Sinagua Rising: A story of survival after a worldwide catastrophe

by R. G. Andersen-Wyckoff

  “Now they can set up house down there somewhere,” Tanner said.

  “Why didn’t you just use the shovel and kill them?” Tate asked.

  “Well,” he responded, “they were here first and it doesn’t seem right for us to kill them for that. Besides, they help keep down the rodent population. We should only kill the wildlife if we’re in imminent danger or need them for food. Live and let live!”

  “Weren’t we in imminent danger?” Tate asked. “I sure felt like we were.”

  “No,” said Tanner, “you could still back away, as you did; and if you can still back away safely, you’re not in imminent danger. Just keep a sharp lookout while you’re cleaning out the cave because if you stick your hand down into a nest, you WILL BE in imminent danger. In fact, it might be too late.”

  Travis and Tate cleared all the debris from the cave, without seeing or hearing any more critters, and pushed the debris over the side in the direction the snakes had gone.

  Tanner, Jack, and Philip cleared most of the trail, and relocated it around some stubborn Prickly Pear cactus that just wouldn’t yield to their shovels, McCleods, and hoes. There was still some work to be done to dig out more steps to make it easier for the women and children (and old men) to follow the trail to the creek without slipping but, for now, it would suffice as long as they were careful. Once the first rains came, the trail would be washed some more and then they could finish the steps and make them more permanent and the trail easier to use. Tanner knew the trail would get plenty of use. Working like an old-fashioned chain gang, without the chains and striped uniforms, they had raked, shoveled, and broomed the trail down to the hard-packed surface the Sinaguan’s had left behind seven centuries earlier.

  Jenny called down to them that supper was ready. It was already mid-afternoon; they hadn’t noticed the passage of time. But now, with the mention of supper, they realized how tired and hungry they were. They climbed the ladder, which would have to be their access until Colby installed the circular stairway in the cave, and headed to the lunch tent. Jenny informed them that it was now called the ‘Meeting Hall,’ and that was that.

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  Michael had buckets of hot and cold water ready for the men to wash in and then Mel attended to a variety of blisters, cuts, and splinters that the men and children had received while moving debris. They were all minor but it introduced them to the Medical Tent.

  The door to the tent was offset from the middle and faced the alley. Because the tent had an aluminum frame, there was no center post to break up the space. There were two vinyl covered windows, one on either side of the tent, to let some light in. At the front of the tent was a small waiting area with a few folding chairs they had found in one of the storage sheds and a stretcher stood propped in a corner. There were two metal shelving units set end to end across the tent about five feet in from the entrance leaving a small passage to the back of the tent, along the side. The shelfing units were each six feet high, six feet wide, and 15 inches deep. The side of the shelves facing the front had been draped with a sheet of colored plastic, usually used to cover goods in a trailer, giving some privacy in the back of the tent. The exposed sides of the shelves were crammed full of medicines, bandages, and first aid kits taken from their homes and the Ranger storage buildings. Boxes and plastic storage bins with more medical supplies were stacked along the back of the tent. A folding table served as an examining table until they could find something better.

  Mel had rolled up the covers on the two windows, exposing the mosquito screening and letting some light and air in. Mel explained to Jack that she could use some overhead lighting, to which he said, “No sweat. We’ll put in some overhead L.E.D. lights and run them from one of the small generators. We’ll just have to crank it up each time you need to use it. There are also some battery operated lanterns that should suffice for lighting in most instances for as long as the batteries hold out. Maybe we can make a rule that medical emergencies can only occur during daylight hours,” he joked.

  ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘

  Michael and Maria served up another scrumptious meal featuring the remainder of the brisket Bishop had smoked and kept in the freezer, the end of the frozen vegetables, and sourdough biscuits made from some dried food packets. The freezer was now empty and turned off. There were pitchers of fruit-flavored drink Maria had prepared using water and Nuun tablets Carly had provided. Nuuns is an enhanced electrolyte replacement tablet that the Westins had used in their water bottles for years when hiking in hot weather. It helps restore electrolytes lost through sweat and helps protect against dehydration. It tastes just like fruit punch so there was no need to explain the beneficial effects to everyone. The children thought it was Kool Aid. Of course, the Westins immediately recognized the taste and gave Carly and Maria a thumbs-up.

  Bud announced to everyone that when they had returned with the sewer pipe, he had dug a trench across the steps behind the restroom trailer and installed a length of the pipe across the steps, pushed the drain hose from the trailer through the pipe, and then reattached the hose to the septic tank. He then had covered the pipe in the trench with dirt and they now had a fully working restroom. The ladies, almost in unison shouted, “Our hero!”

  “I also extended the awning to provide cover from the sun and rain and discovered that the water heater can run on propane and we can run the lighting from a generator. It’d be best not to use those if we don’t have too because I don’t know how long our propane and gas will last. The two skylights appear to allow plenty of light in, at least during the daytime. I also removed the ‘A-frame hitch’ from the trailer so no one will trip over it. We can reattach it when we need to move it later,” he concluded.

  Carly explained the living arrangements the ladies had agreed to and what would be needed to provide privacy for each of the rooms. Colby immediately indicated that he had just the things they would need and he would take care of it while the rest of the group was swimming and bathing. Jason immediately volunteered to help his father and it was settled.

  Carly said, “If I have to wait another minute to take a bath I’m going to disintegrate into a pile of dust—smelly dust at that.” To which everyone laughed.

  “We haven’t rigged up a bathing screen for you ladies,” Tanner said. There just wasn’t time.”

  “Well,” Carly responded, “I guess you men will just have to turn your backs while we wash and then we’ll do the same. In fact, I know where there’s a plastic tarp that two of you strong men can hold up while we bathe,” she said with a chuckle, “and we’ll do the same. That should solve the problem. I think we’re going to find over time that some privacy will be lost in our new living environment. I doubt the Sinagua worried about it and I guess we can adjust if need be.”

  The drink that was left over was put into plastic bottles and the foil from the MREs and dried food packets were dropped into the latrine pit. As with the previous meals, there was no food left over.

  The women took their bathing suits to the restroom trailer to change and the men changed in their respective tents. The ladies had dug out all the swimming suits from the clothing boxes and laid them on the cots while the men were working.

  Everyone carefully climbed down the ladder and trouped down the trail like a long line of ants. One of the men waited at each of the steep parts to assist the others and within 10 minutes they were all at the water’s edge sitting on the large flat Yavapai sandstone shelves that perched just above the creek. There were holes in the shelves that Tanner explained had been grinding holes made by the Sinagua. The ladies could grind corn here while the children played in the water. Some women would wash clothes in the creeks using soap made from yucca root.

  “What a great idea,” Celeste said, “we certainly need to wash clothes.”

  “They probably all sat down here and did these things naked,” Tanner added with a chuckle.

  “Well, maybe we’ll just wash our clothes in buckets of warm water up at t
he village,” Celeste responded with a chuckle of her own.

  The water was chilly when first entered but they quickly adapted to it. It was near 100-degrees that day so after the initial chill the water began to feel like lukewarm bath water. After splashing around for a while in the large pools that had formed in the sandstone, the women moved to the last pool and began washing their hair with shampoo they had brought down in day packs, along with their towels, combs, and brushes. The soapy water ran downstream almost as fast as they rinsed their hair, replaced by more clear water from upstream. They took turns removing their swimsuits and washing while two of the women held up the tarp until all had completely washed and put their suits back on. They also washed the children.

  Then it was the men’s turn to repeat the process. When all had finished the adults sat on the sandstone shelf and allowed themselves to luxuriate and dry in the sun, while the women combed and brushed out their hair. The young people continued to swim and play in the larger pools.

  “I think we can get by without a permanent privacy screen here,” Carly said while pointing at the pool they had washed in. It will just wash away in a rain storm and our human privacy screen works just fine,” to which Tanner nodded his head and thought, thank heavens. That’s just one less project we have to complete.

  “Thanks, Mom,” he said, and meant it.

  Tanner, sitting on the shelf, surveyed the surrounding walls of the canyon through which the creek had cut. He knew that just over a half-mile upstream were the large pools and falls from which Jack would construct the new water system. The creek bed was strewn with boulders of all sizes, primarily of basalt, sandstone, and limestone, but there was plenty of granite gravel and larger rocks to indicate that somewhere upstream a granite strata was exposed; probably many miles away.

  The far side of the creek was mostly limestone and basalt and provided minimal purchase for cactus and creosote bush, but not much else. The near side of the creek had a broad sand and gravel beach, worn by hundreds of years of high creeks and flash floods, and was lined with cottonwoods, willow, juniper, and ash. In some places the willow was so thick you couldn’t navigate through it. The slopes of the canyon were steep, as the men had found out refurbishing the trail, and the slopes were covered with scree, creosote bush, manzanita, and several varieties of cactus: primarily Claret Cup, Pincushion, and Barrel Cactus along with the ubiquitous Prickly Pear. Farther up the canyon, well above the pools, began the Pinyon Pine forests that, at one time, had covered Horse Mesa as well.

  While sitting there, Tanner pointed out a very large cave behind them where he believed the first Sinagua had dwelt before moving on top of the promontory to build Tuwalanki. He indicated that the remnants of the pueblo walls were still inside the cave and that probably upwards of 25 people could have resided there. He also noted the fact that the walls were still intact demonstrated how well protected the cave was from the elements. “Once we have Duwa reconstructed,” he said, “I’m sure we’ll find some use for that cave. I just don’t know what yet, but something.”

  At that point Colby and Jason joined them, yelling greetings as they came off the trail onto the shelf. They too were in swimsuits and, as everyone else had been, in their hiking boots as well. They quickly took off their boots and went into the closest pool, where the kids were still playing. They splashed and played as if they were children themselves and then said, “Where’s the soap?”

  Jenny gave them some shampoo and soap and directed them to the “washing pool” as she described it. Tate and Philip held up the screen for them and they quickly bathed, and then joined the others sunbathing.

  It would still be light for several hours, but the sun was now starting to drop behind the mesa behind them and a shadow began to climb up the opposite canyon wall, on the far side of the creek. As the group went up the trail it got more and more shady until they climbed the ladder and stepped out into the rays of sunlight hitting them directly in the face.

  They changed into clean clothes, with the ladies vowing to wash the extremely dirty clothes they had worn the past week, the next day, or whenever someone rigged up a clothesline for them.

  When the ladies returned to the tents they saw the handiwork performed by Colby and Jason.

  ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘ ◘

  As Carly had suggested, they had attached a four foot cross piece of 2x4 to each of the center poles with long screws, about six feet off the ground. They put eye hooks at both ends of the cross pieces and ran vinyl-coated wire from end to end, just like a clothesline. To support the wire, every eight feet they had put a vertical 2x4 with a footing, like a Christmas tree stand, and had run the wire through a hole in the top of the 2x4, before fastening it at each end. Using eye hooks again, they had fastened more wire to each of the new stands and run them to the side poles of the tent, again fastening them with eye hooks. They had put tighteners at one end of each of the two long wires so they could tighten the wires any time they began to sag. As a result, all of the spaces in all the tents now had an overhead wire frame from which they could hang sheets or blankets to provide privacy. If spaces were being doubled-up, then you just didn’t need to use that particular wire.

  Carly was most excited about the doorway and hallway between the tents that had been built in her home. “What in the world inspired this creativity,” she said to Colby and Jason.

  “Well,” responded Colby, the real challenge was to link the first and second tents in a way that allowed the spaces at the back of the first tent and the space between the first center pole of the second tent to be divided and have privacy curtains. We had to have something on which to anchor the wire. “

  Though he didn’t take the time to explain the construction process to Carly and the others, the answer had come quickly to Colby, who had a quick mind for solving construction problems. He had solved two problems with one solution.

  He and Jason had built a box, using 2x6s. The box was 36 inches wide, 78 inches high, and three feet deep. It had no front or back. The frame was then sheathed and taped in Tyvek and then wrapped in heavy gauge plastic which was stapled in place. On one of the three-foot ends Colby attached two 2x6 runners. Then they stood the contraption up on the runners, pulled the tent door flaps back on both tents, and slid the box into the openings. They now had a tunnel to pass from one tent to another without having to unzip the tent doors or get wet while passing through the small gap between the tents. The two runners kept the entire box off the ground to avoid having the box sit in mud or water. They pulled the flaps from the front tent back along the side of the box, folded the edges back to provide extra support and stapled those edges to the box. They repeated the process with the second tent.

  “Wow,” Jason had exclaimed, “that’s pretty neat, Dad. “Now what?”

  “Now we attach the wires from the center posts to the nearest point on the box and tighten the wires. The tension being generated from both sides should hold the box in place and provide for the space dividers. And, just in case the box wants to shift somehow, we’ll drive some rebar into the ground at the four corners of the box, just outside the tents. I don’t want to punch holes in the tent floor. That should keep the box from shifting even a little.

  “We’ll do the other tents later,” Colby told Jason, “now that we have a model. I have one other thing I want to accomplish before we join the others down at the creek.”

  They built another box, just like the first one, except the dimensions were a little different: 36.5 in width and 80.5 in height. When they had finished putting on the Tyvek and plastic they stood it up and placed it in the front entrance to the tents, facing the alley. Two-thirds of the box was outside the tent and they drove the rebar in with a sledge to make sure they got good ground penetration.

  On the end of the box inside the tent, they mounted an exterior door they had brought from the jobsite, complete with hinges and latch. Colby trimmed the outside of the door with some 1x2 and felt and they now had a weather protected doorway i
nto the tents. Then they went swimming.

  “We’ll paint the exposed wood later,” Colby now said to Carly, “so we don’t get warping or rotting. We’ll want to re-use the doors and lumber again up in the ruins. Tomorrow we’ll build and install the boxes for the rest of the tents and then it will be Jason’s job to do the painting.

  “The rest is, as you might say, history. We joined y’all at the creek and now here we are.”

  “Where did you get all this stuff?” Carly asked.

  “Well,” responded Colby, “we had moved the lumber up here from our jobsites, and there’s plenty of it, and the wire, eye hooks, screws, and nails were all in my Wells Cargo trailer. So was the hand saw. Putting it together was no problem, especially with the valuable assistance I had from Jason.”

  Bishop patted Jason on the back and said, “Good job, Jase.”

  “That wasn’t the green, vinyl-coated coils of wire laying in the equipment tent, was it?” Bishop asked.

  “No,” replied Colby, “I had this in my trailer, and there’s plenty more back in my barn if we need more.”

  “Well, not so much in the barn,” chuckled Bishop. “I think we got that when we got the sewer pipe.”

  “I doubt you got it all, Bish, because I had a whole case of it in the back corner of the barn. You probably just got the loose rolls that were the remains of the case I took the wire out of to put in the trailer a few weeks ago. It really comes in handy for all kinds of things, so I make sure I have plenty on hand.”

  Bishop smiled and said, “I’m glad to hear that, Cole. We’re good.”

  “Great job, boys,” Carly said. “Now we can put sheets or whatever up temporarily and have some privacy.”

  “I’ve got lots of big safety pins,” interjected Celeste. “So we can do it whenever we want.”

  “There’s no better time than the present,” responded Carly.