Stories Of The Old Southwest

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    Smokey and I were talking about the different cultures in Australia and the Southwestern part of the U.S.A. in the late 1800s and the early 1900s and thought that some of you might like to hear them also. As you will see in these stories most of these people were of European descendant, you can tell by their last names, were mixing with the Native Americans and Mexicans in the old Southwest that was very wild country in those days. You can go to THE SHARP FAMILY For the Stories. Chilibill :cowboy:

    Quote

    Originally posted by William T Brooks@May 8 2004, 11:06 AM
    Smokey and I were talking about the different cultures in Australia and the Southwestern part of the U.S.A. in the late 1800s and the early 1900s and thought that some of you might like to hear them also. As you will see in these stories most of these people were of European descendant, you can tell by their last names, were mixing with the Native Americans and Mexicans in the old Southwest that was very wild country in those days. You can go to THE SHARP FAMILY For the Stories. Chilibill :cowboy:


    I've always been a bit of a romanticist, especially in my younger days, and gloried in tales of the Old West, particularly those concerning lost mines and buried treasures. Some of my very favorite books are J. Frank Dobie's "Coronado's Children" and "Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver". Wouldn't it be great to find the Lost Dutchman?

    De gustibus non est disputandum

    hi chillbill


    great reading about your family though one thing did cross my mind was it your great granfather who was white or the other way round as you didnt explain how you got indian into the family. its a pitty that your granmother had to use powder to whiten her skin did she continue to do this as she got older or did she give this practice up?


    cheers smokey

    " its not all black and white, but different shades of grey"

    Smokey; In the late 1800s and early 1900s there were very few White Woman in the Southwest so the men would take Native American and Mexican Women for their Wives. My Great Grandmother was full blood Native American on my mothers side. This was when the 5 Outlaws showed up for Dinner at the old Ranch house Del Rio Texas and then left the $20.00 gold coins for the girls and Great Grandmother for the food. But on my Father's side his Mother was a Full Blooded Native American so that makes me almost Half. After Grandmother Larison got older and they moved to Phoenix and Grandfather was Chief of the Vice Squad for the Phoenix Police she quit the white powder because in the 1920s in the Big City it was the thing to say that you had Native American Blood. Chilibill :cowboy:

    Quote

    Originally posted by William T Brooks@May 8 2004, 12:30 PM
    Stumpy; In the 1940s as High School kids we would go to the Superstition Mountains all the time hoping to make the big strike!!! The mountains were only a hour drive from Phoenix. Chilibill :cowboy:


    Did you ever see that 1940's movie "Lust For Gold", with Glenn Ford and Ida Lupino? Ford played Jacob Walz. I have it on tape but haven't watched it for quite awhile. If I remember correctly, the area where the mine was supposed to be located suffers a big earthquake, which destroys all the old landmarks left by the Peraltas. It begins in modern (1940s) Arizona, where a guy is searching for the mine. He relates all the mysterious killings that have taken place in connection with searchers for the mine. Then it flashes back to Walz's time and tells about him finding the mine. Not a bad flick. As a kid, I entertained thoughts of going to the Superstitions myself.

    De gustibus non est disputandum

    Stumpy; The killings went on until sometime in the late 1940s and then they started having Rangers there. It is Big Country it has to be 25 by 25 miles in size and very hard to move around in. It is now a controlled wilderness and is closed to hunting and prospecting. Oh for the good old days in Arizona when it was wide open. But when I was a boy in the 1940s Phoenix had 35,000 people now it is almost 3,000,000. I am glad that I live 100 hundred miles North of Phoenix in the wide open spaces! Chilibill :cowboy:

    Quote

    Originally posted by William T Brooks@May 8 2004, 06:15 PM
    I am glad that I live 100 hundred miles North of Phoenix in the wide open spaces! Chilibill :cowboy:


    I know exactly what you mean, Bill. When I retired from the service in 1978, the wife and I bought a house and went to work in a suburb of Dallas. But after eight years of fighting that traffic and putting up with those hordes of people, I had had enough. So we moved to a little town about a hundred miles away that only has 3,000 population. That's about the size of the town I grew up in and I sure do love the less-frenetic way of life. No traffic, no crime and you know all your neighbors.
    Of course, there are no jobs either but since I'm on Social Security and have a military pension, I don't work anyway. Love it. I'll take the country life any time over the city.

    De gustibus non est disputandum

    hi chillbill


    thanks for letting me know that about your grandparents, and isn't it sad that to begin with you granmother had to hide who she was then, not to make light of it, it became the IN thing to have native american in your family history. don't it make you proud that today you don't have to hide who you are. was telling my parents about you today (we were talking about the chillie) and they were interested in where you live and now i can tell them isn't this board grand


    cheers smokey

    " its not all black and white, but different shades of grey"