Army honors trail-blazing Mormons at Yuma, Arizona

Yuma statue honors Mormon Battalion

A war between the United States and Mexico resulted in a southern wagon train route to the Pacific Ocean. This trail was blazed by more than 500 Mormons who enlisted in the Army in 1846. A statue commemorating this journey can be found at Yuma, Arizona’s West Wetlands Park on the Colorado River.

The Army solicited Mormons specifically for this trip members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints already were seeking new territory in the West to settle. The group became known as the Mormon Battalion. Besides establishing a southern route across the southwest, their mission was to secure California and New Mexico for the United States.

The Mormon Battalion began service on July 16, 1846, in Iowa. Some soldiers brought their wives and children on the trip, but not all ended their journey in California. Among the scouts for the trip was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacajawea who served as guide and translator for the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean in 1804-6. Charbonneau was only a few months old when he made the trip west with these explorers.

The battalion arrived in Yuma on January 9, 1847, where they camped along the Colorado River. The next day they crossed the Colorado at Los Algodones, Mexico, less than 10 miles from present-day Yuma. Their journey ended in San Diego, California, on January 29, 1847.

The wagon trail they established would be well used within just a couple of years, as 60,000 miners bound for the California gold fields traveled this route. Today’s Interstate 8 freeway parallels this route through Yuma.

Yuma's West Wetlands Park

Finding the monument can be tricky. The park is reached by heading west on Yuma’s First Street, then taking a right on 12^th Avenue.  It’s a ways from the most well-used sections of the park. Continue on the road through the park, past the solar energy project. There are no signs marking the statue honoring the Mormon Battalion, so be on the lookout for a pedestrian bridge on the right side of the road. The statue is visible through the underpass. Limited parking is available on the other side of the road.

Route 66: Dramamine required

Stunning highway views

Route 66 is not always like the comfortably paved highway celebrated in the classic television series of that name. At least one part is so hair-raising you need nerves of steel to drive it, and passengers may want to have plenty of motion sickness remedy handy.

The 22-mile section in question starts a few miles south of Kingman, Arizona, where Route 66 also is known as the Oatman Highway. The first few miles are pretty good compared to the rest of the journey, with mostly roller-coaster roads, but once you start the climb into the mountains, it’s a different story.

The road is narrow with steep grades and lots of hairpin turns. One driver estimated there were 122 turns, so you can imagine how twisty the final miles are. I didn’t keep count of the number of turns, but I would not dispute the other driver's figure. The drive is very nerve-wracking if you’re headed south toward Oatman because your vehicle will be in the outside lane which overlooks deep canyons and ravines. The shoulder isn’t very wide and there are no guard rails as we know them today. A few places had short curbs while wood posts connected by wire cable passed for guardrails in a couple of other places, but mostly there was nothing to keep vehicles from tumbling over the bank. Far better to drive this highway north out of Oatman where if you drive off the road, you’ll end up against a hill.

Oh, and the road isn’t very well maintained, so drive slowly, not that you could go very fast over it anyway. This would be a great road for motorcyclists, but not for RVs or large passenger cars. Route 66 – America’s highway – was built in the days when roads followed the contours of the land, bridges were only built over rivers and cars were a lot smaller.

The summit at Sitgreaves Pass

Whatever else it may be, this section of Route 66 is very scenic. You can literally see for miles and miles. There are occasional pull-offs to admire the view. The summit, at Sitgreaves Pass, is 3,550 feet high, then you start downhill, which is almost as scary, past a working gold mine, into Oatman. 

 

  

 

Downtown Oatman

Route 66 is Oatman’s main street, barely two lanes wide. Traffic slows to a crawl here because the street is frequently filled with tourists feeding wild burros.

The rest of the Oatman Highway, from Oatman to Topock, Arizona, where it joins Interstate 40, is boring in comparison, as it is mostly roller-coaster road, so you still might want to keep the Dramamine handy.

Getting used to life in Arizona

Life in Arizona is certainly a contrast from our life in Washington, and some of the changes take some getting used to.

For example, low-flying military jets. There's a Marine air base next to Yuma International Airport. While we haven't seen any commercial planes taking off or landing, we've seen plenty of low-flying military planes whooshing overhead at high speeds. The first time I encountered this, we were riding scooters back to the RV park. The planes went by so quickly and noisily, I almost crashed my scooter in surprise. While the RV park we're staying at doesn't seem to be in the planes' flight path, we do get a lot of low-flying helicopters, especially at night.

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Yuma gets a fair amount of winds, so much so that we rarely put the awning down on the trailer. There's a palm tree right next to our trailer, and I enjoy watching the branches blow in the breeze through the translucent vent over the bed. Song birds roost there during the morning, with their warbling providing a wonderful alarm. I do not, however, like the pigeons that hoot all around the clock. One of these days, I swear I'm gonna make us some pigeon pie!

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In Washington, we had signs warning of deer and elk on the road. In Arizona, they warn about wild cows and burros, neither of which we've seen (I don't count the “wild” burros of Oatman) on the road, though Jon did see a deer on the road the morning we took the freeway to Wellton, a town about 30 miles east of Yuma.

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I can't get used to the Border Patrol inspection stations a few miles out of Yuma: eastbound on Interstate 8 and northbound on U.S. 95. As gringos, we are automatically waved through, though one time an inspector stopped us long enough to ask if we were U.S. citizens. He quickly waved us through without asking for proof when Jon said we were. We have seen cars of Hispanics pulled over and being questioned. I wonder how many illegals they catch this way, since motorists can take back roads that bypass the inspection stations.

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Though I used to complain about having to cut the grass at our house, I really miss green grass. Here, most homes have graveled yards filled with cactus of various types and palm trees. By the way, a palm tree is no substitute for a stately Douglas fir. Give me one of our national forests any day!

Restful rest areas

Hegy rest area

When you’re traveling, rest areas are important stops on your travel routes. On our journey from Kennewick, Washington, to Yuma, Arizona, two particularly stood out for me.

The first was Hegy rest area in coastal northern California. It’s a small rest area in Highway 101 set among the forests, with a nature trail leading through the trees to overlook the Pacific Ocean.

 

A very restful, pretty place, it is named after William Z. Hegy, a Canadian who migrated to Eureka, California, where he was a highway engineer with the state. A stretch of highway between Trinidad and Patrick’s Point also is named in his honor.

Nevada rest area

The second rest area that impressed me was located on Highway 95 in Nevada, not too many miles from the border with California.

 

The architecture is just not what one has come to expect in a rest area. Also unexpected was the metal art that decorated the doors to the rest rooms.

Bard museum boasts impressive antique car collection

Old cars on display

If your interests lie in antiques – anything from vehicles to kitchen equipment, the Cloud Museum is the place to go. It’s a private museum just off Interstate 8 near Yuma, Arizona. The museum is located in Bard, California, a hamlet to small you’ll miss it if you blink. The drive from the freeway, which takes you over roads that could be smoother, is filled with views of lettuce and cabbage fields, and date palms.

Owner Johnny Cloud has filled two acres with a wide assortment of antiques, beginning with 130 cars that he said drove in under their own power and could be driven out if they contained batteries and gasoline. The vehicles include cars from the early 1900s, most of which are rusted down to the metal. These sit out in the open. A few cars have been restored and are kept in a building toward the rear.

Besides old cars, the Cloud collection includes vintage farm implements, a few old fire trucks and an early motor home.

Display of old kitchen utensils

Cloud says he began his collection 24 years ago when he sold his farm and found himself with nothing to do. He is still collecting today, and says he really has no idea of how extensive his collection is.

But it includes more than just vehicles. There’s an old post office complete with wanted posters for John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Bonnie and Clyde. He has plenty of old kitchen utensils, include corn bread pans, and an extensive collection of cast iron skillets hang on one wall.

Cloud roams the grounds in a golf cart, stopping frequently to talk with visitors and answer questions.
 

Yuma Quartermaster Depot

Officer's quarters

The Quartermaster Depot in Yuma is another facility that offers a glimpse at this Arizona city's historic past.


Now a state historic park, at one time it houses all the supplies for U.S. Army posts in Arizona Territory as well as for some posts in other Western states, including Utah, Nevada, Texas and New Mexico. Goods were brought in by boat and mule train (at one time the depot was home to 900 mules) and then dispersed to the various Army posts.

 

When rail lines reached Yuma in 1877, there was no longer any need for hauling goods this way, and the depot closed in 1883, though it still housed an Amy signal corps until 1891. It continued use after that as a weather bureau station, and later was used by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

 

Old vehicles on display

Some of the original buildings still exist., including officers' quarters with fireplaces AND dirt floors. The Bureau of Reclamation devotes one building to the “Days of the Colorado” that has banners featuring each dam on the river as well as some antique vehicles.

The Quartermaster Depot is home to what is billed as Yuma's top farmers' market on Sundays. This is the main reason we went there, and it was extremely disappointing. There were more craftsmen and processed foods vendors than farmers selling fresh produce. Only about four of the dozen vendors had produce to sell, and only one of these offered vegetables that looked fresh enough to eat.

A day trip to Algodones, Mexico

Entering Mexico

Algodones, Mexico, is a border town about eight miles from Yuma, Arizona, though it shares the border with California. It is very popular with Americans who go there for low-cost dental work and eye glasses.

I, quite frankly, have never seen as many dental offices in a two-block area before; I’m told the health district covers a four-block area. Americans stream into Algodones by the thousands every day, or so it seems. If you go, go early in the morning where you can get a parking spot. We got there about 8:30 a.m., and were able to find a spot in the row nearest the border crossing. When we left several hours later, the parking lot was jammed.  The Quechan tribe has the parking nearest the crossing, but it charges $7 to park there. Free parking is available beyond this, but, given how large the tribal lot is, I shudder to think how far you’d have to walk. Someone could probably make a mint providing shuttle service.

Re-entering the United States

I was surprised at how easy it was to enter Mexico on foot. We just walked through a gate to a small, pleasant courtyard with sparkling clean restrooms. I was a little disappointed because I’d wanted a Mexican stamp in my passport. Contrast this with leaving Mexico to re-enter the United States. A customs/border patrol official and his fierce-looking German shepherd checking for drugs, greeted us about mid-way through the line – we had to stand in one for about half an hour. Then it’s on to customs and immigration where they scan your passport and question you about purchases. Finally, you get to walk through long this chain-line corridor. Welcome to the United States!

 

Unfortunately, because I'm having difficulty walking, we never got more than a couple of blocks away, so I don't know what else Algodones has to offer. We did have a snack on one restaurant, and I was surprised at how bland the salsa was.