The Old West

After leaving San Antonio, the HMS Beagle headed west stopping in Fort Stockton Texas, then continuing through west Texas, past El Paso, mooring in Las Cruces New Mexico for a night, finally pulling into port in Tucson Arizona for a few days.

 

 

On the way to and through Arizona, the Beagle travelled through the wide open spaces and endless desert and mountains of the subtly beautiful, ever changing, ever the same, southwest.  One begins to appreciate the resourcefulness of the native peoples who lived in this environment and the determination and vigour of the European miners and settlers who embraced this part of the world.

 

 

Again, it was the Spanish who first set up missions in the area, with the City of Tucson established around a mission and presidio in the early 18th century.  The leader of the Spanish forces was a certain Lt Col. Hugo O’Conor.  The Ship’s Blog notes, on the good authority of Mr. Patrick O’Connor Esq., a good friend of the Beagle, as follows:  “There seems to have been a spate of Irish in the service of the Catholic Powers back in those days.  Hadn’t quite managed to shake off the Imperial yoke at that time, so fame and fortune had to be sought further afield.  I seem to recall that Chile’s greatest naval hero was an O’Higgins.”

 

 

The Beagle anchored at the Lazydays KOA RV Park in Tucson.  One of several virtues of this RV Park is a very commodious off leash area for canines, an area signed as a dog park.  As one can appreciate, Mr. Darwin made good use of this amenity virtually every day, observing, communicating and happily cavorting with others of his species.  However, on one occasion very early in the morning when no other canine friends were present, Mr Darwin was able to observe a distinctly non-canine species in the dog park, to wit, a pot bellied pig, fully grown and weighing not less than 90 lbs. who happened to be enjoying the park with her human companions.  She puzzled Mr. Darwin for some time yet he was most gracious in allowing this creature, whose name was Zoe, to quietly graze on the grass.  However, after a reasonable time of about 15 minutes, Mr Darwin began to communicate with Zoe persistently to determine if she would socialize in the usual canine fashion, whereupon Zoe declined to do so and began to vocalize, rather loudly, in the local porcine vernacular.  At this point Zoe’s human friends became excited and demanded that Mr. Darwin cease and desist from communicating with Zoe, though it was unclear to Mr. D what part of “dog park” these people did not  understand.  Needless to say, the event ended in confusion but luckily a young child took it upon herself to play with Mr. Darwin and thus distract him from Zoe’s attentions while she was escorted from the park.  

 

 

There are many sights in and around Tucson that are worthy of investigation. However, on this short visit, the Crew had only time to tour the City of Tucson and the Town of Tombstone located about 65 miles southeast of Tucson.    These places are in what is known as the Old West area of Arizona which recalls the era when mining towns sprang up here and there to exploit the copper and silver that lay beneath the desert and mountains.    

 

 

The story of Tombstone, Wyatt Erp and the gunfight at the OK Corral has been made legend both in stories and by Hollywood.  It is actually surprising that there is such a town and that the events of legend did occur, perhaps not quite the way portrayed in the movies, but the basic facts are there.  It is sad, but not surprising, that Tombstone is today largely a tourist town, where the gunfight at the OK Corral is re-enacted three times a day for the punters and where souvenir shops and restaurants line the main street in what appear to be historical buildings    Indeed, many of the buildings from the 1880’s have been preserved, though an equal number were in lost several fires that ravaged the town in those times.  Despite a certain aura of the cheesy and tacky, the town nonetheless retains considerable power over the imagination, especially on the sort of solitary and wind swept day experienced there by the crew. 

 

 

The crew also visited the old downtown of Tucson.  The tourist board has laid out a trail that one can follow to see the various sights of this area.  A re-creation of part of the old Presidio or fort that was the beginning of Tucson has been built.  Much of the city has been subject to urban renewal and so many of the old buildings have been lost but there are a few on the periphery of the downtown.  Some of the more elegant buildings date from the early 20th century such as the court house and the Catholic cathedral.  

 

 

The video below will help the reader of the Ship’s Blog to get a sense of the Old West.