In July of 1880 the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Co. started laying new track west, out of Albuquerque New Mexico with the plan to meet the Southern Pacific Railroad in Needles, California. By early 1882 they had reached Canyon Diablo about 7.2 miles west of this location. As they pushed the railroad west they needed stone to build the bridges that crossed the many washes & gullies that abound in this western country. All along the route the railroad would establish quarries to supply the necessary stone. As the railhead pushed further west and the distance to haul the stone became too great they would seek a new location close to the tracks and near the current railhead where more stone could be quarried for bridge construction. Huge amounts of stone blocks were needed for these bridges and the massive bridge just to the west at Canyon Diablo would require 10 fold the amount of small bridges. This new quarry was established near the railroad station location of Sunshine, Arizona to fill the needs of the Canyon Diablo bridge and for the hundreds of bridges being built further to the west.
This quarry was in use from probably early 1881 until around 1885. Many fine examples of the red sandstone block that was quarried here remain on site. Many workers labored here to excavate, shape & transport this stone for the railroad's construction. There are undoubtedly several graves nearby of workers that were killed in the dangerous job of removing this stone from the earth. One of those workers took the time to carve a couple of faces into the surface of the sandstone wall at the back of an unused part of the quarry. One appears to memorialize someone with a profile image and the date of 1862. That would have been 20 years prior to the work for the railroad here at the quarry. Was it a memorial to a relative killed during the Civil war? Or a remembrance of another sort? No one knows now but we can still enjoy this moment in time that is frozen on the face of the quarry rock for us to still see almost 135 years later.
Just to the right of this profile image is a carving of a full frontal face with no date or other identifying marks. This portrait in stone has the appearance of an oriental or native american but thats just my take on it. At any rate, enjoy the history and please do not carve, paint or in any way deface the rocks of this historical quarry. Help us to maintain them for future travelers to visit & see undamaged & clean as they are now. If any damage or vandalism is noted please contact me immediately via a log entry and I will archive these caches to protect the history here. Any spoilers included in logs or photos will be deleted. Please log DNFs & pertinent notes. These are very important to me in tracking the condition of the cache & maintaining it in a good condition for searchers.
The cache is located behind the rock carvings to the west.
If you are interested in more history of the wild west, check out cache "The Wild Wild West of Canyon Diablo" which is located about 5 miles to the west of this cache. The bloody town of Canyon Diablo put towns like Tombstone & Dodge City to shame in its level of lawlessness. There are lots of photos in the gallery of that cache as well to bring this old west location to life. Have fun & be safe and remember to leave only footprints & take only photos as you visit these sites.