Echoes of the Southwest

As much as the mining towns attracted the good people, families, and businessmen, they also enticed the bad individuals as well. With the many miners willing to spend their hard earned money on whiskey and women; the saloons and brothels quickly grew in numbers. These places brought in the bandits, gamblers, soiled doves, and other greedy bastards. The battles between the lawmen and outlaws became as famous as the people themselves. Many of the known and lesser known outlaws enjoyed terrorizing the innocent and weaker people. They were eventually caught and dealt with. Most of them ended up dead and buried somewhere in the southwest desert. (An  exert  from my book, "Dead and Buried in the Southwest Desert")

Founded in 1692 by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, the San Xavier Mission can be found around 10 miles south of downtown Tucson, Arizona.  This huge white building on the San Xavier Indian Reservation was named after an innovator and Christian missionary.  Because natural springs used to be in the area, the mission was often called the “place where the water appears”. The original building was only two miles away from the present day structure.  In 1770, it was attack by Apache and destroyed.  They started the construction on the present building in 1783 and finish by 1797.  The massive structure is a Moorish inspired design, adobe, with large wood-carved doors to greet you at the entrance.  Inside, you will be amazed by the many statues and mural paintings.  You feel like you have been transported back in time as you walk around the mission.  The place has often been referred to as “the white dove of the desert”. The church retains its original purpose of ministering to t

In 1887, Tucson was rocked by an earthquake.  The center of the quake was about 200 miles southeast of Tucson near Bavispe, Mexico.  Since it occurred 13 years before the Richter scale was presented to the world, they roughly guessed it as a 7.2.  The only structure damaged by the quake was at San Xavier.  One of the adobe walls crumbled down.  A huge plume of dust was seen cascading over the old Santa Catalinas mountain range.  The Tombstone Epitaph noted that in the Dragoon Mountains a volcano has erupted right after the earthquake. 

“Well, I’m a standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, And such a fine sight to see, It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, Slowin’ down to take a look at me” The town of Winslow will live on because of the 1972 song, “Take it Easy”, performed by the Eagles.  The song is about an unhappy singer with woman troubles.  Winslow is in the heart of Navajo County where around 10,000 people call it home.  There are two gentlemen the city could have been named after.  Edward F. Winslow who was the president of St. Louis and San Francisco was one of the men, and Tom Winslow who was a prospector and lived in the area.  In 1930, the Harvey House (the La Posada Hotel) opened its doors and was designed by Mary Colter.  In 1957, the hotel shut down and the building was used by the Santa Fe Railroad for offices.  Winslow was one of the stops along U.S. Route 66, but fell on hard times when Interstate 40 was built in the 1970’s. When “Take it Easy” came out in 1972 there wer

My friend Mike took a trip to the Grand Canyon with some friends.  They decided to stop near the south rim visitor center. While hiking on a hidden path and climbing down near the canyon, they saw this tree with a bizarre amount of discarded chewing gum stuck to the trunk.  I just don't know what to think of this. Pictures courtesy of Mike Brieaddy http://mikeyatthemovies11.blogspot.com/

While traveling around the state of Arizona our chances of seeing a dust devil or two are very good.  A dust devil is a robust, shapely, and fairly long-lasting whirlwind which can be as small as a few meters to over 1000 meters tall.  The basic movement for a dust devil is usually a rising motion from the ground.  For the most part, dust devils are not dangerous, but there has been that unusual time they increase big enough to cause harm to people and land.  Sometimes they are compared to tornadoes, but dust devils manifest in sunny circumstances during calm weather and almost never get to the extreme force of a tornado. (from Wikipedia)   “Dust devils form when hot air near the surfaces rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler, low-pressure air above it.  If conditions are just right, the air may begin to rotate.  As the air rapidly rises, the column of hot air is stretched vertically, causing intensification of the spinning effect by conservation of angular momentum. 

Prescott poet Gail Gardner once wrote of "Whiskey Row": "Oh they starts her in at the Kaintucky bar, At the head of Whiskey Row, And they winds up down by the Depot House, Some forty drinks below." Nestled in Yavapai County, Arizona, is the quaint little city of Prescott. The locals will tell you that it is pronounced Pres-kit and not Pres-cott. In 1864, Prescott became the capital of the Arizona Territory. In 1867 the capital was moved to Tucson, then back to Prescott in 1879, and finally to Phoenix in 1889. Prescott is rich in history, housing one of the most famous red-light district areas known as “Whiskey Row”. This area on Montezuma Street had many saloons, with the most famous being the Palace Saloon. The Palace Saloon opened in September of 1877 and was filled with the highest standard of liqueur and decorated with the most impressive furniture from all over the world. The Palace wasn’t just a place to get a meal or have a drink, many m

Located one hour southeast of Phoenix in Coolidge, Arizona, sits the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument.  These well preserved remains are where the ancient Hohokam once lived.   The main building, or Great House, is four stories high and 60 feet long.  The first floor is a mount and the walls are a mixture of a concrete-like combination of sand, clay, and calcium carbonate or limestone.  The Great House took 3,000 tons of Caliche mud which was layered to form walls four feet thick at the base and tapered towards the top.  Anchored in the walls and used to form the ceilings were hundreds of juniper, pine, and fir trees they carried or floated 60 miles down the Gila River. The walls of the Great House face the four cardinal points of the compass and a circular hole in the upper west wall aligns with the setting sun at the summer solstice.  The other holes in the walls each line up with the sun and moon at specific times.  It is a great mystery to why the Hohokam buil

Yep, it is official..... For the first time since we started going to the "slaughterhouse" in Casa Grande, there is a "No trespassing" sign by the entrance.  We suspect it is the homeless man with the mean dogs who put up this handmade sign.  We decided not to get out of the car and take anymore pictures of this interesting abandoned place.  I hope whoever lives there (zombies I suspect) enjoy their new fixer-upper with the dirt floors, missing ceilings, graffiti walls, horde of bees, and a puppy mummy.

About 50,000 years ago, a huge chasm was formed when a meteor struck the Earth about 35 miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona.  This crater measured three-quarters of a mile wide and was about 700 feet deep.   This impact caused hurricane-force winds blowing in all directions with about 175 million tons of rock thrown into the air.  It only took 10 seconds to form the meteor crater causing a huge void surrounding the area. At first, it was thought that a volcanic blast caused the large gap in the Earth’s surface, until in 1903, Daniel Barringer, a Philadelphia mining engineer, went to the site.  He determined that the abyss was made by an enormous meteor.  Barringer bore holes at the bottom of the crater to prove that he was accurate.  He found oxidized meteorite fragments which convinced other researchers that his theory was correct. The owners of the Crater proclaim it to be “the first proven, best-preserved meteorite crater on earth.” I have been able to visit the Crate