The area that is now Wickenburg was once Yavapai Indian land and the river that runs through it is the Hassayampa which means “following the water as far as it goes” in the Yavapai language. In 1863, German prospector Henry Wickenburg came to the area in search of gold. He found it and opened the Vulture Mine which would eventually produce 340,000 ounces of gold and 260,000 ounces of silver.
Ranchers came to the area as well and soon a community sprang up. In 1895, the railroad came through Wickenburg which spawned even more growth. The town was incorporated in 1909, making Wickenburg the oldest Arizona town north of Tucson and the 5th oldest in the state. In 1866, Wickenburg missed being named the territorial capital by just two votes.
Today Wickenburg is a quaint little community with a real wild west feel to it (some of the light posts are even wearing cowboy hats). There are some amazing art installations around town and the Desert Caballeros Western Museum is one of the best in the state. I love the design of the Saguaro Theatre which was also probably my favorite theatre in Arizona. You’re never alone when you’re in Wickenburg as life-like statues are spread throughout town making for a family friendly feel. I hadn’t planned on staying long in Wickenburg, but it’s a great town worth exploring and I was there way longer than I expected to be. Next time you’re in this part of Arizona, stop in for a spell. You’ll be glad you did. I hope you enjoy these photos from tiny Wickenburg - the Dude Ranch Capital of the World.
Detroit’s Eastern Market is a wonderful place. The central open-air market is only open Tuesdays and Saturdays, and market days are obviously the busiest time to be there, but the neighborhood surrounding the market is a vibrant place full of old buildings, shops, restaurants and stunning murals. I visited on a Saturday and the whole place was buzzing. There were buildings full of flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, seafood, nuts and some arts and crafts as well. Wandering the surrounding neighborhood, I found live music, packed outdoor patios and even a wedding at the beautiful St. Joseph’s Oratory Cathedral. The people visiting the market was an incredibly diverse mix from all corners of the city and all over the world. If you’re in Detroit on a Tuesday or Saturday, definitely head out to Eastern Market. You’ll be glad you did. If you can’t make it there, I hope these photos will give you a little taste of what it’s like. Enjoy.
Beaumont, Texas traces its roots back to 1824 when Bobby and Nancy Tevis settled on the Neches River and built a small farm. A community grew up around them called Tevis Bluff. Developers Henry Millard, Joseph Pulsifer and Thomas Byers Huling purchased all of the land in the area in 1835 and began selling lots in a town to be called “Beaumont” after Henry Millard’s wife Mary Beaumont. Lumber, cattle and rice were early drivers of the local economy, as was the port which got these products to market. That all changed in 1901 when oil was discovered at Spindletop, and America’s first oil field was developed right there in Beaumont. The town’s population tripled almost overnight and oil has been the city’s main economic driver ever since. Today, Beaumont is a quiet city of about 120,000 people, with most living outside of the downtown core. I found the city to be charming, with a lot of great historical buildings. My favorites were the Jefferson Theater and Tyrell Historical Library. I was sad to see that despite some wonderful efforts at reviving the downtown area there didn’t seem to be much going on there during my visit. Regardless, I enjoyed my stay in Beaumont and it is definitely a city I will return to in the future.
Established in 1846 on an old plantation, Bonaventure Cemetery is the largest municipal cemetery in the city of Savannah. It gained notoriety from John Berendt’s novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and it’s film adaptation, and is one of the more visited sites in Savannah with several companies offering tours. It was also featured in John Muir’s Thousand Mile Walk, as he camped out in the cemetery for 6 days on his journey. I visited Bonaventure by myself and enjoyed wandering through this peaceful park. The Spanish moss gives it so much Southern atmosphere. Bonaventure is the final resting place of Savannah’s own Johnny Mercer and many other notable people from the city. It also has some magnificent statues. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Bonaventure Cemetery…
The “new” Kentucky State Capitol Building was built in 1910 at a cost of just over a million dollars. Designed by Frank Mills Andrews in the Beaux-Arts style, the beautiful Capitol sits high above Kentucky’s capital city of Frankfort. All three branches of the Kentucky government are housed within the Capitol building. The Capitol features a magnificent rotunda and some wonderful statues and artwork throughout. Entrance and tours are free. I hope you enjoy my photos of the Kentucky State Capitol…
I really love these three photos from my time in Ohio. The top one is from Cincinnati, the middle one from Cleveland and the bottom one I took in Toledo. I love the vertical lines in them and how they have elements of old and new, modern and industrial. To me they speak of what I saw throughout my stay in the Buckeye State: a place holding onto its past but moving boldly towards the future.
The National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio houses a massive collection of aircraft ranging from the very earliest flyers to space-age satellites. Highlights include Boxcar, the plane which dropped the atomic bomb Fat Man on Nagasaki in 1945 and the newly restored legend Memphis Belle. Also on display are all of the retired planes which have carried United States Presidents throughout history. You can go inside the plane which carried John F. Kennedy's body home from Dallas while Lyndon Johnson was being sworn into office on-board. The museum is free and open 7 days a week. While touring the museum, my eyes were drawn to my favorite aspect of old planes: the nose and tail art which was often hand-painted by the airmen themselves. These are often telling of the men who painted them and the situations in which they found themselves, many of them as far from home as they had ever been. Here are some of my favorites from my recent visit to the museum.
Cincinnati has done a great job of commissioning murals around the city to adorn blank walls and help fill wide open spaces. These murals have changing the whole aesthetic of the city. During my stay I ran across dozens of beautiful murals. These are some of my favorites.
Inspired by murals he had seen across the state in Steubenville, Dr. Louis Chaboudy hoped to create something similar in his hometown of Portsmouth. In 1992, he commissioned Robert Dafford to begin work on a project which would last 10 years. Over that time period, Dafford painted over 50 murals which stretch 2200 feet along the Ohio River. These murals tell the history of Sciotto County and of the people who have lived there. It is a wonderful project which I really enjoyed visiting. The local Visitor's Center provides brochures and even a cell phone tour for your visit. Unfortunately I was shooting into the sun while I was there, and all of the murals are different sizes making it difficult to crop them and still have a nice layout for this post, but I still thought that they were wonderful and wanted to share them with you today. Enjoy!
If you've been following my travels, you know how much respect I have for traditional arts and crafts. In an era of mass-produced crafts imported from China and sold at every Pier One and Crate & Barrel, I consider myself very fortunate to stumble across someone using traditional methods to produce hand-crafted items. When I was introduced to Sarah Brown this past weekend as someone doing traditional letterpress printing, I knew I had to find out more. Sarah and I sat down to discuss her craft and some of the projects she's been working on. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became with the process and the more respect I had for the patience required to create these products.
I have written about Billy Tripp's Mindfield in passing in a few other posts, but I don't think they really conveyed how striking it was and how much I saw in it. I also don't think I can necessarily describe the ways it affected me in words, so I thought I would do a pictorial post just on Mindfield and some of the smaller details of it. Billy Tripp started building Mindfield after his parents passed away in 1989. An artist and an incredibly skilled welder, Billy kept adding to it and it just went from there. As he healed, he built, and as he built, it grew, and as it grew, it took on a life of its own. Mindfield is now a destination, and people travel from all over the world to Brownsville, Tennessee to see it.
I am always in awe of true craftspeople. In an era of mass production, anyone who has continued to work with their hands to create something both useful and beautiful is pretty awesome in my book. When I can visit somewhere where each piece was produced with love and attention to detail, I can get lost just looking around. And when you add in an historic angle to it, I'm sold. That's why I was so thrilled to visit Westmoore Pottery in Seagrove, North Carolina, a truly special place.
