Arizona is the setting for the opening turn in John Carter’s story: after the American Civil War, he goes prospecting there with James K. Powell, and, following Powell’s death and a pursuit by Indigenous trackers, reaches a cave that becomes the point of departure for his journey to Mars. The territory’s mining prospects, rugged terrain, and night sky shape the transition from a failed earthly livelihood to an extraordinary interplanetary adventure.

Prospecting and Powell’s Death

After the war, Carter is left without a functioning army or his former livelihood as a soldier. He travels southwest to seek gold, spending nearly a year prospecting with Powell, a former Confederate officer and mining engineer from Richmond. In late winter 1865, after hardships and privations, the two discover a rich quartz vein. Powell estimates that it contains more than a million dollars’ worth of ore, but their limited equipment makes it necessary for one partner to return to civilization for machinery and workers. Because Powell knows both the region and mining requirements, he makes the journey while Carter stays behind to protect their claim.

Carter later rides with Powell, whose body shows no sign of life. As pursuit resumes, Carter follows a broad, level trail along a high cliff, with a steep drop into a rocky ravine on the other side. After about a hundred yards, the path turns sharply and ends at a cave mouth roughly four feet high and three to four feet wide. At morning light, Carter lays Powell on the ground and spends nearly an hour trying to revive him, though he knows Powell is dead. The cave is therefore encountered amid loss and danger, not as the destination of a planned expedition.

The Cave and the Threshold to Mars

Arizona’s landscape first appears as a moonlit scene of mountains, ravines, and cacti, which Carter regards as strangely reminiscent of a dead and forgotten world. Against this earthly prospect, his attention settles on Mars, a red star near the horizon. Carter describes a powerful attraction to the planet; with his arms stretched toward it, he experiences sudden passage across space, accompanied by intense cold and darkness. The narrative moves from the Arizona night directly into his arrival on Mars, making the cave and surrounding desert the hinge between the two settings.

An Earthly Foil to Barsoom

Arizona also anchors the contrast between Carter’s familiar world and the society he encounters on Mars. On his arrival, his Earth-bred physical abilities prove striking under Martian gravity: the green warriors change from wanting to destroy him to regarding him as an unusual captive to display. Carter’s later account describes a Martian society organized around armed conflict, in which most deaths result from violence rather than disease and life is valued lightly amid warfare and dwindling resources. These details belong to his Martian experience, but the opening Arizona setting establishes the earthly point of comparison from which he interprets them.

Narrative Significance

The setting connects the novel’s material and fantastic beginnings. Gold prospecting gives Carter a concrete postwar objective, while the mine’s promise is interrupted by Powell’s death and renewed pursuit. The narrow trail ends at a cave, and the story’s attention then shifts from the desert to the red planet that has long fascinated Carter. Arizona is consequently more than a place of origin: it is the landscape in which his former life closes and the crossing into the Martian adventure begins.