Desert Messenger

June 12, 2013 15 www.DesertMessenger.com Voices from The Past in Quartzsite, AZ Excerpts from "In the Shadow of Saguaros" by Rosalee Oldham Wheeler The Mormon Batallion 1847 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo With his army of 1,650 men, the newly commissioned Brigadier General Stephen Kearney continued his march through the recently conquered territories of New Mexico and Arizona on his way to California and the great western ocean. Upon arrival at the Pacific Coast, Kearney realized the territories were not entirely secure for the United States. In June of 1846 he sent word to President Polk that he needed reinforcements. In Council Bluffs, Iowa an unusual array of nearly 500 volunteers signed on to form a new battalion of infantry. The volunteers were Mormons who were moving west to settle in Utah. Colonel James Allen of the U.S. Army marched these pioneers-turned-soldiers to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where they were outfitted for their march West. Captain Philip Cooke (later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel) took command of the Mormon Battalion as they began their march through New Mexico and Arizona where they would also build a wagon road across the Southwest on their way to California. Three years later that same wagon road would carry thousands of 49ers on their way to the California Gold Rush. Today that wagon road parallels old U.S. Highway 80, Interstate 8, and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had already settled the border dispute and by 1847 had made the lands of California, Nevada, and Utah as well portions of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming a part of the United States. Another boundary controversy erupted in 1848 when it was learned that the map used during treaty negotiations was in error by about 130 miles east and west and some 30 miles north and south. The controversy of the Disturnell Map remained until the Gadsen Purchase of 1854. For $10 million dollars the United States added 27,000 square miles to Arizona and New Mexico. If the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers had actually been as was drawn on the Disturnell Map, Quartzsite would have been less than 100 miles from Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ DesertMessengerNews Residential and RV FREE Estimates! • Qtz. Business Licensed Call Bud 928-583-3905 (now Quartzsite) and on into central Arizona. Disembarking adventurers could buy a horse, saddle, and provisions at Michael and Jo- seph Goldwater's Store (U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater's grandfather and great-uncle.) Many of the gold seeking enthusiasts simply struck out on foot and started walking across the desert in search of the gold mine of their dreams. Passengers disembarking at La Paz and Ehrenberg could hire the Arizona Stage Company to take them to Camp Date Creek and then north to Prescott or south to Phoenix. Other ports and stops along the Colorado were Yuma, Castle Dome Landing, Norton's Landing, Mineral City, Liverpool Landing, Needles, and Hardyville among others. By steamboat, an upstream trip from Yuma to Hardyville, at the height of water flow, took from ten to twelve days. The downstream return could be made in five days. But if taken after most of the snow-melt had occurred at the river's headwater on the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, a round-trip could take up to two months. TAKE ACTION! If you see a child or pet alone in a car, CALL 911 One call could save a life! Experienced HANDYMAN Plumbing & Electrical Service & Repair. Minor Carpentry & Yard Work. All Work Guaranteed - a United States saltwater seaport in the Gulf of California. As it was, from the 1840s until the turn of the century, it was along the Colorado River in Southwestern Arizona that supply routes opened the western territories. From Port Isabel, located on the Gulf of California at the mouth of the Colorado River, ocean-going ships transferred their cargo onto river steamboats. Steamers with names such as the Uncle Sam, Cocopah, and the U.S. Explorer kept supplies flowing to La Paz and then hauled by wagon through Tyson's Well & Stage Stop Follow on Twitter @DesertMessenger @QuartzsiteRain

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