Saturday, May 12, 2012 - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Fritch TX
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Camped at Blue West, Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Fritch TX, May 11, 2012
Dry
Lake Meredith is nearly dry, and has been for years. The Canadian River drainage seems to be suffering a severe drought. Ute Lake, where I camped before coming here, is also a reservoir on the Canadian and it too is nearly dry.
Night camp
Blue West - Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, Fritch TX
- Verizon cell phone and broadband service - good signal and reasonable connection speeds.
- Go to the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area website
- Locate Lake Meredith National Recreation Area on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Heliograph routes of the 1890 Practice
The date was May 15th, 1890, and the Army's Department of Arizona had just completed a major heliograph practice; it was, in fact, the largest the world had ever seen. I call it the "Volkmar Practice", after the man responsible for it, Col. Wm. J. Volkmar, the Assistant Adjutant General and Chief Signal Officer for the Department of Arizona. Although the practice lasted only sixteen days, preparations for it took months of reconnaissance and preparation. Involved in the long range signaling maneuvers were twenty-five heliograph stations stretching from Whipple Barracks near Prescott to Fort Stanton near Ruidoso, New Mexico. My guess is that close to two hundred men were involved, both cavalry and infantry.