Cocoposts

Rose Henley Hayden Fulton 1881-1968

William Shirley Fulton 1880-1964

Dragoon, Arizona

Exhibits

Upstairs in the back is the room devoted to the Folgers who established all this in 1937. He was crazy about archaeology. She was crazy about Quarter Horses.

Pictures show pastures of foals frolicking between the Texas Canyon boulders. Founding sires stand square and chunky. Their names make me smile. Ben Hur II, Canyon Tom, Texas Tom.

I finger the phone in my pocket, reaching for it as a natural reflex when I see anything I want to remember and record. No photos here though. And so I return again and again, taking the comically tight exit ramp off I-10 and driving the short distance to the old ranch.

This time there are hundreds of people there for a competitive run through the boulders. The museum is empty but for devoted docents. I go back to my favorite exhibits, trying to burn them into my brain: the pots and artifacts, the room built to resemble Paquimé, the Zuni and Diné jewelry, the contemporary art by Native American and Western artists. And the exhibit, “Ma Fulton’s FF Ranch.”