E. Penn. Long of Baltimore, Maryland, was a member of a U. S. Army expedition led by Lt. Edward F. Beale to find a wagon route from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to the Colorado River. The group, which first passed El Morro in 1857, was also testing the usefulness of camels in crossing the deserts of the Southwest. Although Beale wrote positively about the camels in his journals, the Army abandoned the experiment at the onset of the Civil War. Long and two other members of Beale's group probably made their inscriptions during a second visit to El Morro in 1859. "Mr. Engle" is in block print and "Mr. Bryn" in script. Engle was Beale's second in command.
No comments:
Post a Comment