We haven’t seen much of the surrounding sights yet, so we decided to go see the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. It took about an hour to get there. We passed several cotton fields along the way, some of which were being picked. They don’t pick them by hand anymore, of course. Big machines pick the cotton and pack it into huge bales the size and shape of a semi-truck load. So at the end of the picking, it looks like several white trucks have parked their loads out in the fields. In spite of the modern machinery, I find there is something about these cotton fields that makes me think of the past, and feel connected to it. Cotton, one way or another, has been cultivated across this country for countless generations. I’m sure the plants have been refined along the way, but they look basically like they always have and therefore, like the ruins, connect us for a moment to the people of history.
I wasn’t sure what to expect at the ruins; I thought they might be like the cliff dwellings which are found elsewhere in Arizona, but this was different. This is basically a single, fairly large building sitting in the middle of a bare, flat plain, but it was very interesting. According to the historical notes, this was the first archeological find to be protected by the US government. It is reported to be 4 stories tall, but it has been weathered and vandalized to the point where there are really only about 3 stories. To protect it from further decay, a huge, free-standing roof has been built over it, protecting it from the sun and rain, and probably decreasing the wind’s impact. The building looks like it’s made from adobe, but I think they used a different technique. You can walk right up to it and all around it, but not inside. Since some of the outside walls and most of the roof are gone, you can see inside most of the room structures. According to the notices around the building, a colony of bats have recently settled inside the building, and they have tested positive for rabies. However, there is a “very low” risk of contracting it – that’s nice to know! We didn’t see any bats, just a sleepy owl in the rafters.
The building sits in the center of what archeologists say is a living complex. There is a low wall around the complex (weathered down to 1-2 feet), as well as partial walls of some of the small houses that were built just inside the wall. I thought it was pretty cool that so much had survived, but then we noticed that the outside wall was sitting on a concrete pad. All of the extra buildings and ruins are reconstructions! Oh, well, at least they did a nice job of it.
Across the road from the building they have excavated an oval depression which they call a ball court. It might be one, but it’s much smaller than the ball court we saw in the Bahamas. This was about twice the size of our RV, in terms of volume. There are several small holes in the ground out there. I am not sure what created them – it could be ground squirrels or ground owls. Either one is small enough to make those holes, I was just hoping they weren't made by snakes!
Randy bought a couple of books at the ranger station. One is about edible desert plants, and one is a prickly pear cookbook. Prickly pear cacti are supposed to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, so it’s worth a try.
It was still early in the afternoon when we were ready to leave, so we drove north to part of the Apache Trail. We’ve been there before, when Randy worked in Phoenix for Boeing, but everything has been built up since then. We stopped at the Lost Dutchman park first. It’s on the foothills of Superstition Mountain. The story is that back in the days of the gold rush, a Dutch miner kept bringing a fortune in gold to town, but he wouldn’t tell anyone where his mine was (smart guy!). Whenever he headed back to the mine, he shot at folks who tried to follow him. Eventually he fell sick and on his deathbed tried to tell someone where the mine was, but he couldn’t give clear directions before he died. A lot of folks tried to find the mine but couldn’t. Randy and I didn’t understand why, with today’s’ technology, the mine still hasn’t been found, but then one of the storekeepers (in Goldfield) said that the whole area around Superstition Mountain is owned by the government, and they won’t let anyone search for it. Apparently several years ago they did approve one expedition for 90 days. That expedition did find a mine, but they had to do the work by hand – no blasting on government property – and they ran out of time before they could get enough excavated to know if that was THE mine.
This area has a lot of old (or reconstructed) building, and a small stage coach that looks like it would have been awfully uncomfortable to ride in. The locale used to be used as a movie set quite a lot – mostly for grade B westerns. Some movie actors left their footprints in concrete squares and signed the wet cement (along the lines of Grauman‘s Chinese Theater). Several buildings burned down several years ago, but the concrete blocks were rescued and are currently displayed in a large barn. The barn also includes a display of barbed wire – I didn’t know there were so many kinds of barbed wire in existence.
As you can imagine, this was pretty exciting stuff. However, the most exciting thing is the Elvis Presley Memorial Chapel. Apparently Elvis’s movie “Charo” was partially filmed in this chapel. So, to commemorate that historic event, inside the chapel are western movie posters all along the walls and a life-size cutout of Elvis in front of the pews (but not, fortunately, in the pulpit).
We sampled some prickly pear candy in one of the stores, and headed further down the Apache Trail.
Next stop – Goldfield Ghost Town. This is advertized as a real ghost town, and I do believe some of the buildings are probably from the original old mining town. But it has not been left to the ghosts. The buildings are converted to stores (very nice stores; we bought some stuff), and they are adding more “old” buildings. An old-looking chapel has been added, and it looks like they are working on another building that sits at a pretty steep slope sideways. That’s probably to capture the authentic “ghost town” look. Still, I plan to come back when the tourist season is fully open – this looks like a great way to spend an afternoon. And Superstition Mountain is so beautiful!
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