The Wild Fires of Crown King

-



The residents of the historic ghost Crown King located in the Bradshaw Mountains near Prescott, have been waiting for news about their homes and if the wild fire destroyed them.  Named the Gladiator Fire, the blaze has consumed over 8,000 acres and as of Thursday (May 17th), is only 5% contained.  The fire fighters have the elements against them with winds gusting about 45 miles per hour.  The fire is spreading fast and furious.


On July 1, 1875, Rod McKinnon discovered the first gold mine claim in the Bradshaw Mountains he called, “Buckeye”.  After his claim and over the next 40 years more than 15 mine claims were filed.  The mine was named the Crowned King mine and shortened to just Crown King in 1888.  The town started growing and during its peak it had about 500 buildings.  Some of the structures consisted of several stores, boarding houses, a couple of Chinese restaurants, and a post office.  They started to enjoy having electricity in 1897, but only had one telephone.  The railroad ran through town but because of failure it was deserted by 1926.


Today, Crown King only has a few of the old buildings standing.  The Crown King Restaurant and Saloon was built in another location and brought to the town in 1910 in pieces on the back of mules.  It used to serve as a brothel and bar in the town’s heyday.  The one room schoolhouse was built in 1917 and is still being used by K-8 students.  The post office, established on July 29, 1888, closed its doors on May 15, 1954 and is now the general store.

I have not visited Crown King yet and hope to someday get the chance.  I am praying that the town survives this devastating wild fire.

Comments

  1. I hope they contain those fires soon!

    ReplyDelete

  2. Me too. I would love to visit the historic town.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

26 Bar Ranch (John Wayne Ranch)

-
Image
Immersed in the Hereford’s history in Eagar, AZ, sits the 26 Bar Ranch.It was first known as the Milky Way Ranch in the 1940’s with its big white show barn which housed many Hereford cattle.The barn is now a local landmark.In 1964 the ranch became the 26 Bar Ranch or John Wayne’s Ranch, who was one of the owners.Wayne, along with Ken Reafsnyder and Louis Johnson, his business partners, kept the ranch until John Wayne’s death in 1979 from lung and stomach cancer.
Lately, I have heard rumors that Bigfoot has been seen near the ranch.I don’t know if that is true or not, but it would be worth checking out.



Read more

Cowboy Mummy Found in Desert

-
Image
There are many strange stories in the Arizona files. One that is told is about the mummy found in the desert near Gila Bend nicknamed “Sylvester”. Many believe that he once was a 19th century cowboy, a con that loved to play cards. Stories are told that he finally got caught cheating and was shot in the stomach. He made a hasty exit while bleeding profusely from his wound. He got as far as Arizona’s Gila Bend desert when he fell off his horse and died face down in the sweltering heat. Shortly afterwards, he was covered by the blowing sands, which appeared to have dried his body overnight. This apparently preserved his body resulting in the mummified form he was found in.

The more believable story was that he was found shortly after death and preserved in a high level of arsenic. Arsenic was used to stop the physical occurrences of a corpse rotting by killing bacteria and insects that invaded it. This custom of using arsenic was found to be poisonous by the 1900’s and never used again…
Read more

Giants Buried in the Desert

-
Image
One of my favorite shows in the late 1960’s was “Land of the Giants”. The show premise was set in the then-future of 1983 when a small group of Earth people landed on a strange planet when their spaceship runs into a mysterious storm that throws them off course. They land on a planet where the people are twelve times larger than those on Earth. Basically the giants are about 72 feet tall with all objects built to the gigantic scale. They spend the next two seasons (that is all the show lasted), trying to avoid the giants and get their spaceship back to earth.

Do giants exist on Earth? Here is an explanation given by Wikipedia:

“The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word (coined 1297) commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantic of Greek mythology. In various Indo-European mythologies, gigantic peoples are featured as primeva…
Read more