Desert Stones

By June A. Reynolds

The stories and lore from the Desert Southwest. This is what makes the southwest so strange and curious. From the sky islands to the creosote flat lands, this book takes you behind the landscape and into the myth and magic beyond. In the exotic world of the desert, even a coyote or a horse on the trail can create wonderment in the mind's eye.&nb

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReadersMagnet LLC
• Release date: Mar 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781959761730

June A. Reynolds

You've got it. Born in Portland Oregon, June Reynolds has taught in public school and followed her many interests in history and folklore. She writes local history and has written for local newspapers for fifty years. She has two grown children, two stepchildren, and two grandchildren.She has worked with thousands of students over her forty-year career in reading, writing, drama, and computer studies.

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Desert Stones: A Collection of Stories and Poems from the Desert Trail

Copyright © 2023 by June A. Reynolds

Published in the United States of America

ISBN Paperback: 978-1-959761-72-3

ISBN eBook: 978-1-959761-73-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of ReadersMagnet, LLC.

ReadersMagnet, LLC

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Book design copyright © 2023 by ReadersMagnet, LLC. All rights reserved.

Cover design by Ericka Obando

Interior design by Daniel Lopez

Table of Contents

Preface

The Story of Tanzen, Arizona

Desert Requiem:

Another Perfect Day

The Idaho Cotillion

The Hike

Health Problems

Kill-a Jeep

Rage against the Night...

A Good Day to......

Another View

Lora’s Psalm

A View from the Top

Mass of the Morning Doves

I Have No Words.

Final View at Dusk

The Report

The Pot-Bellied Stove

Martha McGill’s Tea Party

Desert Bunnies

Chocolate Brown Rabbits

Horse Line in the Desert

Coyote

Song of the Desert Stones

Rock Talker

Entering Star Pass

My First Night in the Desert

The Arrastra

The Trip to the Kiln

Why We Do What We Do

Back to Civilization

Talking to Rock Talker

Weeks Pass, Like Days

A Night On the Town in Tucson

Rock Talking in the Wash

Rocks Start Talking to Me

Into the Bowels of the Beast

The Spring Break Smelter

I Become a Rock Talker

Road Runner Comes to Camp

Road Runner’s Story

The Big Blast

The End of the Mining Season

The Raven and the Crow

Magic Ranch

Danger in the Prickly Pear

Last Tracks

Preface

Exotic places are everywhere you are not. That is how this Oregon person sees the world. My world is not exotic—just rugs of moss and long beards of lichen all blowing in the rainy wind. High mountains cut by wide rivers and towering Douglas firs and creeks running full of water all the time that is my world. It is not uncommon to see frogs and toads hop along the trail beside you.

In contrast, the desert is exotic to me with many cactus, succulents, aloes, and bean-bearing bushes. The wide vista looks like a wasteland, but is filled with lizards, snakes, rabbits, and javelina. Strange small birds hop around and larger birds flap overhead. They are pterodactyl holdovers which still stalk the desert in the form of roadrunners, nighthawks, trogons, and cuckoos. The many species of lizards also fit into these dinosaur holdovers. The lizard varieties are so diverse; from the porcelain-skinned gecko, to slinky small whiptails, to shy, beaded Gila Monsters, and slick shining chuckwallas, to the contrasting crab-shell-like horned lizards.

Contrasts abound in the desert biome. There are many high mountains which rise straight out of the valley floor. Locals call these sky islands They loom up high enough to catch extra rain and snow packs. From every mountain island, deep canyons are formed which chute down the water during a monsoon. The ephemeral creeks are called washes and are mostly dry. Oregon people would call this drainage a creek, which would flow year–round.

Finally there is also history and culture, myth and mysteries that enter into every world. This book takes you down to the desert floor and up to the sky islands, and into either the exotic or the familiar.

Golden Gate Mountain South Tucson Mtns.

The Story of Tanzen, Arizona

The Dancing Trail

Long before Arizona became a state in 1912, there was a group of German people who came from the low country of Germany. They got to America in 1857 and over the decades, they started looking for a place to farm. Most of the immigrants only spoke low German They kept moving west and found that the land was either crowded, barren, or dangerous. Someone told them to follow the Edward Beal wagon road, which was rough and followed the northern part of what is today the state of Arizona, above the Grand Canyon. When they reached the Colorado River, they got on a steamboat to head towards Yuma. Before they got there, one of the German farmers looked to the east one morning and saw a mountain with the morning sun rising over it. He saw a long broad slope going down to the river.

This German farmer did a little jig and he insisted that the river boat captain stop and land on the other side of the river. This is where they unloaded all their wagons, stock, and families. They settled the town site, facing the east. To the west, a sloping wash was in back of the four town buildings. There was sparse forests up on the foothills and there were two trails to take. One was the main street out of town, which turned east along the foothills of the mountain. The other way was just a footpath that followed the wash up to the foothills.

The Germans plowed some land and it broke up into heavy clods. Everyone got out and jumped up and down on the clods. They were literally dancing! They brought out their fiddles and a banjo to provide music as they broke up the clods.

These Germans were very musical and many of them played fiddles, guitars, bass, harps, horns and drums. For many days they played and danced. It was work, but also a lot of fun.

The trail less traveled along the wash was called the Tanzen Trail or in English, the Dancing Trail.

Suddenly, one early fall day, there was a swoop of heavy rain came through. They watched the water flow and the next day, they built a bit of a dam slightly upstream to catch the sparse water from the wash.

Below the dam site, there was a strange oxbow of the wash. It curved around and provided a haven for animals and plants. There were many trees, cactus, yuccas, and Joshua trees. There was a sort of a plateau on the town side of the wash. The people used it for a dancing place and thus the trail was named the Tanzen Trail.

Once and a while, members of the town of Tanzen flagged the steamboat as it made its way into Yuma. The people would get goods, tools, and seeds. It took six days, round trip to the town and back.

A party of natives wandered into town one day. Both the Natives and the Germans spoke two different languages, but that