Picket Post Mountain trail best suited for experienced hikers

Picket Post Mountain

The small town of Superior, Arizona,  got its start as a military camp on a nearby mountain.

The military established a camp at the base of a nearby mountain in 1870. Soldiers named it Picket Post Mountain because sentinels were posted at the top to warn the camp of impending attacks.

Today, it’s a hiking trail. The 3.9-mile trail is rated as difficult, but some hikers say it almost becomes like mountain climbing the nearer one gets to the top. Those who reach the top will be rewarded with stunning desert views. There’s a trail box at the top where hikers can sign a log book.

Dogs are allowed on the trail, but some hikers report their dogs had problems coming down.

Picket Post Mountain is in the southern part of Tonto National Forest. It’s a good place to enjoy wildflowers and desert scenery.

Superior is located on Highway 60 east of Phoenix.

Arizona's Gila: once mighty river now a meandering stream

The Gila River at Winkelman, Arizona

You’d never guess it by looking at it today, but the Gila River was once one of Arizona’s greatest rivers. Today it’s a shadow of its former self.

Once upon a time, however, water flowed so plentiful through it, the Hohokams, a tribe in southcentral Arizona, diverted its waters to create the world’s most advanced irrigation system in the Third Century B.C. near what is now Coolidge, Arizona.

The Hohokams began abandoning their settlement sometime in the early 1500s. By 1550 no one was left. No one knows the real reason why they left, but there is some speculation the Gila began drying up and could no longer support their irrigation systems. Remains of the irrigation canals can be seen at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument at Coolidge.

Remains of the Hohokams' irrigation system

Today, it’s a meandering stream as it winds its way through the mountains along Highway 77 in Arizona.  It grows shallow underneath the hot Arizona sun, and sometimes completely dries up in this area. When it’s like this, it’s hard to imagine, that at 640miles long, it’s one of the longest rivers in the western United States. The river starts in New Mexico, winds its way down Arizona where, what’s left of it, empties into the Colorado River near Yuma.

Much of its route is through wilderness area that is rich in wildlife such as elk, bighorn sheep and black bears. It also is a good place to see birds such as wild turkeys and grouse.

Pyramid atop Poston Hill honors "father of Arizona"

Poston hill

It’s difficult to see from Highway 79 just outside of Florence, Arizona, but that pointy thing atop Poston Hill is a 15-foot high pyramid. It’s also a burial site.

Beneath it lies the remains of Charles D. Poston, known as the “father of Arizona,” because of his lobbying efforts before Congress and President Lincoln to get Arizona elevated to territorial status in 1863. Before his death in 1902, he served in several federal posts, including Arizona superintendent of Indian Affairs, land register in nearly Florence, and Arizona’s first Congressional delegate.

Poston always wanted to build a temple to the sun atop the hill now named for him, but ran out of money. When he died, he was buried at a Phoenix cemetery.  In 1925, his friends had him dug up and re-interred facing the sun inside this pyramid.  The reburial was attended by 1,500 people, including the governor.

The pyramid is accessible on foot by a half-mile trail. Go north on Highway 79 out of Florence, turn left at milepost 136 and follow the signs to Poston Butte Monument Park.

Plimoth Plantation is a great place to learn about the Pilgrims

PLimoth Plantation

Each fall,  as November nears, our thoughts turn to the bountiful feast soon to be spread before us.

Though harvest feasts have e been taking place since almost the beginning of time, the Pilgrims are generally credited with holding the first Thanksgiving in what is now the state of Massachusetts.

If you’ve ever wondered what life was like for those colonists, you’ll definitely want to visit Plimoth Plantation, a re-creation of the Pilgrim village as it was in 1627. It is one of the most interesting living history museums you’ll ever visit.

Although it doesn’t sit on the original village site, the recreated village mirrors that one much as it was a few years after the Pilgrims arrived in 1620. There are houses, barns, storehouses, gardens and fields. At any of these places you’ll find “Pilgrims” going about their daily life.  Actors playing some of the people who lived there in 1627 will explain how they came to the New World and what they’re doing now.

Plimoth Pilgrims taking a break.

The actors, dressed in period costumes, are well versed in the history of their character and are quite believable.  When I visited there, a woman who had lived in Holland before coming over on the Mayflower was telling about that experience. A man from the Netherlands began talking to her in Dutch; they carried on a conversation for several minutes. When it was over, everyone asked him how her Dutch was.  He said she spoke an archaic version of Dutch, while he spoke modern Dutch, but they were still able to understand each other.

The actors are superb and well-controlled. They would have to be to answer some of the visitors’ questions. For one thing, they don’t know anything about what happened after 1627.  So if a visitor asks them what they think of man walking on the moon, they’ll look amazed and tell you something like that is unthinkable and could never happen – all with a straight face.

At the village site, you’ll also meet with Native Americans who will talk about how the arrival of the colonists changed their culture. They will be speaking from a 21^st century perspective.

Besides the 17^th century village, Plimoth Plantation museum also includes Mayflower II. The replica of the original ship can be found at the waterfront.  Here, you’ll find actors portraying original colonists who came on the first Mayflower. The Mayflower II was much tinier than I expected and it was hard to imagine that many people crammed into so little space. 

Plimoth Plantation is locate in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Re-creation of the original Pilgrim village

Dimmit County Courthouse is landmark in Carrizo Springs, Texas

Dimmit County Courthouse

Even before it was built in the early 1880s, the Dimmit County Courthouse in Carrizo Springs, Texas, generated controversy.

The initial architect designed a building that was deemed too expensive to build. So the new county, organized in 1880, hired a second architect. His drawings were suspiciously like the first plans, but without certain features such as a tower, that lowered the cost to build. The first architect sued the county and settled out of court for $400.

The Italianate style building was finally constructed in 1884.

The county government grew and 41 years later, it needed more room. Instead of demolishing the old courthouse, it was enlarged, with sides being extended and entrances moved. Ionic columns and a recessed porch were added to the north side. The remodeled building was in the Classical Revival style.

Problems developed as the building aged over the decades. In 2002, the county won a $2.4 million grant to restore the courthouse to the condition it was in when remodeling was completed in 1927.

Old Pecos County jaiil now houses a law enforceent museum

Pecos County jail

The Pecos County Jail is a good place to learn about law and order in the Old West, namely Fort Stockton in West Texas. 

The jail, Fort Stockton’s second, began life in 1884. The two-story sandstone structure would be used until 2000. Prisoners were housed on the second floor, with the first floor set aside for offices for the sheriff and his deputies. The lower floor also contained the sheriff’s living quarters. 

The jail was enlarged in the early 1900s, but otherwise remains much as it was: stark with ugly cells that should have made people think twice about committing a crime. 

Today the jail houses a museum devoted to sheriffs and local law enforcement. It is located at 101 West Gallagher Street across from the county courthouse.  Free tours of the old jail are available by appointment only.

Fort Stockton protected travelers on overland routes in West Texas

Fort Stockton

Long before it was a military post, Comanche Springs in what is now West Texas, was a watering hole for Indians. They camped there while traversing the Comanche Trail to Chihuahua, Mexico.

The U.S. Army discovered it in 1949 and 10 years later established a post there, calling it Camp Stockton after  Robert Field Stockton, a Navy commodore who helped capture California during the Mexicans-American War.  Since several major overland routes passed through the area, it made an ideal place for the Army to protect travelers on these routes. Besides the Comanche Trail, the routes included the Butterfield Mail route and the El-Paso-San Antonio road.

Fort Stockton

The original camp was built near where the Pecos County courthouse now stands. When the Civil War broke out, soldiers were called to the east, and it was eventually taken over by the Confederate Army. Not much was left of the camp in 1867, so it was moved about a half-mile away to its present location on what is now East Third Street in the town of Fort Stockton. Eventually 35 buildings were constructed, all but two of adobe; the others were limestone. During the first couple of decades at the new location, the compound was staffed mainly by Buffalo Soldiers.

The community that sprang up around the Army post was named Fort Stockton in 1881. The Army abandoned the post in 1886.

Historic Fort Stockton

Today only four of the original buildings remain. They are the guardhouse and three officers’ quarters.  Other buildings have been reconstructed. The fort is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Safford, Arizona courthouse on National Historic Register

Graham County Courthouse, Safford, Arizona

The Graham County Courthouse in Safford, Arizona, is a dignified building that sits quietly at 800 West Main Street. 

This courthouse is the county’s fifth one.  The two-story building would be remarkable today, since it is a public works project that came in under budget. Voters approved $50,000 to build the structure in 1915. The final cost was just over $44,000 when it was completed a year later.

The two-story Ed Paso red brick building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its architectural style is considered Classic Revival/Neo-Classic.  Whatever, it just looks nice.

A jail was originally part of the courthouse, but it was demolished in 1976. The courthouse’s façade has not been altered otherwise. Many original pieces, such as the ballast rude, remain in the interior.

Two Arizona Supreme Court Justices began their judicial careers in this courthouse.

Safford is an agricultural community of around 10,000 people and is located in southeastern Arizona

Cebtury-old state-of-the-art mine shaft still stands in Jerome, Arizona

Audrey headframe shaft

Remnants of Jerome, Arizona’s great mining past can be found throughout the town but few are as impressive as the Audrey Headframe Shaft located at the Little Daisy Mine. 

The exhibit of old mining equipment sits on a hill overlooking Jerome. One hundred years old, the Audrey shaft is the largest wooden shaft standing in Arizona today.  The 1.900-foot shaft is lined with concrete. It was used to haul ore up from the mine.  It was considered state-of-the-art when it was built-in 1918. Visitors who don’t get dizzy looking down can stand on a glass floor and look into the depths of the shaft. 

The Little Daisy mine was a rich one. During 23 years, starting in 1915, almost 4 million tons of ore was taken from beneath the earth. Copper dominated the list with 397,000 tons, followed by 221 tons of silver and 5-1.2 tons of gold.  The ore was transported to the railhead in the valley below by burros and train.  

The fenced in mining equipment is a public park today maintained by Jerome Historical Society.

Jerome, Arizona: once wicked, now peaceful

The view from Jerome

Perched on Cleopatra Hill overlooking some pretty awesome Arizona scenery, Jerome isn’t the town it once was. 

Some 140 years ago, Jerome was a wild copper mining town, known as the “wickedest“t own in the West. Founded in 1876 mining camp to retrieve the rich copper ore beneath the soil Jerome, at one time was the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. Its population peaked at 15,000 in the 1920s. But has shrunk to a mere 450 people today.  (Its low point was about 50 people in the 1950s and 1960s.) The city now bills itself as the “largest ghost town in America.” 

Downtown Jerome

The town is on the National Historic Register. As you drive by the commercial buildings and aging houses, it’s easy to see why. Many buildings boast plaque describing what businesses were there in the town’s heyday. 

Home of the deepest existing wooden mine shaft

Jerome was home to the largest copper mine in Arizona, digging up about 3 million tons of ore a month at its peak. Mining equipment is sprinkled around in a few places, including Aubrey Headrame Park, which  overlooks the city. 

The town doesn’t draw too many miners these days, but lots of tourists as it is reinventing itself as a tourist destination and artist colony. 

This northern Arizona town is just 20 miles from Sedona with its gorgeous red rock formations and 90 miles from Phoenix.

See more photos of Jerome on my YouTube channel.

Arizona's Mogollon Rim offers spectacular views

Mogollon Rim on a rainy day

Photo by Jon Teal

Take a tip from something we learned the hard way: Don’t visit northern Arizona’s Mogollon Rim on a rainy day.  While the views are still nice, they’re even better on a sunny day. Spectacular is more like it. 

But even on a cloudy, rainy day, you’ll still be able to see for miles. We accessed it at a visitor center on Highway 260, aka Mogollon Trail, between Payson and Show Low. Here, the views are of rolling forested hills, but other sections feature rough terrain with deep canyons, and rocks dating back billions of years.

An unpaved road from the visitor center takes motorists down into the canyon, but our hotel said it’s not recommended for subcompact cars, which we have. 

The Mogollon Rim stretches 200 miles across Arizona, from Yawapai County to the border with New Mexico. This geological wonder is on the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau.  With elevations up to 5,000 feet, it’s a good place to cool off for escapees from southern Arizona’s blazing summer temperatures. Camping, hiking and fishing are popular activities. 

Mogollon Rim may have been named for Juan Mogollon, a colonial governor of New Mexico. Or, it could be named for the Spanish word for mistletoe, a parasitic plant that can kill -- not kiss -- the rim’s gorgeous pine trees. 

Just as unclear is how to pronounce the name of this “backbone of Arizona.” Supposedly, the official pronunciation is “muggy yawn,” but you’ll hear locals call it “mew goo lin” or “mo goo lin.” For sure, if you ask for directions to “mow go lawn,” they’ll wonder what you’re talking about.

Showman Buffalo Bill Cody also a miner in Arizona

Library of Congress photo

Most people know William Frederick Cody as a Pony Express rider, Indian fighter, buffalo hunter and internationally as a showman. He was also a gold miner in southern Arizona. 

Born in Iowa in 1846, he moved with his family Canada and then to Kansas where his father operated a trading post at an Indian agency. Young Cody went to work to support his family after his father died in 1857. He became enamored of gold at age 14 and was on his way to California when, he became a Pony Express rider, outsmarting outlaws and Indians as he rode his 45-mile route. 

He scouted for the Union Army against the Indians during the Civil War and continued doing so after the war. He was given the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Plains War with the Indians. Cody received the nickname of “Buffalo Bill,” after killing more than 4,200 buffalo in 18 months to supply meat for the Kansas Pacific Railroad. 

He turned to acting when he was 26 years old. Reportedly he wasn’t very good at it, but the crowds loved him anyway. He founded his Wild West show in 1883, eventually touring throughout the United States and Europe. 

But the quest for precious metals that inspired a young   Cody to head for California never really left him. In 1903 he invested in mining ventures, primarily at Camp Bonita, in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains near Oracle, Arizona. Reportedly, he never visited the mine until 1910. Besides gold, the Camp Bonito mines also contained silver and tungsten. The light bulb invented by Thomas Edison used tungsten from Cody’s mines.  

Cody often camped at the mine or stayed in nearby Oracle if his wife was with him.  He eventually owned property in the foothills, with a home, La Casa del High Jinks, built there in 1933. This house today is on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The High Jinks ranch is located up a winding dirt road. Itt offers respite for hikers on the Arizona Trail. Remains of some mining operations can be seen at the entrance to the compound.

Cibique, Arizona, site of fight that kicked off new round of Apache wars

Entering Cibique

Cibique, Arizona, is a quiet community of about 1,300 souls surrounded by rolling hills. Dogs and horses freely roam the streets; the community’s middle and high schools are topped by a dome that can be seen from blocks away. 

But Cibique wasn’t always this peaceful. 

In August 1881, it was the scene of a battle between the Apaches and the cavalry from Fort Apache that ultimately resulted in the mass defection of the post’s Indian scouts and Canon Apache warriors joining forces with Geronimo. 

Unhealthy conditions and corruption were the rule on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, A respected medicine man, Nock-ay-det-klinne, began holding ghost dances in the village as the Apaches tried to cope with the disruption of a lifestyle they had enjoyed for centuries.  Some of these ceremonies took place near Fort Apache, with the Army’s Indian scouts attending.  Because of this, Nock-ay-det-klinne, who had counseled Geronimo and Cochise, among other Apache leaders, became a target for the cavalry, especially as fort officers became suspicious of the scouts who attended the ceremonies.

Two horses "dine" on streetside vegetation

The Army soon came to mistrust the scouts, fearing they would side with the other Apaches should an uprising occur. They confiscated their weapons. 

On August 29, the Sixth Cavalry with 79 enlisted men and 23 scouts left Fort Apachte to arrest Nock-ay-det-klinne, the medicine man. After several days of riding over rough, rocky terrain, the Army reached Nock-ay-det-klinne’s camp. They started back to the fort with the medicine man in custody. 

A battle erupted as the Army began to make camp for the night. It became more deadly when the scouts turned against the soldiers, six of whom were killed before the scouts began defending the Army. Later that night, after burying their dead, the Army sneaked out under cover of darkness. It was a victory for the Apaches.

During the attack, Nock-ay-det-klinne, his wife and son, were killed, further inciting the Apaches. Two days later, Apaches attacked the fort, and later joined forces with other regional Apache tribes, including the Chiruicahuas, to set off a regional uprising. It was a war that was to last for two years. 

Fields around Cibique

Cibique is located on the White Mountain Apache Reservation on Indian Highway 12,  about 12 miles from Highway 60, a few miles south of the Fort Apache  junction. If there are any monuments marking the battle site, they are not easily found.

Outdoor sculptures grace old-fashioned Arizona mall

A bison welcomes  visitors to the  Shops at Bison Ranch

The Shops at Bison Ranch is more than just a small shopping mall. It can also double as a tourist attraction with its neat collection of outdoor bronze sculptures.

This Overgaard, Arizona, mall is eye-catching to begin with, featuring colorful old-fashioned store fronts, but drive slowly around it and through the exclusive subdivision of cabins in the back to see a collection of Western sculptures, including buffalo and bronc riders.

 

 The sculptures remind me of the glorious bronze statues located on Main Street in Joseph, Oregon. 

Shops at Bison Ranch is located about 30 miles west of Show Low on Highway 260, also known as the Mogollon Trail, which connects Show Low and Payson. 

k to see a collection of Western sculptures, including buffalo and bronc riders.
The sculptures remind me of the glorious bronze statues found on Main Street in Joseph, Oregon. 

Shops at Bison Ranch is located about 30 miles west of Show Low on Highway 260, also known as the Mogollon Trail, which connects Show Low and Payson.