Kirjahaku

Land promoters of the 1880s promised a perfect life of health, wealth, and pleasure in Monte Vista. Although their promises fell short of reality, the village did grow and prosper in the hands of farmers.

Two robbers posed as passengers to flag down the train. When the engineer recognized danger, he opened the throttle and sped past. The bandits threw the spur switch, and the train careened full speed off the tracks.

Parson Wornum was so loved that when he died, the whole village attended his funeral. Years of neglect of his cemetery spelled disaster in 1978 when heavy rains tore open graves and washed bodies down the hillside.

When a student pulled out his gun and laid it on his desk, the tiny one-room school found itself needing a new teacher. That brought Virginia Newcomb, a romance, and a new family that helped to develop the town, leaving behind a detailed account of pioneer life in a small village.

Joe Ardizzone, a local grape-grower, doubled as a hit-man for the Mafia. During Prohibition, Joe's bootlegging activities caught him in the middle of in-house quarreling. In 1931, he left on a short trip and disappeared into the pages of history.

When Edgar Lancaster dredged the swamp on his land, he created a lake which became a treasured landmark. For 25 years, visitors flocked to its cool shores, and Hollywood used the lake as a set location for some of its early movies.

Early settlers, like the Johnson family, found their way into the canyon, a dense woodland bristling with wildlife. 50 years later, the Webber family faced the wrath of the river now winding down a denuded mountainside.

The Land Boom of the 1880s brought immigrants from around the world. Two generations of Blumfields survived the difficulties of farming and water shortages through industry and imagination.

From desert in Apache territory to a railroad hub to cattle country and a layover on the southern highways across the United States: Benson, Arizona, transformed itself several times to avoid becoming a ghost town. Southern Pacific Railroad had founded Benson in 1880 as the railroad built a line from California to Texas to complete the Second Transcontinental Railroad. The town's location intersected the railroad's west/east route and the north/south corridor of the San Pedro Valley where ranchers raised cattle and prospectors had recently discovered rich mines in Tombstone and the surrounding mountains. Southern Pacific wanted to provide easy railroad access to those booming industries. As a railroad town with a transient population predominantly of young, single men, and more bars than any other type of business, Benson was as wild as any Old West town. Those who came to stay slowly transformed the town into respectability. The book focuses on the lives of townsfolk: their battles against fires and floods, lawlessness and diseases, their involvement with national misfortunes, and the development of the town through the decades. The book includes over 80 photographs and illustrations.