Ralph F. Palmer, M.D., "Doctor on Horseback" pp. 9-11]



[After completing medical school, circa 1900] ....I too went to Arizona and found

my brother and his wife, Lin, at what as known as the Halfway House, between

Morristown and Castle Hot Springs, where there was a watering trough for

teams working on the road which John Toohy was building from the railroad to

the now famous resort at the springs. [The location is northwest of Phoenix;

Castle Hot Springs was a resort town near the present Lake Carl Pleasant. I've

explored the present road, and find no trace of the "watering trough."]



Almost anyone coming to Arizona from the East or Midwest in those days was

considered a greenhorn until  learning the ways of the country. A number of

episodes (nonmedical) occurred during the three months I spent at Halfway

House which tended to prepare me for experiences to come . ..... Shortly after my

arrival the spring roundup of cattle in the district was in full swing and every

evening the cowboys would stop at the house where my brother's wife, with

English tendencies, would serve tea on the porch while we listened to blood-

curdling stories of what happened to cattle thieves and others. A local rancher,

Mr. Hardy, was one of the mainstays and had plenty of stories to tell. [Hardy was

in Cave Creek, not far away, in the 1890 census; by the 1900 one, he had moved

north, to Mayer. One of his foster sons, Marshall Young, had married Addie

Champie, and the Champies had big holdings around Castle Hot Springs].



[While there, the doctor accidentally killed a calf]. I could see myself swinging

from the tree for killing somebody's calf. What was to be done?



Having spent much of my youth around lumber camps and in the pine woods of

northern Michigan, I had learned to be more or less resourceful. ... I got a rope

around the calf's neck and with a twist around the horn of my saddle I started to

drag the calf across the road a ridge on the other side. A couple of hundred yards

up the ridge I got too close to the edge and the calf slipped over. ... I went back to

the corral, got another rope, slid down to the calf and cut my rope from around his

neck.  .... I did not even tell my brother about it and remained on "Uneasy Street" 

for several days until one evening on the porch Mr. Hardy told us that a mountain

lion had killed one of his calves and dragged it up on the ridge where it had fallen

over the bluff where the lion couldn't reach his prey.



At that time I didn't know much about cowboys or mountain lions, and it was

many years later when I met Mr. Hardy on his ranch in Phoenix [Hardy owned

land there; I've uncovered no evidence of a ranch, however] and asked him if he

recalled the calf the lion had killed at Halfway House. "Yes," he said, "I

remember it very well--and also the hoofprints of the horse that dragged it off and

the bush where a rope had been tied and the marks on the bluff where someone

had slid down to the calf.  But you were acting kind of nervous and were still more

or less a greenhorn, and I though the lion story might relieve your mind." Which

it certainly did.



On another day I rode out to the range where the cowboys were gathering cattle to

brand calves when Mr. Hardy came down a rather sharp slope driving a calf. The

calf dodged around a small mesquite bush but Mr. Hardy's horse went over the

bush and landed with a front foot going down a gopher hole. As the horse went

down, Mr. Hardy went with him, his left leg going under the horse. The horse

struggled to get up but Mr. Hardy's left foot was hung in the stirrup. [Note to non-

horsemen: this is about as dangerous a position as a rider can be in. His foot had

passed entirely thru the stirrup and was caught. The horse was likely on the edge

of panic. If the horse bolted, he would be dragged to death] The horse was a

beautiful animal and a well-trained cowhorse, so it stood quietly on three legs

until one of the cowboys came over and uncinched the saddle. Mr. Hardy had a .45

Colt in his hand and said he would have had to shoot his pet horse had he started

to run, and there were tears in his eyes as he said it.