b'Roosevelt continued from page 45He subsequently wrote his friend Henry Cabot Lodge:the family. Sincerely Yours, Theodore Roosevelt""The losses are crippling. For the first time I have been utterly(Sprague, A Gallery of Dudes, p.246).unable to enjoy a visit to my ranch, I shall be glad to get home" (Di Silvestro, Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands, p. 238). When he came up with the idea of forming the Rough Riders, he favored recruiting men who were Westerners, Roosevelt chose to keep his two ranches for some timewhether Cowboys, lawmen, marshals, or ex-Old Armyafterward, although he gradually moved out of the Maltesemen - men he knew instinctively would work well withCross, allowing the Ferris Brothers and Merrifield to takethe Eastern sportsmen he also wanted to recruit forover the Elkhorn in his absence. The visits West becamehis regiment.fewer and fewer as the years went on, There were the occasional hunting trips and campaign stops, but bothThe man whom he chose to lead the Cowboy Regiment ranches would eventually be sold, the Western experiencewas none other than Colonel Leonard Wood, who as an was gone, as was most of Medora. Army surgeon was at the forefront of the search to find and force Geronimo to capitulate at Skeleton Canyon. "So ended the adventure in the West. So ended Medora.Joining the regiment was Buckey O\'Neill, the celebrated The pleasant clink of glasses in the (Bill) Williams saloonsheriff of Yavapai County here in Arizona. The former died away. The bad men, the Cowboys, and the cattlemenmayor of Prescott and a gubernatorial candidate for departed for more lucrative fields, and in their wake trudgedArizona Territory, O\'Neill achieved lasting Old West the ladies of easy virtue who had furnished Medora\'s quotafame by his almost single-handed capture of four train of sin" (Pringle, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 73). robbers in Diablo Canyon near the New Mexico territorial line. O\'Neill became a fast friend of Roosevelt\'s and was As Roosevelt would say wistfully some years later: commissioned a captain in the Rough Riders but sadly was "For a number of years I spent most of my time on thekilled just before the Rough Riders charge up Kettle Hill, frontier, and lived and worked like any other frontiersman.July 1, 1898. Also killed while serving in the Rough Riders . .My ranch was in North Dakota, close to the eastern edgeBuckey O\'Neill became a fast friend ofwas Allyn Capron, a captain in the regular U.S. Army who of Montana, and I could not begin to put on the map all mylike Wood had chased Apaches as well as Comanches and travels around there. I was just in time to see the last of theRoosevelt\'s and was commissioned a captain Southern Cheyenne while serving in the 10th Cavalry. real wilderness life and real wilderness hunting. We guardedin the Rough Riders. Capron had volunteered to serve in the Rough Riders and our herds of branded cattle and shaggy horses; hunted bear,was shot down at the Battle of Las Guasimas. Outlaw Jim bison, elk, and deer; and established civil government, andCook, of the famous Cook Gang led by his brother Bill put down evildoers, white and red, on the banks of the Littleand the circle of Westerners grew ever wider. Wheneverthat terrorized Eastern Oklahoma around the same time Missouri, and among the wooded, precipitous foothills ofhe went West he almost always made it a point to visit thethe Doolin-Daltons were wrecking havoc in the western the Bighorn, exactly as did the pioneers who a hundred yearsFerris brothers, Bill Merrifield, and Seth Bullock, whom hepart of the territory, was also said to have served in the previously built their log cabins in the valley of the Greatwould make a U.S. Marshal for the Dakotas. In a touchingRough Riders I company, but only one recent account Smokies" (Daniel Roddy, Theodore Roosevelt\'s History of theletter written to Joe Ferris on White House stationery, heclaims verification of his service (Mark Lee Gardner, Rough United States, Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins, New York,inquired about one of his animal friends: Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the 2010, pp. 3-4). Immortal Charge up San Juan Hill, William Morrow, New "Dear Joe, Can\'t Muley be kept up during the winter? I feelYork, pp. 22-23). Theodore Roosevelt may have left the West but the Westhe is entitled to a pension. I will, of course, pay all expenses never left him. He kept all of his contacts, his friendships,connected with it. Give my regards to Mrs. Ferris and allContinued next month.Susan Abare928-713-7472SAbare@AwardRealty.com LUXURY HOMES SECOND HOMES IM LOCAL ANDPREMIUM HORSE PROPERTIES FULL TIME INVESTMENT PROPERTIES CONGRESS, ARIZONA HORSE PROPERTY HOME LOTSACREAGEONE 4 AC HORSE PROPERTY LEFT TOWN WATER, SOLD POWER, PIPE FENCE AND ALL USABLE. OTHERS TO SHOW WITH MORE OR LESS ACREAGE.Arizona is a Lifestyle.46 July 2020'