Living Our Dream

Verde Canyon Railroad

One of the things we like to do is take rides on vintage trains. We have ridden on the 1880 Train in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Grand Canyon Railway, the Durango & Silverton Railroad in Colorado, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway also in Colorado, and the Copper King Express in Montana just last year. The Copper King Express started passenger service in 2006, but was never able to turn a profit. Therefore, they decided to concentrate on hauling freight and made the last passenger run on Nov. 29, 2009.

When our online research turned up the Verde Canyon Railroad that departed from nearby Clarkdale, we thought it sounded interesting and decided to give it a try. There are daily, four-hour, 40-mile round-trip excursions up the canyon to Perkinsville.

The railroad was originally started in 1912 as the Verde Valley Railroad which was a 38-mile branch line from Clarkdale to Drake, AZ, to serve the cement-making operations in Clarkdale and the copper mines in Jerome. You can see Jerome over on the side Cleopatra Hill from various locations in Clarkdale.

Dave Durbano purchased the railroad in 1989-90 and began passenger excursions from Clarkdale to the abandoned town of Perkinsville. Unlike the Copper King Express that traveled through a blighted, mostly industrial area, most of the Verde Canyon route is lined by national forests and wilderness areas.

The train departs at 1:00 PM, and they ask passengers to arrive an hour early. We had plenty of time to kill, and since it was lunch time, we checked out the snack bar. They had a variety of snacks and sandwiches, and we decided to share a southwest turkey panini. It had pepper-jack cheese, spinach and cilantro, and it was delish.

 

In addition to standard coach seating, Verde Canyon Railroad has first-class seating and luxury accommodations in the caboose. We are usually somewhat budget conscious, but this time we opted for first-class seating. First-class cars are set up with couches and high-back upholstered chairs that looked roomier and so much more comfortable than the Pullman seating in coach. Not only that, but first class included a champagne or sparkling cider toast to start the excursion, complimentary bottled water, and hot and cold appetizers along the way. The photo below shows the roomy, comfortable seating in first class.

 

As the excursion started out, we passed the site of the copper smelter. The smelter covered 200 acres and had over 30 buildings. The smelter closed in 1950 and was torn down, but mountains of slag remain along the track. The slag was molten when it was dumped, and corrugated iron panels held the slag back so it didn't slide onto the tracks. Much of the corrugated iron has rusted away, but he slag has solidified so it stays put.

Interestingly, a company has recently purchased the slag pile and will haul it away over the next 20 years or so to reprocess it. The slag has copper, zinc, silver and gold left in it from the original smelting operation, and modern methods make it economically feasible to recover these left over metals.

After passing the slag pile, the track begins to follow the Verde River. The train ambles along at a relaxing 10 or 12 miles an hour, so there's plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. At the beginning of the route, the river valley was still relatively flat.

A little farther along as the altitude increases, the canyon gets deeper.

 

Appetizers were served shortly after we left the station. We had chicken wings, sandwiches, a vegetable platter, crackers and three or four types of cheese, Caesar salad and bite-size brownies for desert. After we had some snacks, we went out onto one of the open cars.

Each guest is assigned to an enclosed car, but there is an open car with benches for every one or two closed cars. Riders can go out onto the open cars for a better view of the passing scenery. Each open car also has an attendant who is an expert on local history and the wildlife. The next photo shows how the open cars (darker color) are placed among the closed cars.

We passed the nest of the bald eagles who are year-round residents. The eaglets have left the nest by now, but we later saw one of them on a distant ledge. A number of migratory eagles join the year-round residents in winter. There were a couple of ospreys flying high overhead, a couple of small elk, and one black bear ambling along the river bank. Unfortunately, we didn't get any wildlife photos.

Still farther up the canyon, the red sandstone becomes more apparent. The red color comes from a small percentage of iron in the rock. In the next photo you can see uplifted red sandstone to the right with black volcanic basalt to the left. The basalt is topped with a layer of red sandstone, and there is a layer of light-colored limestone on top of that.

Speaking of rocks, our attendant identified many of the named rock formations for us. These were a lot easier to photograph than the wildlife since they were a lot bigger and they didn't move. The first one was Hole in the Wall.

Then there was Lincoln's Profile - complete with a tree for hair.

The next one is Turtle Rock.

There were more, but the last one we'll show is the Guardian Angel. You can see the flowing robes, the long hair, and it even looks like she is carrying a shield.

There are numerous Native American cave and cliff dwellings and pueblos in this area of Arizona. In addition to the larger, better known ruins, there were several along the train route, including the one below right before we got to the turn-around point in Perkinsville.

Perkinsville is a small, abandoned town named after the Perkins Ranch that has been located there for a century. Except for one home occupied by a Perkins descendant, about all that remains at Perkinsville are old, unused railroad buildings.

 

Scenes from the 1962 movie How the West Was Won were filmed in Perkinsville. The station appeared in the move.

At Perkinsville, the train stops, the locomotives uncouple and run down the siding to the other end of the train for the return trip. Notice the bald eagle paint job.

The FP7 locomotives being used for passenger service (#1510 and #1512) were built in 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of GM for a railroad in Alaska. After service in Alaska, the locomotives were put on display in California for a while, then were used in Wyoming. Verde Canyon Railroad purchased the locomotives in 1995 and restored and updated them.

We saw the black bear we mentioned earlier on the return trip back to Clarkdale, but other than that, the ride back was fairly uneventful. We spent part of the time inside enjoying our cushy seats, and part of the time outside. Even though it's the same scenery as on the way up the valley, it looks a little different on the way back because not only are you viewing the scenery from the other direction, the sun also is at a different angle.

We really enjoyed the Verde Canyon Railroad. Not only was it a scenic ride, but we liked the comfortable, roomy seats, we liked being able to move from inside to out at will, and we liked the appetizers.

Our next sightseeing outing will be to Sedona, so stay tuned.

Jerome, AZ

We left Tucson for a relatively short, four-hour drive to our next destination of Camp Verde, AZ, where Rancho Verde RV Park would be our home base for the next week. Camp Verde is about 60 miles south of Flagstaff along the Verde River.

It was getting pretty hot in Tucson, so heading north and moving to a higher elevation provided a welcome change in the weather. Temperatures were still in the 80s around Camp Verde, but with the low humidity of the high desert, it was usually quite comfortable.

Rancho Verde RV Park is a fairly small campground with only about 25 to 30 sites. It has full hookups with 30/50 amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The main road that circles the campground is paved and the pads are gravel. There's a concrete patio on each site and grass between the sites. The sites around the perimeter are back-ins, and there are some extra-long pull-throughs down the center. The back-in sites are fairly wide, but the pull-throughs are set up face to face so you may have to share living space with another RV if the campground is full. Fortunately for the campers, the campground wasn't full. We had a pull-through on the end which wasn't face to face with another site.

There are some trees for shade at Rancho Verde, but not so many that we couldn't get satellite. Rancho Verde is a nice, quiet, attractive little campground.

We chose to stop in Camp Verde because is is in the center of quite a few historic Arizona towns and Indian ruins. We made a day trip to this area from Flagstaff when we were there back in 2007 when Lora and J. Michael flew out to meet us to go to the Grand Canyon. Click here to read about our previous visit to this area. This time, we decided to stay south of Flagstaff and planned for additional time to see more of the sights.

One of those places to see was Jerome, AZ. Jerome is a "boom 'n' bust" copper mining town located about 20 miles northwest of Camp Verde. Jerome was founded on the side of Cleopatra Hill in 1883. It was named for Eugene Murray Jerome, who was an investor from New York who owned the mining claims and financed mining operations there.

In the early 1900s, Jerome became known as the "wickedest town in the west" because of all the gambling and vice. The town boomed in the 1920s and became the 4th largest town in Arizona with a population of about 15,000. The Depression brought a bust in the 1930s. During WWII, there was an increased demand for copper, and the town once again prospered. After the war, the smelter and the last mine were closed in the 1950s, and most of the population left.

In 1967, Jerome was designated a Historic District, and in 1976, it became a National Historic Landmark. Today, Jerome is a tourist town with about 350 residents. Some of the historic buildings have been restored, but there are also a few crumbling foundations and a few boarded up buildings here and there. There is a mining museum, numerous bed and breakfasts, a couple of hotels, restaurants, shops, art studios and galleries.

When we found out they were having their 45th Annual Jerome Historic Home and Building Tour, we scheduled our visit for the weekend to coincide with the tour. The tour included 7 historic, restored homes and other points of interest and one contemporary home. Proceeds from the tour benefit the Chamber of Commerce.

Jerome is known as the "Mile High Town" because it sits on the side of Cleopatra Hill at an elevation of 5,200 feet.

The road to Jerome makes several switchbacks as it comes up out of the valley before arriving in town. Jerome usually gets fairly crowded on weekends, but it was especially crowded because of the house and building tour. Although there are several parking lots in town, we weren't sure where the tour started so ended up following the signs to a large, paved lot on the outskirts of town where there were special shuttles into town for the tour.

New this year were a number of costumed reenactment groups including Civil War soldiers. They entertained visitors waiting for the shuttle with information about their weapons, uniforms and encampment. A battle reenactment was scheduled for later in the day. We heard the fix was in and the South was scheduled to win, but that the Union would be victorious on Sunday.

Transportation to each venue on the tour was provided by means of vans and SUVs operated by volunteers. We originally thought we would be driving our own car to each stop, but with the steep, narrow streets in Jerome and with the lack of adequate parking at some of the stops, having several hundred people driving around town looking at historic buildings just isn't practical. We got our tickets and waited in line about 20 or 25 minutes for our turn to board transportation to the first house on the tour.

While we waited, we took turns climbing the steep steps up to the next street level to look down on the main street and out into Verde Valley while the other held our place in line.

There was also a mock gunfight across the street while we waited.

We eventually got to the front of the line and hopped into an SUV to travel to our first stop. The first two houses were located on Society Hill and were built by the mining company for members of mine management.

The Sullivan House was built in 1886. Con Sullivan, his wife, and their 8 children lived in this 1,000 square foot house for many years.

 

The Mills House was built in 1898 and was occupied by Carl Mills until 1950. The house sat vacant from 1950 until 2003. Part of the roof had caved in, and the soil from the hillside had eroded down into the house. A local resident bought the house and renovated it adding a second story.

We were able to spend as much time as we wanted at each stop on the tour. The tour included the interior of the houses, but with the low light and numerous people, it was difficult to get photos. Volunteers were available at each stop to answer questions.

From the Mills House, we were able to walk to our next two stops. The United Verde Apartments were built by United Verde Mining in 1918. They consisted of three and four-room apartments that were rented primarily by single female teachers and nurses and by small families. The apartments were occupied until 1952. The buildings were purchased and renovations began in the 1990s. Today, the apartments are used for retail space, by full-time residents and for vacation rentals.

 

Christ's Episcopal Church is located right next to the apartments. Built in 1927, the church has a wooden frame with a stucco exterior. Today, it houses the offices and archives of the Jerome Historical Society.

 

From the church, we caught another SUV to the Gutierrez Cottage. This was the home of a miner by the name of Damian Gutierrez. Few of these simply-built miners' houses remain. In the basement of the home, Damian Gutierrez kept a burro that he would take to town for tourists to have their photo taken. The house, which was a bed and breakfast in the 1980s, is now a private home owned by a couple from Phoenix.

The Gutierrez Cottage is known for its extensive, terraced gardens.

One very striking species of plant in the garden was tritoma, which is also known as a torch lily or red hot poker. The flower portion is about 7 or 8 inches tall.

The only contemporary house on the tour is the Kinsella House. They couldn't even save the crumbling foundation of the old house that once stood on this site, so they built an entirely new house. There are two additional stories down over the hillside. The back of the house has two decks overlooking the valley.

From the decks, you can see the Douglas Mansion, which was built in 1916 by Jimmy Douglas as a hotel and residence for his family. Jimmy Douglas was the owner of the Little Daisy Mine.

The mansion was donated to the state by Jimmy's sons and is now a museum. The museum is part of the Arizona State Park system, and due to budget cuts in Arizona, the state park is now closed. An agreement has been reached to have the park operated by the Jerome Historical Society. Renovations to the museum are underway, and it is hoped the park and museum will be reopened in a few months.

From the Kinsella House, you can also get a good view of the Little Daisy Hotel, which was built as a dormitory for miners at the Little Daisy Mine. The hotel was renovated and is now a private residence.

The next tour stop was Lawrence Memorial Hall. Originally built in 1917 as a garage, this building became the home of J. C. Penny in Jerome from 1937 until 1953. It was one of the company's largest stores back in the day. Today, the building is owned by the historical society and is used for the town's Christmas party, the Halloween party, and dances. It is also available for weddings and private parties. Refreshments of cookies and lemonade were being served at the hall during the tour.

Next, we took a van to Audry Headframe Park. A headframe is the structure built over a mine shaft and was used to haul ore up out of the mine. The Audry Headframe was part of the Daisy Mine and was used to haul over $125 million in copper, gold and silver out of the ground. Below the headframe, you can look through a glass window down into the 1,700 foot shaft.

We caught the next van back to Lawrence Hall, then walked about a block to the final tour stop. Along the way, we stopped to watch a glass-blowing demonstration (not part of the tour) by one of the many local artisans.

The last stop on the tour was the Connor Hotel. First built in 1898 by David Connor, the hotel burned down twice by the turn of the century. David Connor was one of only a few in town who had insurance so he was able to rebuild both times.

The Connor Hotel was a luxury hotel with a barroom, card rooms and billiard tables on the first floor. The hotel closed in 1931 shortly after the Depression caused a downturn in the demand for copper, but the owners continued to rent out retail space on the first floor. After the mines closed in 1953, Jerome attracted hippies and counter-culture tourists the 1960s and 1970s. The hotel reopened with low-budget rooms as sort of a flop house. Code violations such as the lack of a sprinkler system and unsafe wiring forced the hotel to close again in the 1980s.

The hotel was reopened with 12 deluxe rooms following extensive remodeling and safety modifications. Guests just need to be aware there is live music in the first floor bar on weekends, and the old building doesn't have very good sound proofing. The volunteer also told us about some strange noises and unexplained occurrences that happen from time to time in Rooms 1, 2 and 5. The hotel has been featured on several TV programs featuring haunted buildings and ghost stories. The hotel management is kind enough to warn any prospective guests.

Visiting some of the historic homes and buildings in Jerome was a unique experience. The town really goes all out for this two-day event. Volunteers put in long hours planning and working the event. They had even taken the time to paint temporary lines on the parking spots in the dirt and gravel lots in town and along the roads in an effort to keep the parking as organized as possible. Since we had left our water in the car, one very thoughtful feature of the tour that we very much appreciated was the availability of cold, bottled water at every stop for a suggested donation of only $1.

Jerome turned out to be a good start to our sightseeing at this stop in Camp Verde. Look for our next post, and we'll tell you what else we found to do.

 

Tombstone, AZ

Tombstone, AZ evokes images of old west gunfights, tough cowboys and dusty streets. Even though it meant backtracking about an hour and a half east from where we were staying in Tucson, we couldn't resist taking a day trip to see this legendary old west town.

Tombstone was founded as a result of Ed Shieffelin finding silver in the nearby mountains. Ed was a scout for the U. S. Army headquartered at Camp Huachuca (wha-CHEW-ka). Ed had a hunch there was silver in the hills, and he would frequently venture out into the wilderness to "look for rocks." The soldiers at camp told him the only stone you will find out there is your tombstone.

Ed did eventually find silver in 1877, and he appropriately named his first claim the Tombstone Mine. Word of Ed's success spread, and soon other prospectors, gamblers, cowboys, homesteaders, speculators and businessmen flocked to the area. The town was laid out in 1879 on the only level ground near the mines, which was called Goose Flats. The town was named Tombstone after Ed Shieffelin's mine.

Today, Tombstone is a tourist town. Allen Street is the main street of the old downtown area, and it is closed off to motor vehicles.

The only vehicle on Allen street is the stagecoach.

Tombstone has free parking in a couple of lots and on the side streets, but just about everything else in town costs money - as we said it's a tourist town. After finding a convenient parking place near Allen Street, we stopped at the visitor center to pick up a map and to see what we wanted to do.

We decided to start off with a 30-minute trolley tour of the historic area. At a cost of $5 a person, that was a good choice. In addition to pointing out important landmarks, the guide also gave some history of the town. After we learned where everything was located, we walked around on our own for a closer look and for photos. The main historic area of the town is only three blocks wide by about six blocks long.

Tombstone is most famous for the gunfight that took place in 1881 between the three Earp brothers and John Henry "Doc" Holliday on one side and the "cowboys" (the Clantons, the McLaurys, and Billy Clairborne) on the other. The site of the gunfight is said to have been the O. K. Corral, but it actually started on Fremont Street and ended a short distance away in a vacant lot that is down the street from the rear entrance to the corral. The photo below shows the spot on Fremont Street where the gunfight started.
 

The gunfight took place to the right of Fly's Photography Gallery and boarding house. "Doc" Holliday had a room in the boarding house that he shared with his girlfriend, "Big Nose" Kate Horony. By the way, "Doc" Holliday was not a doctor at all, but a dentist.

 

The lot where the gunfight ended is walled off. For $6 a person, you can tour a museum containing Tombstone artifacts, watch a multi-media presentation on the history of Tombstone and see the spot where the gunfight ended. For an additional $4 you can watch a reenactment of the gunfight presented every day at 2:00 PM. We opted for the admission without the gunfight reenactment.

The multi-media presentation, which is called the Tombstone Historama, was a combination of a movie and a large, rotating diorama showing the town of Tombstone at various stages during its history. As we mentioned earlier, the town was founded in 1879 on Goose Flats near numerous silver mines. The town boomed through the mid 1880s with a population estimated to be around 15,000. As the silver diminished, the mines went deeper and deeper. Once the mines reached the water table, the mines flooded. Attempts to pump out the mines were marginally successful for a few years, but eventually proved to be too costly for the small amount of ore that remained. By 1930, the population of Tombstone had declined to about 150.

Today, tourism has revived Tombstone, and there are about 1500 year-round residents. No wonder Tombstone has been called "The Town Too Tough to Die."

After the Historama presentation, we did a quick tour of the museum, which includes the inside of Fly's Photography Gallery. Camillus Fly was famous for his photographs of Geronimo, the Apache chief, and the people of Geronimo's camp. Reprints of some of Fly's photos are displayed in the studio.

At the site of the gunfight, there are mannequins positioned as depicted in a sketch made by Wyatt Earp many years after the battle. In the photo below, the Earps are in black, "Doc" Holliday is in gray and the cowboys are in tan. A recording describes the events. About 30 shots were fired in about 30 seconds. Billy Clairborne and Ike Clanton had run away at the beginning of the fight, and when the smoke cleared, the two McLaury brothers were dead, and Billy Clanton lay dying. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and "Doc" Holliday were wounded. Wyatt Earp was unharmed. With the gunfight taking place at such close range, it's amazing anyone survived.

Although the gunfight has been the subject of numerous movies, books and dime novels and is usually portrayed as a classic battle between good guys (the Earps and "Doc" Holliday) and bad guys (the cowboys), the story is a lot more complicated than that. There had been friction between the Earps and the cowboys for some time. Some say it was personal, and some say it had its roots in the Civil War years before with the Earps (who were from the east) representing the North, and the cowboys (who were from Texas) represented the south. That's a bit of a stretch, however, because "Doc" Holliday was from Georgia.

Virgil Earp was a deputy U. S. Marshall at the time of the gunfight, but the Earps were viewed by their enemies as tyrants. On the other hand, the cowboys were a loosely organized gang who were cattle rustlers, horse thieves and robbers. However, they were generally easy to get along with as long as you didn't cross them, and they were fairly popular in town because they had a lot of money to spend.   The Earps and "Doc" Holliday were exonerated of any wrong-doing after the gunfight.

From the O. K. Corral gunfight site, we continued our walk around town. The Arizona Legislature created Cochise County in 1881 and named Tombstone as the county seat. The courthouse was built in 1882.

Diagonally across the street from the courthouse is the adobe house built in 1882 by Allen English, a lawyer originally from Saginaw, MI. Although English was a heavy drinker, he was a very powerful and successful attorney back in the day.

Up the street from Allen English's house was the Museum of Victorian Fashion featuring Victorian and Edwardian clothing from 1840 to 1920. Margery enjoyed seeing the fashions, but wondered how the ladies kept some of the long dresses clean with all the dusty streets.

Up on Fremont Street is Shieffelin Hall, which was built in 1881 by Ed Shieffelin's brother Al. The hall was intended to be a first-class opera house offering culture to the citizens of Tombstone. When it was built, Shieffelin Hall was the largest adobe building anywhere in the southwest. It had a seating capacity of 600. Today, it is used for city council meetings and for civic and social functions.

At the other end of the entertainment spectrum was the Bird Cage Theater down on Toughnut Street. Yes, that's the real name of the street. It was named for the Tough Nut Mine that was down over the hill from the street. The Bird Cage featured drinking, gambling, bawdy entertainment and "ladies of the night." Today, the Bird Cage Theater is a museum.

Other old saloons, like the Longhorn, are now restaurants.

And the Silver Nugget has been converted to a bed and breakfast.

Many of the old stores along Allen Street are gift shops selling Indian jewelry, western wear, T-shirts, and other souvenirs. Several of the western wear shops sold period costumes, and we had a lot of fun trying things on.

Before we left the old downtown area, we stopped into the museum at the office of the town newspaper, the Tombstone Epitaph. There are displays of old printing presses and type-setting equipment.

While we were there, Margery picked up a reprint of the newspaper from 1881 with the story of the O. K. Corral gunfight.

About a half mile outside town is Boothill Graveyard. On the way to the graveyard, we stopped for a photo of the house where Wyatt Earp stayed while living in Tombstone. The house is now a private residence, but it is set up to look as it did back in the day (well, it probably looks better now than it did back then), complete with fiberglass horses at the hitching post out front.

Boothill has the graves of many of the unsavory characters of Tombstone including those of Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton who were killed at the O. K. Corral gunfight.

The epitaphs were interesting. One read 'Unknown - Found in Abandoned Mine.' Others read 'Stabbed,' 'Killed by Indians,' 'Shot.' And one read - 'Here lies George Johnson...Hanged by mistake 1882...He was right, we was wrong, but we strung him up and now he's gone.' The west was indeed wild and woolly.

After walking around Boothill, we headed back to the motor home. That's about it for our stay in the Tucson area. We're headed north, so stay tuned.

Tucson, AZ, Part IV: Mission San Xavier and Tucson Mountain Park

It was mid afternoon when we left Old Tucson Studios, so instead of going straight back to the motor home, we drove a few miles south of Tucson to see Mission San Xavier del Bac. The first mission was founded in 1699 by a Jesuit missionary.  The original mission, which was about two miles from the present building, was destroyed by an Apache attack in 1770.

Construction of the present building was started in 1783 by the Franciscans. The new building was protected by the presidio (fort) that had been completed at Tucson several years before. The mission, which is of Spanish design with heavy Moorish influences, was completed around 1797 using mainly Native American labor. The mission was built in a centuries-old Tohono O-odham Indian settlement. From the photo below, it's easy to see why the Mission San Xavier is called "The White Dove of the Desert."

After Mexico won its independence, it banned all Spanish-born priests, and the priest at San Xavier was sent home to Spain. The church was left vacant from 1828 to 1858. The church was reopened in 1859, and a new priest was assigned and repairs were made.

Extensive restoration was begun to both the inside and outside in the late 2000s. Artwork and statuary were repaired and restored by preservationists brought in from Italy. These preservationists, some of whom worked on restoration of the Vatican, also trained local parishioners in restoration techniques to carry on future work.

Work on the outside includes replacing the concrete stucco coating that was added years ago. It was discovered the concrete didn't breathe and trapped moisture inside the walls. Moisture in the walls causes deterioration of the interior plaster and delicate interior paintings. The stucco is being removed and replaced by a mixture of sand, slaked lime, water and prickly pear cactus pulp. This mixture is similar to the original material used to finish the exterior, and it will breathe to better preserve the interior. You can see in the photo above of the exterior the tower on the left is a brighter white than the tower on the right. That's because the tower on the right has not yet been restored. The tower on the right is also missing the top dome and spire because it was never completed in the original construction.

On the west side the main church is a desert garden and a chapel.

And to the east of the mission is Grotto Hill.

Mission San Xavier dal Bac continues to minister to the Native American Tohono O'odham with both the church and a mission school.

The following day, we planned to stick around the motor home. We mentioned Tuscon Mountain Park several days ago in our first Tucson post about Saguaro National Park. Tucson Mountain Park is a scenic, 20,000 acre county park that we had to drive through to get to Saguaro National Park. Old Tucson Studios and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum are also located in the park. It turns out a little corner of the park also extends right down to the boundary of Desert Trails RV, and a trail crosses the wash into the park less than 200 feet from our site.

Daytime temperatures had been in the upper 80s and 90s for most of our stay; but the day we decided to stick around the motor home, the high was only in the mid 70s. The campground office has trail maps, so we decided to walk one of the shorter, desert loop trails over in the park. The next photo shows Margery at the start of the trail in Tucson Mountain Park.

 

Although we were down on the valley floor, there were still a fair number of saguaros. We learned at the Desert Museum saguaros don't usually grow on the valley floor because cool air can pool there in winter; but this area must be close enough to the hillside the cool air doesn't collect. We could see his multi-branched saguaro on the other side of the wash from the front window of our motor home.

Saguaros usually have to be at least 8 feet tall and 50 years old to bloom, so it's hard to get a good photo of the flowers because they bloom so high above the ground. But on our hike, we found a saguaro with flowers on a lower side branch, so we were able to get a closer shot.

Saguaro cacti have a woody skeleton. When a saguaro dies, the skin eventually falls off, and the pulpy interior dries out and crumbles. This leaves just a skeleton of wooden slats. These will eventually get blown over by the wind.

This area of Arizona also has a lot of cholla cactus. The cholla in the photo below are called chain fruit cholla, which can get up to 15 feet tall.

Some of the fruit of the chain fruit cholla remains on the plant for several years. Each year new flowers sprout from the old fruit to produce more fruit which can form long chains.

The trail map we got in the campground office turned out to be pretty accurate, and the trails through the park are well marked and easy to follow.

 

We saw several jackrabbits on our hike; but they are very wary and ran as soon as they saw and heard us, so we didn't even get a chance at a photo. But take our word for it, they have LARGE ears! We also saw a lizard zip across the path, but was so fast we have no idea what kind it was.

Back at the campground, we were able to get a good photo of a 5 or 6-inch long horned lizard. Their camouflage is so amazing!

Also in the campground, Paul was able to get a shot of a gila woodpecker. They're the ones responsible for most of the holes in the saguaro cactus.

 

We had one more sightseeing adventure while we were in the Tucson area to tell you about, so look for our next post.

Tucson, AZ, Part III: Old Tucson Studios

Yet another attraction that was right up the road from the campground is Old Tucson Studios. Old Tucson Studios is a historic movie studio that is a combination of an active movie studio and amusement park with old-west-themed rides, games and shows. The studio has tours only (no rides or shows) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at a reduced price. Since we aren't into rides and since most of the rides are for kids anyway, we chose to go on a Tuesday just for the tour. The entrance to the studio is shown below.

The guided tour was excellent. The guide was well acquainted with Old Tucson Studios having first visited when he was only 10 years old. After retiring from military service, he returned as a special effects technician in explosives and has appeared as an extra in a couple of films. His knowledge about Arizona history and about the studio made the tour especially interesting.

The studio was built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures on land leased from Pima County. The original studio was a replica of the town of Tucson in the 1860s for the film Arizona starring William Holden. The studio lay dormant for several years after that first movie until it was revived 1n 1945 for the filming of The Bells of St. Mary's starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. It was also used for several additional movies after that. For a time, the county leased the studios to the Junior Chamber of Commerce for $1 a year. The Jaycees would open up the studios on weekends for picnics as a fundraiser.

In 1959, entrepreneur Robert Shelton worked out a deal with the county whereby he could lease the studios, revive the aging facility, and open it to the public as a theme park while maintaining it as an active film studio.

The studio has been used for over 300 movies including Rio Bravo, McClintock, El Dorado, Rio Lobo (all starring John Wayne), the 1986 filming of The Three Amigos, the 1993 filming of Geronimo.  About 150 TV programs including later episodes of Little House on the Prairie were also filmed there. The studio has also been used for many music videos, TV commercials and photo shoots for print advertisements.

Inside one building there were sets for a courtroom, a bank, and a general store. There was also a video documenting the 71 years of actors, actresses, and movies/TV shows that were filmed here that was a lot of fun to watch...especially those done in our lifetime.

Another building had photos, posters, memorabilia and costumes from various movies and TV shows. The outfit on the left in the composite photo below was worn by Loren Greene (Ben Cartwright) and the shirt and hat were worn by Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright) in Bonanza. Notice how big Hoss' shirt is. The dresses in the center are from Little House on the Prairie, and the dresses on the right were worn by Barbara Stanwix in Big Valley.

Unfortunately, a fire destroyed much of the north end of Old Tucson Studios in 1995. Buildings, costumes, memorabilia and about 25 buildings (including the multi-million dollar sound stage) were lost. The fire was made worse by high winds and lack of water. On top of that, rather than concentrate their efforts on saving buildings, firefighters had to protect propane and gunpowder that were stored near the fire area.

The next photo illustrates how hot the fire got. The squiggle on the wall is what is left of one of the lamp posts from the burned area. The fire was so hot it melted the aluminum.

Rather than recreate old sets after the fire, entirely new buildings were constructed in place of those that were damaged or destroyed. This was done to try to make the new buildings more useful for new movies and to also make the studio a better tourist attraction. Some buildings were not replaced at all. The photo below shows some of the new buildings. The streets in this area were widened to make more room for spectators and gunfight reenactments.

After our guided tour, we were invited to a presentation by a snake oil salesman. At the beginning, he asked for a volunteer. Paul tried to play with his camera and to not make eye contact, but it was no use. He was chosen to bang on the drum every time the salesman pointed to him.

Actually, Paul kind of had fun with it. As a reward, he was given a bottle of 'Miracle Elixir' which surprisingly tasted like root beer. Afterward, we went to the corner saloon to watch a documentary on John Wayne.

In the saloon, Paul used his root beer to try out the bar.

 

After the tour, the snake oil show and the documentary on John Wayne, we wandered around the set on our own to get a closer look at the things we saw on the tour. The next photo is a small railroad station that is portable. It has been moved to numerous locations, including off-site.

Then there was the old mission. While most of the buildings are three-dimensional and many have rooms inside that can be used for filming, the mission is a false front and is only about 10 feet deep. They had photos displayed from several movies showing how the mission has changed in appearance. The mission is used for a stunt show on full-schedule days, but it can easily be reverted back to a movie set. The mountain in the background is part of the Tucson Mountains and has appeared in many movies.

We stopped for a fun photo by the rest rooms. They are disguised as an old west bath house, and Margery is pretending to hang up her bloomers. A sign on the building says, "We use fresh creek water."

Speaking of fun photos, we found a place for another silly one.

There is an artificial river on the set. When making a movie, they used to let water out of a large reservoir only when they were filming a river scene. When the director yelled, "Cut", they would turn off the river and pump water back into the reservoir between takes. Now there is a high volume pump that circulates water continuously so the tourists can enjoy the river all the time. A blooming prickly cactus adds to the ambiance.

 

On our way out of the studio, we stopped at the larger, permanent railroad station. It was nicely framed by a couple of large saguaro cacti.

We really enjoyed visiting Old Tucson Studios. It has whetted our appetite to watch some old westerns that were filmed here. In fact, we just recorded Geronimo for future viewing.

We still have some more sightseeing here in Tucson, so stay tuned.