Saturday, March 29, 2008 - Mule Creek Road, Guthrie AZ
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Camped along Mule Creek Road, Guthrie AZ, March 29, 2008
I'm camped for the night along Mule Creek Road (AZ 78) in the Apache - Sitgreaves National Forest, about 11 miles east of Guthrie AZ and a mile west of the Arizona / New Mexico border.
Primitive camping along Mule Creek Road
After having spent the night in the first rest area west of the New Mexico border when I came through here a couple of weeks ago I discovered the next morning on my journey down off the plateau there are several really nice primitive campgrounds a few miles farther west that I would have preferred to stay at. I'm at one of them now.
Night camp
Primitive campground along Mule Creek Road East of Guthrie AZ
- No Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here.
- Locate Mule Creek Road on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Heliograph route between Fort Cummings NM and Tubac, AZ
1886 heliograph transmissions between Tubac near Nogales Arizona/Mexico, and Fort Cummings New Mexico: Joe Marques (Flagstaff) was doing some research in old Flagstaff newspapers and found something that might interest. In the Arizona Weekly Champion, Saturday August 7, 1886, page 2 column 1, it says: "A message was recently sent by the government heliograph (signalling by sunlight flashes) from Fort Cummings, N.M. to Tubac, Ariz., a distance of 400 miles, and an answer received in four hours." What a great [research] find! This was during the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, and the heliograph system at that time did indeed extend between the two stations. From Tubac, the most westerly terminus, the intermediate stations were Baldy Peak or possibly Josephine Peak just a little south of Baldy), Fort Huachuca, Antelope Spring, Emma Monk, White's Ranch, Bowie Peak (or Helen's Dome), Steins Peak, and Camp Henely (east of Fort Cummings). This means the message would have been relayed seven times, one way. It most likely was a test message, and relatively short, but I would love to know what it and the reply really said. The 1886 "airline" distance between Tubac and Fort Cummings; and of course on to Fort Cummings. I calculate the one-way distance between the two extremes as being 241 miles, with round trip of course being 482 miles.