Continued - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

Transportation on the Desert...
SHANKS' MARE
(continued from preceding page)
One's own feet were often the best—or
only—means of transportation.
Here is a group of Mojave men walking
through the desert.
Prodigious walkers, the Mojave
traveled 30 miles easily, and have been
known to walk 90 miles in a single
day and night. They met their match in
endurance, if not in speed, in the
men of the Sixth Regiment (now the Sixth
Army). Sent to the Mexican wars, the
Sixth was called to duty—
on foot—into Minnesota, Kansas,
Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri;
they saw action—on foot—against the
Cheyenne and Sioux. They were
sent—on foot—to Utah
during the "Mormon Trouble," but on
arriving in Utah were hurried—on foot—
to Oregon, and finally to a
much-needed rest in California. Their
siesta was brief, however. They
arrived in San Francisco Bay
on November 15, 1858; by March 25
they had walked to Yuma
(or Camp Dirty, as the soldiers called it).
Their intention was to
"wipe out the Mojave," who had
allegedly massacred a wagon train—
the first to cross on the
partly finished Beale wagon route to
California. Whatever the truth about the
massacre, the war did not come off.
The problems were settled at the
conference table.
Drawn by H. B. Mollhausen in 1853.
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/i During the California Gold Rush, the Eastern
V press made sport of certain species of Western
immigrant. This cartoon, "A Gold Hunter on his way
to California, via St. Louis,"
bears the caption: "I am sorry I did not follow
the advice of Granny to go 'round the Horn."
Starting with the Mountain Men, the
West has known many "Great Walkers," not least
of whom was the renowned naturalist John Muir.
DESERT MAGAZINE