Customer Reviews

Summer sojourn to the Grand Canyon: The 1898 diary of Zella Dysart

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Any fan of Arizona or Western history will enjoy this book. It gives a good feel for life in Arizona at the close of the 19th century. Four youngsters from Phoenix take a 7 week wagon trip to the Grand Canyon and the Indian reservations. As they deal with typical frontier challenges (poor roads, bad weather, livestock and wagon issues, etc.) and encounter other travelers along the way, one gets a sense for the simpler, rougher, smaller place that Arizona was in those days. This is a fun little book.

(The July 25 entry touches a point of occasional confusion in Arizona history. The youngsters likely passed through Hot Springs Junction (which was near present-day Morristown on the direct route they apparently took from Phoenix to Wickenburg). But, they would not have stopped at Castle Hot Springs (which is in rugged hills some 20 miles northeast of that route). Originally known as Vulture Siding, Hot Springs Junction served for a time as a stage trail-head to Castle Hot Springs. The names were not used consistently over the years and the junction is occasionally confused with the actual hot springs.)