After enjoying breakfast at the Home Plate restaurant in the Stage Stop Inn, Lone Writer and Happy Jack used the Harshaw road to leave Patagonia. They stayed on backroads to the border town of Lochiel. When de Niza crossed at this point in 1539, there was probably nothing more than a watering hole to mark the location. When Pancho Villa frequented the crossing during the 1800s, Lochiel was a bustling town with hundreds of residents and lots of saloons where his banditos could party. Another century passed before customs established a border-crossing station. A few decades later, the abandoned buildings became home to ghosts and the beginning of what some call the ghost Trail to Nogales.
Arizona has more than one trail with a theme from those who have passed on. The Devil's Highway is probably the most famous. Immigration across the border from Mexico is nothing new, even though it gets a lot more attention in this century. For the most part, the ghost theme for such roads in Arizona is recognition for those who died in search of a better life in the United States. In the early days, such treks were done on foot across many miles of waterless desert where temperatures can swell far above 120 degrees F. Those who had wagons sometimes died when mechanical failure put them at the mercy of the environment. Others simply could not find the isolated watering holes.
It is likely the ghost Trail became known for those same reasons. On the other hand, there were others who died from gold fever. Mining was a hazardous occupation. If claim jumpers didn't get them, and they survived any number of mining disasters, they were likely to die with a lung disease from working in the dusty tunnels. The land was ruled by survival of the fittest.
Lone Writer and Happy Jack stopped at the customs house in Lochiel and studied its locked gates. It seemed strange to have such an elaborate gate when a few miles in either direction, the border could be crossed with no effort at all. There were several buildings standing in Lochiel, but nothing looked inhabited. The best choice seemed to be staying in the car and not staring too long in any one place.
At the edge of town, the monument for de Niza stood in a state of decay. Obviously, no one really cared about it, and only curious travelers even look its way. De Niza's monument claims the first European west of the rockies arrived on April 12, 1539. Being the skeptic as usual, Lone Writer wondered if records in those years were really accurate enough to be that certain.
With the windows down on a cool January morning, Lone Writer turned the rental SUV away from the monument and started the journey along the ghost Trail. The first stop was the ghost town of Duquesne. The entire mining camp is posted as private, but much of it can be viewed from the road. There are numerous mining claims in the area including the Washington camp. The two towns were so close together that miners teased, "If you step on the tail of one, the other will bark." During the 1880s, more than 1,000 residents lived in or around Duquesne. Those Who did not work in the mines supported others who did.
Lone Writer and Happy Jack left Duquesne on the Duquesne road. It took them up a steep grade to the pass overlooking Nogales and the valley below. The scenery was beautiful. They spent some time admiring the many views from the pass before continuing down the pass.
The ghost Trail may be used by ghosts of those still wandering the hills in search of gold, but Lone Writer and Happy Jack did not find them. There is no doubt that many people died in battles between miners and Apaches, battles between miners and claim jumpers, and just individual confrontations among the hard cases who lived and died in the Santa rita Mountains.
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