Book Description

This book, that has been 22 years in the making, is the first printing of the R.A. Miles Collection of the Southwest History from 1831 to 1889. It’s in chronological order by events and dates, and is a true and revealing account of the American history of the Southwest. It is an impartial, sometimes disconcerting, portrayal of the expanding United States westward. History is not always pleasant, but that is how it transpired sometimes in those years, and this book recounts both favorable and adverse events that need to be told. This country was expanding! It was growing; there were many heroes, many battles and many tragedies in the expansion of this country. It was like a glass of water sitting in the frigid cold. It froze and began to expand, the expansion could not be stopped, soon the glass burst. The final results were predictable and inevitable. The expansion couldn’t go east because of an ocean, it could only go west to the other ocean, and that it did. This collection is about the events that transpired during the mid to late 1800’s as a direct result of that westward growth. I have traveled these mountains for 7 of the 22 years in researching this book, from El Paso, Texas through Silver City, Lordsburg, Las Cruces and Stein, New Mexico and into Apache Pass in Arizona. I've explored Carlisle Canyon and drank the water at Goat Camp spring in Goat; journeyed through Camp Canyon, Hells Canyon, Steeple Rock Canyon, Red Rock, Crookson Peak and more. I have followed the trails of the old Butterfield Stage Line and found an old stage way station. I have found and taken pictures of over 150 old gold and silver mines and listed their histories, and listened to stories from an old miner as old as I am. What is most important, is I enjoyed every minute of it... Robert A. Miles