The Great Adventures of the Yamaha Viking VI
11-Mar-22

Group:
  1. Yamaha Viking VI: Gary Eisert & Karen Myers
  2. Polaris General 2 Seater: Bruce and Chris Bordelon
   
We had planned a trip with Mark and Mike, but Mike and Deb went to Wayside with the rest of the park, and Mark had to pick up JH from the airport.
Karen and I did not want to go to Wayside, and seeing as how Bruce loves history we decided to take him and Chris to Cullen's Well via our new discovered route.
We stopped at the large foundation and it still remains a mystery as to what a huge building was doing out there next to the railroad.
   
The plaque reads:
Culling's Well
The Lighthouse of the Desert
Culling's Well was established in about 1868 by Charles C. Culling. Culling hand dug two hundred and forty feet deep (wells) thereby obtaining an inexhaustible supply of soft water. Culling's well is the only permanent water source within thirty miles in any direction thus becoming an important stage stop between Ehrenberg and Prescott.
After Culling's death in 1878, Joe Drew took over and was responsible for maintaining the station. Many people died within a few miles of the station. A man, having seen a lamp in the window staggered into camp and his life was saved. After this, Drew decided to establish his lighthouse of the desert by suspending a lamp on a cottonwood pole every night. In doing so he offered a life saving beacon to all lost travelers.
Corrections: He dug 2, the first was two hundred feet deep and the second two hundred and forty foot deep. The first one he dug, 5 miles to the south, was dry. (We traveled to that well 05-Dec-22.)
We arrive at Cullen's Well. It seems like this season we are coming to this historic place a lot.
   
The well has been filled in. When the last great flood came down the wash and swept all that remained of the buildings, someone dumped most of the concrete foundations into the well. So much for preserving a historic site. Can you imagine the number of animals that drank the sweet water from this watering trough.
   
The trough looking south. All that's left of the buildings.
   
To the west are 5 grave sites marked only by piles of rocks. Karen learning how to dowse for the first time. When her and I dowsed the rods told us that there was only one female buried facing east, not north and south as the rocks indicated.