Page 28 - Wood Plenty, Grass Good, Water None

junipers he had observed east of the San Francisco Peaks. M u c h of the juniper in that region is one-seed juniper, which is difficult to distinguish from Utah juniper but tends not to have large, single trunks. I find it hard to believe that he was comparing the trees near Ash Fork with the alligator juniper at higher elevations. That species has a distinctive bark and consistently produces massivetrunks.Many large,oldalligatorjunipersare present today in the region Whipple traversed before descendingtoAshForkandwereundoubtedlypresent then.
AlongthedrainagewheretheycampedonJanuary3, he notes: "Small alamos and willows cover the banks." Ifoundneithercottonwoodsnorwillowsinthisarea.A few small Arizona ash are the only riparian vegetation now present.
Lieutenant John Tidball 'sjournal (typed manuscript, University of Arizona Library) becomes available on January 3 .His isthe only additionaljournal covering this reconnaissance mission. For this day, Tidball notes:
the scrub cedars into such position as to cut off from view the wide intervals between them: thus giving the landscape an appearance of a dense forest, the dark hue of which suggested thename 'BlackForest.'Itisinrealitynoforest at all."
In his diary, Tidball continued on January 3:
"Bill Williams Mt. bore N. 70 degrees E. and was about 15 mi. off. The top of San F. could notbeseen.FromthishillwetookaW.N. W. course, winding down through the ravines upon the side of the hill, which upon this side was about 15 hundred feet. The descent was exceedingly difficult and hard upon the mules from the hard angular, volcanic stones of which themountainsarecomposed.We thentravelled along the dry ravines and rolling grounds to our presentcamp 19thwhichisuponastreamrun ning westwardly, dry however except in holes. The snow, which Isuppose was lighterinthis long, had entirely disappeared. Grass good."
"Travelledabout10m .W.N.W.Firstascended
for a mile up the westerly base of the ravine
uponwhichweencampedtothetopofahigh
hillormountainfromwhichwecouldseethe
wholecountryroundfor50mi.FromtheWest
to the S .E. of us extended ranges of mountains:
apparently three running somewhat parallel to
eachotherthenearestabout30mi.off.The descendingthewestendoftheMogollonRim.Much intervening space between them and us was a
gently rolling country covered to a great degree with cedars and cut with many ravines."
Inthisentry,Tidballnotesthatthecountrybefore themiscoveredwithjuniper,buthedoesnotconsider itdense.Itseemsthatthedistributionofjuniperwas similarin1854towhatitistoday,althoughthedensity mayhaveincreased.Asmentionedabove,basedupon Whipple'snotethattheredcedarsnearthepresentAsh Forkdrawwere"largerandfiner"thanpreviouslyseen, wecanconcludethatatleastsomeofthejuniperstand here was mature woodland.
In a recently-discovered heretofore unpublished description (Tidball, 2004) of the trip, Tidball notes:
" A species of cedar, hardly worthy the n a m e of tree,isfound inmost localities,and frequently gives the landscape the appearance of an old apple orchard. The wood of these cedars is extremely brittle;aslightwrench bringsoffthe stoutest1imb,andaxesarenotrequiredinobtain ingfuel." Later,indescribingtheJanuary1 drawing, he wrote: "In looking southward from the San Francisco plateau the lay of the coun try—gradually slopingdownwards—brings
oftheareahereismadeupofsandstone.Thevolcanic materials, however, flow to the bottom of the rim along the route depicted in figure 9.
NeitherWhipplenorTidballprovidemuchinforma tionregardingtheexactrouteorcampsiteforJanuary4. Nordotheydescribevegetation.Whipplenotestheyleft thebasalticsoilsandenteredtheregionofsandstone. Figure9showsapossibleroute,butitispurelyspecu lative.TheymoreorlessparalleledPartridgeCreek, stayingtoitseast.Theycampedsomewherenearthe hillnowcalledEagleNest,whichmayhavebeenthe hill they climbed on the evening of the 4th.
The route on January 5th is even more difficult to trace, but the party ultimately turned east and headed toward N e w Year's Spring. Whipple notes:
"Soon the forest became so dense that,not only could we not see beyond, but could scarcely make our way through. At length, having trav elled about fifteen miles, we came to the end of the range, and saw Bill Williams' mountain before us."
Thisisthefirsttimetheycommentondifficultyin passingthroughthejunipers.AsbestIcandetermine,
Tidball's compass bearing on Bill William's Mountain, and his note that the San Francisco Peaks were hidden, help to identify the hill they climbed the morning of the third, and I feel confident of its location. His description of the volcanic rock where they descended the rim also delineates their route in
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USDAForestServiceRMRS-GTR-177. 2006.