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On April 28th of 2011, the Arizona State Legislature declared the venerable Colt Single Action Army (SAA) revolver as the Official State Firearm.  While Sturm, Ruger firearms (who manufacture their single action Vaquero right here in AZ) might have preferred to get the nod, it makes perfect sense to award the designation to the old Colt model, as it was an important tool in establishing law and order on the southwestern frontier.
 
The Colt SAA came out in 1873 as Colt’s most successful revolver in the then-new self-contained metallic cartridges, and sales to the Army quickly made this revolver a hot commodity. This was a wholly new model, replacing the 1872 Open Top that had been built on a rehashed design from the 1860 Army that had been one of the primary sidearms of the Civil War (which is still a fine weapon in its own right).  The new SAA employed a solid top strap and a new, more powerful ammunition, the 45 Colt. Loading 35 grains of black powder underneath a 255 grain conical bullet, the 45 Colt boasted being the most powerful handgun cartridge of its day, and in fact this claim to power was not eclipsed until the advent of the .357 Magnum cartridge in 1935. Even afterwards, many big-bore aficionados, no less than the Dean of Sixguns, Elmer Keith, still preferred the old 45 to the new and modern 357, feeling that the mass and diameter of the bigger bullet outweighed the high velocity energy figures that the smaller round produced.  Keith also noted that the SAA was the fastest gun of any design for getting the first shot out of the holster
 
The Colt SAA has been made in three major “Generations.” The First Generation ran from 1873 to 1941, when handgun production for World War Two shut down production.  Then the Second Generation ran from 1956 (taking advantage of the popularity of westerns and “fast draw” on TV) to 1974, when the original tooling was just too worn out to continue.  They quickly retooled and began production of the Third Generation in 1976, and continue production in limited quantities.
 
The Colt SAA, chambered in 45 Colt with a 5.5 inch barrel, was the official sidearm of the Territorial Arizona Rangers during their tenure from 1901 to 1909, which is perhaps the most compelling reason for it to be chosen as the official State Firearm.  The Modern Rangers have since moved on to more contemporary semi-automatic pistols as their primary duty weapons, but even now individual Rangers can still qualify with the old thumb-buster and carry it on ceremonial duties.
 
So slip out of your quarantine for a bit today and go burn some powder to celebrate the State icon!

I’ve written before about my membership in the Arizona Rangers, a statewide law enforcement auxiliary and community service organization devoted to assisting law enforcement and serving their local communities by raising money for local children’s charities.  As a Ranger,  I am proud to participate in a tradition of service and it’s a privilege to wear the uniform.
 
Those who know me understand that while I’m generally a pretty squared-away guy, I am not Mr. Spit & Polish.  Now, I’ve never shown up to a duty with an empty holster or anything, but in a company of “two is one, one is none” and “fifteen minutes early is on time” kind of guys, I’m the one blowing in exactly on time with my name badge slightly askew.  So it is a delightful irony that I have recently joined the Phoenix Company’s Color Guard. 
 
A Color Guard has a long history in military and police circles; in modern times they are an exclusively honorary exercise deployed for special occasions like parades, funerals and the like.  They are the epitome of spit & polish, with white gloves and gold adornments, precision movement -  and flags.
 
The flag was the centerpiece of the military practice that came to be the color guard.  In more ancient times, armies depended on flying their colors (or flags) to rally around and maintain unit integrity.  Due to its strategic importance, only senior men were put in charge of carrying and protecting the colors. Only men who had experience and discipline were entrusted with the carry and protection of the national and/or unit colors.  From this came the practice of using the Color Guard for more ceremonial purposes, which is where we find it today.
 
The Color Guard represents the honor and dedication of those who serve, and especially in the case of funerals, a recognition of those who have served before.  The Phoenix Company has performed Color Guard duties for gravesite ceremonies of territorial Rangers, Memorial Day events, and at the funeral of Lt. Col. Lynne Holliday, who was an influential Ranger who recently lost her battle with cancer.  When given the opportunity to honor those who have come before me, whether by decades or just months, I am glad to carry the flag.  And make sure my name badge is straight.

​My son and I were camping this week up on the Mogollon Rim country, near an unassuming little spot called Potato Lake.  On our way out to the paved road we happened along an isolated marble grave marker just off the side of Forest Service Road 300.  Since such markers are unusual here, I stopped to take a look, and was rewarded with a piece of Arizona history.
 
The marker was made of fine marble, engraved with the restrained description of the interred:  Andres Moreno, b. 1840 d. 1887, of 1st Battalion, Company E, Arizona Infantry.  As my son and I pondered the fate of this man who met his end 25 years before Arizona would become a state, a small herd of elk passed quietly behind the marker.  Who was this man?  What sort of pitched battle must he have been involved in to find his end here, in 1887?
 
Enter Google.  Andres Moreno was a Mexican from Sonora whose family moved north to Tubac when he was in his teens.  The Gadsden Purchase granted him American citizenship, and in 1865 he joined the Arizona Volunteer Infantry, which was being put together hastily to shore up Army duties in the Territory while Army regulars were being sent back East to fight in the Civil War.
 
The Arizona Volunteer Infantry was a hard-riding lot, or should I say hard-marching, as they left Tubac, AZ and marched all the way to Fort Whipple, near Prescott.  They spent a hard year fighting marauding bands of Apache with almost no support or meaningful resupply, and when their enlistment was up in 1865, they were grossly underpaid by a nearly bankrupt Territorial legislature who could only offer them their praise.
 
Moreno left for New Mexico, where he courted and married a Delfina Mazon, with whom he had several children.  He became a freighter, and this trade returned the family to Arizona, where the family once again sought their fortune on our soil from Barth to Globe. 
 
In 1887, Moreno contracted with a doctor and a lawyer, both going to Flagstaff, one to catch a train headed west and the other to assume a teaching position. Knox Lee, the lawyer, and Moreno engaged in a spirited dispute over who was responsible for providing the food for the journey, and this dispute came to a head along Baker’s Butte, on what is now Forest Road 300.  Moreno and Lee were detained to repair a harness, and while Moreno was bent over his work, Lee shot him in the back of the head.  He then re-arranged the crime scene to appear as though he shot Moreno in self defense.
 
Dr. Cook was able to ascertain that Lee’s story held no water, and Lee faced murder charges in Prescott.  Sadly, anti-Mexican sentiments ran high in 1887, and Lee was sentenced to the lighter charge of involuntary manslaughter; he was able to conduct a political letter-writing campaign to turn this into a pardon only a few months into his sentence.
 
Moreno’s grave remained unmarked for 60 years until his great-grandson Frank Moreno was able to locate the site in 1964 and petition the Veteran’s Administration to provide the headstone I saw, which was put into place by Forest Rangers.
 
As we head into Memorial Day weekend, I am struck by the serendipity by which I encountered this headstone and the story that accompanies it.  As we pass through this world, we owe our history, and our memory, to those we leave behind, even generations later.  It is to them that we entrust our stories, and our legacy, and that is the honorable burden each of us bear for the heroes who have passed before us.
 
 
 Works Cited
 
Brown, Stan.  “The Wild West in the Rim Country,” PaysonRoundup. Nov 30, 2011.
            Web. May 27, 2016

For a society that is plagued with obesity and solipsism, we have a peculiar tendency to give shout-outs to the idea of sucking up our discomfort and forging ahead for the common good.  This idea is called by many names, all linguistically related:  Cowboy Up, Cowgirl Up, and my personal favorite, Ranger UP.  This last one has been popularized by a clothing company of the same name, and in explanation they even put out a YouTube video to elaborate upon their claim.  You can see it here (go ahead, I’ll wait.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjWmmye4-fM

The primary point behind this video is that to ranger up to answer a call to service.  The video is put out by former military, and former Army Rangers, but they include EMS, police/fire and others in their rubric for who is in a position to “ranger up,” and this rather broadens the scope of what sorts of people this might apply to.

I Ranger Up, and I hope you do, too.

Now, let me be absolutely clear, here.  I am nobody's badass, and was never an Army Ranger – hell, the Navy told me to take a long walk off a short pier when I was 19, so not only was I not “special ops,” I was no “ops” at all.  What I am is a middle aged English teacher with an expansive girth and wheezy sort of way of being in the world.  But I Ranger Up just the same. 

How I do ranger up? I volunteer with the Arizona Rangers, which is an all-volunteer force dedicated to law enforcement support and community service.  We help our community on at least three fronts.  We perform duties that would otherwise be done by law enforcement, and thus reduce the cost to the state. We do a lot of private security-type duties, providing a uniform presence that helps keep the peace.  Our clients donate to our cause, which enables us to donate literally thousands of dollars each year to children’s charities.  We, as Arizona Rangers, are out there serving our communities in tangible ways.  In our own way, we protect and serve.  We are not police officers, and don’t fulfill the same role, but as ordinary citizens who choose to serve our communities, who choose to stand up – who choose to “Ranger Up.”  How do you Ranger Up in your community?

So I’ve named my little blog “Writin’ the River,” which may seem a bit . . . counterintuitive to those who know me and know where I live.   As my wife said upon seeing the name of my blog, “what river?”

It’s true, Arizona is not really known for its rivers, especially here in the south.  We have the mighty Colorado, which still qualifies as mighty in certain seasons, up in the Grand Canyon and cutting along our western border.  That is certainly our biggest claim to fame, and our tourism export. There is also the Salt River, which winds its way out of the White Mountains and provides Phoenicians with some hot-weather relief as they tube down its length.  But by the time it reaches Phoenix proper, it’s pretty slim pickins.  As a general rule, rivers and creeks in AZ are more riverbed than river.

I was thinking about none of this when I chose the name.

I was thinking of a metaphoric river, and of the idea of “riding the river,” (see what I did there?).  The river represents boundaries, movement and journeys, but also the quality of people one wants to accompany them on such journeys.  There is an old saying that someone “will do to ride the river with.” This phrase is used to compliment someone by saying they were of good stock, reliable and dependable.  I believe this phrase began with the Texas Border Patrol, who quite literally rides along the Rio Grande as it marks the boundary between the U.S. and Mexico, and the phrase was popularized by the famous Border Patrolman Bill Jordan in his book, No Second Place Winner (see below) .  For men like Jordan, men whose livelihoods depended upon being able to trust one’s partner quite literally with their lives, it was no small thing to be considered good enough to ride the river with.

So this blog is named as it is in honor of my own humble aspirations.  In my professional life as a teacher, writer, and artist, I hope that my colleagues and students, and all my readers will find that I “will do to write the river with.”

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, several western states had Ranger companies, mostly formulated on the model of the Texas Rangers, which were perhaps the first and are almost certainly the most famous.   Colorado, New Mexico, California, and Arizona all had Ranger organizations.  Virtually all of them are now defunct.

The Arizona Rangers were founded in 1901 to combat rustling and lawlessness that was giving the territory a bad reputation and stood in the way of the territory’s bid for statehood.  The rangers, 26 men in all, were tasked with law enforcement over the entire territory.  They mostly worked alone, often undercover, and had to provide all their own equipment. It was a tough way to make a living.

The Arizona Rangers don't get nearly the publicity of their Texas brethren, probably due to their short tenure, although Bill O’Neil did write a fine history of the Rangers; see the link below. 

They were disbanded in ’09, having either arrested or chased off most of the real rowdies, and Arizona came to statehood in 1912.  The territorial rangers moved on to other work, but in 1957 several of them decided they saw a need for a community service organization, and they reformed the Arizona Rangers as an all-volunteer law enforcement auxiliary.  The new Arizona Rangers have been serving their respective communities and raising and donating money to children's charities ever since.

Today they are a recognized 501(c) (3) non-profit organization with four goals:

1.  Render aid and assistance to law enforcement when called upon

2. Provide support for youth organizations

3.  Support community activities that  benefit all involved

4.   Keep alive the traditions of the old west

I am proud to be associated with the Arizona Rangers, serving my local community and raising money for our children.