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.

Stunnning chapel in Arizona's stunning red rock country

It’s not often a church is a city’s major tourist attraction. A few that come to mind are St. Peter’s in Rome, Westminster Abbey in London and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  You probably wouldn’t put a tiny church in Sedona, Arizona, on the list.

Side view of the Chapel of the Holy Cross

Yet the Chapel of the Holy Cross is the most visited and photographed place in Sedona, an upscale community in north central Arizona. Sedona is very scenic, surrounded by gorgeous red rock where off-road vehicle tours of the area are popular.

The view from the altar

It is this very setting, however, that makes the chapel so spectacular.  It is built on red rocks with more red rocks and brilliant blue skies as a backdrop.

The chapel is stunningly simple; there is elegance in its demeanor. It is a place that brings peace to the soul. This is just what its founder, Marguerite Brunswig Staude, intended.

A student of the visionary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, she designed the chapel to be inspirational in memory of her mother.  She paid for the chapel herself. It is now administered by the Catholic church, but is considered to be non-denominational, inviting all faiths to pray here.

A small shrine along the walkway

The design was ahead of its time, featuring a large cross that spans the width and  of the small chapel andlenghtwise extends down to the red rock below.. Plain glass windows behind the cross allow worshippers to look to the heavens for inspiration. The chapel’s interior has no Stations of the Cross found in Catholic churches, but rather four colored panels – two on each wall. Simple benches provide seating.

Parking and walkway to the chapel

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is located at 780 Chapel Road; take the Chapel Road exit off Highway 179 to the end. It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. A few handicapped parking spaces are available at the entrance ramp, but otherwise you’ll have to park alongside the road and walk up the hill.  The walkway to the chapel is another uphill climb, but it’s paved and is wheelchair accessible. 

Meet the Old West at Wickenburg, Arizona

A "prospector" roams Wickenburg's main street.

Wiclenburg, Arizona, is a pretty town, with old buildings that tell the story of its historic past. It’s located on the northern edge of the Sonoran Desert, along the Hassayampa River. 

It was founded in 1863 by Henry Wickenburg, a German immigrant who was prospecting for gold, though fur trappers roamed the area as early as the 1830s. Before that, it was home to the Yavapai Indian tribe, who didn’t much tale to the intruders. Bloody battles between the Indians and white man ensued, and the tribe was not subdued until late in 1872.

Wickenburg is peaceful today. Life appears slow placed, unlike its neighbor to the southeast, Phoenix, with its five million residents. 

Wickenburg is located on Highway 93. It’s well worth a detour, if only to see the statuary on the city streets. All pay homage to the city’s past. 

But there are plenty of other things to do here. If you’re around on Saturday morning, take a tour of the Vulture Mine, which gave up $30 million in gold. You can visit the
“jail tree” which served as the town jail for almost 30 years; prisoners weren’t locked up, but instead were chained to the tree. And if you make an appointment in advance, you can also tour Henry Wickenburg’s home.  

The chamber of commerce can offer more ideas on things to see and do in this pleasant small town.

Fort Apache: from 19th century fort to school

First Officer's Quarters

If you’re a fan of John Ford’s 1948 Western, Fort Apache or the 1950s kids; TV series, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, you’re in for a shock when you visit the real thing in the White Mountains of central Arizona.

Nothing remains of the original fort, established in 1870 as Camp Ord. Indeed, the oldest building in the complex is the First Officer’s Quarters, constructed in 1893. The ranch-style log cabin is now a museum devoted to the fort’s history. It was abandoned by the U.S. Army in 1922 and was turned into a boarding school for Indian children. A school still operates on the site today, though children are now bused in.

Plaques in front of the buildings explain what the buildings were used for in the days when the complex was a fort and boarding school.  The fort complex is now an historic site administered by the White Mountain Apaches.

The camp was renamed Camp Apache in 1871 to honor the Apache tribe. It was established to protect the White Mountain Reservation and the Indian agency. But soldiers soon found themselves embroiled in war for many years with these very same Indians. The unrest worsened in the next few years, heating up in 1876 when the government moved the Chiricahua Indians from Fort Bowie in southeastern Arizona to the San Carlos Reservation that adjoined the White Mountain Reservation.

Monument

War with the Indians went on for 15 years, finally ending with the capture of Geronimo in 1886. A monument to the soldiers killed at the August 30, 1881, battle of Cibicu Creek stands in the yard surrounding the First Officer’s Quarters.

Admission to the historic site  is charged; the fee also includes admission to the tribe’s nearby cultural center and the Kinibisha ruins.  

The cultural center is known as Nohwike' Bagowa or House of Our Footprints. It’s small but does a good job of explaining the history of the White Mountain Apaches. A video plays inside a wickiup, but the narrative is only in the tribe’s native language with English subtitles.

Fort Apache is located on Highway 73, a 24-mile detour off Highway 60/77 that connects Globe and Showlow.  Casual travelers may not think the detour is worth it. Fort Apache will appeal most to visitors with a strong interest in Native Americans and the Indian wars of the Old West.

Casa Grande Ruins highlight early people's achievements

Casa Grande ruins

Ancient civilizations may have been primitive by our standards today, but they still accomplished some pretty amazing things.

Take, for example, the Hohokams, a prehistoric people who lived in the Sonora Desert.  Back in 300 BC, they built a canal system that was considered an engineering marvel in its day.  They used only primitive tools, digging a 220-mile canal system to bring water from the Gila and Salt rivers to their crops. The canals were deep enough that fish sometimes swam up them, providing another source of food. The remains of their canal system can be seen today at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument at Coolidge, Arizona.

The Hohokams were a self-sustaining people. They grew a variety of edible foods, including two corn crops a year; tobacco, and cotton, which they spun into thread and wove into clothes. They stored food and seeds in large decorative pottery containers. They hunted and they fished. They made fine jewelry.

In the 14^th century, they built a huge adobe house that was 60 feet long and four stories high. They surrounded it with lesser walls. .In the 15^th century, the Ancestral Sonora Desert People, as these Native Americans are known today, simply began to disappear. There was no one there by 1694 when Father Eusebio Kino came across this large house and compound. He called it “casa grande,” which means “great house.” Father Kino, a Jesuit from Italy, came to the New World with the Spanish in the 17^th century, and explored the southwest, founding churches t Tumacacori and San Xavier del Bac, both south of Tucson.

The large house today is under a roof to protect it as much as possible from the elements. The adobe is cracked; support beams have been added to keep it standing as long as possible.

The ruins make a good day trip from Phoenix or Tucson and can easily be combined with a visit to St.Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery.

The ruins are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, though they are closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas days. Operated by the National Park Service, the ruins are located on Highway 87 just across from Safeway Plaza in Coolidge.

You can see more pictures of the ruins on my Youtube slideshow.

 

 

 

 

Cactus complete desert landscape

Since arriving in Arizona in January, I've been intrigued with the variety of cacti growing here, from kitchen window sills to gardens to deserts,

An estimated 1,500 to 1,800 cacti grow around the world. Here are pictures of some I've found growing in Arizona. Unfortunately, I can't identify any of them. Well, I could I guess if I were willing to go through thousands of online photos or knew the official Latin name. So I just enjoy looking at the cactus  and preserving them in my photobook of memories.

If anyone can identify any of the cactus above, please leave a comment. Thanks!