The Empire Rises Again

by Ben Small

One of the reasons I enjoy living in southern Arizona -- other than the weather and fantastic Southwest food -- is the cowboy tradition, even though the term "cowboy" here was originally a slur, covering the cattle rustlers who dominated this region during the heyday of the 1880s.

Everybody knows about Tombstone, and I've written about its history. Few people, however, know about Empire Ranch, just twenty or so miles away from Tombstone. It's a working ranch, but you've seen it. Over thirty movies, some of them, like Winchester 73 and Red River, epic have been shot at Empire Ranch, along with television programs such as Gunsmoke and Bonanza**. Indeed, you might recognize the twenty-two thousand square foot frame and adobe ranch house, no longer occupied, which now serves as a museum of days gone-by.

Empire Ranch Vaqueros circa 1890

Founded on one hundred sixty acres of homestead land in 1876, Empire Ranch went through numerous owners, some British, some who fled during the wild period between 1878-1888 and vowed never to return "to this bloody country again." But through every ownership change, the ranch grew. At one time, Empire Ranch covered more than a million acres, all of it set between the beautiful Santa Rita and Whetstone mountain ranges, the area now known as Sonoita, in Santa Cruz and Cochise counties. This region features rolling hills, sudden canyons, disappearing streams and vast fields of waving golden grass. The mountain ranges in the background appear as islands in an endless sea of bright blue sky. And because there's altitude gain south of Tucson, Empire Ranch is much cooler and receives more rain than most of the Sonoran Desert.

Over the years, the Depression, taxes and rising feed and material costs have caused pieces of the ranch to be sold off. In 1988, through a public-private land swap, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acquired the ranch lands, which were designated the Empire-Cienega Resource Conservation Area. In December 2000 the U.S. Congress established the area as Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (LCNCA), encompassing 45,000 acres. Since then, two families have run the ranch under a BLM grazing lease.

In 1997, a group of private citizens formed the Empire Ranch Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to ranch preservation and history. The Foundation works in partnership with the BLM to determine the future uses of the buildings and public education about rural life in southeastern Arizona.

Rebecca and I attended the Foundation's annual Empire Ranch Roundup this year, a fundraiser held late in October. And what fun it was. Great food, cowboy and Mexican music, roping demonstrations, period costumes, cowboy shooting contests, stagecoaches, buggies Apaches, horse-breaking lessons and demonstrations of everyday life in the 1880s Wild West, all set in a background of flowing golden grass, gnarled Mesquite trees, trickling streams and treeless mountains.

Spectacular setting and loads of fun.

Some pictures I shot follow.

Mexican gaucho

Calvary accoutrements

A funny moment...

I don't think horsey liked the salute she gave me. Look at his eye...

Need I say I beat a hasty retreat?


**Movies and TV series filmed on or near the Empire Ranch.
• Red River, John Wayne, Montgomery Clift (1948, Howard Hawks)
• Red River, James Arness, Bruce Boxleitner (1988 TV, Richard Michaels)
• Oklahoma!, Gordon McRae, Shirley Jones (1955, Fred Zinneman)
• Duel In the Sun, Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten (1946, King Vidor)
• The Big Country, Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston (1958, William Wyler)
• Gunman’s Walk, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, James Darren (1958, Phil Karlson)
• 3:10 to Yuma, Glenn Ford, Van Heflin (1957, Delmar Daves)
• Broken Lance, Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Richard Widmark (1954, Edward Dmytryk)
• Hombre, Paul Newman (1967, Martin Ritt)
• The Last Hard Men, Charlton Heston, James Coburn (1976, Andrew V. McLaglen)
• Monte Walsh, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance (1970, William Fraker)
• The Outlaw Josie Wales, Clint Eastwood (1976, Clint Eastwood)
• The Young Pioneers, Linda Purl, Roger Kern (1978 TV series, various directors)
• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming (1957, John Sturges)
• War Arrow, Jeff Chandler, Maureen O’Hara, Jay Silverheels (1953, George Sherman)
• Last Train From Gun Hill, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn (1959, John Sturges)
• The Young Riders, Stephen Baldwin (1989-92 TV series, various directors)
• Night of The Lepus, Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun (1972, William F. Claxton)
• Bonanza, Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker, several shows (1959-73 TV series, var. directors)
• Gunsmoke, James Arness, Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake, several shows (1955-75 TV series, var. directors)
• Tom Horn, Steve McQueen (1980, William Wiard)
• The Cowboys, John Wayne (1972, Mark Rydell)
• Winchester ‘73, James Stewart, Shelley Winters (1950, Anthony Mann)
• The Furies, Barbara Stanwyck, Walter Huston (1950, Anthony Mann)
• The Wild Rovers, William Holden, Ryan O’Neal (1971, Blake Edwards)
• Pocket Money, Paul Newman, Lee Marvin (1972, Stuart Rosenberg)
• Hour of the Gun, James Garner, Jason Robards, Robert Ryan (1967, John Sturges)
• Gunsight Ridge, Joel McCrea, Mark Stevens (1957, Francis D. Lyon)
• Return of the Gunfighter, Robert Taylor, Chad Everett (1967, James Neilson)
• A Star Is Born, Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson (1976, Frank Pierson)
• Posse, Kirk Douglas, Bruce Dern (1975, Kirk Douglas)
• Desperado, Alex McArthur, Yaphet Kotto (1987 TV, Virgil W. Vogel)
• Ruby Jean and Joe, Tom Selleck, Ben Johnson (1996 TV, Jeffrey Sax)
• Posse, Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin (1993, Mario Van Peebles)

Location, Location

by Ben Small



Part and parcel of a good story is the location chosen. I especially enjoy mysteries set in locations that offer historical, cultural or topographical oddities or curiosities, or those which will add interesting aspects to my plotting.

And I've found a gem this time, right in my own back yard. My next book, title as yet undetermined, will be set in the historic areas south of Tucson, the San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers, the valleys they support and the Santa Rita Mountain Range which splits them. It was here that the first Spanish settlements arose during the 1500s, and it was along the San Pedro where Wyatt Earp carried out his vendetta against the Cowboys. In fact, close to the place where I took the lead shot for this article, Wyatt Earp shot dead the famous outlaw Curly Bill Brocius, leader of the rustling Cowboys, in a hail of gunfire. Back then, the term "Cowboy" was an insult; intended to refer to the murdering rustlers who invaded ranches in Mexico and the Arizona/New Mexico territories, murdered the residents, and stole their cattle or horses. There was no law and order back in those days, no jurisdictional respect or order between federal, county and local law enforcement agencies. County law enforcement was aligned with the rustlers, while the Earps were town and deputy U.S. marshals. Two U.S. presidents tried to remedy the outlaw culture, and the Government of Mexico threatened war, but it took Wyatt Earp and his brothers, not the most pleasant or legitimate characters themselves considering their gambling and prostitution interests, to clean up the mess. And at root, politics was behind much of the conflict, for the rustlers were Democrats, and the gamblers and pimps were Republicans.

How's that for consistency?

Despite the time difference between then and now, the 1880s mentality still remains. This is harsh country, and solutions to problems are sometimes direct and brutal. As was stated in the movie, Casino, there are many holes in the desert. I happened on one grave (Curly Bill?) where someone was kind enough to mount a cross. But many graves are unmarked, if remains are buried at all. Many bodies were and are left to the coyotes, mountain lions and the ever-present turkey vultures.


Back in the 1880s, this area was the Wild West.

Now it's just wild.

The San Pedro and Santa Cruz river beds, valleys, highways, and the mountains in between them are known as Smuggler's Alley, where trafficking in drugs, weapons and humans is most keen. Residents report finding live and spent 7.62 X 39 shells -- the kind shot by AK-47s, the smugglers' weapon of choice -- in their backyards. They hear gunshots and see people running.

The Border Patrol snatches over 800 illegals per day here.

Drive through this area during daylight, and you will see Border Patrol vehicles, lots of them, all shapes, sizes and types of them, and you'll pass through Border Patrol Inspections, both permanent and temporary. You'll see helicopters flying over, and you'll see people on mountaintops, watching, much like Cochise and Geronimo and their bands did here in the mid-to-late 19th Century. At night, you'll see flares, Kleig lights and flashlights. You may see flashing signals in the mountains. The Border Patrol will fly over, spreading their floods on hilltops or fields. You may hear shouts or shots, perhaps both.

The winds blow often, sometimes fierce and gusting; they carry strange sounds, conversations and activity from some distance away. But from where..? Tension grows as dusk falls. It builds...

At night, the desert comes alive. You hear rustling, the baying of coyotes, and sudden rushed movements, a struggle. A scream on the wind. Laughter? Terror? The air stills like it was snuffed, and you hear another rustle in a bushy mesquite nearby. You hear a shot, or was it a door slam maybe at the ranch next door? You analyze what you heard, decide there was a clang to it. Must be a door that took a breeze badly.

Be careful when you're between the valleys.

Here's a daylight shot from my car window, not far from the Santa Cruz.

If you look carefully, you'll see two people watching me from on top of a foothill five hundred yards away. I departed quickly, after I saw one of them raise a rifle through my zoom lens. I called the Border Patrol and gave them the GPS coordinates.

This is beautiful country along these two rivers, even when the rivers and streams are not running. Mountains, washes and game abound. The San Pedro valley is noted as one of the world's best bird sites.

But beware, around the next corner may lurk danger. If you're off the main roads, you may want to be armed.









Other risks affect folks in this area, too. Water, for instance. Green Valley and Tucson pull most of their water from the Santa Cruz watershed. The water table, which varies from several hundred feet from the surface to just a few feet close to the river, is declining, and groundwater and stream flow are showing increased levels of contaminates. The Santa Cruz originates in Mexico and flows north. Nogales, Sonora is a major industrial center, and it's pumping TCE laced water into the riverbed.

But there's more... This area, up from Mexico to Tucson, sees some of the most intense mining operations in the world. Gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, uranium and other minerals are mined and processed here, and these processes use sulfuric acid, arsenic and other heavy metals and poisonous substances. The chemical tanks, piping, seals and acid ponds sometimes leak. Tailings from these mines dot the countryside, creating huge toxic mounds saturated with these chemicals -- and radioactive to boot. This is open pit stuff, most of it, so the mountains are being scarred. And where tunnel mining prevails, there are problems with subsistence (sudden collapse of mine shafts). A collapsing mine channel may unpredictably divert rushing floodwaters during summer monsoons. You're in the mountains, and there's no soil to absorb rainfall. The ground is hard-pack. It, too, is mined, for Portland Cement and Cemex, the Mexican concrete giant.

The chemical runoff from these mining operations is contaminating the groundwater at ever increasing rates. And the areas close to the river, where the water table is closest to the surface, are prime farming areas. Take for instance, this pecan farm, where I'm placing Denton Wright's ex-wife in the new book, a horse rancher and pecan farmer. The farm is less than a mile from the Santa Cruz, so the water table is close to the ground.

As I was scouting this area, I came upon a copper mine just a few miles from this pecan farm. (Indeed, another one was across the street from it, an abandoned mine, but with the tailings pile still intact.) A big 'un, with enormous sulfuric acid tanks and holding ponds and a pile of tailings climbing to the sky. Huge ore trucks pass by, throwing up clouds of dust. The trucks are timed, so the dust doesn't become a fog, but when the wind is blowing, good luck.


Here is the tailings pile. You'll also note the hanging dust cloud from an ore truck that passed by some minutes before. The roads are paved with crushed tailings here, so you're traveling on radioactive roads through radioactive clouds dusted with sulfuric acid and arsenic.

Good times, huh?

Adding more fuel to the area's growing flames of discontent and concern, there's the proposal of a Canadian company to put a new silver, copper and moly open pit mine just south of Tucson, close to Vail, an incorporated suburb. The waters from this location feed both the San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management are currently conducting investigations that will lead to an environmental impact statement, but an 1872 federal law gives mining a preference over any other land development, and local residents feel bitterly that environmental concerns are once again taking a back seat to mining development. It's irony that this battleground is proceeding despite a severe downturn in materials prices, a decline that's laying off copper miners and closing many mines.

A lot of property for sale here...

So Denton's ex-wife is in the midst of this mess, trying to save her pecan farm and horse ranch, while dealing with the pressures of guarding against illegal trafficking across her lands. She lives north, in horse ranch territory, just west of the old McCartney Ranch, where Linda McCartney died. She lives two blocks from Tucson's only oasis, Aqua Caliente Park, where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday met the territorial U.S. Marshall, who informed them Frank Stillwell and Ike Clanton were waiting at the Tucson train station to murder the entire Earp clan. The shooting of Frank Stillwell thereafter, for which Doc Holliday was charged, was the beginning of Wyatt's famous vendetta. The Cowboys were destroyed.

The problems are great, the challenges greater, and the risks are real and apparent. Still, nestled at the foot of the Santa Catalina range, in an area twenty miles away from her farm and horse ranch, Denton's ex-wife's residence looks scenic and tranquil. Desert plants, especially saguaro abound underneath the concrete-like hard-pac. It's a desert jungle, thick with mesquite, chollas, barrel cacti, acacia, ocotillo, hopbush, paloverde, mexican jumping bean, chuparosa, canyon ragweed, Parry's penstemon and creasote. Sandwiched between two mountain ranges, the northeast side of Tucson, where she lives, sees double the rainfall of metro-Tucson. The mountains squeeze the water out of clouds passing through their slot like a wet chamois twisted in strong hands.








But looks can be deceiving...