Indian Wars:  Along the Mojave Road

14th Infantry Frontier Posts & Assignments

Marl Springs - Afton Canyons

 

Mojave Road Guide
by Dennis G. Casebier and the
Friends of Mojave Road
(Excerpted with permission of Author)

Marl Springs

Mile 70.8   Roads were such that those 30-odd miles between Soda Springs and Marl Springs were just about the limit.  If Marl Springs had been much smaller, or if it had been of the intermittent type, then it might have put the entire Mojave route into the impractical at least part of the year category.  For a brief period (October 5, 1867 through May 22, 1868) an army post  was maintained at Marl Springs.  It was called "the outpost at Marl Springs" by the Army.  In recent years, some writers have coined the name "Camp Marl Springs", but it was never called that by the Army. 

Throughout most of its brief history, only a few men were stationed regularly at "the outpost at Marl Springs".  These were men from Company "K" 14th Infantry, which was stationed at Camp Rock Spring and Camp Cady. On October 17, 1867, when the little stone outpost building with the associated corral was being completed at the upper spring, a band of desert Indians, estimated at 20 to 30, attacked the station.  This is probably the only occasion on which the desert Indians attacked a fortified position along the Mojave Road in California.  There were only three soldiers there at the time, and they took shelter in their partially completed outpost building.  Night came on.  The Indians were still holding siege.  They had a large numerical advantage, but the soldiers had rifles and revolvers.  All through the long night the soldiers remained on guard expecting an attack.  They must have wondered what their fate would be the next day.  Would the Indians storm their fortified position or would something happen to lift the siege?  In the best traditions of the romantic old West, early the next morning a column of more than 150 soldiers came over the hill and down into Marl Springs.  The Indians melted into the rocks and disappeared.  The siege was lifted.  There had been no casualties only anxious moments.

Marl Springs was never attacked again.  There was never any major settlement at Marl Springs, but during the wagon road period, it was not uncommon to find someone living there.  Citizens operated "stations" there at times, places where travelers could purchase a few groceries, maybe a little grain, perhaps a meal, or even a place to lay his head down inside, out of the elements for one night.  These were never elaborate establishments.  There would be just a man with his family and possibly a few Indians as laborers.  After the wagon road period, Marl Springs continued as a station on the Mojave Road.

As the cattle industry developed on the East Mojave, it became a place of importance for that purpose, and it still is.  Headquarters for one of the earliest cattle operations on the East Mojave was at Marl Springs.  Today there is a corral and watering facilities for cattle and wildlife, but no buildings.  Marl Springs has also served as an operations point for prospectors and miners in this part of the desert.  Very near Marl Springs there are some small, but rich, gold-bearing veins in the rock that miners and prospectors worked over the years.  Quite a number of arrastras were built at Marl Springs.  One is well preserved yet today, though the others have disappeared.  Local tradition has it that these arrastras go back to the very early days, the 1860s or 70s.  There is no definite data to support this, but they were observed looking quite old in the early 1930s.  A small ore mill was erected at Marl Springs, probably in the 1920s.  Most of the timbers have been carried off, but the site is still visible.

Today Marl Springs is in an isolated far corner of the East Mojave, as it has always been. The immediate vicinity is private property, and it is used as a watering place for cattle.  The land has never been posted.  Our good behavior and sensitivity to the rights of the landowner and his cattle is the best assurance against its becoming posted.  At times, a great many half-wild range cattle are totally dependent upon this water.  It will always be advisable not to camp near the springs because there will be cattle too timid to come to water.
 

Afton Canyon Caves

Mile 120.0   You are at the Caves in Afton Canyon, just before you reach the middle railroad bridge, and on the left side of the canyon facing upstream.  In the old days, this was the regular camping place on the road between Soda Springs and Camp Cady.  These natural caves were more extensive in wagon road days.  Now they are sometimes almost completely hidden by brush.  In early historic times the stretch of road between the Caves and Marl Springs was the most dangerous.  The Indians lived in secret places in this seemingly barren part of the desert.  They could watch the wagon road for great distances.  Once in a while travelers would appear that offered tempting targets.  That happened here at the Caves once, resulting in the killing of an Army officer.

On that day, October 16, 1867, the mail buggy was passing over the trail headed for Arizona.  The reins were in the hands of Sam Button of San Bernardino.  There was one passenger, Dr. Merril E. Shaw, an Army surgeon.  There was an escort of one soldier, Pvt. Timothy Donovan of Company "K" 14th Infantry from Camp Cady.  The soldier was mounted on a mule.  The mail party stopped here at the Caves for lunch.  Shortly after proceeding in the direction of Soda Springs, at a point not far from the Caves, the party was attacked without warning by 15 or 20 Indians.  At the first fire, which was reported to be "half a dozen bullets and a dozen arrows, delivered at not more than 10 yards," Dr. Shaw was hit in the neck, and the escort's mule was struck in the shoulder.  Donovan abandoned the mule and jumped on the mail buggy.  Button whipped his mules and headed for Soda Springs, some 15 miles distant, while Donovan cut the baggage loose, which included the mail and Shaw's trunk.

The Indians chased the buggy on foot for some eight or ten miles.  Sam Button pushed the mail buggy on to Soda Springs as fast as he could.  They arrived there late in the evening.  As luck would have it, Capt. James P. Brownlow, 8th Cavalry, with a party consisting of approximately 150 recruits, mostly from companies of the 14th Infantry in Arizona, and the usual assortment of horses, team mules, and wagons, were encamped temporarily at Soda Springs.  Brownlow did not have the supplies or other equipment to permit him to take to the field after the Indians, but the presence of this large detachment put an end to any idea the Indians might have had to attack the station or further annoy the mail buggy.  Dr. Shaw was alive when the party arrived at Soda Springs, but he was mortally wounded.  With Brownlow's help, he wrote a letter to his father in New York.  He died the next day and was buried at Soda Springs. It is believed his remains are still there in an unmarked grave.  A pass in the Moilhausen Mountains (Mile 106.7) is named for Shaw.


The above excerpts are provided courtesy of Dennis Casebier, from Essex CA., who kindly gave permission over the phone.  He also informed me that Pamela Robinson, great-great-great grand daughter or niece of Lt Robinson (see below), KIA on Ft. Laramie woodcutting detail, was staying at his house presently and working on a book about Lt. Robinson, for whom Ft. Robinson, Nebraska was named. 

Robinson, Levi H., Sergeant in 10th Vermont Infantry from July 16, 1862 to February 17, 1865 (Civil War);  2nd Lieutenant of the 119th USC Infantry from February 18, 1865;  mustered out with an honorable discharge on April 27, 1866;  2nd Lieutenant of the 2/14th Infantry on April 19, 1866;  became a 1st Lieutenant on August 11, 1866; was killed on February 9, 1874 by indians while on a wood-cutting detail near Laramie Peak, Wyoming.



Acknowledgements:
Indian Wars:  Along the Mojave Road
Copyright © 2012  14th Infantry Regiment Association
Last modified: July 25, 2024