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Snapshots: Wickenburg - The Dude Ranch Capital of the World

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Snapshots: Wickenburg - The Dude Ranch Capital of the World

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.

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Snapshots: Patagonia - Southern Arizona's Prettiest Small Town

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Snapshots: Patagonia - Southern Arizona's Prettiest Small Town

The area around what’s now Patagonia, Arizona was once a Tohono O’odham village called Sonoitac. It may take its current name from the southern region of South America, christened by Welsh miners who had moved north for work. Another theory is that early settlers found a large footprint, perhaps from a grizzly bear (or Sasquatch himself), and called it “Land of the Bigfeet”. However it got its name, Patagonia is a wonderful little town that’s big on art and seems to have sought to beautify even the smallest details of their town.

When the Spanish moved north into the area, they established the Mission Los Reyes de Sonoitac. The region became part of the United States through the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 and lead and silver mines were quickly opened. Fort Buchanan was established to provide protection for the settlers from Apache raiders, later to be joined by Forts Crittenden and Huachuca.

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Snapshots: Fort Apache

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Snapshots: Fort Apache

Fort Apache was constructed between 1874 and 1932 and served as an important military outpost during the Apache Wars. It rests in the midst of the beautiful White Mountains of Eastern Arizona. and is well situated at the convergence of the North and East Forks of the White River. The area is the ancestral home of the Cibicue and White Mountain Apache tribes who welcomed the United States Army to build the fort there, as they had a common enemy in the Chiricahua Apache. The White Mountain Apache are very proud of their service as scouts in the U.S. Army, and the role they played in the defeat of the Chiricahua and the capture of the great Chiricahuan leader, Geronimo. I learned a lot about the Apache Scouts and their campaigns at the wonderful "Nohwike' Bagowa" (House of Our Footprints), more commonly referred to as the Apache Cultural Center & Museum. which should be everyone’s first stop on any visit to Fort Apache.

After visiting the museum, I set off to explore the rest of the fort on a self guided walking tour which took in all of the wonderful historic buildings which remain on the post. After Geronimo’s capture in 1886, the fort remained an active military post for many years, finally closing in 1924 (although several Apache scouts remained in the army until 1947). After the army pulled out, the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School was established and the land was transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The school is still there and functioning today. I had a great visit with the kind and welcoming people of the White Mountain Apache band and really enjoyed my visit to this fascinating historic fort. I hope you enjoy these photos from Fort Apache.

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Snapshots: Tombstone - The Town Too Tough to Die

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Snapshots: Tombstone - The Town Too Tough to Die

I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Tombstone in my life. It was always a stop on my company’s cross-country winter trips, of which I ran many. But it was always a quick stop as we usually arrived late in the short winter day and left early the following morning, but my groups and I always enjoyed the old-west feel of the place, the dirt streets, the wooden sidewalks and having a few beers at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. It was nice for me to get back this past winter after several years and have a little more time to spend there.

Tombstone is an old silver mining town, founded in 1877, and produced somewhere between $40 million and $85 million worth of silver bullion. During Tombstone’s heyday in the mid-1880s, the town boasted a population of 14,000 and was home to 110 saloons, two churches, three newspapers and a bowling alley. It was named the county seat of Cochise County, a designation it held until 1929. A fire in 1886 destroyed the mine’s central hoist and pumping plant and it was decided that with the productivity of the mines at that point, they weren’t worth rebuilding. The population would dwindle until tourists started to take an interest in the old west and come to have a look for themselves.

Tombstone is probably best known for the legendary shootout at the O.K. Corral between the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday and a group of cattle rustlers known as The Cowboys on October 26th, 1881.

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Snapshots: Lowell, Arizona - A Step Back in Time

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Snapshots: Lowell, Arizona - A Step Back in Time

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…

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Snapshots: Standing on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona

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Snapshots: Standing on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona

There’s much more to Winslow, Arizona than just that lyric from The Eagle’s hit song Take It Easy, but they are definitely using it to their benefit. Standing On The Corner Park at 2nd Street and Kinsley Avenue is beautifully done and brings in hundreds of tourists a day to this little town of just 10,000 or so residents. The real highlight of the town, though, is the beautifully restored La Posada Hotel, one of the original Harvey Houses opened in 1930. It is still operating as a hotel and I had the pleasure of dining in the Turquoise Room restaurant during my stay (in town, not in the hotel). There are also some great parks down by the railroad, a nice little brewery and plenty of souvenir shops. I also loved the town’s Visitor Center which is housed in the old Hubbell Warehouse which was a railroad hub for John Lorenzo Hubbell’s western trading posts. The lady working there when I visited took me around and showed me all kinds of neat artifacts from the town’s history. When I was leaving, I thanked her and with a well practiced wink she waved and said “hey, take it easy”. I hope you enjoy these photos from tiny Winslow, Arizona.

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This Week on the Road - April 21st-27th

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This Week on the Road - April 21st-27th

Hello Everyone! It is hot, hot, hot here in Southern Arizona – too hot in fact. Yesterday’s temperature hit 100° Fahrenheit in Phoenix and it has been above 90 for most of the week. It’s wonderfully pleasant in the mornings and the late evenings, but the days have just been too hot and my productivity, enjoyment and morale have all suffered as a result. I spent most of the last week in Tucson for various reasons, but don’t feel as though I accomplished much. I was thrilled to finally get out to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument this week, but when I got there I ended up scouting out some shade to sit in until the sun started going down. I decided yesterday that I will throw in the towel and head north to higher elevations. I’m in my last couple of weeks of freedom before I head back to work for the summer and I want to enjoy them instead of suffering through them. I will stay in Arizona for now, but I will not get to see all of the places I wanted to at these low elevations. I’m sure this part of the country will be quite pleasant in December when I return. That all being said, I did have some nice experiences this week which I am happy to share with you all, but this will be a shorter newsletter than usual.

When I left off last week, I had only just arrived in Tucson and had been out exploring the wonders of Saguaro National Park. When I finished my hikes out there, I stopped off to get a wonderfully refreshing Eegee, an interesting brand of smoothie found only in Tucson. I also got my first of two “Sonoran Dogs” - bacon wrapped hot dogs with a southwestern array of toppings. The one I got on Wednesday was from El Guero Canelo and it was delicious, but I preferred the one I got at BK’s later in the week.

I spent much of Thursday in the library but headed out to the opening day of the Pima County Fair in the late afternoon. It was a cute midsized fair with plenty of rides and games and places to eat. I enjoyed the sea lion show and the pig races and, of course, taking photos of the wildly colorful carnival. The food was terribly overpriced even by fair standards in my opinion, so I settled for a funnel cake which was sadly quite small and not very fresh for my $11. It was definitely fun to be there, though, and I have really missed these types of events. I had a couple of beers and saw some live music, but called it a night pretty early.

On Friday I headed down into Old Town Tucson to see what it had to offer. I started my visit at the old Presidio, which is a re-creation of the fort that once stood high above the river to protect the area. I was thrilled to get a guided tour of the Presidio by Raul, a lifelong Tucson resident, now retired, who was both pleasant and knowledgeable. I found it fascinating that the man in charge of building many of the old Spanish forts, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Tucson along New Spain’s northern frontier, was an Irishman named Hugo O’Connor who had fled religious persecution and joined his fellow Catholics in Spain. I also enjoyed reading about Jose de Urrea, one of Tucson’s most famous native sons. He joined the Spanish army in 1807, but later joined the Mexican call for independence. He went on to fight for Mexico against the Texans in their war for independence, and I first heard his name at Goliad in Texas, which I visited right before the pandemic sent me home. He later served as governor of the Mexican state of Sonora, but later returned to the military to fight against future U.S. president Zachary Taylor in the Mexican-American War. His was definitely an interesting story, one of many I found in the small but informative Presidio.

From there, I went just up the street to the old courthouse, a beautiful building which now houses the main visitor center for the city. Upstairs there is a small museum which looks at some of the crime and justice aspects of Tucson history. I was intrigued by the Arizona Supreme Court case of Ann Jordan and Henry Oyama which challenged the state’s interracial marriage policy. After so much time in the Deep South, it’s easy to forget that these laws were not simply Black and White. Oyama was an American-born World War II veteran with a master’s degree from the University of Arizona, but his Japanese ancestry prohibited him from marrying Ms. Jordan, who was White. The courthouse was also the site of the trial of Public Enemy Number One, John Dillinger, one of America’s most infamous bank robbers…

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Snapshots: Red River - New Mexico's Classic Ski Town

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Snapshots: Red River - New Mexico's Classic Ski Town

Shhh. This is one of the towns nobody wants me to tell you about. Red River is a stunning little ski town along the Enchanted Circle in Northern New Mexico. It looks a lot like a Colorado ski town, but smaller, quainter, cheaper and with that special New Mexico sense of enchantment. I was there on a beautiful spring morning when the sun was shining but the air was cool and crisp. Despite plenty of snow on the mountain, it was sadly closed for the season.

Native Americans have hunted up and down the Red River for centuries, but the town’s beginnings were as a mining camp in the late 19th century when gold, silver and copper were being pulled from the hills. The town boomed to a population of around 3000 by the turn of the century, and as the mineral deposits started to dwindle, Red River gained a reputation as a cool weather getaway and a trout fishing paradise.

Red River today has a year-round population of just around 500, but it will multiply many times over on winter weekends when the town is buzzing with vacationers. No matter where you are staying in town, you could probably walk to the slopes with the lifts taking off from right in the center of town. In the warmer months, the area is full of trails and fishing is still a major draw and the the high elevation makes it cooler than towns to the south, east and west. I loved my short stay in Red River and it is one of the towns that I will definitely be returning to in the future. I hope you enjoy these photos from Red River, New Mexico’s classic ski town.

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Snapshots: Nara Visa - A Modern Day Ghost Town

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Snapshots: Nara Visa - A Modern Day Ghost Town

Nara Visa, New Mexico got its start as a rail town when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was being built around the turn of the 20th century. It was originally called Narvaez after a local family who had farmed in the area for decades, but was eventually anglicized to some degree to Nara Visa. Within a decade, the town had grown to include 4 churches, 8 saloons, a couple of hotels and a whole array of small businesses. In 1921, with a growing population of 651, a fine school was built and the Works Progress Administration helped add a gymnasium a decade and a half later. The depression took its toll on the town though and lean years were ahead for Nara Visa. By 1968, there were only 7 students enrolled at the school when it closed its doors for the last time. Today less than a hundred people call the town home, and none of the businesses from this once thriving little community are open. It’s easy to pass through Nara Visa and not see it at all. I’m glad I got out and had a look. It makes me sad when towns die, but the reality is that everyone leaves at some point, one way or another. It looks like times were good there once, and maybe will be again at some point in the future. It sure made for some nice photos though. I hope you enjoy these photos from Nara Visa - a modern day ghost town in eastern New Mexico.

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This Week on the Road - April 13th-20th

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This Week on the Road - April 13th-20th

Hello Everyone! First and foremost I wanted to wish those of you who celebrate a belated Happy Passover and/or a belated Happy Easter. As those of you who have been following me for several years already know, I was brought up in the Eastern Orthodox tradition so we do not celebrate Easter before or during Passover. Our Easter will be this coming Sunday this year so it totally slipped my mind last week. I hope if you were celebrating that it was a wonderful day however you chose to spend it. This week has had considerably fewer headaches than last week which I’m very grateful for. I have traveled down the east coast and across Southeastern Arizona this week, visiting with and learning about the Apache, exploring Arizona’s copper mining past and present and checking out some beautiful National Park Sites along the way. Since I’ve come down about 5000’ in elevation from the high desert to the low desert, the temperature has risen considerably with daily highs reaching into the 90s. Thankfully it is a dry heat, which really does make a huge difference, and it cools off at night which is the most important thing. I am trying to avoid being outside and/or driving in the heat of the day at this point, but overall it hasn’t caused me any problems. I’ve certainly seen some fascinating places this week, so let’s get right to it.

When I left you last week, I was in the interestingly named town of Show Low which was a quaint and quiet vacation town which seemed nice enough but didn’t have much of interest to me. I spent Wednesday night just a little bit south of there in Pinetop and was up and off early the next day. I headed straight for the White Mountain Apache Reservation which is centered around the old Fort Apache. Fort Apache was built there at the confluence of the East and North Forks of the White River beginning in 1870. The fort was built in that location with the permission of the White Mountain Apache, and many members of that band served as scouts in the U.S. Army during the Apache War which was waged mostly with the Chiricahua Apache. I was fascinated to learn about this conflict between the different bands at the wonderful museum and cultural center located there at the old fort, and it seemed to me as though they were proud of the role their ancestors played in that campaign. The fort remained an active one until 1924 and after it closed the buildings were converted into the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School which educated both Navajo and Apache children. I’m not a huge fan of the Indian Boarding Schools, which sought to strip young Native Americans of their culture, but I do believe there were good intentions involved. The campus is still a school today, but run locally by the White Mountain Apache. I spent the morning at the museum which, while it discussed some of this history, was clearly designed to present the White Mountain Apache as a modern community proud of its heritage and working towards the future. I spent the afternoon touring the old fort and trying to soak it in. Everyone I met there was incredibly friendly and welcoming and I spent considerably longer there than I had planned. I did get out to visit the Kinishiba Ruins in the afternoon which is a small Ancestral Puebloan site just down the road. It is protected and managed jointly by the White Mountain Apache, the Hopi and the Zuni, all of whom claim ancestry at Kinishiba. From there I was off to the twin cities of Eager and Springerville for a quiet and an early night.

Friday morning I was up early and headed down the Coronado Trail Scenic Byway which at some point likely crosses the trail Coronado took in 1540 on what was the first European penetration into the region. What their exact route was is unknown as there were no maps of the region for them to follow, but there is evidence that they spent time in that general vicinity. The scenic byway was a beautiful, winding 120 mile route which took every bit of four hours to travel. There were some stunning viewpoints along the way as I descended out of the White Mountains and into the desert below. It was a great road to crank up some good tunes, roll my windows down and cruise. At the other end of it, I found myself in the heart of the Morenci Mine, the largest copper mine in North America. It’s not pretty by any measure, but it is massive and definitely something to see. The small town of Clifton, on the other end of the mine, was an interesting little place to visit. The main street through town was a dirt road and a narrow one at that. The buildings were definitely a century old and not necessarily in very good repair for what should be a prosperous mining town. Everything seemed coated in red dust. It was unlike anywhere I’ve seen in the US and reminded me of some of the small mining communities I visited in Western Australia. They did have a beautiful old train station though. From there I was off and running towards Safford, another 45 minutes or so down the road. When I got there I was excited to see a Jack in the Box, one of the only fast food restaurants that I actually like. I don’t eat fast food as a general rule, but I haven’t seen a Jack in the Box in years, so I treated myself. Then I headed out to a great little private hot springs park called the Essence of Tranquility. The owner was super friendly and I had a wonderful night there soaking in the tubs and kicking my feet up in the communal areas. While I stayed in my van, they do offer little casitas and dorm beds as well. It’s definitely a worthwhile little stop and it was a nice respite from the road for a night.

I had a quick soak in the morning as well and then set off to Fort Bowie National Historic Site high up on Apache Pass…

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Snapshots: Tucumcari - Getting My Kicks on Route 66

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Snapshots: Tucumcari - Getting My Kicks on Route 66

The area that is now Tucumcari was once home to dinosaurs who walked the shores of an inland sea. When the water receded, the sediment formed into sandstone and one of the formations it left is now called Tucumcari Mountain (although it’s really more of a mesa). Prehistoric people tracked mammoths and mastodons in the area and later developed farming techniques and built villages. In the 18th century, the Apache and Comanche moved through the area, hunting bison and pronghorn. The name, Tucumcari, comes from an Apache word “tukanukaru,” meaning “to lie in wait for something to approach”. In the early 20th century, the Chicago, Rock Island and Union Pacific Railroad was making its way across the country and a tent city sprung up called Ragtown and, later, Six Shooter Siding. As the camp grew into a town, they changed the name to Tucumcari and it stuck. Route 66 came through in 1926 and the town became an overnight stop for people headed west. Signs for miles declared “Tucumcari Tonight” and people pushed through for the promise of a hot meal and a comfortable bed. Tucumcari today still capitalizes on nostalgia for the “Mother Road”, but also has a wonderful museum downtown which has a place for everything and everything has been lovingly put into place. I had a great stop in Tucumcari and definitely got my kicks on Route 66. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Tucumcari, New Mexico.

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Snapshots: Clovis - New Mexico's Rock and Roll Capital

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Snapshots: Clovis - New Mexico's Rock and Roll Capital

People have been in the Clovis area for at least 10,000 years as is evidenced by the “Clovis-man” finds at the nearby Blackwater Draw archaeological site. The town itself came much later, in 1906 in fact, when the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was making its way across the country. It’s the first town of any size you’ll find coming from Texas and the town has some Texas tendencies to be sure. It’s grown to a population of nearly 40,000 people and is the county seat of Curry County. For all it has to offer, it was a man named Norman Petty that brought me to Clovis. Petty started playing piano at an early age and in his mid-twenties had a hit record with his wife, Vi, and guitarist Jack Vaughn when they recorded the great DC born Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo. The record’s success gave Norman enough money to open his own recording studio and in 1954 the Norman Petty Recording Studio was born. Petty recorded local artists and plenty from nearby Texas as well. In 1957, he produced a hit called Party Doll for Happy, Texas’ Buddy Knox. It was another Buddy though, Buddy Holly, who would really put Petty and Clovis on the music map. Norman would go on to produce records for Roy Orbison, Bobby Vee, The Fireballs and many others and their distinct style would be remembered as the Clovis Sound. I had a great time in Clovis and found a lot to like about it from its art deco buildings to its wonderful Vi and Norman Petty Museum. The downtown wind art was both beautiful and appropriate. Sadly it was cloudy for much of my visit, but it did manage to clear up right before I left so I did grab a few photos under sunny skies. Who knew New Mexico played such an important role in music history. If you’re ever in the area, stop in and check it out. I hope you enjoy these photos from musical Clovis, New Mexico.

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