A Little Bit of God's Country

God's Country extends from just south of Casa Grande, Arizona to the Mexican border and east to the New Mexico boundary. It contains such wonders as Tucson, San Xavier Mission, Tumacacori, Tubac. Nogales and numerous others. This post will take in several places not touched on by me before.

The first of these is Kartchener Caverns State Park located near Benson. Kartchener Caverns is a living limestone cave discovered by two spelunkers in 1974 who were investigating a crack in the ground on a hillside. They worked with a local rancher, the Kartchener family on whose land the cave was found, to turn it over to the State of Arizona if the State would agree to make a State park out of it and do everything necessary to preserve it. This was agreed on finally and the State developed it into a State park, while preserving the caverns. In order to protect the cave, the entrance is through an airlock, which helps preserve the moisture in the cave. Access is limited and cameras, bags, etc not allowed in. The cave is much like a living organism; stalactites and stalagmites are still growing. The first photo below is of the airlock entrance with a people mover train outside. The second is of the Big Room in the cave. It is the only photo I could find that was not copyright protected. They have started doing a few tours for photographers(personal use only), limited to 15, for $175 per head. A little steep for my blood. Oh, well. It is a great place to visit-I highly recommend it.

Tombstone is about 50 miles or so southeast of Kartchener Caverns. Tombstone is anything but a ghost town even if it is the town made famous by Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and the OK Corral. It is somewhat touristed up but fun nevertheless. The first photograph shows some of the old buildings. The second one is of the Courthouse. Tombstone was the first county seat of Cochise County. After the big mines got going in Bisbee it was moved to Bisbee, where it is today.

The next two shots are of Allen Street, which back in the day was the main street. In the first one you will note the OK Corral on the left. The site of the gunfight was in a vacant lot next to the livery stable named the OK Corral. Back when I was a college student and working some in Tombstone it was still a vacant lot with a small sign that said it was the site of the famous gunfight. Now it is enclosed with a high fence, and bleachers are installed so one can watch re-enactments of the gunfight. For a price, of course.

One of my favorite places in Tombstone is Boot Hill Cemetery. It is pretty much the way I remember it. The grave markers shown below are my favorites, including the McLaury-Clanton burials from the OK Corral gunfight.

This next photo is taken from Boot Hill looking northeast. The rocky mountain in the left center of the picture is Sheep's Head Mountain. I had a friend who had a nice ranch there; it ran into the mountains. The other side of the mountain gets you to Pearce and the Sulphur Springs Valley and the Chiracahua country.

Bisbee is located about 40 miles southeast of Tombstone and is/was a mining town. A huge copper mine was located there, both an open pit called the Lavender Pit and an underground mine called the Copper Queen.Both were owned and operated by the Phelps Dodge mining Co. In the 1960's or early 70's the mine shut and Bisbee threatened to become a ghost town. Hippies discovered it and moved in in droves. Now it's sort of an artists' colony. Fun place.

Below is a photo of the Lavender Pit. You can stop active mining, but there's not a hell of a lot you can do with this size hole in the ground.

Below is the Copper Queen Hotel. Good food, good place to stay. It was built by Phelps Dodge in 1898-1902 to provide a place for the big shots from the East to stay. It's rumored to be haunted.

Below is a typical miner's house. Bisbee is built in a canyon in the Mule Mountains; many of these houses do not have streets that you can drive on to get to them. I owned one in the late 70's that my wife wanted to use as a studio.

The last time I was at the Copper Queen the front desk clerk recognized me and reminded me that she had been our receptionist at the Cochise County Health Department when I was the Director. The County condemned the old high school as unsafe and gave it to the Health Department for use as our offices. The first photo below is of the main entrance to the high school; the second one shows the entrance to my office. My actual office was a class room with only my desk in the middle of the room with an electrical outlet and a phone.

I think the manhole cover shown below is handsome and reminds me of some of the things I was responsible for as Health Department Director.

The three photos below are of a car in a parking lot in Bisbee decked out as a campaign advertisement for Hillary Clinton for 2016. What the stuff on top is or what relevance it has to Hillary I haven't the slightest idea.

Heading due west from Bisbee about 40 miles you come to the western end of the Huachuca mountains, barely on the American side of the US-Mexico border. At the southern tip of the mountains is Coronado National Monument. It is thought that Coronado, the Spanish explorer came this way in about 1540. There is a road that leads to the top of a pass, with good views to the southeast towards Douglas and Mexico, the first photo below,  and a good view to the northwest towards Baboquivari Mountain and my old cattle ranching area, the second photo below.

No trip to God's Country is complete without a stop at Molina's Midway, the best Mexican restaurant in the Southwest. They are located in Tucson on N. Belvedere , one half block north of Speedway. One does not go to Tucson on Mondays; Molina's is closed on Monday. There is a rumor going around that the OWH camped in their parking lot for three days and then claimed they had been camping in the Chiracahuas all that time. May not be true, but it would be one good idea!

Canyonlands-Elephant Hill, Silver Stairs, Confluence, Angel Arch

Canyonlands--Elephant Hill, Silver Stairs, Confluence, Angel Arch

 

The main entrance to Canyonlands is from the east side of the Colorado, a little ways south of Moab, Utah. A few miles in the pavement ends and you have three choices--walk, 4 wheel drive or go back out. If you decide to 4 wheel it, you can go south (sometimes) down Salt Creek(see previous posts) or you can go west towards the Colorado River. The sign below gives you the mileage to various points on the west bound Jeep road.

On this particular occasion I was mostly interested in seeing the Confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. This was in 1971; I drove a Ford Bronco complete with winch.

The first part of the road requires one to navigate Elephant Hill, followed by the Silver Stairs. I'm not sure if the photos of the trail are in order but there isn't a lot of difference as I recall between the two hills. Below is the start of Elephant Hill, I think. One really needs a small vehicle like a Jeep Wrangler or old Ford Bronco to make this work. A friend of mine claimed to have done it in a Jeep Wagoneer but I don't know how she did it. Yes, that is the road. I understand the Park Service has added some cement here and there, but I haven't seen it with my own eyes.

This is the top of a ridge beginning the descent down the other side.

The two photos below show the Bronco stopped, probably with me deciding if I really wanted to do this. Apparently I did because I kept going and eventually made it back in one piece.

 The photo below shows part of the Silver Stairs.

I am not sure if the next two photos are Silver Stairs or Elephant  Hill. In the bottom one you can see the winch mounted on the front bumper. Fortunately I used it a lot more in snow country than I ever did in this sort of rough desert country. A very good thing to have on your vehicle in off road conditions.

The next two signs show how some turns are in this area. They are so tight that you have to back around them.

 The photo below shows the road headed towards Chesler Park, which I have never explored much beyond right here. After Elephant Hill and the Silver Stairs it looked and felt like an interstate freeway.

 
Below is the Confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. The Colorado is the one on the right, and is darker in color than the Green. John Wesley Powell's Grand Canyon Expedition started on the Green, above here at Green River, Utah. Just below here on the top of the west canyon wall is the Doll's House(see blog post of  11/6/13). Just south of the Doll's House is one of the nastiest stretches of white water on the whole Colorado, Cataract Canyon.

On this expedition I also went down Salt Creek to Angel Arch, which is in a side canyon on the east side of Salt Creek. There is a campground at the junction of Salt Creek and Angel Arch canyon, where I have camped several times. I have hiked up to Angel Arch more than once. The first photo below is in the vicinity of Angel Arch and shows an arch with a very thin bridge. I have never known the name of this arch, and have not seen it on a map. I read that an arch collapsed is this area fairly recently and I am wondering if this is that arch. The next photo is scenery near Angel Arch.

Below is Angel Arch. I have never been there under decent lighting conditions. Unfortunately this was the best I could do. Not too bad.

Photographic notes---These were all taken with a Mamiya-Sekor 1000DTL 35mm SLR, with a Mamiya 55mm lens. I am not sure of the film. They were scanned using a Konica Minolta Dimage Scan Elite 5400II film scanner using SilverFast scanning software. Post processing was in Photoshop, with some 3rd party plugins..

Veteran's Day and a Little Bit of England

At the beginning of World War II the Brits were running short of fuel, training aircraft, pilots, and airfields on which to train new pilots. They did have an abundance of lousy weather, which was not helpful for pilot training. Churchill asked Roosevelt if the United States could help by providing training fields, fuel and aircraft on which to train pilots. Roosevelt agreed and as a result six fields were established in the United States, called British Flying Training Schools(BFTS). BFTS No. 4 was built east of Mesa, Arizona and called Falcon Field, at the Brits request. The first cadets reported in September 1941. BTFS No. 4 operated until the end of the war in 1945. Some 2500 cadets went through flight training at Falcon Field. Of this number 23 were killed in training accidents and are buried in  a small section of the Mesa Cemetery. Six Americans also died during this time.

Every year a memorial ceremony is held at this site on the Sunday before Veteran's Day. We have attended several and always found them very moving Yesterday was no exception.

The photo below shows the area where the Brits are buried with the wreaths in place. This section is maintained extremely well.

This monument is at the south end of the section, next to the road. The names of the 23 cadets are on  a plaque on one side of the stone.

The Mesa Caledonian Pipe Band marched down the road before the start and took their place just east of the section, as shown below.

 There were several speakers but my favorite was the man shown below, a British cadet who attended BTFS No. 4.

There were several flyovers of vintage aircraft. The first photo below is of Stearman PT-17 biplanes in which the cadets at Falcon Field trained. The second photo is of  North American Aviation AT-6s, also used by cadets at Falcon Field. One of these groups flew over in the "missing man' formation.

I do not know what the aircraft are in the next two photos.

The first photo below is of a B-17  and the second photo shows a B-25. The Commemorative Air Force, based at Falcon Field is now the sponsor of this memorial event and supplied the aircraft, pilots and the flyovers.

 There were a number of wreaths placed during the memorial. The first photo below shows the wreath of Her Majesty's Government being placed by a Royal Navy Officer and a member of the British Consulate's office from Los Angeles, followed by a closeup of the wreath after placement.

The photo below shows the wreath of the Daughters of the British Empire, Arizona Chapter, being placed.

I am not sure to whom the wreath in the first photo below belongs. The wreath in the second photo is from Active Duty RAF Personnel, and is being placed by an RAF officer.

The laying of the wreaths was followed by a 21 gun salute by an American Legion squad, shown in the first photo below, and then by a bugler playing the British Tatoo(Last Post) followed by Taps, shown in the second photo below. I did okay until Taps; in a setting like this Taps always makes me teary eyed.

Following a benediction, the colors were retired, shown below.

We went back to the cemetery today and looked more closely at the inscriptions on the individual head stones. This one really got to me. Their only son killed and buried 5000+ miles from home.

We also visited my Father and Mother's graves, not far from this section in the same cemetery. Somehow it's fitting that as allies they should be buried nearby.