Biographies of Putnam Museum Herbarium Collectors

Irish, Charles W. (1834 - 1904)

Riding the Santa Fe Trail had its hazards.

"Just as they darted past the mules, Hallowell cried out: "Cap., I'm hit," and turning round to look at him, Booth saw an arrow sticking in his head above his right ear; his arm was still plying the whip, which was going as unceasingly as the sails of a windmill, and his yelling only stopped long enough to answer "not much," in response to Booth's "does it hurt," as he grabbed the arrow and pulled it out of his head. ...
Down came the red devils again! dividing as before, and delivering another lot of arrows. Hallowell stopped yelling long enough to cry out, "I'm hit again Cap." Looking around Booth saw an arrow sticking in Hallowell's head, just over his left ear this time, and hanging down his back like an ornament. He snatched it out, asked Hallowell if it hurt him, but received the same answer as before "No, not much"..." (Inman 1881).

• Opening the Santa Fe Trail

The inaugural trek along the Santa Fe Trail, made by William Becknell and his party in 1821, opened a viable trade corridor between the Missouri River and the northern terminus of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro in present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. Merchandise from Mexico City flowed along the Camino Real to Santa Fe, then eastward, by way of the 900 mile Trail, to Franklin, Missouri for shipping along the Missouri River — eventually reaching markets in New York City and Philadelphia. Whether eastbound or westbound, travelers on the eight to ten week journey faced long periods of stupefying monotony riding in long trains of mule and oxen drawn wagons, through billowing clouds of dust, periodic violent weather, and potential hostilities with displeased Apaches and Comanches (Inman 1881, National Park Service 2015b, VanCoevern 2010, Wheeler 2015).

It was not long before users of the Santa Fe Trail were presented with two options — the Mountain Route and the Cimarron Route. The former was longer and safer, but required crossing the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range via the rugged Raton Pass. The latter was shorter and faster, but suffered from a deficiency of water and a glut of skirmishes with inhospitable Native Americans (National Park Service 2019a).

The Mountain Branch headed south from Bent's Fort, passed through Trinidad (elevation ~6000 feet), and eventually started the climb along Raton Creek to the Raton Pass (elevation ~7800 feet). Reaching the pass required a punishing ascent along a route that was often steep and required negotiating many narrow passages. The trek was often a brutal challenge for wagons, animals, and humans as they were forced to dislodge, struggle over, or detour around massive boulders and other obstacles. Travelers scrambled up steep slopes, repaired washed-out road sections, and skirted sheer rock faces. All the while, axles broke, wagon tongues snapped, animals were hobbled, crippled, or worse, and people struggled to the point of exhaustion, in order to reach and conduct business in Santa Fe (Drumm 1926, National Park Service 2019a, Sangres.com 2012b, Santa Fe Trail Association 2019).

• Railroads vs. Horses, Mules, Oxen, & Wagons

Caravans of animal-drawn wagons along the Santa Fe Trail were effective, but slow, modes of transporting goods. In 1859 Cyrus K. Holliday and 12 other men formally incorporated the "Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company". They were given authorization to build a railroad "from or near Atchison on the Missouri River, in Kansas Territory, to the town of Topeka, in Kansas Territory, and to such point on the southern or western boundary of the said Territory, in the direction of Santa Fe, in the Territory of New Mexico, as may be most convenient and suitable, for the construction of such railroad; and, also, to construct a branch of said railroad to any points on the southern boundary of said Territory of Kansas, in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico (Medary 1859)."

Civil War hostilities prevented construction and little significant corporate activity took place during the conflict, other than the 1863 action that changed the organization's name to "Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company" (AT&SF). Post-war turmoil postponed roadbed construction until October or November of 1868, when track laying began and headed southwest from Topeka. The line reached Emporia in 1870, then Newton and Fort Dodge in 1871 (July and September, respectively). May 1872 saw the arrival of the eastbound line in Atchison, while the westbound line reached the Kansas/Colorado state line in December of the same year (Blaszak 2018, Snell & Wilson 1968).

By '72 the Golden Spike had been driven, the First Transcontinental Railroad was three years old, and many other railways had been proposed or were under construction. All along, the attempts to penetrate the West were motived by the desire to assemble a reliable and affordable transportation system that would maximize opportunities to promote commerce and build wealth (Athearn 1985).

The AT&SF had laid track to La Junta, Colorado by the end of December 1875 and construction continued in 1876, when the company established rail service to Pueblo, Colorado. The rail line then turned south, en route to Santa Fe, and entered Trinidad in September 1878 (National Park Service 2015b).

• Battle for Control of the Raton Pass

At about the same time that General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse to end the Civil War (Constitution Daily 2019), an entrepreneur was establishing a toll road for improved access to Santa Fe via the Raton Pass. Richens "Uncle Dick" Wootton hired members of Chief Conniache's Ute Indian tribe to blast, grade, and rebuild the most rugged parts of the Santa Fe trail to make it more easily passable by horse, cart, or other conveyance. The completed 27 mile road started in Trinidad, Colorado and wound its way uphill to the toll gate in front of Uncle Dick's house. He charged $1.00 toll (at least in 1871) for passage of one empty wagon and "two bits" for someone on horseback to use his highway (image circa 1900) over the Raton Pass to Willow Springs (present-day Raton), New Mexico (History Colorado 2019, Sangres.com 2012b, Wootten 1871).

During the 1870s, the AT&SF and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) were in a heated competition (legal and physical). Each wanted control of the Raton Pass for rail access to Santa Fe, passage to the mineral rich regions farther south in New Mexico and Arizona, and a link to the west coast via a connection with the proposed Southern Pacific Railroad. Additionally, they were competing for control of the Arkansas River's Royal Gorge, which was the gateway to important mining regions to the west in Colorado (Borneman 2010, Manderfield & Tucker 1872, Suchan 2011, Whitman 2017). Since both railroads coveted Uncle Dick's Raton Pass real estate holdings, conflict was inevitable.

In February 1878 each organization had planners, schemers, and decision-makers in the Trinidad area. Electronic spying (a telegraph tap), subterfuge, as well as legal and financial chicanery, led to the arrival of AT&SF representatives at Wootton's place before midnight one evening in late February or early March. They offered Uncle Dick $50,000.00 for his toll road and rights to the Raton Pass. But Uncle Dick declined, asking instead that the railroad supply his wife with groceries and a lifetime free pass to ride the train. The deal was struck, able-bodied people were rousted from their early morning slumber, and construction began.

Whether by lamplight, moonlight, or starlight, construction continued until the D&RG crew arrived later the next morning. The confrontation led to shouting, threatening, brandishing of weapons, and generally discourteous behavior. But in the end, the AT&SF "crew" had already built enough roadbed to legally secure the right-of-way for their rail line and the D&RG was forced to withdraw (Bradley 1920, Clayton & Strand 1985, Harden 2011, Jentgen 1976, Whitman 2017).

Securing the Raton Pass solely for the AT&SF was a major accomplishment, but the final survey to the south and west was far from complete. Location engineers William Raymond Morley (most commonly known as "Ray") and Charles W. Irish were tasked with heading the survey crews that were to make the final recommendations for the placement of railroad bed south and then west through New Mexico and into Arizona.

• Morley, Irish, & Co. Explore New Mexico

---⏵ Viva Las Vegas! ... New Mexico - June 1878

June of 1878 found Charles W. Irish in Trinidad, Colorado, preparing to make his way via stagecoach to Las Vegas, New Mexico. C.W.'s railroad career began as an axman in Iowa with the ill-fated Lyons and Iowa Central Railroad in 1852. Though not a degreed engineer, Irish's on-the-job training, coupled with his intellect and interests in math and science, led to full-time employment as a surveyor and civil engineer. Beginning in the 1860s, Charles earned a reputation as a skilled survey engineer on a variety of railroad projects (Anonymous 1904, Irish 1878b, Irish 1913).

What motivated C.W. Irish to accept this position with the AT&SF in 1878? No statement clearly explaining his incentive has been uncovered. However, the human losses and tremendous economic cost of the Civil War remained fresh is peoples' minds and the more recent railroad bond crash of 1873 served as a reminder of how panic and mismanagement could lead to financial ruin. In fact, the "Panic of 1873" and the subsequent "Long Depression" led to staggering levels of bank failure, business bankruptcy, railroad reorganization, and unemployment (Lee 2008, Klitgaard & Narron 2016, Richardson & Sablik 2015).

Perhaps with those things in mind, Irish wrote that he was "sure of 6 to 10 months employment" and "I believe that fortune has again turned in my favor" (Irish 1878c). With a wife and two daughters to support back in Iowa City, Charles, in all likelihood, was simply interested in taking a good-paying job in a field he liked — the best available position at the time was in the Southwest with the AT&SF. It also seems that a past acquaintanceship worked in Irish's favor.

Though William Raymond Morley and Irish grew up in Iowa, Ray was Irish's junior by 12 years and, during those early years, neither knew the other existed. After completing his Civil War service with the Union Army, Ray began a course of study in engineering at the State University of Iowa, but a funding shortage forced him to withdraw from university life and he, like Irish, began a career as a surveyor/civil engineer on various railroad projects. He started with the Iowa, Northern, & Central Railroad in the spring of 1868 and apparently worked as an apprentice engineer under a gentleman named Charles W. Irish. The lure of the West was strong and Ray left the Iowa Northern Line in 1869 to take a position with the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Following his stint with the Kansas Pacific, Morley opened a civil engineering office in Denver, won a surveying contract for the Maxwell Land Grant in New Mexico, and by 1872 he was managing the Maxwell Company in Cimarron, New Mexico (Anonymous 1883, Bogart 1883, Koogler 1883).

Morley eventually landed a job with the Durango & Rio Grande Railway in 1876 and engineered the build of an 80-mile line over La Veta Pass from Cucharas to Alamosa, Colorado. For whatever reason(s), he became disenchanted with the D&RG and accepted a survey/engineering position with the AT&SF around the beginning of 1878. Having been tapped by the railway to be the lead field engineer in search of a route south through New Mexico and Arizona, Ray evidently contacted C.W. Irish and asked for his assistance on the project. Regardless of how the two men exactly formed a team is immaterial, the point is that Morley made a good selection and Charles reached Las Vegas, New Mexico in September 1878 (Borneman 2010, Frost 1883, Irish 1878b, Smith 2019).

⇒ Ruins, expensive corn, & a hostile Mother Nature ... or ... From Las Vegas to Albuquerque, New Mexico - June 1878

Starting in Las Vegas, Irish and Morley led survey teams charged with finding the practicable routes for building the AT&SF railroad through southern New Mexico and into Arizona (Irish 1878b). The railway company provided the team with the provisions, tools, and transportation needed by the survey crews. They had "6 spans of mules" to pull wagons, a few horses, a barometer for each engineer (to determine elevations), and "a machine on a wagon wheel to measure the distance we travel". For protection and hunting, the company "furnished each man with a Winchester repeating rifle and a Colts [sic] pistol", along with plenty of 45 caliber ammunition (Curtis 2015, Irish 1878a&c, National Park Service 2019c).

By the 23rd of June the crew had progressed about 50 miles from Las Vegas and were camped on the Pecos River somewhere near "a ruin of an indian temple which was found here in 1540 by the spaniards" (Irish 1878c). In writing about the remnants of the Pecos Pueblo and the Spanish Mission Church that are currently part of the Pecos National Historic Park, it's interesting that Irish disparaged the Indians as "heathen fire and sun worshipers" that were killed by the Spaniards. But he then paid them tribute by stating that though the Spaniards left "the temple to decay. Here it will stand for hundreds of years a monument of the ingenuity of the untutored architects who built it" (Irish 1878c, National Park Service 2019b). By the 28th of June the survey team had reached Albuquerque and were camped along the Rio Grande River. Though they bathed in it daily, Charles described the river as "the dirtiest stream I have ever seen, is almost 1500 feet wide here & 3 or 4 feet deep" (Irish 1878a&c).

In a letter to his wife, Charles mentioned that they were enjoying fresh fruit, milk, and meat, while in the vicinity of Albuquerque. He wrote that corn for their livestock was in short supply and sold for 4¢/pound (about $2.25/bushel then and an inflation-adjusted price near $59/bushel today). To that point the expedition had dodged Indian conflicts, though townsmen had a shootout with some intoxicated Ute or Apache tribesmen in Cimarron shortly after Irish and Morley left the settlement. From Irish's perspective, "the only danger is that Mexicans may steal our mules" (Irish 1878c & d). But, Mother Nature had not been so kind.

"Something has happened to one man who was to come after us with a buckboard and bring the news. They had a dreadful storm of rain and hail a week ago to day [sic] and he may have drowned the team for all we know. The storm passed to the north of us but so near that we could hear the roar of the hail". According to Charles they had reached about 35°N latitude and had dropped from cool and pleasant conditions at 8000 feet elevation to daily highs of 80°F and 90°F at about 4800 feet. And at times there were sand storms! "It would scare you about to death to see one coming. The sand flies so thick that it seems as if a mountain is rolling towards you, yet when it hits you all the trouble is that if you don't sit down and hold your nose, eyes, mouth, and ears shut, you will get them full of sand" (Irish 1878d).

---⏵ Death is an option in the high desert ... or ... South to the Rio Puerco, then west to the Tularosa River, New Mexico - July 1878

After stocking up on supplies, the crew worked their way south from Albuquerque and arrived at the confluence of the Rio Puerco and the Rio Grande Rivers at Ranchito de Sabinal by the 4th of July. Farther south, at Alamillo, they turned west across the northern edge of the arid Plains of San Agustin and on July 11th they reached Horse Springs (site of a proposed, but likely never built, Army outpost charged with providing security for the Apache Indian Agency (Irish 1878e, Payette & Payette 2020a, Stanton 2019a)). The expedition members were as experienced and well-prepared as they could be for their assigned task, but they could not have anticipated everything they encountered crossing the San Agustin Plains.

"We found two poor fellows (who did not know what it was to cross such a desert) lying down and who had given up all hope of relief. They had nothing to eat or drink for two days and their horse and jackass had also given out and been left 10 or 15 miles behind them. We took them in and had all we could do to save their lives. One is still sick. I am the doctor. They go with us some days yet. We found and saved the horse & j. ass." The near-death duo, J.D. Pancake of Illinois and John McVey from Iowa, lost their way in the high desert (elevation ˜7000 feet), because good maps of the area did not exist and their navigation skills were inadequate. Regardless, the pair took a week or more to recover from their ordeal and departed for Silver City around the 21st of July, when the AT&SF team arrived at Fort West (approximately here) along the Gila River (Irish 1878e).

---⏵ Tasty trout, delicious deer, and bitter bears ... or ... Appraising the Tularosa and San Francisco River valleys, New Mexico - July 1878

Between the northern boundary of the plains of San Agustin and Silver City, the survey crew explored potential railroad routes from Datil Spring to Horse Springs. By the 12th of July they were working along the Tularosa River (about here) and two days later they were camped on the San Francisco River (about here). Though the conditions were fairly pleasant and Mother Nature was gracious in that they ate well, as trout and deer were plentiful in the area, Mr. Irish admitted to a bit of melancholy. "This is the first spot that I have seen that reminds me continually of home. The virginia creeper, willows, cottonwood, and several wild flowers are here as with us. In fact I have been terribly homesick to day [sic]". Though often munificent, Mother Nature was known for her moments of capricious malevolence.

"We were coming through a canyon when a storm burst suddenly upon us ... then came the water rushing and roaring down the canyon. I saw that we soon would be washed away. We pounded the mules into motion and got out and in 1/2 hour after, the canyon ran full of water. The rainy season is now here so we have rain every day." Obviously, the challenges could be physical, but other times they were biological.

"We have a scare now and then. One morning one of the men found a centipede and a scorpion in his bed. No harm was done and I got the varmints into a bottle. Not long after this another one of the party shook a very large centipede out of his bed. They have not troubled me yet. Morley is terribly afraid of them." Charles encountered "... the largest dark rattlesnake that I ever saw. ... he had 10 rattles, he had none of the chivalry of the rattlesnakes that I have seen, but crawled under a shelter and prepared to spring, which he did to the distance of 4 or 5 feet. I shot him (Irish 1878a,e,&f)."

In places, the walls of the San Francisco River canyon rose 2000 feet above the surveyors and they "only saw the sun for 3 hours per day". Those deepest sections of gorge became impassable, forcing the men to haul the mules and wagons up clefts in the sidewalls so steep, that they "had to put on 4 or 5 ropes to each wagon and hold them from rolling over". Once the animals and provisions were safely out of the canyon, the troop continued their downstream exploration through the canyon on foot, only to face a problem with predators.

"We carried crackers and salt, caught all of the trout we could eat and such a time we had. The bears (cinnamon) were very thick in this part of the canyon. ... They were on all sides of us and I feared that we would have to shoot at some of them. ... Mr. Morley who is too adventursom [sic] at times, saw one of them coming towards him and shot her. She sprang at him and he fired 16 shots through her from his gun and pistol when she dropped dead less than 10 feet from him. He had our man with him Mr. Warner who heard the firing and as he came up was met by another bear who attackted [sic] him. This animal he killed by 18 shots and the bear dropped dead only its length from him. They were enormous animals, and we have their scalps upon the wagons" (Irish 1878f). However, not all of the biological challenges were caused by the native fauna.

---⏵ Don't these guys know there's a treaty? ... or ... Apache attacks, Fort West, the Gila River, and Silver City, New Mexico - July 1878

"Its only two years since the Apache indians were removed from here. And as they were the most bloodthirsty and sneaking of all indians, they were the most feared by the whites. ... We had to keep 4 men on guard each night for fear of an attack from stragglers who might remain hidden in the mountain fortresses, but none have appeared" (Irish 1878f). Vigilance had translated into a relatively conflict-free existence for the survey team, but that changed at a camp along the Gila River.

On the 21st of July the group was bivouacked at a spot once occupied by Fort West and about a mile south of the mouth of Duck Creek. "... the Apaches got after us. They killed 17 settlers on Duck Creek (about here)." (Fort West was in service 1863 - 1864 to protect miners from attacks by Apaches (Payette & Payette 2020b, Stanton 2019b).) Along another tributary of the Gila River, Irish, Morley, and their crew discovered more evidence that peace had not always ruled the region. "It has been a battleground as many human skeletons attest. In fact on one small river human skulls abound so thickly that it is called by the indians skull creek and by the Mexicans Rio Cabezon which means the same (Irish 1878f&i, Kammer 2001)."

---⏵ Silver City, Precious Metals, "Dangerous Dan" Tucker, and an eclipse ... or ... A semicivilized respite in Silver City - July & August 1878

From Silver City in July 1878, Charles Irish sent his wife a letter, with a hand-drawn map, describing the region through which they had traveled. He wrote, "It's rich in minerals. Wherever we stopped we could take a tin plate and wash gold dust out of the sands." Though just in its infancy, the financial potential of precious metal extraction was clearly on display in the surrounding mining districts. Gold had been discovered around Pinos Altos, copper was plentiful at Santa Rita, and rich silver strikes was being worked in Chloride Flat and Georgetown (Christiansen 1974, Irish 1878f, Manderfield & Tucker 1877a&b, Mining History Association 2011).

At the time of their late July layover, the frontier town was a rough-and-tumble mining community of about 1800 souls (Census Office 1880). Though many of residents were laborers eking out a living at $1.50 to $3.00 per day (Manderfield & Tucker 1877a), there were plenty of miners and miscreants, horse thieves and home invaders, ladies-of-easy-virtue and saloon-supporters whose occasional incivility ran them afoul "Dangerous Dan" Tucker. "Dangerous Dan" was a modestly dressed, fair-haired, blue-eyed gent, but his unassuming apparel and low-key demeanor belied the Silver City town marshal's nature as a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later peacekeeper. So, against the backdrop of Marshal Dan's "reign of lawfulness", it's likely the AT&SF crew enjoyed a fairly uneventful respite downing a few beers or a couple snorts of whiskey in a mining town that was heavily populated with many fortune seekers (Davis & Humble 2013, DeArment 2003, Irish 1878f, Manderfield & Tucker 1877a, Rock 1997, Weiser 2019a). Ironically, it was a phenomenon above their heads, not the riches beneath their feet, that captivated the citizenry that week in late July.

The highly anticipated solar eclipse of 1878 was well-publicized and its path of totality had been mapped in numerous publications (e.g. The Chicago Daily Tribune, July 20, 1878). Many important scientists and luminaries of the day, including Thomas Edison (Barker 1878, Fernie 2000), flocked to locations in the western states to view the phenomenon and conduct experiments. The U.S. Naval Observatory encouraged people (professionals and amateurs) to record observations and make sketches of the eclipse and published an instruction booklet, that recommended "it will probably be best to view the eclipse through a spectacle glass of a light green tint (Harkness 1878)" during totality.

As it was his tendency to be interested in several areas of science, Mr. Irish had delved into astronomy on two previous occasions. He had viewed and reported on the total eclipse of the sun that swept across Iowa City, Iowa on August 7, 1869 (Irish 1871). Later, Irish and others published accounts describing the "Great Iowa Meteor", which fell to Earth on February 12, 1875, about 20 miles northwest of Irish's home in Iowa City (Hinrichs 1875, Irish 1875, Leonard 1875).

From New Mexico Territory, Mr. Irish answered the call "to co-operate with the United States Naval Observatory" and he recorded "some of the phenomena which, in the present state of science, it is most desirable should be carefully observed" (Harkness 1878). Though it was only a partial eclipse at their location, Irish's brief report documented the sky conditions, the sun's azimuth and altitude, and the duration of the event. His observations from Silver City were included with those of other astronomers in a War Department report in 1881 (Abbe 1881, Irish 1881).

• ... "Arizona cannot be beat,
For scorpions, tarantulas, snakes and heat" ... (Brown n.d.)

---⏵ Copper Mines, Renegades, & Homebrew ... or ...Silver City to Clifton to Silver City to Camp Grant - August 1878

After a recuperative stay in "civilization", the crew shunned wagons and mules in favor of pack animals to carry their gear through the rugged terrain they expected to cross. "I have bought a jackass which does not weigh more than I do. It's so funny to ride him but he will carry me with ease 25 miles per day. He stands as high as my hips so my feet almost touch the ground when I ride him". So, from the relative peace of Silver City, they ventured west and north. By August 2nd the survey team had progressed downstream to a spot along or near the Gila River in an area that is now the Arizona/New Mexico border — a region populated by a few cells of wrathful Native Americans. "Again the Apaches got after us. Have killed 3 men at Clifton and at Mr. Webbs" (Irish 1878f&i).

By August 5th the survey had reached the copper mines just northwest of Clifton, Arizona. Though mining there was in its infancy — excavation of high-quality ore began in 1871 — the need for a rail line was obvious. At the time of the AT&SF team's arrival, excavated ore was being hauled some 700 miles to the nearest railhead in La Junta, Colorado (Hartzog 1966). Charles Irish took time to sketch the town of Clifton and the canyon road leading to the mines nearby (Irish 1878i) and he decided to investigate little-known areas to the north.

"Just arrived on San Francisco River 12 miles north above Gila River. Are going up Frisco on horseback 100 miles into a region hardly anyone has been before. Expect to be gone 2 weeks. Then back to Silver City and then to Florence ... (Irish 1878x)." If "up Frisco" is a reference to the San Francisco River, then Irish's travel would have taken him back into a region of oak, pinyon, juniper, and coniferous forest in the vicinity of present-day Reserve, New Mexico. Alternatively, "up Frisco" may have been a reference to the San Francisco Mountains. In that case, Irish's more-or-less straight north route through montane vegetation would have led him to lower elevations populated by shrubby grasslands and pinyon/juniper woodlands surrounding present-day St. John, Arizona, near today's Petrified Forest National Park (Griffith et al. 2006 & 2014).

The survey party evidently spent less time than anticipated reconnoitering lands north of Clifton and they were soon headed back to Silver City. The company was encamped just west of the Gila River at Ash Springs (in this vicinity) on the 12th of August. Regarding a canyon near their camp, Irish wrote, "A frightful lot of murders by the Apaches done in this cañon. One of these massacres done last year (Irish 1878x)."

Near Ash Springs, Irish was impressed with Parson's Peak and another geologic formation along the "Gila River 10 miles SE of Clifton"; as he had done before, Charles sketched both in his surveyor's notebook (Irish 1878i). Ash Peak, Ash Springs, and Parson's Peak are all shown on historic maps by King (1899) and Morley (1878), but only Ash Peak is located on modern topographic maps and other current depictions of the Peloncillo Mountains. Oddly enough, Irish's unnamed formation along the "Gila River 10 miles SE of Clifton" looks similar to a formation captured in Google Streetview along Arizona Highway #75 about 10 miles SE of Clifton.

The trip back to Silver City from Clifton (about 100 miles following the Gila River and other negotiable valleys) was probably necessary to resupply the contingent. At any rate, the team returned, stocked up on needed supplies, and retraced their westward path along the Gila River. This last push to reach Florence, Arizona Territory took them, once again, through the Gila River valley and they arrived at Richmond (now Virden, New Mexico) by August 18th (Irish 1878x).

The exact path the group followed out of Richmond is unknown, but they arrived at Camp Grant on the southwest side of Mt. Graham in the afternoon of August 24th. Past experience had instilled an unease in Irish — their contingent was never completely safe from the Apaches. According to him, "... the indians are now on reservations and watched by troops except small wandering bands which skulk in the mountains and are called renegades. They are the ones which make it dangerous for less than 5 men well armed to be met by them. These mountain ranges are cut through by low craggy defiles called passes. ... These passes are watched by the scoundrel renegades and whenever they can find people in them who are not well armed and on their guard they attack them, kill them and run off with their horses and goods to their mountain hiding places (Irish 1878g&i)".

Despite his apprehension, Irish acknowledged that "the Apaches were a great nation of indians divided into many tribes. Those on the east side of the Rio Grande were called Jicarilla, pro. Hecorea [sic], Apaches. Then on the west side were the (Ojo Caliente) Hot Spring Apaches and the Muscallero [sic] Apaches. The last were so called because they had the art of making a spirituous drink from the root of the Muscal. A species of century plant, which the Mexicans say blossoms every 60 years. ... The leaves and roots are filled with a sweet juice which fermented makes the muscal a most villainous drink as it makes those who drink it crazy on the spot (Irish 1878g)".

---⏵ A float trip down the Gila, then a march along the Butterfield Stage Route ... or ... The crew reaches its endpoint and heads towards home - September 1878

Newspaper reports in "The Arizona Citizen" allowed that the AT&SF survey team reached Riverside, Arizona Territory during the last few days of August. The group had approached from the southeast by way of Railroad Pass (presently the Interstate 10 corridor between the Dos Cabezas Mountains and the Pinaleño Mountains) and Aravaipa Canyon (Clum 1878 a&b). If that newspaper account is accurate, they left Fort Grant and followed the Aravaipa Valley north on a slightly downhill journey of thirty-some miles to the headwaters of Aravaipa Creek. Following the creek's flowage through Aravaipa Canyon would have led the team to the confluence of Aravaipa Creek and the San Pedro River at the original location of Camp Grant (United States General Land Office 1887). From there it was about a 25-mile ride north and then west along the Gila River to reach Riverside.

Most of the group continued on to their western-most survey point, Florence, via an overland route along the Gila River. However, Ray Morley, who C.W. Irish had described as a being "too adventursom [sic] at times" (Irish 1878f), decided to build a raft and recruited another member of the survey team to float down the Gila from Riverside to Florence (a river-distance of about 32 miles). Everyone left Sunday morning (September 1st) and the overland survey team arrived in Florence Monday afternoon. Even at a leisurely pace, Morley and his yacht mate ought to have arrived far ahead of the overland crew, but they were nowhere to be found, when the overland team arrived. Thinking the worst had happened, a rescue squad, accompanied by the local sheriff, set out in search of Morley and his shipmate.

Somewhere out on the trail, the search team met the weary and likely foot-sore sailors walking to town. Their raft had navigated the Gila River masterfully, until after a few miles it became ensnared in a tangle of trees and brush. The trapped raft was quickly converted from a boat to a barricade and the vessel was swamped. Unable to free their partially submerged scow, Morley and his associate salvaged all the clothes and possessions possible, abandoned ship, and started walking to Florence (Clum 1878 a&b).

From Florence, the troop followed one of two likely paths. They may have headed eastward along the road through Round Valley and Cottonwood Spring (see United States General Land Office 1887) to a familiar location, the site of Old Camp Grant at the confluence of Arivaipa Creek and the San Pedro River (about here). From the confluence they would have headed south along the San Pedro to Tres Alamos, found on the old Butterfield Overland Mail Route about 35 miles east of Tucson. The other possibility was for them to head southwest out of Florence to a place called Blue Water. From there, a south-southeast trajectory would have taken them past Picacho Peak, on to Tucson (the path of modern-day Interstate 10), and then east to Tres Alamos. Both routes can be seen on maps by Morley (1878), the United States General Land Office (1887), and the U.S. Army (1879).

By September 10th the survey team had reached Dunbar's stage station at Tres Alamos on the seasonally dry San Pedro River (about here). The place was a convenient resting point and river crossing on Thomas and Agnes Dunbar's cattle ranch that served as a boarding house, telegraph station, and stage stop (Fahey 2008, Peterson 1968, Smith 2008). At least by one person's estimation, the survey team likely had a pleasant layover at Dunbar's. "It is only stating a truth to say that if any other Arizona station equals Dunbar's in nice food and lodging, none excels it in either (J.W. 1878)."

From Tres Alamos they trekked east through the Sulphur Springs Valley and skirted the 50 square mile playa at its center, with their goal being safety and a dependable water supply at Fort Bowie. A trek south of the dry lake would have taken them along the old Butterfield Stage Line road through Dragoon Springs, otherwise they would have ridden through Croton Springs and Dos Cabezas north of the playa. En route to Apache Pass, C.W. Irish collected four grasses from the Sulphur Springs Valley, but he included no specific collection location.

Eastward bound, the survey team undoubtedly caught site of Helen's Dome, a 6400-foot granitic column historically used by people as a guide to Apache Pass (National Park Service 2015a, Simon 2011). The landmark impressed C.W. Irish enough to make a crude sketch of what he labeled "Hellens Dome" in his surveyor's notebook (Irish 1878i). At Apache Pass they were provided with water from Apache Spring, protection from the Chiricahua Apache by the military at Fort Bowie, and perhaps a few creature comforts, courtesy of the U.S. Army or the remnants of the Butterfield Stage Station.

They next stopped (September 14th) at what remained of the San Simon Station on the Butterfield Route, along what was probably a dry riverbed. Charles Irish identified it as the Rio De Sauz, an ephemeral stream, now known as the San Simon River, that originates in Hidalgo County, New Mexico just east of the Chiricahua Mountains (Irish 1878h, National Park Service 2017). For whatever reason, the artist and/or historian in Charles Irish was inspired by the vestiges of what he called the "Old Pony Express Station in the San Simeon plains abandoned 1862" and he took time to sketch a side elevation and a floor plan of the ruins, including windows, doors, and dimensions (Irish 1878i).

• The path back to Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory - September & October 1878

---⏵ The crew returns to the home of "Dangerous Dan" Tucker ... or ... Refreshments, recuperation, and archaeology. - September 1878

It's not clear what route they followed out of San Simon. Perhaps they skirted the stream bed of the San Simon River to reach familiar surroundings along the Gila River. Regardless, the surveyors traveled by way of Richmond) and were back in "Dangerous Dan" Tucker's home, Silver City, on the 19th of September. They may have "wet their whistle" at the Centennial Saloon or some other watering hole in town and the men could have easily engaged in a game of chance, but they'd have been a few years too early to have witnessed one of Silver City's most famous gambling events.

In the 1880s Poker Alice, a pretty, blue-eyed, cheroot-smoking woman, came to Silver City from Colorado's mining district with her husband, Warren G. Tubbs. She had gained well-earned respect and a reputation as an intelligent and adroit gambler, who successfully padded her bank account with other card players' money. Poker Alice and her spouse came to Silver City, because it was known as a place for lucrative wagering and, in a single evening, Alice famously separated a number of gents from several thousand dollars at a Silver City gambling parlor's Faro table (Denver Public Library 2018, Enss 2019, Meggs 2020, Sangres.com. 2012a, Weiser 2019b). But, we've veered from the main story.

Either during the previous visit in July (Irish 1878f) or during their September stay, Charles Irish toured the Gila Cliff Dwellings north of Silver City. He made general descriptions of the "caves" and their condition, recorded their dimensions, and made sketches of artifacts he found within (Gosper & McClintock 1878). In order to access the ruins, they had to pass through Pinos Altos, so it's possible that some members of the troop indulged in fine culinary fare, a palliative intoxicant, and/or an engaging performance at the Buckhorn Saloon & Opera House.

Similarly, in either July or September, Mr. Irish also investigated the McGregor, McNulty, Commercial and Naiad Queen mines (now known as the Georgetown Mines (USGS 2020)) in the Mimbres Silver Mining District northeast of Silver City (in this area). His report included descriptions of the mines, their depths, the ores being extracted, the value of the mineral content, and the costs involved in mining and transporting the ore (Birnie 1879). Once the cliff dwelling and ore deposit investigations were completed, the surveyors resumed their trek toward Las Vegas, New Mexico.

---⏵ Protection from the Lady on the Mountain ... or ... A bit of the supernatural can't hurt. - September 1878

By September 28th they had arrived at Shaw's Ranch, which lay a half-dozen miles west of the Continental Divide along the North Star Road (see this vicinity and Wright 1880). They evidently skirted the southern edge of the San Agustin Plains and were camped at Pueblo Springs (about here) by the 30th (see maps: Bureau of Topographic Engineers 1859, Rand McNally & Company 1879, United States Army 1879).

The water source, also known as Ojo del Pueblo and Puebla Springs, was named after the Piro Indian pueblo, whose ruins, like the spring, lie about 1.5 miles NNW of Magdalena, New Mexico. The pueblo and the springs were mentioned as early as the late 1600s, when Spanish explorer Diego de Vargas and his company traveled through the area. During the Civil War the springs were important to a Union Army contingent in pursuit of Confederate insurgents and when the survey team stopped there, they enjoyed the water supply, but probably also a bit of protection supplied by Magdalena Peak.

To the early Spanish explorers, a unique talus field on an east-facing slope of the extinct volcano embodied the profile of Mary Magdalene, hence the volcanic dome's name, "La Sierra de Magdalena" or Magdalena Peak. The Piro Indians, the Apaches, and other native inhabitants of the area weren't Christian, but they were superstitious and avoided the area near the image on the mountain. According to Twitchel (1904), "A beautiful legend is handed down to us that no murder has ever been, or could be committed under the compassionate gaze of that contrite countenance. This spot became a place of refuge and the savage Indian would forego his bloody deeds under the shadow of the holy mount. Those in danger would flee to this enchanted spot, and thus, became invulnerable from the onslaught of their pursuers." So, it seems, wittingly or not, Mr. Irish and his comrades were likely protected by "Mary of Magdala" on the mountain (Eveleth 2006, Eveleth & Osborne 1983, Fewkes 1902, Thompson 2015).

The contingent continued on to the Rio Grande River and spent the night of October 3rd at Belen. They moved on to Albuquerque and were finally back at their starting point, Las Vegas, New Mexico, on October 10, 1878.

By the time they returned to Las Vegas, Charles Irish, Ray Morley, and their work crew had spent about four months together. They had been rattled, wrenched, jostled, and jounced for months aboard burros, horses, and wagons. The men had trekked across desert land, skirted mountains, scrambled through canyons, and defended themselves against Mother Nature and hostile humans. So, a well-deserved relaxing departure from the norm would have been gratifying.

A stay at The Abobe, about six miles north of Las Vegas, would have been a therapeutic retreat from the norm. The hotel was a converted U.S. Army Hospital built along the Gallinas River in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and, most importantly, The Adobe was adjacent to a series of hot springs. It would have been medicinal to lie in comfortable accommodations, luxuriate in the therapeutic hot springs, and perhaps indulge in a restorative mud bath (Ivers 1974, Pullen 1890). They may have soothed a few aches and pains at the Las Vegas hot springs, but there was still work to be done.

Charles Irish traveled north, likely by way of Fort Union, Cimarron, Raton, and Trinidad, until he reached Pueblo, Colorado by October 23rd. He spent the better part of a week there, probably finishing maps and working on other survey reports for the AT&SF. By then, C.W. Irish, having completed his commitment to the railway, made a variety of rail connections and returned home to Iowa City, Iowa (Irish 1878x, Wright 1880). All in all it was pretty remarkable that this troop of surveyors were relatively unscathed, save for a few bumps and scrapes, following their months-long adventure surveying for the AT&SF.

The company had traveled at least 1350 miles together and had been challenged by the elements, the flora, the fauna, and disaffected locals. They had ventured into Apacheria during a period when colonists and the military were attempting to wrest the lands, livelihoods, and culture from the native occupants of the region. Those native souls — Apaches, Comanches, Utes, Navajos, and others — understandably resented the intrusion. The native peoples of Apacheria defended themselves against the ill-treatment forced upon them by the invaders, whose attitude of superiority and "manifest destiny" threatened to destroy their way of life. The Indians' style of guerrilla defense was effective, scary, and embarrassing for the military, prospectors, and homesteaders, who often considered the Apaches and their combat tactics to be spineless and barbaric. In reality, the skirmishes were an effective way for the Indians to defend their families, homeland, and way of life (Colwell-Chanthaphonh 2005, Lahti 2009).

• Charles W. Irish — 21st century fruits from 19th century labors. --- or --- What is known about his plant and animal collections?

---⏵ "I have made a nice collection of various plants and insects, all of them new to me. I also have a few lizzards [sic] and will get all the species that I can (Irish 1878a)."

C.W. Irish, W.R. Morley, and the rest of the survey crew helped expand the railroad boom of the late 1800s into New Mexico and Arizona. Their efforts provided information that allowed rail transportation to pierce another segment of the West and, thus, promoted further exploration, settlement, and development. Though commerce was a critical aspect of life, Charles W. Irish's interest in science contributed significantly to knowledge of the natural world.

Irish was a Renaissance man, who enjoyed success in many fields, without benefit of a formal degree in any. He was a surveyor and civil engineer (as described in this report), teacher (Irish 1913, Pace 2015, Preston 1909), city planner (Pace 2015, Page & Page 2003, Preston 1909), anthropologist/archeologist (Gosper & McClintock 1878, Irish 1885a), geologist (Birnie 1879, Irish 1885b), astronomer (Hinrichs 1875, Irish 1871 & 1875), and historian (Irish 1886, 1891, 1894). But, his late 19th century collections of the flora and fauna in Southwest America are of particular interest here.

---⏵ What did he collect, where did he collect, how did he preserve things, and where are they now?

During his work in 1878 for the AT&SF Railway, Irish collected zoological specimens (insects, arachnids, & reptiles) and about 230 plants from Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. About 12% of Charles' plant specimens list only a vague description of their collection location (e.g. "on the plains of New Mexico" or "in Arizona and New Mexico") and the likelihood of improving the specificity of those locality records, using his correspondence and survey field notes, is remote. However, with a bit of patience, a modicum of ingenuity, a few historical documents, and a variety of 19th century maps, the localities recorded by Irish for most of his botanical specimens are sufficiently detailed to allow for the determination of a spot on the map that at least zeroes in on a particular county or even something more specific. For example, "top of Mt. Graham" & "Camp Grant" translate into locations in Graham Co., Arizona and "Near Stein's Peak" & "Gila River bottoms, Richmond" point to Hidalgo Co., New Mexico.

Among his correspondences are comments about plants and animals he encountered and/or collected, but no remarks about preservation techniques or transport home appear. He could have simply air-dried his pressed plants, because they probably would have desiccated nicely in the arid southwest, except for some potential problems during monsoon rains. And his zoological specimens? If carefully sequestered, arachnids and insects might dry out nicely in the desert Southwest. But lizards and other small invertebrates would fare better in a preservative solution. Of course, locally distilled rot gut whiskey and mescal/tequila were available and either might have served as a suitable embalming fluid!

Though various memorial tributes state that Charles donated numerous mineral and zoological specimens to the museum at the State University of Iowa, there is uncertainty about their fate. Vouchers for his zoologicals have yet to be located, if they still exist at all. On the other hand, all of his plant specimens are safely ensconced in the herbarium of the Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport, Iowa. Irish's "AT&SF plants" comprise about 25% of his personal herbarium and data from them may be accessed via the Putnam Museum segment of the Consortium of Northern Great Plains Herbarium portal.

---⏵ Some herbarium specifics.

Again, in association with his AT&SF work Charles collected about 230 plants from Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. An inventory of Charles' personal herbarium by his daughter, Ruth Irish Preston, and notes on the specimens in Charles' own hand, confirm the year of collection as 1878, but few additional "date of collection" specifics were provided. Further curatorial work on the collection may allow for the assignment of more specific dates, as additional information is gleaned from his survey records. For now, more explicit dates must remain a goal vs. a reality.

If we don't know exactly how Irish collected, pressed, and dried his plants, what identification reference did he use? What sort of temporary storage did he have? Did he ship his plants home or haul them from pillar to post for six or seven months? Questions abound, answers are scant.

No botanical publications are among the 60 boxes of Charles Wood Irish's personal papers at the University of Iowa, so speculation about what he used to identify his plants and when he ID'd them, is just that ... speculation. He may have traveled light from Iowa City, brought only essential personal effects, ID'd his plants "on the fly", and waited until he returned home to verify his identifications with a reference text. Reference text?

It's conceivable, perhaps likely, that Charles used Asa Gray's "Lessons in Botany" as a reference for plant collecting and preservation techniques. He may have even used the text to aid in identification or, perhaps he had access to a copy of Gray's "Synoptical flora of North America" and used it as a guide. Something that would have been helpful for plant identification and gauged specifically to the flora of the Southwest would have been volume four of "Reports of explorations and surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean", because it contained the "Report on the botany of the expedition" and was a detailed plant checklist authored by prominent botanists of the period — John M. Bigelow, George Engelmann, William S. Sullivant, John Torrey, and Asa Gray (Bigelow 1856). Once again, what publications he used is speculation and the phrase that pays is, "¿Quién sabe?"

About 90% of the plants that Charles collected in 1878 fall under the classical definition of dicots and half of his dicots came from seven families — Asteraceae (e.g. a - b), Boraginaceae (e.g. a - b), Convolvulaceae (e.g. a - b), Fabaceae (e.g. a - b), Plantaginaceae (e.g. a - b), Polemoniaceae (e.g. a - b), and Onagraceae (e.g. a - b). Though abundant in the region, Irish collected only one cactus and not a single specimen of the widespread creosote bush or ocotillo. In the vicinity of Belen, New Mexico he collected filaree, a pretty little European introduction, but most of his plant collections, like pineywoods geranium and white crane's-bill from the mountains near Camp Grant, Arizona, are North American natives.

Apparently monocots didn't often catch his eye. Charles harvested one specimen of agave from New Mexico, a Mariposa Lily from the "plains in bare spaces between bunches of grass" in Colorado, a day flower from New Mexico "on plains between Burro Mt. & Mr. Webbs on the Gila", and a spiderwort from the "Gila River below Ash Springs" which, depending upon Irish's definition of "below", is a location in either Arizona or New Mexico. Finally, there are nine grasses from Arizona, Kansas, and New Mexico in C.W.'s AT&SF herbarium.

Of the 230 plants in his AT&SF collection, 199 appear to have originated from Arizona and/or New Mexico. (As previously mentioned, C.W. Irish's collection locality records are sometimes lacking in clarity and detail.) A couple of hundred plants isn't a huge number, so how does Irish's effort compare with those of other late 19th century botanists active in the region?

Data downloaded from SEINet showed that about 4000 specimens from New Mexico and another 2200 from Arizona were collected prior to 1880. Many botanists collected fewer than 100 plants and most of them accounted for less than 20. However, seven people were responsible for collecting ~83% of them: Charles Wright (29.6%), Augustus Fendler (21.5%), Edward Palmer (17.7%), Joseph T. Rothrock (7.7%), John M. Bigelow (3.5%), Elliot Coues (2.9%), and Charles W. Irish (3.1%). Each man, with the exception of Irish, botanized the Southwest as part of his career with the U.S. Military or a U.S. government exploratory expedition. Mr. Irish, on the other hand, was a civil engineer charged with determining the appropriate route for a railroad. He botanized for the same reason that he reported on the eclipse and examined the Gila Cliff Dwellings — because he was an innately curious scientist.

C.W. Irish had been away from his wife, daughters, and community for many months. His homecoming was undoubtedly a joyous one, but he still was the family's breadwinner and the thing he knew best was railroad construction. So, in early January 1879 he accepted a position with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, mid-month he was involved in preparatory meetings in Chicago, and by month's end, the civil engineer was in Tracy, Minnesota reconnoitering the southwestern corner of the state for a rail line to reach from there to Fort Pierre on the Missouri River in Dakota Territory.

Charles could not have foreseen the challenging negotiations, with yet another group of dissatisfied Native Americans, that lie ahead. Little did he know that severe cold and not incredible heat would threaten he and his men. Unforeseen were frequent bouts with ill-health and bad water, snow and ice, rain and mud, mosquitoes and thieves. But, that's a story for another time.

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