Page 76 - Ninety Miles From Nowhere

Those hounds had destroyed our carefully set up camp - knocked over the boxes containing pots and pans, silverware and dishes. They had eaten all our bacon plus wrappings, two dozen eggs including cartons, two pounds of oleo (boxes and all), whole packages of dried beef and all our flour. Everything edible was gone. The most amazing thing was we had slept through it all!
That morning we had to walk down to Doc Campbell’s to buy supplies from him to finish out our trip. We passed all the hounds lying flat on the ground and wagging their tails feebly as we went by. They were too stuffed to even lift a head. We both said we really hoped they had a tummy ache. (To tell the truth, I wanted to shoot them but Imogene wouldn’t let me!)
When it was time to leave, Doc was busy so he asked Fred to drive us out. Fred was reported to be a heavy drinker, but he was an excellent driver over the terrible mountain roads.
There was an old hunting lodge on the Gila whose caretaker was a friend of Fred’s so he took us by for a visit.
This hunting lodge had a very interesting history which I had heard many years before I saw it. I hope in recounting it from memory I do not fail to tell it correctly.
Years and years ago, two friends named Lyon and Campbell (no relation to Doc) had a ranch in the Gila - Cliff area somewhere northwest of Silver City. Mr. Lyon eventually married a comely miss and built her a large beautiful home on some land he owned on the Gila River not far from the Gila Hot
Springs. The house had many rooms, all of which were furnished luxuriously. It was situated in the deep forest and could be reached only by packing in.
This section of the country later became known as the Gila River Forest Reserve (now the Gila National Forest) in 1899 and was designated as a wilderness area in 1924.
Mr. Lyon was killed in a saloon brawl in El Paso, Texas, and his widow married his ex- partner, Mr. Campbell. This was the tiny old lady we met in Silver City. I think she must have been about ninety at time we saw her.
In hearing about the hunting lodge all those long years before I saw it, I was told that Teddy Roosevelt had been there as a guest on a hunting expedition. And I’d heard that it was sold after Mr. Lyon’s death to some religious group. I also heard that Pat Hurley had owned it at one time. He was a New Mexico man who served as Secretary of War in the federal government in the 1930’s.
At the time we were there, it was owned by an oil company - or at least a group of oil men - from Oklahoma. It was a long, rambling structure of one story throughout. There was a big kitchen and a dining room big enough to seat about two dozen people. I don’t remember how many bedrooms there were, but there were many, and one was arranged dormitory style with three-tiered bunks enough to sleep fourteen people in that one room. My guess is that the bedrooms would have held around 24 people. The living room, or lobby, as it was then used was enormous with a large fireplace. The whole place was furnished and decorated with southwestern and