30-Love at Fort Apache

In 1874, newlywed Martha Summerhayes accompanied her soldier husband on a grueling three-month journey from Fort Russell, Wyoming, to Arizona, where he had been transferred. The couple traveled by train to San Francisco, California, by packet to Cabo San Lucas and Guaymas, by steamer to Yuma, Arizona, and Fort Mohave and finally by wagon (he walked) to Fort Whipple, Fort Verde, up the Mogollon Rim and on to the lonely outpost called Fort Apache. Pregnant with her first child, Martha unpacked, then ventured out to see what the other wives were doing. To her surprise, she found a young lieutenant’s wife playing tennis. Yes, tennis in the wilds of Arizona in 1874. Smashing!