the Bunkhouse, another cabin on the property.

Summary The Stafford homestead is significant as one of the early homesteads of Anglo- American homesteaders in eastern Arizona at the end of the Apache conflict. Raising cattle, chickens, fruits and vegetables, the homestead supplied not only the Staffords subsistence needs, but those of other area residents and the military. The log cabin next to the creek, the rectilinear remains of orchards and garden fence lines, the traces of the irrigation ditch and the baby s grave provide insight into the lives of these pioneer settlers. Lillian s subsequent transformation of the homestead into a guest ranch property illustrates how an ambitious entrepreneur capitalized on this history to provide a context for guests to experience the Wild West.

Description: The Faraway Ranch Historic District lies in lower Bonita Canyon, adjacent to Bonita Creek, which runs from the mountains out onto the flat plains below. The lower reaches of the canyon, which include the non-contiguous cemetery area, is broad and level, but hills close in and rise sharply to north and south in the area of the main house and Stafford Cabin. The cemetery, roughly 20 by 30 in extent, is sited at the mouth of the canyon.

It was sited in this location in response to a request from neighboring rancher who was killed by a fall from a horse in Earlier Louis Prue had asked to be buried under the oak tree on the slope where he could see his cattle passing on their way to water in the canyon.12 Ornamental metal fences surround two separate sections: the eastern section contains Prue s grave; the larger western section contains the graves of the Erickson family.

Lillian is not buried here, 12 Louis Torres and Mark Baumler, Historic structure report, historical and archeological data sections : history of the buildings and structures of Faraway Ranch, Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona (Denver, CO: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service Branch of Planning, Alaska/Pacific Northwest/Western Team, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 9 however, but in the nearby Riggs family cemetery, outside the boundary of the Monument. Hills rise up sharply behind the cemetery to the southeast; wide views of the creek and canyon open to the northwest. An oak tree, possibly the same under which Prue wished to be buried, shades his grave, and one of two original Arizona cypress trees remain in the Erickson cemetery section.

These cypresses are said to have been planted by Neil Erickson.13 The main part of the Historic District lies to the east, approximately a mile further into the Monument along the park road. Figure 3 provides a schematic diagram of elements to be discussed. Figure 3. Schematic Diagram of Faraway Ranch Historic District (Erickson, The existing NPS parking area marks the general vicinity of the military camp (A). This flat area is where the tents and parade ground were located and where the Garfield Monument was built.

The remains of the monument, which was centrally located in the camp area, are now found in a fireplace on the east side of the main house dining room Newton s Wash formed a geographical boundary between the camp of the enlisted men and Captain Cooper, who lived in the cabin that formed the core of the Faraway Ranch main house A bluff rises sharply behind this house, offering the Buffalo Soldiers a 360 view of the area, including the spring (F) that disappeared after the earthquake of This observation post is in a natural cup, approximately 8 x 12 surrounded in part by a low wall of shaped stones. It offers a view of the site of the camp as well as the area of the former spring.

This spring rose in an area where the escarpment to the north of Bonita Creek and the escarpment to the south narrowed the canyon, and any movement through the canyon would have to pass through this confined space. Newton s Wash also plays a major role in the location of the buildings that form 13 Ibid., FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 10 the main ranch area. To the west of the wash are clustered the maintenance areas of the ranch. These include a small barn with tack room, storage space, a circular corral with a loading chute, and a single story bunkhouse for ranch workers (used for guests during the guest ranch years). A footbridge across Newton s Wash links the Cowboy House to the main ranch house area to the east.

To the west, between the wash and the NPS parking area, is a large stock tank measuring approximately 150 across. It was originally fed by a windmill. The tank is dry today, and the windmill is not functional. A level area to the west of the stock tank marks the site of a former orchard. Across Newton s Wash to the east are the remains of a generator house built of fieldstone with cement mortar and a rubble stone pig pen. Both are located to the north of the main house, separated from it by a row of Arizona cypresses. These are now mature trees, but they may originally have been planted to screen the utilities from the main ranch building. A utility dirt access road runs along the east side of the wash, separating an office/storage building and a multi-car garage from the main house.

The main house (B) was remodeled a number of times. The original one-room cabin, built around close to the edge of Newton s Wash, was razed in The present structure is built of stone and adobe, incorporating a stone house believed to have been constructed in in case of Indian attack.[14] Improvements to the house continued through the by which time it had been modernized into a two-story cube, with porches on the southwest corner of the first and second floors. A dining room with a fireplace was added to the east side, covered by a shed roof. A well (now covered) is outside the east door. A swimming pool of poured concrete is located to the northeast of the main house.

On the west of this is a stone terrace, leading down to a large rectangular fenced area where the vegetable garden was located. Water for the pool, as well as for the house and garden, was pumped up by a windmill to storage tanks from a well located in the former orchard area to the east of the main house. Two of these tanks remain on the slope today. The windmill no longer exists, having been replaced at some point by an electric pump. A fenced yard, terraced to the south and west, surrounds the house with a grass lawn. Of the flowering trees Emma established, only a few pear trees remain to the northeast of the house adjacent to the swimming pool, and one in the northwest corner of the yard. There is an apricot near the north door.

A cotoneaster is located near the northwest corner of the house. Periwinkle grows along the west fence line, and two bridal wreath spirea frame the path that leads from the southwest corner of the yard to the front door. 14 Ibid., 33. FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 11 A dirt boundary road runs along the east side of the main house leading down towards the creek. Across Bonita Creek to the north this boundary is continued by a stacked stone wall running up the steep hillside to a rock outcrop above. The former Stafford orchard to the east (the area between B and E) is now a meadow, studded with junipers. Only a few persimmon trees remain in the southeast section of the area. Traces of a branching irrigation ditch designed to bring water from the creek are visible on the land today.

If this ditch pulled water from Bonita Creek, the level of the creek floor must have been approximately six feet higher at that time than it is today, when the flow of the creek is intermittent. Along the creek, retaining walls of stacked stones were installed, perhaps to prevent flooding or to straighten the water course. A poured concrete dam, in poor condition, is located on the creek to the east of the Stafford cabin (E). Two additional lodging facilities were located opposite one another across the Stafford orchard area: a cabin (the Martha Stark Cabin), which burned in and of which only foundations remain; and the Bunkhouse, a masonry and frame building which incorporated a former addition to the Stafford Cabin.15 A dirt road runs across the orchard area to link the two sites.

Slightly to the east is the grave of the Stafford s first child, Reveley. The headstone of the grave is framed by two yuccas. At the eastern end of the district is the Stafford cabin. It is reached either by a dirt road running along the southern side of the valley or by a trail running along the edge of the creek. A row of Arizona cypresses provides shelter from the western sun and sets it off from the former orchard area. The cabin has an eastern porch, and a garage attached to the northwest corner. Circulation patterns reflect the historic use of the district. The main road originally the main road into the Monument runs along the south side of the valley.

Utility roads run north from this road to access the corrals and barn, the garages of the main ranch house and the site of the Martha Stark cottage. A footbridge across Newton s Wash links the cowboy house to the main house area, while the main road and another utility road ford the wash to the southwest and southeast of the main house. Today an NPS trail links the main house and the Stafford cabin along the southern bank of Bonita Creek. There is a clear hierarchy between the main road and the utility roads that branch off from it. The area dominated by the guest ranch is tucked into the lee of the southern hills, with views of the valley between Newton s Wash and the Stafford cabin. Views also take in the hills to the north, across Bonita Creek.

From the sharply rising southern hills, there are numerous panoramic views of the valley as a whole. 15 Ibid., 82. FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 12 History: From prehistoric times Bonita Canyon was home to the Chiricahua Apaches, who were descended from Athabascan-speaking nomads who came to the southwest from the southern plains during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.16 At the time of the Apache wars, their territory included most of southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern areas of Sonora and Chihuahua. Following the Civil War the United States launched a major military campaign to resolve the conflict between Anglo settlers and the Apaches.

The first National Homestead Act was passed in allowing heads of households or persons at least 21 years of age to file for 160 acres of land. A homesteader had to live on the land continuously for five years, cultivating a portion of the land for the final four years. The availability of free land encouraged Anglo settlers to move into areas formerly dominated by the Apaches. In a reservation was established in southeastern Arizona, but this was dissolved in with the lands being opened for settlement. The Apaches, led by Chiricahua medicine man and warrior Geronimo, moved back and forth across the border with Mexico during this period.

Fort Bowie, just northeast of Bonita Canyon, was established in to monitor access to Apache spring, and in Bonita Canyon was chosen as an ancillary military camp garrisoned by the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers. During their one-year assignment to guard the spring in the canyon, to serve as mail carriers and to cut off any Apache escape routes through the canyon, they built a monument of hand-cut, inscribed rhyolitic stones to honor assassinated President James A. Garfield. Garfield had commanded African American troops during the Civil War and was known to admire their fighting abilities.

During the end of this period of conflict with the Apaches, former soldier Ja Hu Stafford and his teenage wife, Pauline Madsen Stafford, settled in the canyon and made claim to a homestead there.17 They built a one-room log cabin and planted vegetable gardens and an orchard, raised chickens and ran cattle. A spring in the eastern part of their claim provided water for their agricultural efforts, and it was easy to dig wells, given the high water table. In addition to providing for themselves, the Staffords sold produce and beef to Fort Bowie and to the military camp in the canyon.

Geronimo surrendered in the same year that Emma Peterson Erickson purchased a cabin from the Staffords, a cabin originally built by a squatter 16 Material in this section is drawn from information in Paul Hirt, "The Transformation of a Landscape: Culture and Ecology in Southeastern Arizona," Environmental Review 13, no. 4 17 Material is drawn from Livingston, "A Pioneer Log Cabin in Bonita Canyon: The History of the Stafford Cabin: Historic Resource Study." FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 13 named Newton.18 Her husband, Neil Erickson, subsequently filed on the land surrounding the cabin. Together they worked towards establishing a stylish home, including gardens and orchards.

Ultimately the squatter s cabin underwent many alterations and was eventually demolished completed, and a gracious two-story house surrounded by a lawn and exotic plantings stood instead. Well water, drawn by windmills, provided water for their plantings. In addition to growing fruits and vegetables, they raised chickens and pigs and ran cattle. During this period both homesteads ran cattle on grazing leases from the adjacent Coronado National Forest (now the Chiricahua National Monument). Cattle had a major impact on the land of southeastern Arizona during the last two decades of the nineteenth century through soil compaction and overgrazing.

This practice led to an increase in mesquite, juniper, oak burrowweed, senescio, snakeweed and exotic grasses, which crowded out perennial native grasses. Lack of vegetative cover and soil compaction led to greater runoff, deepening stream and wash channels. The building of retaining walls to avoid flooding also helped to scour channels more deeply. It was also during this period that the rectilinear patterns of the grid were imposed on the natural landscape as homestead boundaries and field lines. In the cemetery was established with the burial of Louis Prue, another pioneer settler whose homestead lay just outside the entrance to Bonita Canyon. Eventually all the Ericksons except for Lillian were buried here.

From with the purchase of the Stafford cabin by Lillian Erickson (Riggs), the guest ranch became the major economic driver in the canyon. Efforts by Lillian and her husband Ed Riggs to develop the Wonderland of Rocks striking rhyolitic rock formations in the adjacent Coronado National Forest into a tourist attraction led to the creation of the Chiricahua National Monument in Also during the Lillian and Ed added a swimming pool and tennis court to the ranch s facilities and built the Bunkhouse . The Martha Stark cabin was added in This completed a circle of guest facilities surrounding the former Stafford orchard area.

As Lillian grew older and completely lost her sight in the late and the the ranch became less of a commercial enterprise and more a retreat for old friends and trusted visitors. With Lillian s death in the National Park Service arranged to buy the property, which was added to the Chiricahua National Monument in 18 Material is drawn from Torres and Baumler, Historic structure report, historical and archeological data sections : history of the buildings and structures of Faraway Ranch, Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona. FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 14

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS AZ-10. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

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Washington, DC: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Steele, A.T. The Lady Boss of Faraway Ranch. The Saturday Evening Post Torres, Louis, and Mark Baumler Historic structure report, historical and archeological data sections : history of the buildings and structures of Faraway Ranch, Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona. Denver, CO: United States Department of the Interior, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 16 National Park Service Branch of Planning, Alaska/Pacific Northwest/Western Team. Utley, Robert Marshall A Clash of Cultures : Fort Bowie and the Chiricahua Apaches. Washington: Office of Publications, National Park Service.

Source document Quoted word for word from HALS AZ-10. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Helen Erickson P.O. Box Tucson, AZ June 24, HALS Challenge Entry: Documenting the Cultural Landscapes of Women Figure 4. Hillside boundary wall, looking southeast downslope toward Bonita Creek from the northern hills (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 17 Figure 5. Stone-reinforced channel of Newton's Wash to the left of the Cowboy House . The footbridge in the background was constructed in the historic location by NPS (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 18 Figure 6. Bonita Creek retaining wall, looking northwest from the meadow area (Erickson, Figure 7. Concrete dam on Bonita Creek, east of Stafford Cabin, looking east (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 19 Figure 8. Military lookout, facing northwest (Erickson, Figure 9.

View of main house and water tanks from the southern hills, facing north. Note the rectilinear layout of the property (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 20 Figure 10. View of Bonita Canyon, looking west. The main ranch house is in upper left, the Stafford cabin in the lower right (Erickson, Figure 11. Watering trough, pole fences, gate, corral, looking west from barn (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 21 Figure 12. Barn and corral, looking east (Erickson, Figure 13. Stock tank and windmill, looking north (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 22 Figure 14. Main house, looking northeast. Note the row of Arizona cypresses on the left (Erickson, Figure 15. Swimming pool, looking north/northeast (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 23 Figure 16.

Garden terracing behind main house, looking southeast (Erickson, Figure 17. Field edge wall, looking north across the meadow (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 24 Figure 18. Juniper fence posts in meadow along Bonita Creek trail, forming a right angle with the field edge wall, looking west (Erickson, Figure 19. Looking east to cypresses and Stafford cabin from the trail along Bonita Creek (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 25 Figure 20. Reveley Stafford gravesite, looking south (Erickson, Figure 21. Traces of irrigation ditch in former orchard near main ranch road, facing north (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 26 Figure 22. Stafford cabin from southeastern ridge above, looking west.

Note the afternoon shade provided to the cabin by the Arizona cypresses (Erickson, Figure 23. Stafford Cabin looking north/northwest from southeastern ridge. Note location adjacent to stream (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 27 Figure 24. View of cemetery, looking southeast. To the left is the Prue gravesite shade by an oak; to the right is the Erickson gravesite with a mature Arizona cypress (Erickson, Figure 25. Historic oak tree at Prue gravesite (Erickson, FARAWAY RANCH HALS NO. AZ-10 PAGE 28 Figure 26. View looking north across Bonita Creek from cemetery (Erickson,