American mule museum “The story of the mule” (стр. 1 )

AMERICAN MULE MUSEUM

“THE STORY OF THE MULE”

MUSEUM PLAN - EXHIBIT THEMES

The Museum plans to be a “living museum” with live events, both indoors and outdoors, occurring frequently through the year. Rather than being a “Museum of Collections”, the Museum has a goal of making history come to life. The displays will flow chronologically through the exhibit area both indoors and in the surrounding outdoor area. A smaller percentage of the exhibit space will be used for the early history of the mule, while the larger emphasis will be on the West, California and the Sierra Nevada.

THE MUSEUM WILL TELL THE STORY OF THE MULE AND BRING IT TO LIFE

MEET THE MULE

This introductory and composite exhibit will explain the genetic descriptions of mules through charts and photographs of jack donkeys, mares, and mule colts and all types of mules used for different purposes. It will depict various uses of mules throughout the ages, past and present.

THE FOLLOWING IS PART OF THE MULE STORY TO BE TOLD ---------

MULES THROUGH THE ANCIENT AGES

The exhibit will trace the use of mules from the earliest recorded use of mules in 3,500 BC in Nicaea and Paphlagonia (now modern Turkey). The inhabitants of these two cities were said to be the first breeders of mules. Early accounts told of large numbers of wild horses, donkeys and mules found in Armenia, located in present day Turkey.

Egyptians in 3,000 BC were using carts and chariots with horses and mules. Pharaohs packed trains of mules, in preference to horses or camels, to bring turquoise from mines in the Sinai Peninsula from about 2,100 to 1,500 B. C.

Hittites traded in mules with the Israelites. Kings Saul, David, Solomon and their sons all rode mules. Mules were considered a more valuable animal and were considered the riding animals of kings. The Israelites did not breed mules as they were forbidden to mix species by Jewish law, but could use them and acquired mules by purchase or trade as they were highly regarded and in great demand.

Mules were familiar to the Grecians, and Homer, who wrote about them in the Iliad, in 800 BC. He reported about the arrival of mules from Henetia in Asia Minor, where breeding them was a local specialty. Later, mules were raised in Peloponnesus and Arcadia. Harness races for mules began in Olympia in 500 BC. Alexander the Great sacked the Persian Capital of Persepolis, and in order to transport all the gold and silver spoils back to Greece it took 10,000 mules and 5,000 camels.

Romans used mules for transportation and their strength and endurance were highly valued. When General Darius was called upon to defend Rome against the invading barbarians, he trained his soldiers to undertake amazing physical feats and those soldiers became known as “Darius’ Mules”.

When Hannibal, while attacking the Roman Empire, crossed the Alps in 216 BC, he used mules, as well as horses and elephants, in transporting his army.

MULES THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES

In 1294 AD, Marco Polo, upon his epic travels, reported on and praised the Turkoman mules he had seen central Asia.

In Europe, the knights rode large draft horses to carry their heavy armor while gentlemen and clergymen rode mules.

In 1495, Christopher Columbus shipped 4 jacks, 2 jennies and 6 mares to the “New World” and these donkeys would be instrumental in producing mules for the Conquistadores in their exploration into the American mainland. Ten years after the conquest of the Aztecs, a shipment of 3 jacks and 12 jennies arrived in Mexico from Cuba, to begin breeding mules there. Each outpost had to breed its own supply of mules and every hacienda or mission kept at least one stud jack.

By the 18th century, the breeding of mules had become a flourishing industry in Spain, Italy, and France. For many years the French Province of Poitou was the primary European breeding center, with some 500,000 mules bred each year. Soon, Spain was at the forefront of the mule-breeding industry as Catalonia and Andalusia each developed a larger and stronger breed of donkey.

MULES IN AMERICA

George Washington was a major donkey and mule breeder in the United States at his farm at Mt. Vernon. In 1785, King Charles of Spain shipped Washington a gift of a 4 year old Spanish jack named, appropriately, “Royal Gift”. In 1786, the Marquis de Lafayette sent Washington a black Maltese jack called “Knight of Malta” along with several jennies. Washington began a major breeding program to develop larger jack stock creating bigger mules that could replace horses in the field. He is credited with helping to create the American Mammoth Jack.

Mules were a major part of the horse power needed to clear the land, farm the crops, transport crops, goods, and people throughout America.

The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, was the nation’s first major transportation system that went from Albany to Buffalo in New York State. It connected the Hudson River with Lake Erie – a distance of about 365 miles. A 10 foot wide towpath was built along side the canal for the mules to tow the barges and boats. The canal, constructed with the help of mule power was an engineering marvel at the time.

The U. S. Military has used mules in every war effort since the Seminole Indian War. The mule is the symbol of the U. S. Army and the mascot of West Point. Huge numbers of mules were used in the Civil War. Mule pack supply trains and mule driven wagons and artillery, were used extensively during the Indian Wars to transport and supply the troops. During the Mexican War, General Ulysses S Grant when he was a 2nd Lt. was in charge of a regimental quartermaster corps directing pack strings and freight teams used to move General Zackary Taylor’s army from Texas to Mexico City. Both Zackary Taylor and Ulysses S. Grant became presidents of the United States. General George Crook, in the late 1870s, preferred to ride his mule, “Apache”, which he considered much superior to the horse. Crook gave large credit to his mule pack strings for his success in the Apache campaigns. He continually stressed the importance of having well-taken care of and healthy pack mules under his command.

“General’ George Custer in his 1868 campaign assembled 800 mule teams to transport the troops. In 1776 Custer’s battle of the Little Bighorn, Captain Benteen with the pack strings of mules carrying ammunition and supplies, arrived in the nick of time at Reno’s Hill that had a large impact on the survival of Major Reno’s detachment in the battle.

At the end of the Civil War, in parts of the south, freed slaves were given 40 acres and a mule.

THE ROLE OF THE MULE IN WESTWARD EXPANSION

Lewis and Clark traded for horses and mules with a Shoshone Indian tribe during their voyage of Discovery across America in 1806. Clark was given a prized mule from the Shoshone. Sacagawea reunited with the Shoshone chief Cameahwait who turned out to be Sacagawea’s brother. The Pathfinders still had to pay twice as much for another mule than they would have traded for than a horse as mules were highly valued by the Shoshone.

The Santa Fe Trail from Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, was in use between 1821 and 1849. The large trading caravans used mules and oxen to pull the heavy freight wagons. The Old Spanish Trail, that connected Santa Fe and Los Angeles, used huge trains of over 1,000 pack mules. This trail, at 1200 miles, was the longest commercial pack trail in America and the trip encompassed about 2 ½ months in time.

In the 1840s, with the beginning of Westward Expansion, mules were the preferred draft and saddle animal for the covered wagons of the westward migration; however, they cost 3 times as much as a horse and much more than oxen. Mules were hardier than horses and were able to subsist upon marginal grazing along the trail.

John Fremont and Kit Carson crossed the Sierra Nevada at Carson Pass in January of 1844, traveling from East to West. Large numbers of mules carried their camp supplies and pulled their mountain howitzer for many miles until it was unhitched, left behind and buried in the mountains prior to descending into the Walker River canyon. At Carson Pass, they sighted a view of Lake Tahoe in the distance, one of the first accounts of this lake. Crossing Carson Pass and the Sierra in February, over deep snow, was a hazardous process and though the men all survived not all the mules were as fortunate.

THE WEST BECOMES SETTLED

When gold was discovered in the mountainous Mother Lode of California, mules were used extensively in transportation of heavy mining equipment, goods, freight, and supplies to and from the gold fields. Mule pack trains served many mining towns where roads were not possible. A “Pack-Mule Express” business not only carried mail as well as supplies, but transported gold ore from the mines to the 1855, the California mule population swelled to over 31,000 animals.

Many settlers moved to the West to homestead farms and ranches. Mules were used in the fields and transportation.

After California became a state, it was necessary to survey and map the state. The Whitney Geological Survey used mules to travel the state surveying and mapping the state. William Brewer, the field leader, and his staff, made many first climbs of peaks in the Sierra. The Wheeler Survey, led by Lt. George Wheeler and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, used mules as saddle, pack and harness animals in surveying often very forbidding terrain from 1872 - 1879. The Wheeler Survey was based out of Fort Independence in the Eastern Sierra.

In the Eastern Sierra, large teams of 16 to 22 and more mules hauled freight and ore between mining camps, towns, and Los Angeles. Remi Nadeau’s long line teams hauled silver ore from mines at Cerro Gordo to Los Angeles and later, the Borax Twenty Mule Teams and wagons became famous hauling borax from Death Valley.

MULES IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

In 1908, mules were the engines of the heavy equipment used to construct the Los Angeles Aqueduct that transported water from Inyo and Mono Counties to the growing city. As many as 52 mules were used to haul gigantic sections of steel siphon pipe for installation. Mule teams were used to construct dams at Lake Sabrina and South Lake, in addition to electric power lines, telegraph and telephone lines, railroads, as well as to build wagon and later automobile roads. Beginning in 1922, teams of mules were used in the construction of Topaz Lake straddling the California/Nevada border. Mules helped build the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. They assisted in the beginning of the “space age”. Teams of mules pulled the first jet engine to the top of Pike’s Peak to be tested. This successful test led to the creation of the U. S. Space program.