b'DID YOU KNOW, IN THE OLD WEST.By Lee Anderson, Old West Living Historian, Award Winning Author, and Old School HorsemanLee Anderson and his horse, Concho, are well known around the state doing presentations in schools, corporate events, and civic events.Learn more about them and his book on his website. historicaloldwest.orgI magine packingher fellow travelersmalaria, dysentery, measles, and variousonly what wouldtemporarily lostaccidents involving firearms, horses, mules,fit in a horse, mule,their bearings whileoxen, and wagons.or ox drawn wagon, leaving familycrossing theand friends behind, and heading west.Great Plains. I t was a journey of three to six (or more) months.According to TV and the movies,There were no doctors or medicine and those outside of fighting a few Indians, takingAll I hope for is to getwho got sick or badly hurt usually died. A common a wagon west in the 1800s was somehome, alive, as soonentry in old diaries was a daily count of the number kind of a glorious six or eight monthas possible, so that Iof graves passed. The journey was especially hard long adventure. As a living historian I do a lot ofcan forget it. A disenchanted forty-niner fromon women and children. It was absolutely brutal research and often come across some very soberingtheCaliforniaGold Rush if a womans husband died or was killed. She was and heartbreaking accounts of what the journeysuddenly left in the middle of nowhere, hundreds west entailed in real life. Id like to share a little of The mosquitoes continue to infest us in suchof miles from home, and with full responsibilityit with you. manner that we can scarcely exist. My dogfor not just herself but her children (if any), even howls with the torture hethe livestock, the wagon, and anyStarting out ahead of the team and my men folks,experiences.Meriwether Lewispersonal belongings.when I thought I had gone beyond hearing distance,during the Lewis and Clark I would throw myself down on the unfriendly desertexpedition west. O ne of the best accounts of just how and give way like a child to sobs and tears, wishingprimitive life was in early Arizona is the myself back home with my friends. A youngA vailable records indicate that1908 book written by Martha Sommerhayes womans diary entry on the trailwestin 1860. between 1867 and 1887, Nativetitled Vanished Arizona (ISBN 1-59605-Americans killed somewhere551-0) in which she vividly describes her Of all the eerie, frightening experiences, to be lostaround 400 (+/-) immigrantsexperiences in moving from high society at night on the prairiethen to hear the chorus oftraveling the Oregon Trail. DuringBoston to the early Arizona Territory in the coyotes, like hyenas, laughing at ones predicament.that same 20 year period, nearlycompany of her husband who was in theAn emigrant recalling her fear when she and30,000 immigrants died of cholera,military. As stated, it was brutal. E X P E C T T H E U N E X P E C T E DSons of the Pioneers all tickets Pavlo in ConcertWESTERN on sale now! The Santorini TourDEC 3 MEDITERRANEANFOLLOW THE QR CODE TO2023-2024 SEASON The Midtown MenTHE FULL SEASON OF EVENTS MUSICStars from the OriginalFEB 28Broadway Cast of Classic Albums Live Jersey Boys Performs SupertrampHoliday Hits Breakfast in AmericaDEC 10 NOTE FOR NOTE,CUT FOR CUTAlwaysPatsy Cline MAR 2MUSICAL PLAYThe MavericksFEATURING PATSYSJukeboxLATIN FLAVORED UNFORGETTABLE SONGS COUNTRY & ROCK Saturday Night JAN 6 & 7 FEB 2 & 3 A Music Review of the An Evening The Texas Tenors great Big Bandswith Pam Tillis POP CROSSOVER BIG BAND HITSCOUNTRY FEB 9 & 10MAR 10JAN 19 Trailblazing WomenPete McBride Frankie Moreno of CountryInto the Canyon:ROCK & POP A Tribute to Patsy, Between River and Rim FEB 24Loretta & Dolly SPEAKER COUNTRYJAN 30 MAR 19D E W P A C . O R G9 2 8 - 6 8 4 - 6 6 2 4The Texas TenorsArizonaRealCountry.com December 2023 9'