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| Hiking | 9.20 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 9.20 Miles | 4 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.04 mph |
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| no partners | | One of these days I'll finish the North Dakota triplogs, but for now it's back to AZ to check out some Wild West history...
This wasn't much of a hike. I walked FR225 to Giacomo Camp and did some exploring around the windmills and corrals in Ruin Basin. There's some pioneer history out there, but I didn't spot any Indian ruins. That's okay. It wasn't my real reason for going to Globe.
I recently watched the movie Geronimo: An American Legend on cable and it got me interested in learning more about the Apache Wars. After doing some research, I found out Al Sieber, General Crook's Chief of Scouts, was buried in the Globe Cemetery. Sieber was a German-American, who fought for the Union at Gettysburg. After the war he moved west to prospect and ranch, but he is most famous for his scouting skills, unparalleled by even the Apache. In the movie he's played by Robert Duvall and is depicted of dying at the hands of Texas outlaws while searching for Geronimo in the Sierra Madre. In actuallity, he died many years after the Geronimo Campaign ended. He was overseeing construction of the Apache Trail by Roosevelt Lake and died when a boulder fell (was possibly pushed) on top of him.
Most of the key players of the Geronimo Campaign are not buried in Arizona. George Crook and Charles B. Gatewood, the man who negotiated Geronimo's surrender, are buried in Arlington. Geronimo himself is buried in Oklahoma. Al Sieber is one of the few whose grave was within driving distance. He's also the character I find most fascinating, probably thanks to Duvall's subtle performance in an otherwise by-the-numbers western. So after the hike I decided to check it out.
The Globe Cemetery is old and overgrown, with graves stacked on top of each other on a hillside south of town. My research indicated his grave is in the Oddfellow's Plot. I believe the Oddfellows are a Masonic-style fraternity, but I don't know much about them. It's easy enough to find the plot under the wrought-iron I.O.O.F. archway. There's also an arrow at the cemetery's entranceway and a gravemarker so finding Sieber's grave wasn't too hard. After paying my respects, I stopped at the grave of some Buffalo Soldiers, who are buried alongside the road on a hillside near the newer portion of the cemetery. |
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"I've driven across deserts, driven by the irony, that only being shackled to the road could ever I be free"
- Frank Turner "The Road" |
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