Aloha all,
when the Spaniards first came to what is now Southern Arizona and New Mexico, they were looking for the fabled “Seven Cities of Gold”. They found none.
When we came here, almost 500 years later, we weren’t looking for anything in particular, but we found seven funky towns and seven more weird and wonderful places, all just north of the border. We also ventured to a town south of the border. That was surprisingly pleasant, but neither weird nor wonderful.
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| Some places were weird enough that we would have fit in better with this instead of Joy |
I know that not everybody has the time to read a long blog post. So here is a list of the 14 weird and wonderful places we saw in the past two weeks. Depending on your level of interest, this might make you want to read the rest or confirm that it’s ok to skip to the pictures and move on with your day:
Gila Wilderness, America’s first Wilderness
City of Rocks, which looks like a city built of rocks
Faywood Hotsprings, a desert oasis
Silver City, where Main Street became “The Big Ditch”
Shakespeare Ghost Town, kept alive by one family
Chiracahua NM, a remote version of Bryce Canyon
Douglas, the most surprising place to find hundreds of ‘Last Suppers’
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area, where even we became birders
Bisbee, the town saved by hippies
Coronado National Memorial, which has little to do with Coronado
Tombstone, ‘The town too tough to die.’
Kartchner Caverns, the most ‘living’ cave we know
Tumacacori & Tubac, Spanish settlements with a mixed legacy
Titan Missile Museum - one brown sign and we were back in the Cold War
One hundred years ago, in 1924, the Gila Wilderness became the first area in America to be designated as a wilderness. We only scratched the surface of this vast area, mostly untouched by modern civilization. Ironically, the Gila Wilderness was very much inhabited by native tribes centuries ago. The Gila Cliff Dwellings rival those of Mesa Verde. We went to the tamest part of the wilderness because, to be honest, we prefer easy strolls to cliff dwellings and soaking in natural hot springs over weeklong expeditions into the real wilderness.
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| Gila Cliff Dwellings |
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| Natural hot springs in the Gila Wilderness |
The City of Rocks is very aptly named. Created by a big volcanic eruption about 35 million years ago, cracks in the rock eroded in a pattern very similar to streets in a city. Walking through the rock formations is not unlike walking through the canyons formed by skyscrapers in Manhattan. It’s just not as crowded and you can camp at the edge of the city.
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| Our campsite at the City of Rocks |
We went to the Faywood Hotsprings, even though we knew we would not like it as much as our beloved hot springs in Truth or Consequences. But soaking in hot water under the bright stars of the New Mexico desert is still pretty fabulous, even if there is no hammock in the pool. Since it’s clothing optional, you probably appreciate that there are no pictures from there.
You can probably guess what led to the founding of Silver City. Like most mining towns, it was not well planned, but basically became a boom town overnight when silver was discovered. In their haste to build a city for the miners, they forgot to consult with my brother. As a hydrologist, he could have warned them, that their main street was right in the way of a storm water runoff, especially if you deforest the mountains around the town. They fought the erosion for a while, but after about 30 years, Mother Nature won and turned their Main Street into the now 55 feet deep ‘Big Ditch’ running through the middle of town.
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| 1902 photo of Main Street in Silver City. Today, the Big Ditch is a green city park. |
Over the years, Silver City embraced the unusual feature. The first word that came to my mind to describe Silver City today is ‘funky’. Maybe the funkiest place we had been to until we came to Bisbee the following week.
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| Funky, weird and colorful Silver City, NM |
The “Shakespeare Ghost Town” is right outside of Lordsburg, which from our brief experience is well on the way to become a ghost town as well. Shakespeare had a very colorful history under several different names; with several mining booms and just as many busts. For almost a century, it is now being preserved mostly by one family. You have to applaud the dedication and enthusiasm: The same guy who keeps the historic buildings from falling down is also the tour guide seven days a week. And not only did he give us a three hour long tour, even though nobody else showed up, but we got to spend the night right outside the gates of the ghost town.
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| The Shakespeare Ghost Town |
We had been to Chiracahua National Monument 18 years ago, so you would think we knew what to expect, but we were still amazed by this gem of a park. After our first hike through the amazing rock formations, we extended our stay at the campground and did another longer hike the next day. It very much reminds me of Bryce Canyon.
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| Chiracahua National Monument, Bryce Canyon's distant cousin |
The sandstone formations at Bryce have fancier colors, but the “tuff” rock at Chiricahua makes even more amazing shapes and will probably last longer, too. We might have to come back in another 18 years to verify that.
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| Weird & Wonderful rock formations at Chiracahua |
The border town of Douglas has seen better days. It’s not a ghost town, but when you walk into the Gadsen Hotel, it’s pretty clear that this used to be a different kind of city.
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| Staircase at the somewhat out of place Gadsen Hotel in Douglas |
Today, you would not expect a grandiose hotel like The Gadsen in Douglas, neither would I have expected to see hundreds of versions of “The Last Supper” here. They have a very fun little museum that collects a wide variety of The Last Supper, any material, any interpretation and from anywhere in the world. They have hundreds of works on display and thousands more in the collection. Needless to say that their collection now also includes a picture of the 2017 winner of the Halloween costume contest in Lahaina.
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| The Last Slippers at the Last Supper Museum |
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| Not all renditions are as authentic as "Leonardo's Workshop" at Lahaina's Halloween |
From Douglas, we took a short stroll to Aqua Prieta on the Mexican side for lunch. This was the most casual of our four short excursions into Mexico so far. Last time we crossed the Mexican border in El Paso and it was a bit scary. But here, it was very easy and not scary at all. In fact, we crossed the border with several unaccompanied school kids that were probably 7 or 8 years old. There was not even the threat of ending up in a tourist trap for lunch. Since there are hardly any tourists in Douglas or in Aqua Prieta, they don’t bother setting up any traps. But even though the restaurant we ate at was definitely a place for locals, to be honest, the Mexican food there was not that great.
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| Somehow, the border is a little friendlier between Douglas and Aqua Prieta |
We are no birders, but when we heard that the sandhill cranes had arrived at the Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area and that they allow overnight parking, we went to check it out. There were probably about 10,000 sandhill cranes and hundreds of yellow-headed blackbirds flew in formation over our heads. It was quite the spectacle, even for not-so-serious birders.
Our first stop in Arizona was the unique, weird and wonderful town of Bisbee. Copper mining was the big business here. Or, even better: Catering to the copper miners. Supposedly, the richest man in town was a Swiss immigrant who ran the local brewery, as we learned on our tour of the historic Muheim House.
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| Open copper mine pit in Bisbee, Arizona |
We were impressed how friendly our tour guide was (since nobody else showed up that day we got another private three hour tour). But over the next two days, we found out that everybody in Bisbee is that nice, residents and fellow visitors alike. If you don’t believe me, just go to the local brewery and sit at the bar for a while.
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| Our new Bisbee friends |
Bisbee really is a special kind of town, which might be explained by its history: When the copper boom ended and the town was on the decline, until hippies and artists moved in. Instead of a depressed ghost town, Bisbee became a very artsy and now touristy town with a very lively, friendly atmosphere….and even funkier than Silver City.
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| Part of the "Bisbee 1,000", a trail with over 1000 steps through the fun town of Bisbee |
The Coronado National Memorial is a park along the Arizona/Mexico border that is supposed to memorialize the Coronado Expedition from 1540-42. That’s when around 1,000 men traveled about 4,000 miles from Mexico through the American Southwest to claim the fabled “Seven Cities of Gold” for the Spanish crown. This was a much larger undertaking than the Lewis & Clark Expedition, but the Coronado expedition is much less known since they never found any of the cities of gold. To be honest, the exhibits on the expedition were rather disappointing and chances are that Coronado never even came through this area at all. But two hikes made the trip to this park well worth it: One short hike to a 600 foot deep cave where, to our surprise, we were allowed to go spelunking on our own. Afterwards we did a longer hike to the mountains along the border with a beautiful view into Mexico.
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| Hobby Spelunker at Coronado Cave |
Tombstone claims to be “the town too tough to die”. It’s the quintessential wild west town. It must have been a pretty tough town in the early days as a territory in the late 1800’s,. They had notorious gunfights, a high stakes poker game that lasted over 8 years, mining booms & busts, fires, Indian attacks, prostitution, hangings…you get the picture if you have ever seen a western. Today, it’s a cute tourist town and feels more like a movie set than a town.
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| The Wild West in Tombstone |
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| One does not dress like the others.... |
The Kratchner Caverns are the ‘most living’ caves we have ever visited. That’s because they were discovered only 50 years ago and they were discovered by two guys who were more interested in preservation than in maximizing their profits. The caverns were made into show caves, but under much stricter rules than we have seen in other caves. Visitors go through multiple air locks, get sprayed with mist and are not even allowed to bring in cell phones. All that is supposed to help that the formations are still growing.To be honest, I think the cell phone rule is more to ensure that the guests pay attention and enjoy the moment, rather than taking 100 pictures, which I definitely would have done.
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| Photography was not allowed in the Kartchner Caverns, so you'll have to believe us that the formations were just as pretty as this sunset in Tombstone |
Tumacacori National Historical Park preserves one of the settlements in Southern Arizona that was transformed by the arrival of Spanish missionaries. The legacy of this transformation is a mixed bag: Compared to other places we have visited, the natives were treated somewhat better. Many native Americans seem to have embraced the modern technologies and even the new religious believes somewhat voluntarily, especially during the first years, when Jesuit priests were in charge of the missions. But the missionaries still brought European diseases and arrogantly replaced cultural traditions. And things got even worse when the Jesuits were replaced themselves, basically for being to nice to the natives and not nice enough to the Spanish king.
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| Catholic mission church in Tumacacori |
Just a little further north, the Tubac Presidio was a Spanish fort that became the first European Settlement in what is now Arizona. We ended up talking to one of the curators at the historical site for hours, about the history of the area, the election and life in general. They also allowed us to overnight at the park and recommended a super fun Mexican restaurant. The town of Tubac seems to be an art mecca. There are galleries, studios and public art displays everywhere. We stayed a little longer the next day to walk around town, even though we were more interested in food than art.
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| 1 of 1,000 artsy places in Tubac |
Yesterday, we were on our way to see yet another mission, but then there was a brown sign on the side of the road. Those always get our attention. This one was for the Titan Missile Museum and within a matter of minutes we changed our plans from mission to missile. Instead of learning more about the missions when this area was still under Spanish rule in the 1600’s and 1700’s, we learned more about the missiles from the Cold War from the 1960’s to 1980’s.
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| Control center at the Titan Missile silo, the room where it could have happened, |
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| Decommissioned Titan II Missile |
After the weird and wonderful small towns along the border, we are now heading to the bigger cities of Tucson, Phoenix and then Las Vegas. But let’s see whether there are any other brown signs along the way.
And that’s the news from Lake North-of-the-Border, where all the miners were strong, not all the history was good looking; and all the places are funkier than average.
Aloha,
Chris & Sandra
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