Pipe Spring National Monument

Visited: Nov 2015
Nearby town: Fredonia, AZ

"So about the year 1886, I moved to Pipe Spring.

In other words, I went to prison to keep my husband out."

-from the journal of Flora Woolley, polygamous wife of Bishop Edwin D. Woolley

In the wild and lonely high desert of Northern Arizona, just across the border from Utah, lies a small fort placed atop a natural springs. The springs are an oasis, providing precious water to a harsh and unforgiving landscape.

Evidence indicates that the Ancestral Pueblans and Paiute Indians used the springs to grow crops and hunt over a thousand years ago. The surrounding area is now the reservation of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians.

In the 1850s and 1860s, Mormon Pioneers from Salt Lake City passed through the area on their way to missionary expeditions to the Hopi Indians further to the south. One of the pioneers, James Whitmore, was intrigued by the springs and came back here to settle and operate a cattle ranch. Whitmore eventually ran into conflicts with local Indians, and Whitmore was killed after living here for a number of years.

Mormon leader Brigham Young later sent Anson Perry Winsor and his family to claim the spring, restart the ranch, and build a fort. The small fort became known as Winsor Castle. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) owned and operated the land as a tithing ranch. The cattle and livestock sent here (paid as tithing by Church members) was used to provide food and dairy products for the workers of the Mormon Temple in St. George. Some impressive longhorns are still kept on the property to this day.

With the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, federal agents started to prosecute polygamy with more force (the Morrill Act of 1862 had banned bigamy/polygamy in the federal territories, including Utah, but had essentially been unenforced). Under the new law, polygamy was criminalized and those practicing it could be fined between $500 - $800 and imprisoned up to five years. The federal government tripled the number of U.S. Marshals in Utah Territory to enforce the new measures. Many Church leaders went into hiding, and some (in an effort to hide the "evidence" that they had multiple wives) sent their polygamous wives to live in Pipe Spring at Winsor Castle, which being in Arizona Territory, lied just outside the purview and jurisdiction of the U.S. Marshals in Utah. Pipe Springs was a safe refuge, because the nearest U.S. Marshals that had jurisdiction in Arizona were stationed hundreds of miles away in Tombstone. Even if a U.S. Marshal in Arizona wanted to apprehend them, he'd have to travel hundreds of miles across undeveloped land with no established roads or pathways, not to mention cross the Grand Canyon itself, in order to do it. Such a daunting task assured they would not be prosecuted or arrested.

The Church ended up losing the property as one of the penalties of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, and the Castle fell into private hands. Later, in 1923, the first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, was traveling between Zion and Grand Canyon when his car broke down near the Castle. As he learned about the history of the site from the locals, he successfully lobbied the government to purchase it and designate it as a National Monument.

The place serves as an interesting roadside stop. There is a nice visitor center and museum detailing all the history of the site. If you want to go inside Winsor Castle, you must accompany a ranger on a guided tour. The guided tours are free and occur throughout the day, there is no set time. There's not too many visitors at this out of the way place, so once you show up just wait a couple of minutes and a ranger will take you through.

the doors to Winsor Castle were big enough so that a wagon could enter the inside courtyard

In 1871, Brigham Young commissioned the Deseret Telegraph system to install a telegraph at the outpost. This would be the very first telegraph in what would become the state of Arizona. This telegraph provided Winsor Castle a crucial and vital link to the outside world. The first operator was Eliza Stewart Udall (female telegraph operators were relatively rare at the time), who would later become the matriarch of the influential and powerful political family. Her son served as Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court; two grandsons: Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior for Kennedy and Johnson; and Mo Udall, long time congressman and Democratic candidate for the President in 1976; and two great-grandsons: Mark Udall, Senator of Colorado 2009-2015; and Tom Udall, the current Senator of New Mexico. That's quite a legacy.

the telegraph wire. First telegraph in Arizona

Life on the frontier at Pipe Springs was not easy. The men worked sun up to sun down, milking 80 to 100 cows a day. Women made butter (40+ pounds) and cheese (60+ pounds) each day, and had to cook and clean not only for their family but all the ranch hands as well. Laundry alone took an entire day to complete, once a week. Children, as young as 7 or 8, helped to run the ranch as well. One pioneer woman, Emma Seegmiller, described life at Pipe Springs in her journal as follows:

"Pipe Springs, a pioneer fort, is the most desolate place I have ever lived, situated on a point fronting an open desert, where it could get full force of the heavy winds and sandstorms common to the locality. I have known those sandstorms to rage three days at a time, sand so thick that the opposite side of the fort was almost obscured. After every storm, house cleaning was necessary and from a single room I have swept or shoveled out five gallons of sand, the broom would not carry the weighty bulk to the door. ... I don't know how we ever came out of some of the hard places that conditions forced on us, unless as mother used to say 'we do the best we can and the Lord does the rest.' ...

at intervals in my life I have dreamed that I must go back there to live, the depression I felt at the thought and utter loneliness of again taking up my life there made waking seem like a boon 

from heaven."

the inner courtyard of Winsor Castle

this stove is original

drying rack

channel for water from the natural spring

large vat for cheese

If you find yourself in the area (likely on your way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon) take an hour or two for the pleasant and interesting stop. It's well worth the visit. For more info: https://www.nps.gov/pisp/index.htm