Castle Dome Mine Museum and Ghost Town, Yuma, Arizona

I first rode out from Yuma 40 miles on my street Harley only to stop after fishtailing and thumping over the lose gravel and corrugating of the last 8 miles of gravel road before the Museum.  I turned around and returned with my Ford truck and dog, Madigan.  The last stretch of gravel road would be fine for cars and enduro motorcycles.  I would have liked the glory of riding into the old town on a motorcycle considering it began as a horse and stage place in 1871   Since cowboys and miners had trucks in later years my Ford was fine.  I had my black leather cowboy hat from Mexico and the black bart leather vest and riding boots.

The ladies at the entrance were beautiful and endearing sharing all manner of information about the history of the town. I bought a piece of galena, the silver lead rock and suggested I’d buy sparkling galina jewelry for my girlfriend if they had it.

“Not if you liked her. The mine was known for the silver but during the wars it was the lead in the galena silver that kept it going.” 

“It’s a pretty metal but of course lead wouldn’t be healthy for earrings.”  I laughed and settled for a local fridge magnet. This bright and vivacious lady told me about the Spanish searching for Gold in the south west in early 1700 but the silver here only being found in the early 1850.  She talked of extraction and transportation.  A stage line would come through the town linking with other mines. 

They have guided tours but I’d just missed the last one.  Given the story telling and knowledge of the guide I’d go again with my girlfriend. I took the self guided tour and was told the dog was welcome on that. He loved it.  An excellent walk for the two of us because beyond the town there was a series of mines and outlying buildings that made for a good hike. I think I was there for over 2 hours enjoying everything but only seeing a fraction of what was displayed. 

I loved how there was the stage and saloon display from the earliest years and how each building represented an era with the later ones having vintage sports cars from the 60’s.  I enjoyed seeing the ‘ringer washing’ machine that I remember my homemaker mom getting and how it reduced her weekly laundry day from all day to a half day.  I couldn’t help think of my engineer father who would have loved to see the progress of machinery. The early mines were literally holes dug in the ground with advancing years bringing more and more elaborate pullets and lifting machines for the extraction.  

I loved the ‘3:10 to Yuma’ sign at the stage coach depot. Laura and I had watched the famous western movie when she was here on the holidays. I couldn’t help but think how she’d enjoy it, the milliner exhibit and the 19th century hats.  The church was lovely and a vintage organ that church organist Barry would have been fascinated by.  My geologist nephew would have loved the assayer’s office had samples of ore, weights  and the chemicals used for testing.  I couldn’t help but think of my childhood friend Kirk who loves natural wonder and would have enjoyed this quintessential western setting with  surreal mountains and extraordinary cacti.  In someways the distinctive Castle Dome mountain looked like something left by space ship.  I imagined it having a mystery interior yet to be explored.  

The whole town which once had 3000 people is on the outside of the Proving Grounds for the American Army. This is where they test all the new artillery and have the longest range in the US. There’s a stationary blimp high in the sky looking over the area and en route from Yuma I passed a turn off with a couple of mobile howitzers at the entrance.  I loved the trip with the south west scenery, the spectacular skies,views and fauna.  

I took countless pictures and would go again.  I’d read comments and worried about rattle snakes as one expressed worry but neither Madigan, my cockapoo, or I encountered any and I expect there’s no greater fear of them here that any where else in the south. Certainly if one stayed on the well marked trails there’d be no fear. I kept Madigan on my leash and was ready to clean up after him if he chose to poop rather than pee on every stone.  We were respectful in the buildings though something about the smells of the bunk house had him starting to lift his leg in a corner.  I liked the cabin on the first site where the early miner had encountered native marauders.  Then to come across vintage sports cars at far of the trail  from where the stage coach had been at the beginning.   Just an amazing exhibit and so well presented.  I really did feel I was walking through time and got a sense of early miners and the work entailed in extracting the silver. Man and his love of shiny things.  

It was all a different era and yet here it was once alive with people and industry now a ghost town.  The rusting old cars from the turn of the century and some of the rusting machinery speak to how little an impression we make in the reality of the earth time. I like that people have done the work to ensure that the era is not forgotten.  This was truly the west even though it was a brief period, in which the change in a hundred years,  was still amazing.  It speaks so highly of man’s ingenuity. Progress and industry.  I loved Caste Dome Mine and Ghost town. I look forward to coming back again. .

Dentist office

The Cafe

She’d seen men killed before. She didn’t like it.  The waste.  She couldn’t believe God went to all the effort of creation to have it knocked off so suddenly like that. It happened in Nature though. All manner of things lived and died. So why should man be different.  The Bible said thou shalt not murder.  It wasn’t murder if the men involved were just too stupid to take warning.  Some did that. Pride and stupidity.  She had thought that of the Hodgkin  Brothers.  Not too bright but thinking themselves so clever.  The young man was different.

He’d stepped away from the horses not wanting them to be involved. He’d then finished the business almost casually.  She watched him.  So fast but sure and his face had not shown anything but necessity. He’d clearly not wanted to be involved either but his first thought was for the horses.

Then he was tying his own horse outside the cafe and she felt her cheeks grow red.  

“The sheriff told me this was the best place to get a meal.” He said.  

“I’m glad he did,” she replied.  He sat at a table with his back to the wall watching the door way as she stood next to him taking his order.

“I’d like coffee and steak and eggs easy over, if that’s available. Maybe some buns too. I like milk in the coffee if you have that.”

“I do. It will just be a few minutes to make up. “. 

He watched her return to the kitchen, her yellow dress complimenting her blond hair.  She had white shoes.  He couldn’t remember if he’d seen white shoes like that. Most of the shoes ladies wore to church were dark. Otherwise they wore laced boots or cowboy boots like the men.  It’s was whiteness of the shoes that caught his attention or her attractive calves that became visible as she walked.  He had thought her very attractive when he walked in and she’d smiled.  Her voice had been lyrical as well and he liked how her blue eyes engaged his.  It had all happened so quickly like a gun fight but this was the opposite. This was something he definitely wanted.  

He mused about normal life and what it would be like when he finished this business about his brother.  He only knew the name of his brother’s killer and wondered if these men he’d fought might be part of the gang who’d killed his brother.  It had taken his brother 2 whole days to die in pain and anguish. During that time he’d said, “It was Pan. That’s what the other men called him.  He was short, bow legged wth black hair and beard.  He had a scar on his forehead.  Maybe a knife.”  The doctor had given him morphine for the pain so he was in and out of consciousness, wanting to be present and to talk but all to quickly experiencing so much pain he cried for the morphine.  It was a terrible death. His brother was a good man. The best.  This Pan fellow was just a murderer.  

She brought the coffee first and a while later the plate of steak and eggs with buns.  He prayed his thanks before he ate.  It was wholesome and delicious.  

She came back to freshen his coffee and enjoyed watching him eat with such joy.

“This is delicious, ma’am, I’ve been on the ride for days but even if I not been  I’d say this is one of the best meals I’ve had . The buns are perfect. Everything is .”  

She beamed at his praise and he enjoyed her shy smile.  She left him to finish eating returning only to refill his coffee.

“I saw you shoot those men,’ she said, awkwardly

“They gave me little choice.” He said.

“I saw, but I also saw how you protected the horses by moving away from them.” 

“I guess I did,’ he smiled, “it wasn’t any fight of theirs. ‘

“May I ask what brings you here. To Hedley?”

“I’m on the trail of the man who killed my brother.  I heard he was with a gang in these parts.  Have you heard of the name Pan.”

“I’ve not but those men you shot, I believe I over heard them mentioned that name. They might know more at the logging camp a few miles north.  It’s an unusual name, that’s why I remember.”  

‘That sounds then like I’m on the right track.  Thank you ma’am?”  He said standing.

She watched him pick up his hat , leaving twice what the meal had cost.   She watched him go out the door.  Tall. Certain.   He untied his horse mounting and headed out of town. 

Death Canyon

The glint in the dawn light  had tipped him off to a rifle barrel poking out from behind the boulder. He was grateful to have noticed it. Better alive than dead, he thought as he slipped off his Appaloosa pony slapping her butt to return the way they’d come.  Bent nearly in two he ran zig zagging into the shadow of the boulders.  Kneeling in the relative protection he looked about for more signs of what he could only assume was an enemy.  Friends didn’t wait with rifles on lonely canyon trails. This must surely be an ambush. By who he couldn’t tell but someone with malice in their heart was surely out there. 

Leaving the refuge of the boulder he ran another little distance to another boulder further along before taking a look at where he’d seen the rifle glint.  Sure enough there it was and he could just see a hat above a head that appeared to be watching his horse which had run a short distance before stopping and curiously waiting.  

The boulders here were such that he could run a bit further without risk of being seen and perhaps get beyond where this fellow was waiting.  He did that and looking saw that another fellow was similarly waiting with a rifle pointed along where he’d come.

He could have shot thes fellows if he was sure they’d been waiting for him but he couldn’t imagine he was of interest to anyone.  Maybe they were waiting for someone else?

He edged further around the last boulder so he could have an eye on both the strangers before he shouted, “Hey you there. What are doing?’

Well, that got a response.    The first one hardly taking a sight with his rifle fired off a shot at the sound of his voice.  The bullet hit the rocks somewhere near.  The other stranger was just as quickly lifting his rifle to do the same.

There didn’t seem much else to do at that point.  His rifle was up when he’d called and they were both plainly visible so he shot the second one first before levering a second shot into the 30:30 rifle and plugging the first one.  That man had taken a second shot which merely chipped off more rock near him.

Standing over them he saw his shots had been lethal.  He might have shot to wound and have one alive to help solve the mystery of what they were doing, but his daddy had taught him long ago, shoot for the mass and shoot to kill.  “Wounded animals are a lot more dangerous than dead ones.”  

With a whistle his horse,  Sadie, appeared beside him nudging him affectionately.  Taking the lead he followed him walking to where two more horses were loosely tied further back in the big boulders.  He took their leads and walked them back to their previous owners.  He’d checked the bodies for identification taking their wallets, two rifles, and pistols as well as some cash  He’d laid this all on the ground beside them.  There was value to their horses and guns but he thought the crows and coyotes had more value to them than he had at this point.  So he left them lying there  Putting their rifles in their horses scabbards and their pistols in his saddle bad, he tied their horses to follow. He mounted Sadie and headed further into the canyon.    

Not an auspicious beginning of the day but he was alive and they were dead.  He thanked God for this. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me came to mind.  Grace and mystery were on his mind and heart as he continued on keeping to the shadow in the canyon as the sun slowly rose in the day. 

The Young Ones, (Bad Land: Road to Fury) movie

The Young Ones, directed by Jake Paltrow is a western science fiction movie released in 2014 but which just came out on Netflix.  We watched this Irish South African production last night and really enjoyed the spaghetti western with a twist flavour.  Placed in the future after a drought farmers struggle with the lack of water and the high cost of irrigation. I thought the movie was about the American Mid West. It has that John Steinbeck 30’s barrenness about it.  Characterization is its strength.  The young rebel without a cause character takes the old man with an achilles heal’s land and daughter. But his son sees through the deceit.  A classic Western of the  Louis L’Amour genre unfolds.  It’s a Shakespearean plot.  But the robot that replaces the donkey keeps the whole show grounded in the future. I loved the robot wagon.  The injured mother is further able to walk because of modern robotic assistance. But the gun is an over and under, rifle and shot gun, not dissimilar to one I’ve owned myself.  Laura and I were mesmerized by the movie, loving it to the inevitable but twisting intriguing end.
Nicholas Hoult  plays Flem Lever the motorcycle riding woman’s man bad guy with a gift for character transformation like that of Jack Nicholson.. He starts out as a misguided youth and evolves to a truly psychopathic character whose reasoning and words are so believable yet not.
Elle Fanning plays the daughter, Mary Holms in a totally believable way.  Early her character is so down to earth and adolescent it holds together the family that is spiralling out of control with events of the day. But her tour de force performance  in the ending shows a grit as great as Nicole Kidman’s frontier women portrayals.
Michael Shannon plays the father Ernest Holm, whose achilles heel is alcohol. It’s cost his wife her legs but she still loves him deeply.  It will be his undoing but he tries desperately to fight against this disease, his personal demon, in a quiet wholly believable way.
Aimee Mullins plays the mother Katherine Holms.  Despite her invalidism and the futuristic high tech solution she comes across as almost saintly.  Amazing personal actress.
Kodi Smit-McPhee plays the son Jerome Holm and is quite simply amazing.  He is the movie. His characterization and transformation and Hitchcock surprise developments and twists make this a movie of all time. He is like a young Laurence Olivier or Richard Burton. A man for all seasons.  Still waters run deep.
The rest of the cast were excellent and the unHollywood European pace was superb.  The stark otherworldliness of Giles Nuttgens cinematography will probably haunt me.

Jake Paltrow is a great writer.      

Ralph Compton - bushwhacking back shooting western writer

I just spent the day reading a Ralph Compton novel. It was advertised, “If you like Louis L’Amour, you’ll love Ralph Compton.”  Well, I love Louis L’Amour.  I love Zane Grey.   I think Ralph Compton is yellow bellied shit.  When Louis L’Amour wrote westerns the good guys were straight shooters.
Not Ralph Compton.  He’s no better than the scoundrels he’s guns down. I finished reading the book only to find it was ‘carried on’ to the next novel. It was Book I of how many I don’t know.   But there was no advertising that it was Book 1. I wasn’t warned. I was bush whacked.
Consequently, I’ll never read another Ralph Compton.
(It was published by Signet Books of Penquin Books.  If the decision to be immoral and a low down reader thieving yellow belly was not made by the author but some bean counter in the industry, then hopefully the Texas Rangers or Pinkerton's will hang that son of a bitch.  My own guess is that a Penquin can walk more upright than a slithering Compton.)

Appaloosa - a novel

Robert B. Parker is one hell of a western writer.  He 's landed himself smack middle of the tradition of Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. I can hear a Johnny Cash ballad as I read his writing. He's that good.  Appaloosa is about lawman Virgil Cole and his side kick Everett.  The story is told mostly from the viewpoint of Everett, ex military Indian fighter who teams up with Marshal Virgil Cole to cover his back with 8 guage shot gun..  There' Bragg the killer renegade rancher rich politician type and some gunslingers and Indians.  And of course there's Allie.  The name kind of reminds one of Ali McGraw and the Sundance Kid.  She's got a thing for the main stallion whether he's good or bad.  A kind of Eva Braun girl.  Like any good western there's a subtext morality play that's lying deep down in this one.  Something about rules of conduct.  I thought of Crosby, Still and Nash's song "If you are on the road, you need a code which you can live by."  Each person has a kind of code and Everett and Virgil even mention the great American philosopher Emerson though mostly the book hearkens back the military genius Clauswitz.  I couldn't put it down. It's was that simple.  Wise and deep and full of intricate action.  But not a word too many or a word too few.  When I finished I wanted to slap a cowboy hat against my jeans and ride into another Robert B. Parker adventure.

Prairie Fever

This is a great western. Well, a great woman's western. Alright, a great western. Kevin Sorbo plays the grief stricken alcoholic ex - sheriff Preston Biggs who gets the job of taking three mentally ill women,(Dominque Swain, Jillian Armenault, Felicia Day) , to Carson City. He does this to pay his bar tab. The women aren't just crazy with prairie fever but each has a remarkable story and make profound transformations on the real and psychological journey. Bigg's not only has to address his alcoholism but come to terms with the influence of Olivia the 4th woman on the journey escaping from her hustler gambler husband, Monty James, played by Lance Henriksen. Olivia stands up to her past and makes herself a new future. All this is happening against a background of ex convicts gunning for the sheriff who put them in jail and men gunning for women. It's a great story. A terrific western. Sorbo who played Hercules and the captain in futuristic Andromeda makes a great cowboy, doing a transition from uncaring burn out to someone he once was. Great psychological drama but just as fine gun slinging scenes with real women and real men. Terrific mules, beautiful horses and wagons and uplifting western family fun. Very creative writing and quite brilliant writing by Berman. Bridgewater and Cass directed it and. I loved it. Thanks.