Description
The Land of Grass and Flowers
Bellflowers and Railroad Grade at Benny Creek, White Mountains, AZ
Bloomed 8-25-24 5:30 PM Oil on Canvas 40 in. x 30 in., 2026
 
For years, this spot in the White Mountains of Arizona had intrigued me. Located in a cienega near Boardshack Knoll, the land dips and yields to Benny Creek. There is a small bridge that spans the gap, which always seemed like a sheep bridge to me.
One afternoon in August, after a glorious monsoon day, a friend and I finally explored the land here. The native grass swayed in the clean breeze, and interspersed in the straw were bobbing purple bellflowers, native to Arizona but found mostly in the White Mountains. It was a glorious sight as the sun slowly sank into the earth.
Later, after studying maps and doing research, I found the bridge was not for sheep, but for a train. The Apache Railway was built by Flagstaff lumberman Tom Pollak in 1916. Its purpose was to haul logs from Maverick (8000 feet el.) down a six-percent grade to the mill in McNary. The rails were built with the help of one hundred sixty mules and horses, and a camp of one hundred fifty men.
In 1965, a few railroad men decided to run the steam locomotive as a tourist excursion. The lumber ran at night, and passengers rode in the day. For $6.95 you could board at 9:00 AM in McNary, enjoy a cowboy picnic lunch of barbeque beef under the pines at Apache Springs, and return by 3:00 PM.
On its inaugural journey on June 26, 1965, dignitaries, family, and friends of the train crew boarded for the historic occasion. Jo Jeffers described it in the July 1966 issue of Arizona Highways: “That first day there were speeches by politicians and Indian leaders. ‘Tumbling Tumbleweeds’ and other cowboy ballads were sung and played by the deputy sheriff, and recitations by Milo Wiltbank, the cowboy poet of the White Mountains:
Why don’t you come up here with me,
Camp in the shade of an old pine tree,
Pitch your tent by a gurgling stream,
Sit in the sun and rest and dream?
You’ll enjoy your idle hours
Here in the land of grass and flowers,
Here in the old White Mountains.
Today the trains are gone, and only traces of the rails appear on satellite maps. Alas, I often feel I was born too late. But not to worry; you can hike this section all the way to the 260, and enjoy the pine covered knolls, and the cienigas, and bellflowers dancing in the land of grass and flowers.
