Whenever I am driving to a new town and I don’t have a specific destination in mind, I just put the town name into my GPS and it usually brings me to either the courthouse or City Hall. Wherever it leads me is usually in the center of town and I can sort myself out from there. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I was approaching Bisbee, Arizona and I turned onto Erie Street and found myself not in the center of town, but somewhere in the 1950s. It was quite surreal to drive up the street and see nothing but classic cars, vintage gas stations and old signs with no streetlights burning and not a person in sight. My GPS told me I had reached my destination but my mind was telling me otherwise. It turned out that it had indeed led me to Bisbee’s City Hall, but that building was situated in the midst of a wonderful local art/history instillation called the Lowell Americana Project which commemorates small-town life in the 1950s.
The Lowell & Arizona Copper Mining and Smelting Company began operation way back in 1899 under the leadership of Frank Hanchett, who named his business after his hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. Three years later, the mine would be incorporated into the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. Two years after that, the town of Lowell was laid out to house local miners and their families and Erie Street became the commercial center. In 1908, Lowell was annexed into nearby Bisbee and the population would grow to 5,000 people. From what I’ve read it sounds like it was a bustling community and a pleasant place to live.
That would all start to change in 1950 when the Lavender Pit Mine was opened and the community’s population had to sell their homes and move out…
Chagrin Falls is a charming little town in the outer suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. The Chagrin River runs through the heart of town and once turned the waterwheels of early industry here. The namesake falls are quite stunning and there are nice viewing platforms on either side of the river. There are some wonderful art projects around, including the crocheted trees at the art center that stopped me in my tracks. Chagrin Falls is full of adorable local businesses, none more-so than the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop pictured above. My very good friend Mike Vasko lives in Chagrin Falls, so I’ve been fortunate enough to visit more than once. It really is a wonderful place and if you’re ever in the area, stop through for a wander. I hope you enjoy these pictures from the tiny town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
Fred’s Lounge in downtown Mamou, Louisiana isn’t a big place. In fact, depending on which way you’re driving, you could drive past it and never know you missed it. It’s not fancy and if you weren’t aiming for it, it probably wouldn’t entice you to stop by its appearance. Fred’s is only open for about six hours a week, from about 8 a.m. to about 2 p.m. every Saturday morning, so if you came through Mamou at any other time it would be closed anyway. But during those six hours, it is a magical place to be.
For those of you who know me, you’ll know that I have a very special place in my heart for the Mississippi Delta and for the Delta Blues in particular. If you visit Clarksdale these days, in the very heart of the Delta, you can find live blues seven days a week, although it’s taken a concerted effort over many years to make that happen. It’s amazing, but it exists in a museum state. By that I mean that while you can see it in a great juke joint like Red’s, you will watch it sitting down on what was once the dance floor…
