Day Five: Beauty along the Way

Almost eight hours of driving again but for much of this day, instead of fighting traffic,  I was mesmerized by landforms and taking in interesting details.

Such as, supply trains that are longer than anything I’ve ever seen streak across the wide open spaces with great frequency.

First, I noticed that the freight cars were double stacked necessitating a tow by two engines. I counted 144 cars.

Then, there was a second train behind the first,  three engines pulling. After 100 cars there were two more engines inserted, followed by another 100 plus cars.

I stopped counting the cars on the other trains I passed, but marveled at the power of those locomotives as they power through the vast desert, bringing things to us, useful or not.

This place,

is named Texas Canyon though it’s in Arizona. It was another one of those power places that just draw me to them. I went into this one, not deep, because the access road was chained due to weather. But deep enough to walk a bit, to contemplate  aeons.

A couple of hours driving later, I felt the need to get out and walk again so  just turned off at an exit with nothing really to call attention to it. Sometimes those are the most interesting.

As I came off the freeway, I spied a home painted sign on the corner that said, Shakespeare Ghost Town ahead. I laughed. Of course. I now knew why that exit called,  and where I was headed.

Turns out Shakespeare was a major mining community that began life as an overland stage stop in the 1850’s.  There was a reliable spring there, giving fresh water in the midst of the desert, so people began putting down roots.

Silver was discovered in the hills and the rush was on.

William Ralston, the President of the Bank of California, got wind of some small prospecting going on there, so bought up most of the land, which was then named Ralston in his honor. He (and a group of his financier friends) poured resources into building up a town capable of supporting the mineral mining boom that was exploding. They then announced that diamonds had been discovered in the hills and the rush was on.

Several years of corruption and crime and lawlessness came with their style of management, which included hired guns to keep regular miners away from the land. Billy the Kid, Johnny Ringo, Curly Bill, the Clanton Brothers, Jim Hughes, and Sandy King were frequent visitors of the saloons and may or may not have served occasionally as some of those hired guns.

But the diamond find was soon exposed as the hoax it was, the rich investors fled, and the town emptied.

In 1879, Colonel William G. Boyle, a great lover of the writings of Shakespeare, got his hands on most of the good claims, renamed the town Shakespeare, opened up Shakespeares Gold and Silver Mining Company.  Which flourished until the railroad laid down tracks at Lordsburg, three miles away, instead of Shakespeare.  That was the death knoll for the town and it slowly fell into its role as a ghostly memory until 1970, when it was declared a National Historic Site, albeit one not well known. It is also privately funded by the donations they ask for if you take the tour.  It’s a modest, but rather major, piece of the history of the west.

What a great place to stretch my legs!

Back on the road, pushing ever onward toward Truth or Consequences, remembered fondly from my Antique Festival Theatre tour of 1977.

I booked two nights based on that memory, strengthened by a bit of research.  As I was getting closer, I found myself hoping the little casita would be comfortable and a good little home on the way.  I decided that I would love it no matter what because of the mineral waters in the area, the hikes through that powerful geology, and the history.

I arrived to this gate.

I went inside. It is even better than I remembered!

This is the garden you walk through to get to the casita.

Here is the communal area next to the hot mineral bath soaking tubs I will be sitting in soon.

And here is the little casita I will snuggle into with gratitude.

The doves are cooing right outside my open door as the day winds down.  The air is clean and fragrant from desert trees and flowers.

Oh, I am at peace.