Camelback Mountain and Hole-in-Rock
(Little Colonel sites in Arizona)
View selected by Annie Fellows Johnston
Annie Fellows Johnston spent nearly a year here near Camelback Mountain in 1902/3, near Phoenix, Arizona, at the real Lee’s Ranch with her ailing son. It was the setting for The Little Colonel in Arizona, and In the Desert of Waiting. While she was here, she wrote most of The Little Colonel at Boarding School.
The view above was the one selected by Annie Fellows Johnston, and we’re not sure exactly how close this view was to Lee’s Ranch, but we think, with good evidence, that it’s probably taken from the same area if not from the ranch itself.
Lee’s Ranch was probably in the vicinity around what is now East McDowell Road in Phoenix, possibly near the 5300 block which today is in the vicinity of the Phoenix Military Reservation and Papago Park, and between Camelback Mountain and Squaw Peak. See our Lee’s Ranch page for more on this. Another interesting connection is that Papago Park (a bit southwest of where we think Lee’s Ranch was located) is the site of Hole-in-Rock (photo on left from 1909)! Modern photo’s we’ve found on the Internet taken from Papago Park shows the same view of Camelback Mountain as the vintage photos above. For example, see: http://www.azjoad.com/azjoad2003/Papago_Park_Clean-up.htm
View out of hole-in-rock (postcard sent in 1913) (enlarged)
We also remember “Phil Tremont” who erred with his forays in Phoenix. At the time
Annie Fellows Johnston stayed near here, Phoenix had a population of somewhere around
six or seven thousand souls, but could still be a pretty wild place. (Photo from 1909)