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Show FALL 2013 UHQ pp 304-385_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 9/16/13 1:25 PM Page 381 MUrDEr AND MAPPING wagons with a shorter wheel base and four-mule teams were more suited to negotiate the steep slopes and sharp curves encountered south of Moab. The downside to these smaller wagons was their limited carrying capacity. Another logistical challenge was obtaining enough food for men and feed for horses to support field operations for an infantry company. Hay was not cut locally until August, while wheat, oats, and barley were not available until September. The road from Moab was so rough that in order to transport hay it would have to be baled; in 1886, hay cost twenty dollars per ton, delivered. An easier route of travel did not require baling, saving additional costs and requiring only four to five days to get hay from suppliers in Mancos, Colorado. The same was true of food such as potatoes and vegetables, which commanded high prices but were more readily available from towns to the east. On the other hand, winter snow buried the toll road from Durango, making it inoperable until May, while the road from Moab was accessible year-round. For Morton and his group this year, that would not present a problem. They returned to Thompson Springs to take the train back on October 17 from their garrison duty on the North Fork of Montezuma Creek with “much valuable information obtained regarding this little known region.”27 His frequent reconnaissance during the summer had paid off with information never before obtained. Morton would not return to San Juan; instead, his career would take him to many other successful assignments.28 As for the soldiers from Fort Lewis, they returned to their post in November due to the buildup of ice on the roads, which threatened the packers’ ability to deliver food and supplies.29 Spring and summer 1887 brought a rash of new conflicts. Near Bluff, two Navajos killed Amasa Barton at his trading post along the San Juan River. One of the Indians was also killed, setting in motion a larger confrontation when sixty Navajos entered the town of Bluff and threatened the handful of men who protected a large number of women and children. Fortunately, Bishop Jens Nielson quieted the affair, solidifying the peace with a communal meal shared with the Navajos. 30 Mor mon stake president Francis A. Hammond requested that troops be stationed nearby. A month later, with Mancos Jim and his band of Utes and Paiutes roaming Blue Mountain and a group of Southern Utes hunting there too, it was not surprising that when Henry Hopkins, a young cook for the George Brooks 27 “Report of Brigadier General Crook,” Headquarters Department of the Platte, August 27, 1887, Report of the Secretary of War, 1st Sess., 50th Cong. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1887), 1:133. 28 Charles Morton, a graduate from West Point (1883) went on to have a highly successful military career (1883–1925) and obtained the rank of colonel. He served in such capacities as commander of the 1st Maine Volunteer Regiment (National Guard) during the Spanish-American War and instructor in the Army Staff College. 29 P. T. Swaine to Acting Adjutant General, November 5, 1886, Fort Lewis—Outgoing Correspondence #334, 1878–1891, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado. 30 See Robert S. McPherson, The Northern Navajo Frontier, 1860–1900: Expansion through Adversity (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2001), 73–74. 381 |
