Duncan AZ.

So what do you do when your bored? Tiger and I just go for a drive. I got up this morning and took Tiger for his walk and came home to check the e-mail. There was none. I turned on the boob tube and all reruns. So we hopped in the truck and took off to parts unknown.

We headed to Safford AZ. about 130 miles from here. Only reason we picked that place is because we’ve never been there before. Now when we take off like this, we aren’t in a hurry. In fact we take our time and make a lot of pit stops. ( Tiger loves to wee a lot when we drive.) Or maybe its the chance to sniff every bush along the hwy. Either case it keeps the interior dry…Love this pooch…

So about 40 miles southeast of Safford on hwy 70 is a little town called Duncan.  Did I know there was a town like Duncan on our route, we had no idea. This town is a small farming town, population of about 800.  In 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his troops made their historic trek through this part of Southwestern US. It is called the “Coronado Trail”. In the 1950’s schoolboys found a Spanish helmet and a sabre, around the grassy plateau overlooking Duncan.

The Apache fled the San Carolos Reservation in May 1885, Led by the warrior Geronimo and other courageous men. This group of Apaches consisted of about 142 members including 101 women and children, they raided for 16 months before the great surrender of Geronimo in1886.

Duncan figured significantly in the tragic and bloody Apache wars of the southwest. Each small town had their own militia to help the Army  battle the Apaches.

Just a few miles northeast of Duncan is the Carlisle Mine. In 1898  young Herbert Hoover just 3 years out of Stanford, became the superintendent of the Mines. Legend says, Hoover spent a night in the cave jail for drunken and disorderly conduct. He is said to have protested, “The Mexicans and Indians made me do it.” Long before he became the 31st. President.

What has really put these towns on decline is the fact of the Interstate 10 that was moved about 50 miles south of area. Of course like anything else progress can be the death of a town.

Well I’m not trying to write a book here, so guess Tiger and I will go home wait for another trip to tell you about.

Till later.