Recently, I visited Arches National Park in Utah. I walked the Delicate Arches Trail, seen in the photo below. While hiking, I saw a tiny one-room cabin. Upon investigation, I found out that the cabin had been used by a disabled Union veteran to try to come to terms with the wound that had afflicted him in his later life. More than three decades after the war, the veteran was still dealing with the pain that afflicted him from the Civil War.
John Wesley Wolfe was born on February 17, 1829 in Knox County, Tennessee. As the Civil War approached, men from Knox County in the Hill Country tended to side with the Union. John joined the Union Army and served in the 17th Ohio Battery. During the Siege of Vicksburg he injured his leg. He was discharged from the army and moved to Ohio. In 1898 he moved to Moab, Arizona with his son Fred seeking relief for his leg in the hot and dry climate of Utah.
Here is the simple one-room cabin that John Wolfe and his son Fred built and lived in.
Nearby, there is a source of fresh water that the men and their animals could use. According to the National Park Service, the Wolfe’s had as many as a thousand cattle here.
The ground itself is rugged and forbidding. We wondered if Wolfe was trying to heal more than an injured leg. Did he seek, late in life, to escape the scenes of war he held in his head?
The cabin was simple, and interpretive materials said that six people could sleep inside it. Wolfe’s daughter and her family also came to live here. In 1910, Wolfe sold the ranch. Wolfe died in Ohio at the age of 84.
This is the entire space inside the cabin.
On the outside of the cabin, the land is strangely beautiful.
All photos were taken by Pat Young. To see more sites Pat visited CLICK HERE for Google Earth view.
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