In the entertaining flood of reminiscence that comes from almost any of
the devout pioneers, there often is found expression of abiding belief of
personal protection extended by Omnipotence. Possibly, save in the
development of character by trials and by tribulation, the average
pioneer of the faith, from a present viewpoint, would appear to have been
little favored, yet thankful devotion ever was present.
One story that indicated celestial intervention in time of danger, has
been told by Orson Cluff. He and several brothers and their families were
on the road south from Forest Dale to the Gila, and had camped at a point
twenty miles south of Fort Apache. In the morning there was the usual
prayer, from which the company arose, refreshed in spirit, for another
hard day's journey. A short time later, an Indian told how he was a
member of a band of redskins that lay in ambush about the Mormon camp
that very morning. The work of massacre was about to begin when the
intended victims were seen to drop upon their knees and to lift their
hands aloft in supplication. The startled Indians were overcome by some
mysterious power and stole away. Possibly they feared that potent
"medicine" was being made against them, but the Cluffs are sure that
the Holy Spirit had descended to save them for further earthly
experience.
The Gila Valley saw much of Indian rapine in its earlier days. The
section considered in this chapter lies just east of the San Carlos
Apache reservation and is flanked on the northward by the White Mountain
reservation. When the California Column, under General Carleton, was
established in Arizona in 1863, after beating the Confederates back
beyond the Rio Grande, it was found necessary to establish military
stations in that locality. Camp Goodwin, named after the first Governor
of the Territory, was at the lower end of the valley. A number of years
after its abandonment, there was established, five miles to the eastward,
Camp Thomas, maintained until after the final subjugation of the hostile
Indians. Thomas was a veritable guard post for the Mormon settlers. To
the southwest was Camp Grant, in the northern extension of the Sulphur
Springs Valley, this post a successor to old Camp Grant, which was at the
mouth of Aravaipa Creek, at the junction of that stream with the San
Pedro River. To the northward was Fort Apache and to the southward Fort
Bowie.