January 14, 2006
I met historian Vince Murray down at the Carefree Highway Chevron at 7:30 this morning and we took off for Harqua Hala south of Salome, Arizona ("Where she danced"). Vince has done extensive research on this little-known mining boom town and when I asked him if he had uncovered anything on Wyatt Earp being out there he smiled and said, "I know where his mining claim is."

For years I have driven past the Harqua Hala Mountains and wondered where the town was. Earp was spotted on his way to the boom town in 1888 with a wagon load of gambling equipment and two women. That's the only reference I've ever seen to the town or Earp being there.

We got within a mile of the mine at about one in the afternoon and hoofed it the rest of the way. Vince had a GPS unit so we had fun checking it every couple hundred yards or so, when one of us would say, "We're too far south, it must be over that way."

Wyatt named the mining claim "The Sore Finger," and the surrounding mountains became the Sore Finger Mountains. To my knowledge this has never been cited in any of the Earp literature. It's always thrilling to have a day like this, where you discover a hidden place and stand where they stood, worked and dreamed. More later.

Got home at about five, had a dinner party to go to in honor of the author Tom Miller. He's in town to speak at the Universalist Church on Lincoln tomorrow.

Onion Headline de Jour
Air Marshal Stuck In Conversation About Passenger's Patio

"We don't remember days, we remember moments."
???Old Vaquero Sayingg