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Showing posts from May, 2016

Casa Grande Mountains: The Black Mist

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About 5 miles from Casa Grande, AZ, sits a mountain range where many like to visit and hike.  The paths may be treacherous at times, but even the more skilled hiker loves to test themselves.   Sometimes in the evenings when the weather is cool, some will take a drive up to the mountains and enjoy the view. But, there seems to be something else hanging around the bottom of the mountain scaring visitors.  An eerie black mist has been seen by witnesses as hovering over the roads and following their cars or anyone hiking the trails at night.  Some have reported being immersed in its shadowy haze and feeling uncomfortable.  This black mist seems to have a mind of its own and chasing people away from its mountain. Some have their ideas of what the mist could be.  One thought is that it could be smoke from the guns from the nearby shooting range.  But because this shadow is following people, this theory didn’t seem to make sense.  Other...

Crater Range: Honeymooners' Ghosts

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Crater Range is the section of Route 85 which lies ten miles north of Ajo, AZ.  Many take this path from Phoenix to Lake Tahoe.  Sometime in the 1950’s a happy couple, full of wedded bliss, took this thoroughfare on their way to Lake Tahoe for their honeymoon.  This stretch of highway has mountains with huge boulders looming above.  The moon was not visible this night making their drive almost impossible to see clearly on the pitch-black road.  It was around midnight when the unbearable drive caused them to hit an enormous rock on the side of the road.  The couple died instantly. Countless people who drive Crater Range at midnight say they have witnessed a car on the side of the road and a couple flagging them down.  The local residents claim that this is the ghosts of the twosome that lost their lives on this same route.  While some just pass them by, others have attempted to help them by offering a ride.  The pair would get in the b...

Arcosanti: Museum Anniversary Open House

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In 1970 an unusual experimental town was constructed and named “Arcosanti”.  Arcosanti is located about 70 miles north of Phoenix and was built using a concept called, arcology.  This principal combined architecture and ecology and developed to show how a town can  “demonstrate how urban conditions could be improved while minimizing the destructive impact of the earth.  The town aims to combine principles such as minimal resource use and access to the natural environment.” Arcrosanti was constructed as a tentative town and located on 25 acres of land preserve.  With the most current structure completed in 1989, this site housed around 50 to 150 inhabitants who were either students or volunteers living on this location.  There are 13 buildings which are quite a few stories high and include a visitors’ center, café, gift shop, a bronze-casting apse, a ceramics apse, two large barrel vaults, a ring of apartment residences, and various stores.  Al...

Another Stagecoach Ride Around Tombstone

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April 2016

Bisbee Copper Queen Mine

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The mine was discovered by Lt. Dunn in the late 1870’s while he was out looking around for Apache Indians.  He and his men camped near a spring located somewhere in the Mule Mountains on a flat piece of land.  This locale is where Old Bisbee now stands which is near the mine.  While taking an evening hike in the area, Lt. Dunn came across some fascinating stones on an incline on the south side of the canyon.  He kept the rocks a secret and enlisted the aid of a prospector, George Warren as a partner to dig the claim.  His military status would not allow him to pursue prospecting the minerals.  George couldn’t keep his big mouth shut and shared the information with others.  He and his buddies took over the claims leaving Dunn left out in the cold. Bisbee became one of the largest copper producing towns with Phelps Dodge as it owner.  The mines were in operation for almost 100 years before closing in 1975.  In that time, the mines yiel...

Copper Queen Hotel: Room 402

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When I am visiting Bisbee for a couple of nights, I usually stay at the Copper Queen Hotel.  Some of the times when I lodged there was to do a ghost investigation at this well-known haunted hotel.  My friends and I were never disappointed.  We had lots of activity in room 401 such as whispering, objects moving, doorknobs jiggling, dark figures in the bathroom, and a couple of friends grabbed by unseen forces.  After leaving the room for awhile, we found all our bathroom toiletries tossed outside the bathroom door.  Needless to say, this room did not disappoint our ghost hunting juices. While Sharon and I were in the Grace Dodge room on the third floor, we did a seance to communicate with the little boy spirit, Billy, who liked running around on that floor and messing with guests.  We had Dale the Doll on the couch with his hat over his eyes during the session.  It lasted about 12 minutes and we noticed that Dale's hat was no longer on his head...

The Bisbee Red Light District

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Early 1900's on Brewery Gulch. Like many of the mining towns in Arizona, Bisbee had its Red-light District too.  The district spread out from O.K. Street, to Brewery Gulch and Main Street.  During Bisbee's heyday from 1892 to the early 1900's, the Red-light district was booming.  Many men would enjoy the company of the soiled doves that worked in each of the over twenty different houses in the area.  There were as many as 100 girls at one time laboring in the ward with some as mere fledglings. They all had pseudonym keeping their real identities a secret.  Some were even buried under those names. The district was active until 1917 when a military camp was formed during WWI and established near the small town of Lowell just south of Bisbee.  The Federal Government's regulations would not permit such a camp to be withing three miles of a Red-light area.  The law-makers decided to shut the district down until the war was over, but it never op...

The Bisbee OK Street Jailhouse

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The OK Street Jailhouse in Bisbee was constructed in 1904 and was part of the County Jail.  It was shut down in 1915 when the jails got too crowded for the tiny jail to hold.  A much bigger facility was built to hold all the law breakers.  We were told that John Wayne wanted to buy the building and change it into a private residence.  But he died before that would happen. Today, the building has been remodeled as a small inn where you have the entire place to yourself.  The office is now where you enter the premises with the living room, kitchen and half bath located where the  "Drunk Tank"  used to be on the first floor.  On the second floor you will find a sitting area, the bedroom, closet, and bathroom with a shower and Jacuzzi tub.  On this floor is where the  "serious offender"  were held.  It is one of your many choices of places to stay while in Bisbee.  Also, there are many shops, restaurants and other places...