Mielke Family Fun: Fort Apache

The girls were supposed to be in charge of researching things to do while we are here in the White Mountains. Well, you can about guess how that went! So upon arriving here, MOM had to research things to do, places to go, activities happening.

I have always loved history and wish I knew more about Arizona's rich history. Here we are right next to the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation, so let's check it out! I looked around and found Fort Apache is about 20 miles away. I could go on about the history of it, but that would bore you. Much like it did my family today. Here's how the day played out:

We got up and enjoyed the morning coffee with a few sprinkles. We packed up for the day and went to a local Farmer's Market. We had lunch and hit another Arts Fair (and bought a nice little piece of jewelry), then the plan was to go to Fort Apache (which we'd planned to do yesterday, but got rained out). Eye rolling began - and not just from Carolyn and Elyse. As we were heading out to Ft. Apache, it began to sprinkle. We had to drive pretty much right by our cabin and we thought, "Should we stop and grab umbrellas?" of course, Mom said, "We'll be fine! If it rains, we'll just walk faster. This rain will stop. It's clear to the south!" And away we went. No sooner did we pass the turn to the cabin and it started to pour. Eye rolling continued. Thankfully, the weather cleared as we got to WhiteRiver and Fort Apache. We looked around the museum (a bit more eye rolling with a few pleasant oos and ahs), watched a movie about the Apache culture and then walked around the fort. It reminded me a bit of Ft. Totten in ND. Maybe all army posts/forts were the same? Anyway, there is a lot of good and interesting history about the Apache Wars and how the US Army came in and tried to make things better....for whom? At Ft. Apache there is still a functioning/running boarding school (The Theodore Roosevelt Boarding School), but the museum ladies didn't know much about it. Even though it was about 100 yards away from the museum. We wandered through buildings and into the ones that were unlocked. We walked into one and were met by a nice dog and we noticed signs that said, "Quiet please: University of Arizona Classroom." Shortly after we entered, a nice young man approached us and nicely asked what the hell we were doing. Well, not really like that...but I'm sure that's what he was thinking! We chatted with him and learned that he was doing research, trying to match up historical pictures etc. with present day looks.

After our Fort Apache, we planned to go to Kinishba Ruins. We were on our way and got on a rough road...which reminded us of last year's adventure of geocaching and getting a flat tire. Knowing we had no cel phone signal, we aborted the plan to go to the ruins (dating back to about 800 AD) and with a sigh of disappointment from Mom, turned around and headed home. Here are some of the sights we saw on our return trip: