Thursday, March 01, 2018

Tracking Olive City And Capturing Topock Marsh

March 1, 2018
   My Wild Bill Art Show at Cattletrack Art Compound came down yesterday and it was very successful. If you bought a painting, you need to go and pick it up.

   Woke up and took a crack at an area I have some history with:



Daily Whip Out: "Topock Marsh"

   I'm also shifting gears to work on the G-Man book. Check out this old map of the "plunder trails" of the Apaches, and note how deep they raided into Mexico (all the way down and into Copper Canyon!). Wow!


   And, speaking of maps, I have been finding a few good ones in the garage, including this map of Arizona and Gila River points of interest along the way to Fort Yuma (1870s). Note that the town of Yuma was then known as Colorado City and there was an Arizona City, north of the Gila confluence. But the interesting thing is, check out Olive City, up the Colorado and just south of La Paz.



   Note Olive City: named for Olive Oatman?



   I contacted my go-to-guy on this and I'm awaiting his reply. In the meantime, I think it's safe to say, the town was named for Olive Oatman. Details to come.

   So, will this all be in the book?

"Your job isn't to find [good] ideas, but to recognize them when they show up."
—Stephen King, "On Writing"



1 comment:

  1. The book Arizona Names, X Marks the Place by Granger says, "Olive City, La Paz: Olive City was on the Colorado River one mile north of Ehrenberg. Despite one reference which asserts it was the same location as Olivia, apparently that was the not case, (See Olivia, La Paz) Olive City was named by William D. and Isaac Bradshaw, who in 1863 maintained a Colorado River ferry here. Consequently the place was also know as Bradshaw's Ferry. Charles C. Genung wrote, 'He was a hard-looking horse...the city consisted of one house about 12' X 10' X 10' high, covered with brush and sided up with willow poles stuck in the ground...without any chinking.' Quite naturally all signs of this so-called city have long since disappeared."

    For the town of Olivia, the book says, "Olivia was six miles below La Paz on the Colorado River. It was named by Myron Angel for Olive Oatman."

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