Pioneer Arizona Living History Museum shared Bill Cowans album Arizona Territorial History from Bill Cowan. Bill Cowan added 5 new photos to the album The First Arizona New Years. As the icy cold fingers of December are upon us and the blowing snows of January will soon follow I think back to a time 151 years ago that might be thought of ...as the first Arizona New Year. In 1848 after the Southwest was taken from Mexico, the first great westward surge of Gringos came from the east across what is today Arizona. This land was then part of the Territory of New Mexico and the capital of it all was located in Santa Fe. Most people who were here then were simply passing through bound for the gold fields of California in 1849. As late-comers fought their way across the desert and arrived in California they found most of the diggings already claimed. Slowly homesickness and reality forced many of them back east again. It was on this eastward migration that gold was discovered in the mountains west of Tubac and along the banks of the Gila River in Southern Arizona. Now Tucson, Tubac and Yuma were a long way from Santa Fe and the observation was made that what is today Arizona was a No Mans Land. “No government, No counties, No civil officers, No laws, and crime stalked abroad in our midst in open day.” The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 brought land south of the Gila River into the U. S. Territory of New Mexico. Almost immediately after the completion of this sale Charles Poston, an Ohioan, and Sylvester Mowrey, a former army officer turned mining entrepreneur along with several other notable Anglo pioneers of southern Arizona began to lobby for the creation of a separate territory. Beginning in 1856 many measures for this separation were introduced into congress. Finally 7 years later on February 24, 1863 Congress finally passed the Organic Act establishing Arizona Territory. There was one catch though. The government had to be sworn in on Arizona Territorial soil before the end of 1863. The rush was on. Appointments had to be made, passage booked, wagons and horses to carry all the new appointments to the new land had to be secured. A military escort to see that the bureaucrats were not picked off by very capable Native Americans intent on preserving their homeland, nor by politically motivated rebels wanting to secure the west for their own means had to be arranged. Our first territorial governor, John A. Gurley, died before they could even get away from the east. John Goodwin took his place, and all this during a time when the country was fighting the terribly bloody Civil War. American bureaucracy in general moves at or in the case of our current congress, the speed of molasses on a cold morning, and this time in the past was little different. Additionally, this was a project of fairly monumental proportions. Transportation, particularly in the west, was an arduous task. Christmas of 1863 found the Territorial Party still not on Arizona soil but doggedly bearing down on the eastern border. They didn’t actually make it across the border until sometime on December 27th and as the boundary had not been officially surveyed, they continued on for two more days just to make sure they were actually on Arizona soil. The heavily laden wagons, cold horses and even colder men creaked to a stop at a desolate waterhole called Navajo Springs in the middle of a snowstorm on the afternoon of December 29th. There John Goodwin and the others were sworn in with a rousing speech delivered by Secretary of State Richard McCormick. All stood around a blazing campfire and drank heartily to the future of our great state. Mowry and others in southern Arizona had grown tired of waiting for the United States Government to take any kind of action on Arizona. Interestingly, the Confederate States of America had recognized Arizona as a territory separate from New Mexico as soon as the first confederate legislature convened. On February 27, 1862 Sherod Hunter and his Company A of the Arizona Rangers hoisted the Stars and Bars, the Confederate banner up a flagpole in Tucson. A little over two weeks later on April 15, 1862 Lieutenant James Barrett and his Union troops fought the Battle of Picacho Pass, the only Civil War action in Arizona, to drive the Rebels out. As a result of this earlier conflict the new state government was set up not in Tucson, where the largest population was, but far to the north near the gold fields of the Bradshaw Mountains - first at Del Rio Springs in Chino Valley and later near Fort Whipple at Prescott. However, during these days of hustle and bustle as we are all so busy trying to live our lives, I like to think back to that New Years when these Arizona pioneers were hunched on an open wagon seat and fighting the cold, snow and mud somewhere between what is today Holbrook and Winslow miserable and tired, but hurrying on to fulfill the destiny of our great land - the creation of Arizona! To me that’s the first Arizona New Years! So, if you get out into our spectacular Northern Arizona back woods try to make the place better for your presence, don’t litter, and try to leave the area cleaner than you found it. Happy New Year and Enjoy Northern Arizona.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 03:59:25 +0000
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