Gachado Line Camp - April 2018
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Why, Arizona
The Gachado Line Camp and the Dos Lomitas Ranch are technically a part of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument but lie several miles south of the park right along the US-Mexican border. You have to drive right alongside the border wall on a dirt road for several miles to get back to the line camp and then another mile or so to the ranch. All of that driving is under the watchful eye of the ever-present Border Patrol agents in their white cars and trucks with the blue slash across the doors.
The ruins of the Gachado Line Camp are amazingly intact. Adobe is extremely durable in very dry climates. This was a place for the cowboys to stay, eat, etc. while they worked “the line.” Their work was primarily mending fences, tending strays, and watching for predators– human or natural, but the few miles to the main ranch was a significant distance in those days.
The ruins are also photographically interesting. This is not some artificial pattern of aged adobe painted on the walls of a restaurant. This is what one hundred fifty year old adobe buildings look like when they have not been regularly maintained.
The high, brown, fence in the background is the border.
MWM
http://michael-massa-micon.tumblr.com