An Unrepentant Rebel: Colonel Ridley - Lower Salt River Recreation Area

Among the characters roaming the vicinity of the Lower Salt River Recreation Area, Colonel Alonzo Ridley was one of the most interesting.  As I've discussed previously, Dr. W.W. Jones lived and ranched in the Salt River and Tonto areas in the late 1800's.  The Colonel was a good friend of the Doctor and sometimes kept the Doctor company at the ranch.

Alonzo Ridley immigrated to California from Maine in 1849 seeking his fortune in the gold fields. In the 1850's, he evidently gave up on mining and moved down to the village of Los Angeles where he became an Indian agent on the Tejon Reservation. He later served as under-sheriff in Los Angeles County and it was in Los Angeles where he first met Dr. W. W. Jones.

The Colonel's most notable adventure was the escort of General Albert Sidney Johnston from California to Texas.  Albert Sidney Johnston was an experienced soldier, a graduate of West Point and recently commander of the U.S. Army's Department of the Pacific.  Johnston had resigned from the U.S. Army at the beginning of the Civil War and settled as a neutral in Los Angeles.  Eventually, Johnston feared that he would be arrested by Union authorities and so decided to travel to Texas.  Ridley chose the confederate cause while in California where he organized and commanded a militia of like minded men to escort General Johnston to Texas to join the Confederate Army.

Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Albert S. Johnston Crossing The Desert To Join The Southern Army." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1863. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-f92a-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

In 1861, scouts commanded by Captain Ridley led the way across the southern California deserts and across the Colorado River at Yuma.  From the Colorado, they traveled up the Gila River to the Pima villages near present day Phoenix then down the Santa Cruz to Tucson. They continued their trek across Arizona and New Mexico while carefully avoiding Apaches and the Union Army until safely reaching El Paso where the militia was disbanded.

Ridley served as General Johnston's bodyguard at the battle for Shiloh where Johnston was fatally wounded. Afterward, he trained in Texas as an engineer and eventually became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederacy but he was captured at Fort Butler in Louisiana in 1863 and was imprisoned until the end of the war.

Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Retreat of the confederates from Shiloh." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1905. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-f96e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

  After the war he didn't sign the pardon agreeing to surrender but instead emigrated to Mexico and fought on the side of Maximilian in the Mexican Civil War. He lived in Mexico for several years and was employed by a British company responsible for building the Vera Cruz to Mexico City railroad.

In 1877 he returned to the states and met Dr. Jones while Jones was working a gold mill on the Hassayampa River near Wickenburg. He became good friends with Dr. Jones and resided with him many times over the years. In 1885, Dr. Jones and Colonel Ridley were described as entertaining hosts by expedition members traveling down the Salt River. The travelers had reportedly stopped for the night at the Jones ranch just above the Verde River confluence in what is now the Lower Salt River Recreation Area. It's my best guess that the ranch was located near what is now a Forest Service facility on N. Usery Pass Rd.

The Colonel didn't consider himself a citizen of the US. He was a citizen of the Empire of Mexico and referred to himself as such. However, he was required to take the oath of allegiance and become a US citizen in order to be the executor of Dr. Jone's estate in 1896. It says much of their friendship that the old rebel finally took the oath. After settling the estate, he traveled to Havana, Cuba but returned to Arizona after a couple of years. He died in Tempe in 1909 and is buried at Double Butte Cemetery.



References:
Texas Sate Historical Assoc., https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fri57

Gene C. Armistead, "California's Confederate Militia: The Los Angeles Mounted Rifles,"

Daily Phoenix Herald, June 5, 1885, "A Daring Expedition".

Arizona Republican, July 16, 1896, pg 5.

Arizona Republican, March 26, 1909

Arizona Dam Site - Salt River Recreation Area

This week's walk went much easier.  I was determined to find the Arizona Dam site (it's a dam site better than most).  It was the original source for the Arizona Canal but the Arizona Dam was washed away in a 1905 flood and replaced by the Granite Reef Dam.  It's located downstream from the Salt River & Verde River confluence.  Last week I tried to find it by parking at the Phone D Sutton Campground and bushwacking west through the Mesquite and Salt Cedar thickets.  Not a good idea.  Scratched, spooked and tired, I skulked back without finding the site.

This week, I parked on Bush Highway just south of the site and followed a well traveled horse trail down to an animal ford on the river.  The dam site was just upstream.  Along the way, I passed this handsome fella.  He kept a wary eye out but otherwise ignored me.

The trail wound back and forth through Sonoran desert shrubs then through a mesquite bosque down to the river.

Old Mesquite (does this qualify as a selfy)

Trail to the river

After passing through the mesquite, the trail crossed the old river channel and ended at a ford on the river.  The animal ford was just west of the dam site.

Dam abutment in left background

As I started east towards the dam, I met a couple who had been unsuccessfully duck hunting.  They had just packed up their blind and were getting ready to return to their car.  We exchanged hellos and they said they were returning by way of the campground.  I told them about the easier route from the south and my trials with the campground route last week.  I closed by saying that I was spooked at times in the thick brush.  The wife said, "try it when it's dark before sunrise."   She said she pleaded with her husband to load his shotgun as they bushwacked through the dark thickets.  He prudently didn't but he said that he was tempted when they at some point passed an old cow somewhere unseen in the brush and she started making a big racket.

All that's left of the dam

Red Mtn in background

West from dam site

After getting a few photos, I started wandering back by a different route.  It took me through some old growth mesquite and what appeared to be some sort of man-made clearing.  The stumps in the clearing were very old but I didn't see any sign of habitation so it could have been an old hunting camp.

On the way back

Old Mesquite

Old camp?

Trail through the mesquite

The next place I want to visit is the old Monroy Ranch site.  There were several ranch sites along the river in the 1900's.  One in this area is the Monroy Ranch.  Monroy was married to the daughter of another local land owner, Dr. Jones.  The 1905 topo map (below) shows the Monroy Ranch site and Jone's crossing.  Another ranch, the Stewart Ranch, is covered by Saguaro Lake.  It also shows some lime kilns which are supposed to be still accessible via Blue Point.

1905 (1906?) topo map (McDowell Quad)

I made it back home in plenty of time for my son-in-law to borrow the truck and for me to do some book shopping on 50% off day at Goodwill.  I found several good books including a geography book I'd been looking for.  Hey, what's up with all the used microbiology books at Goodwill?  Maybe that's spooky too?

Adios