Column No. 32
Bob Ring, Al Ring, Tallia Pfrimmer Cahoon
Life wasn’t all work in Ruby during the 1930s. There was plenty of time for
recreation and social life.
Ruby residents played baseball on “White Stone Field” on the east side of Ruby
Lake, on the tailings, a huge area of mining refuse, that looked and felt (still
does) much like sand. The workers formed teams from the different shifts at the
mine and mill. Families carried chairs and blankets to sit on while watching the
bi-monthly, Saturday games.
The Company selected the best players to play on a “Ruby Miners” baseball team
that played games with Oro Blanco, Tucson, and Nogales teams. Eagle-Picher
provided uniforms and equipment.
Fred Noon (grandson of Oro Blanco area pioneer Adolphus Noon) played left field
for the Ruby Miners.
Sammy Rosthenhausler grew up in Ruby and began a lifetime of baseball there.
Rosthenhausler played shortstop for the Ruby Miners for three years.
In 1938, at age 18, when Sammy’s job took him to Mammoth, Arizona, where he was
a mucker in the St. Anthony mine, he continued playing baseball for a
semi-professional team. Sammy played ball in Mammoth in 1939 and 1940 for the
Tigers.
Rosthenhausler spent the next six years as a paratrooper in World War II,
resuming his baseball (this time international) playing with the El Paso Tejanos
in 1946.
Meg Clarke, writing in The Connection, detailed Rosthenhausler’s subsequent
career:
“Sammy earned a living for himself and his family by working in mining for
twenty years, and then for the City of Tucson Water Department for another
twenty years, all the while playing baseball.”
He played baseball and softball well into his 70s. Clarke continued:
“In 1992 his team at age 72 went to the Seniors Softball World Series in West
Palm Beach, Florida. It was a single elimination tournament, where Sam and his
team played sixteen games in seven days and won the Series. Sam, who played
shortstop, was named ‘Most Valuable Player’ and was presented with a
commemorative ring.”
Hunting was a favored recreation in the Ruby area. It was certainly one of
Diesel Equipment Mechanic “Red” Worth’s favorite pastimes:
“I used to get home from work by three-thirty in the afternoon, pick up my
rifle, go out into the hills, kill my deer, and be back home by sundown. We had
quail and lots of rabbits and a few mountain lions. … A good- sized mountain
lion would weigh about a hundred and fifty pounds. There was a pretty good
bounty on them, too. I think it was fifty or seventy five dollars.”
Some Ruby residents (mostly men, but a few women too) enjoyed a nearby rifle
range. Even non-hunters had fun target shooting.
In 1935, the National Rifle Association chartered the Ruby Gun Club with 43
members. Gun Club shooters traveled around the state and country, participating
in rifle matches. “Red” Worth fondly recalled these competitions:
“We used to travel around Arizona for matches. Bisbee, Tucson, Fort Huachuca,
Nogales, Phoenix. Fact of the matter is, when I went to the National Rifle
Association matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, in 1936 and 1939, I won a place on the
civilian rifle team representing the Ruby Gun Club and the state association.
There were about 1,500 men shooting at those matches.”
Children’s games played at school during recess continued away from the
playground. Mineworker’s daughter, Angela Coronado De Nault remembered that they
played quite a few different games:
“We played Hopscotch, we played Jacks, we played with balls, we played a lot of
ball games like dodge ball, corner ball, we played marbles, we learned to spin
tops, hide-and-seek and then we used to have a game the we called ‘run sheep
run’ and it was two separate teams from different families that would just roam
those hills and guide the team where to go if they were getting warm to find us.
It was similar to hide-and seek but it was in teams. So we had a good time
there.”
Flying kites for the younger set was a popular form of recreation. Columnist
Tallia Pfrimmer Cahoon recalled her Ruby kite-flying days:
“Dad spent many hours making kites for us children and at one point, made a kite
reel that, though it shows it’s use, remains in the family today. We were able
to wind several balls of string on this reel and from the top of a hill north of
our house, were able to fly our kites way out over Ruby Lake and the tailings.”
Games for adults included playing cards, mainly bridge. Cahoon remembered some
people who played bridge:
“Annie and Erle D. ‘Ed’ Morton had bridge parties at their home, located up
against ‘Snob Hill’ on Ruby’s west side. Mr. Morton was the General Manager of
both the Montana mine and Ruby. I remember Mrs. Morton’s high-pitched voice and
that she went around hugging all the kids, not necessarily what we kids
enjoyed.”
The Boy Scouts organized in Ruby in 1935. The troop’s sponsors included General
Manager Ed Morton and Dr. Julius Woodard. Leland D. Wilson served as the first
Scoutmaster, with fifteen Ruby youths as charter members.
Besides everything else to do, there were special occasions for something
different.
Anglea Coronado De Nault remembered that her dad was sometimes hired as a cowboy
to put on a big barbeque at one of the ranches in nearby Arivaca:
“We [family of 15] used to pile up in the little truck my dad had. All of us
used to go.”
And of course there were picnics. Picnics were a favorite special activity for
De Nault’s large family:
“Between Arivaca and Ruby there was a real beautiful area with lots of trees. …
We used to go to picnic right in that area. Sometimes we used to picnic by the
lake (springs) in Arivaca and they had a lot of greenery there too. And then of
course, the older girls used to picnic right there in Ruby in different areas”
Tallia Pfrimmer Cahoon also remembers picnics:
“Families visiting with one another, picnicking, and/or wading in nearby
streams, weather permitting, were forms of entertainment. Another activity,
usually coupled with a picnic, was gathering bellotas, the acorns from the
Arizona Oak Tree, or Scrub Oak as they are sometimes called. These matured in
mid-summer. We filled gunnysacks to gather our edible treasures.”
Diesel Equipment Mechanic “Red” Worth’s wife, Ann Worth, remembered the special
New Year’s parties:
“New Years Day and Eve were always big because up at mill superintendent’s house
Ed Crabtree, there was always his annual party for employees. Food? You never
saw such food set out on that long table.”
A real special occasion was a circus. Joe Ortiz remembered:
“A circus came once. I remember they had camels and a couple of elephants. I had
never seen camels.”
(Sources: Interviews with Sammy Rosthenhausler, Joe Ortiz, and Angela Coronado
De Nault; Dan B. McCarthy, “The Return to Ruby,” Phoenix Republic, October 1,
1972; Meg K. Clarke, The Connection, Arivaca, August 1993; Arizona Daily Star)
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Baseball Game Teams from the different mining and mill shifts played baseball on the sand-like mining tailings dump. (Photo courtesy Angela Coronado De Nault, circa 1935) |
Boy Scouts |