Home Sweet Home?

[Cat_Doc]

AZ has so many cool places and I'm somewhat ashamed to say I’ve been here 11 years and can count the number of places I’ve seen on two hands. I’ve never really left Pinal County...

Even Pinal County has a lot to offer, although it would take several weekends to see it all as the county is larger than three states back east.

Some of it will entail horseback or a quad unless you want to backpack and hike, but the wonder, just in our county, is amazing.

We have the Superstition Mountains and the elusive Lost Dutchman Mine, old downtown Superior (Mattie Earp is buried in Pinal, just southeast of Superior near the old silver mine), Box Canyon and Martinez Canyon, just northeast of Florence where you can still see the remnants of a 1800’s bar blasted out of the side of a canyon wall.

There is sound speculation that Mattie Earp worked as a prostitute in the Box Canyon bar for a while, after Wyatt dumped her for Josie and before she traveled to the Superior area...where she most likely committed suicide by overdosing on Laudlum (sp?) There is also sound speculation that Wyatt was in Florence, Superior and Globe for a bit, checking out financial opportunities, before Tombstone went to crap and he split to Colorado.

There is the rugged and still somewhat unexplored area of the Gila River area north of the dam outside of Florence. Hell, even Florence had the most famous shootout (Six Gun Classic) in Arizona prior to the OK Corral incident in Tombstone.

How many times have you driven past the Casa Grande Ruins left by the mysterious Hohokams without going in to see it? Can you just imagine what you might find, (although you would have to be with someone from the Gila River reservation to stay out of trouble) along the banks of the Gila River from Florence to Maricopa Wells where the Hohokam flourished in ancient times?

And, if you haven’t done it yet, you should really drive out to the base of Table Top Mountain and enjoy the still wild area on the backside.

And, the small mountains near the intersection of I-10 and 387 have some hieroglyphics to be seen.

If you go to the railroad station on Main Street in Casa Grande, across from CuCu’s Bar, you will be walking on the same ground Wyatt and Virgil Earp did in 1879 while they were en route to Tombstone from Prescott.

There are still some stage coach stops on the southeast side of CG Mountain where you can stand and try to image what it was like in the 1800’s.

You can also check out Picacho Peak, distinctive as being the only place there was a Civil War battle in Arizona. Go during the spring when the wild flowers absolutely turn the area and bottom half of the peak yellow.

How about Pepper Sauce Canyon and the Pepper Sauce caves, on the backside of Mount Lemmon, just outside of Oracle, that to this day have not been fully explored?

There are other places rich in 1800’s history to be seen. I can’t recall the name of the mine, some miles south of Arizona City, near the Pima County line, that still has the remnants of a large two story “whorehouse.” My buddy and I still have unaccomplished plans to take metal detectors down there and look for change that may have fallen out around the house of pleasure. LOL

Anyway, I know I have forgotten some of the great areas of the county and I apologize for the long ramble, but our county is rich in history; you just have to find out where it is and go look.

[Rhinod56]

I'd make a short trip (well kinda) and visit legoland :D;):D

[Creeker]

Doc, are there still any actual... not built for tourists... Ghost towns still around in AZ that you know of? I tried to find Charleston... not very hard, since my in-laws were with us... when I was on my way to Tombstone, but couldn't figure out its exact location... and my GPS was fritzing.

...You can also check out Picacho Peak, distinctive as being the only place there was a Civil War battle in Arizona. Go during the spring when the wild flowers absolutely turn the area and bottom half of the peak yellow. ....

When we were in Williams, they have/had a High School band that roves the street in the evenings... at least in the summer... dressed in Union Blue uniforms. Part of their "shtick" was that there was a CW Battle fought there, in Williams. I haven't come across that in any History books, but to be fair, I haven't seen the info specific to Picacho Peak either, although I know that there was CW activity in the state.

[Cat_Doc]

Charleston is on the back road from Sierra Vista to Tombstone, right at the bridge on the river. It is on the west bank of the river, north side of the bridge, about 1/4 of a mile. All that's left right now are some small adobe walls and foundation outlines.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Army used the area for live fire artillery training during WW II and destroyed some important history in the process.

It is a rough hike and from I hear, you still have to be careful about unexploded ordinace. I only travelled along the river bank, but my wife was with me and she got tired so I did not explore much further.

The bridge area is also distinguished with a Historical Marker regarding the Mormon Battalion and the "Battle of the Bulls" during the mid 1800's. I will let you research that one so you can get the same reaction I did when I looked it up. ;)

Next time you are down, check out Fairbanks, if you haven't already, also along the river but further north by about 20 miles or so. It is protected by the Feds, but some of the 1880's buildings are still standing.

I don’t know of any true “ghost towns” still standing, although there are plenty of foundations and a few falling structures all over some the remote areas in Arizona.

I don’t have access to it right now, but I have a book about “Arizona Ghost Towns” that can put you in the right area if you want to mess around with a metal detector.

If you are planning another trip, PM me on where you will be going and I’ll be happy to help you out. (I have a very detailed mapbook of off road areas in Arizona.)

I seriously doubt the authenticity of any battles in or near Williams (west of Flagstaff on I-40) and think this must be a bad tourism thingy. :mad:

When I referred to Picacho Peak as the only Civil War battle, it was because this is where any fatalities took place. There was a previous encounter, west of Phoenix called the Stanwix Station encounter, but this was a skirmish with rapid disengagement, not really qualifying as a battle.

I have attached a reference to the “Battle of Picacho Pass.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Picacho_Pass

[Cat_Doc]

Creeker,

Since you are very interested in the same areas I am, I should mention something planned, but not yet done.

I have a buddy who is a pilot and we were planning on flying over the area between Pearce and Tombstone. There were numerous structures from ranches in the area but the road path has long since been overgrown. We were going to fly over using GPS to punch in areas where we saw structures or straight lines and go back with a 4x4 to take a look. I think that would be a great trip to take, entailing some overnight camping.

Who knows what kind of neat 1880's stuff we could find?

[Rhinod56]

Creeker,

Since you are very interested in the same areas I am, I should mention something planned, but not yet done.

I have a buddy who is a pilot and we were planning on flying over the area between Pearce and Tombstone. There were numerous structures from ranches in the area but the road path has long since been overgrown. We were going to fly over using GPS to punch in areas where we saw structures or straight lines and go back with a 4x4 to take a look. I think that would be a great trip to take, entailing some overnight camping.

Who knows what kind of neat 1880's stuff we could find?

now that is something that sounds cool, and like allot of fun.

[CACBAND]

Cat_Doc:
I seen a bit around Pinal County but never knew about all the "people" history (Wyatt and Virgil Earp and such) though I do know about many of the places you mentioned I’ve just never got around to doing much of it with work and school full-time. I did get to see a dig in Phoenix once (thanks to work) when they were working on the freeway. It was awesome seeing the Hohokam canals and ruins being excavated.
Also no worries about the “ramble,” I learned a lot just reading about the people history I didn’t know before.

[Creeker]

Cat_Doc:
I seen a bit around Pinal County but never knew about all the "people" history (Wyatt and Virgil Earp and such) though I do know about many of the places you mentioned I’ve just never got around to doing much of it with work and school full-time. ....

If you think about it, you are in a land that, unlike the east and its many overpopulated areas, has been barely settled for a century and has many land areas that I am sure hasn't seen a human foot in just as long. It is still an untamed land, unlike the midwest and east.

In many ways I envy people who are able to see your "wide open" on a daily basis.

One of the things I like about Wyoming (another favorite place) is that the state population of Wyoming is tha same as the population of the tri-county area that I live in... and SC isn't as populous as many other areas ;)

[Creeker]

Charleston is on the back road from Sierra Vista to Tombstone, right at the bridge on the river.
...Unfortunately, the U.S. Army used the area for live fire artillery training during WW II and destroyed some important history in the process.

It is a rough hike and from I hear, you still have to be careful about unexploded ordinace. ...

Sounds like a damn good thing I didn't find it... it would have been hard to explain the missing foot when I got back to the car ;)

...The bridge area is also distinguished with a Historical Marker regarding the Mormon Battalion and the "Battle of the Bulls" during the mid 1800's. I will let you research that one so you can get the same reaction I did when I looked it up. ;)

...

Looked it up. Some pretty interesting and humorous history there. I wonder if there were any WIA in that battle? :D

[Cat_Doc]

Some pretty interesting and humorous history there. I wonder if there were any WIA in that battle? :D

Looks like three wounded.

Although I laughed a bit when I first found out what happened, I got a little more serious when I thought of the real danger.

I have been chased by one of those creatures when I was a stupid kid and messed with it. I can't imagine an entire herd of pissed off wild ones going after you for invading their territory.

Battle of the Bulls

Although Battalion troops effectively stared down and intimidated the Mexican garrison stationed at Tucson resulting in the garrison's retreat, their only armed engagement of the war was with a herd of cattle. On 11 December 1846, a number of wild cattle stampeded into the rear companies, jostling wagons and scaring the pack animals, whereupon a number of the Battalion's hunters opened fire on the beasts. The eventual toll from the skirmish, immortalized as the Battle of the Bulls, was "ten to fifteen bulls killed, two mules gored to death, three men wounded."

More history on the Battalion, if interesed.

http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/pio...il_Bluffs.html

[Creeker]

...More history on the Battalion, if interesed.

http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/pio...il_Bluffs.html

That link is a veritable treasure trove of not just the history of the LDS migration, but of the severe physical costs of any Pioneer migration back then. I spent about an hour & a half reading all of the Journal entries, its very enlightening.

I've been to some of the sites mentioned, Ft. Bridger, Ft. Laramie, Independance Rock, Chimney Rock, but I don't recall ever seeing this much detail of the hardships or death toll along the way.

Thanks for that.

[Cornelius]

I have a concern. I'm 23 yrs old and want to be a police officer more than anything else. I don't have any tickets, never been arrested, no felonies no anything against me. My concern is one issue in my past. When I was younger..maybe 19 or 20..i was at a party and at the time i didn'treally have a direction in life so anyway what happended was i "think" i did coke. It was white yeah I was told it was coke but i had no reaction i wasn't buzzing around you know. Thing is, the line was if 3/4 of an inch long. I've only done it that once and that was the only " hardcore" drug I ever used..Will that disqualify me from getting hired or from attending a police academy? I live in Pinal County, so really there isn't that much here so I'm willing to work for any dep't. I just hope my stupid decision hasn't doomed me.

[Creeker]

Geez Luoise, talk about a thread hijacking!!

There are other sections of this forum dedicated to answering your question, ie Ask a Cop.

[Adamantine]

To put this back on track.

Cat, thanks for the history. Fascinating stuff! I have never really been interested in the Old West, but I do like learning new info, and am now curious about seeing a few places. Toombstone is not too far away, looks like I need to go make a trip.

I am going to have to start wandering around with a map, looking for some of these areas. Thanks again for all the intersting info!

[Rhinod56]

Geez Luoise, talk about a thread hijacking!!

There are other sections of this forum dedicated to answering your question, ie Ask a Cop.

LMAO



is anyone into rock climbing or snowboarding/skiing? Where do you usually go to do so?

We spent a short time (near closing) of some old ghost town mine East of Apache Junction I think. some interesting stuff nonetheless