AUGUST 7, 2013 • RIM REVIEW | 5
RIM HISTORY RIM HISTORY BACK WHEN | STAN BROWN
RIM COUNTRY PLACES
CHAPTER 24: MOUNT ORD
were wildcat operations. One of The lofty Mazatzal Mountains those miners was Dick Robbins, presented the formidable barrier living back in a deep canyon with to the Tonto Basin, and had to be his wife. He owned a little shack breached if the army and pio- nearby where he let a prospector neers were ever to settle the Rim live, but a young ranger came in Country. From the Valley of the and tried to get them off governSun they studied the silhouette of ment land. Columbus “Boy” this mighty range, noting its sev- Haught told the tale to Ira Mureral massive peaks. It became phy how Dick Robbins stood his clear that to construct a road ground. over the mountain, the most rea“So this forest fellow came in sonable route would be up there, some dude out of the East, Sycamore Creek (which emptied and told Dick, ‘Who lives there?’ into the Verde River And Dick told him. He near Fort McDowell) said, ‘Whose house is and around the masit?’ and Dick said, ‘It’s sive Mount Ord. That mine!’ Well he says, peak, about in the mid‘He’ll have to move out dle of the range, would of there.’ And then he be named for General said, ‘Whose chickens Edward O’Connel (sic) are these?’ Dick says, Ord commander of the ‘They’re mine!’ ‘Well Arizona Military Deyou’ve got to get rid of partment in 1869. these chickens!’ And STAN BROWN Construction of the on he went, ‘Whose military road began in fruit trees?’ ‘They’re October 1867, and during seven mine!’ ‘Well you can’t raise fruit months of construction the sol- trees in here; these will have to diers endured unrelenting at- go! Who put that sign up at the tacks from Apache and Yavapai road?’ ‘I did!’ ‘Well that will have bands. The road passed around to come down, and when I go out Mt. Ord on the east, and pro- of here I’m going to take that sign ceeded down to Tonto Creek. A down.’ few miles up Reno Creek a mili“So after a while Dick said, tary outpost was established ‘Now I’ve listened to you; now named for another army general, you listen to me. That man is Marcus A. Reno. The dramatic going to stay in that house as events of building the military long as he wants to. And I’m road and establishing Camp going to keep on raising chickens Reno are among many in a long here. And I’m going to keep my line of stories that make up a orchard. And I’m going to keep compendium of local lore. If the my garden. And when I go out of mountain has eyes it can relate here that sign better be up there so much that happened in and at the road or I’m going to look around it. [1] you up!’” In 1903 a mineral other than Dick Robbins reported that he gold was found in the shadow of hadn’t seen that forester since, Mt. Ord, and it became the cen- and the sign was still up. [2] ter of much of the mountain’s A more legitimate mine was 20th century history. By 1920 the the old National Mine, also Arizona Mining Journal would known as the Sunflower Mine. In state, “The Mazatzal Mountains the 1960s a group geology class have acquired the reputation for from the Valley approached the cinnabar, an ore of mercury ...” mine for their studies, when an Mercury is extracted from veins aged, bearded miner stopped of cinnabar — a soft, flaky, red- them with his hand on the sixdish brown rock. After being shooter strapped to his belt. He mined it is tumbled to finer demanded to know their intenpieces and laced in a vertical fur- tions, and when they protested nace called a retort. It is heated they were just students he let with coke until the mercury va- them go on.[3] porizes and rises to the top of the Traveling the old single lane furnace. It then goes through a Beeline Highway around the series of u-shaped tubes where west side of Mt. Ord, after it rethe gas is condensed into liquid placed the old military road and mercury, often called quicksilver. the Bush Highway, the route Put in 76-pound flasks it be- went down through the main comes very valuable and in the street of the Goswick Mine camp. 1960s the price of a flask had The green miners’ houses on eirisen to $537. ther side of the highway were fiSome of the mercury mines nally eliminated completely
Rim Country Museum archive
The old Goswick camp serving the mercury mine; years later this road would become the modern Beeline Highway.
when the Beeline was modernized into four lanes, and later the divided highway finished the job of covering old landmarks. Wesley Goswick, born in 1884, was one of the Rim Country’s early settlers. He prospected and mined, and with his wife Mary, worked on the Pyle ranch. There they buried their two little ones, Willie, age 4, and Rosie, age 2, who died of diphtheria. They moved to Roosevelt to work construction on the dam and when it was completed Wes and Mary divorced. While living with his daughter and her husband, Belle and Alfred Packard, in Tonto Basin, Wes hunted and prospected. In 1920 he found cinnabar on the side of Mt. Ord. The Goswick camp became a thriving little village. Members of the Tonto Tribe worked there, according to Vinnie Ward. [4] The Goswick mine was bought in 1929 by Mercury Mines of America, but closed in 1932 during the Great Depression. Wes Goswick moved about, suffered a stroke in 1939 and died in 1943. In 1936 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) erected a firewatch tower on the top of Mt. Ord. The 7-foot square, pre-fabricated steel cab was built by the Aermotor Co. of Chicago, famous for their windmills and tanks from 1888 until the company went out of business in the 1960s. To enable access to this isolated spot, a narrow switch-back road was blazed for nine miles from the mercury mine on Slate Creek to the top of Mt. Ord. Remnants of their culverts and retaining walls, so beautifully constructed by hand of native stone and hand mixed cement, can be seen yet
today. In 1983 the Forest Service announced that the historic tower would be replaced. The Phoenix chapter of the National Association of CCC Alumni petitioned to salvage the upper 22 feet of the tower and the cab. They planned to place it as a monument in the South Mountain Park of Phoenix. A lack of volunteer labor resulted in the artifact being placed at the Blue Ridge administrative site near Saguaro Lake. When the Museum of the Forest (later the Rim Country Museum) was being established by the Northern Gila County Historical Society, leaders such as Jim Lipnitz and Don Dedera worked to save old Mt. Ord tower and incorporate it into the museum. Since federally owned objects could not be sold to individuals, only to other government entities, the Town of Payson intervened and took ownership of the fire watch tower, in turn donating it to the Historical Society. It was brought to Payson by a crew from Arizona Public Service, erected and refurbished by volunteers from the Historical Society and placed beside the museum and the original Payson Ranger Station building. It was rededicated in May of 1991 and stands as a permanent display to educate future generations. As one views the mighty Mt. Ord from the Tonto Basin or from the modern highway that skirts its side, a rush of history and wonderful stories comes to those initiated into the world of Rim Country Places. NOTES
[1] For a full story of Camp
Stan Brown photo
Stan Brown stands by an old cinnabar furnace near Mt. Ord.
Reno see “The Tale of Two Rivers,” a book about pioneer settlement by Stanley C. Brown, available at the Rim Country Museum. [2] From oral histories by Ira Murphy in Rim Country Museum archive. [3] Reported by Payson Roundup sports writer Max Foster. [4] 1970 interview with Houser, in Rim Country Museum archive.