Tuesday, September 15, 2009
MY WALLET HAD A HEART ATTACK & THE OLD GHOST TOWN OF GLEESON, ARIZONA
Monday, September 07, 2009
IN SEARCH OF THE THE OLD GHOST TOWN OF CHARLESTON, ARIZONA
We have always found the history of America's old west fascinating & it is one of the many things that draws us back to the southwest each winter's season. One of those interests we enjoy is searching out old ghost towns. Real old ghost towns & not the commercialized fabricated ones. Ghost towns can be disappointing if your expecting to find the Hollywood version. Sometimes it's only a pile of stones from an old wall like in Millville, other times complete buildings like an old crumbling saloon in Gleeson. Fairbank has some buidlings restored but the forgotten cemetery high on a ridge is the same as it was back in the mid 1800's. Some ghost towns are easily accessible & others can almost be almost impossible to find & hard to get to. Pearce, Gleeson, & Fairbank were all easy finds on paved roads but Millville & Charleston were much harder......especially Charleston!! ONLY CRUMBLING ADOBE WALLS LEFT OF THE TWENTY OR SO BUILDINGS
While boondocked just west of Tombstone, Arizona earlier this year we set out in search of the elusive old mining town of Charleston long hidden in the scrub & bush along the banks of the San Pedro river. We first hiked north along the San Pedro one morning from the Charleston Road but couldn't find anything. Found out later we were only about a quarter mile from finding the town. A few days later we decided on a different approach which actually began with another ghost town on the east side of the river called Millville. Click on our blog that day here..... FINDING CHARLESTON. Web album photos for that day are HERE & even more photos for the ghost town of Charleston are HERE Another thing that was very special about these ghost towns is the fact we never encountered any tourists. Tombstone is a good example of what happens to an old town when it is commercialized, but then again a lot of people like that razzle dazzle sort of Hollywood spin. We don't!! Walking through the site of an old lost ghost town & it's overgrown cemetery with only the ghosts of past residents to accompany you is quality time to us. Just the folks, your thoughts, & the desert wind. SOME OF CHARLESTON'S WILD WEST HISTORY
We later found the ghost towns & cemeteries of Gleeson, Pearce, & Fairbank in the same area. I will include those towns over the next few days. Also found the hard to find ruins of old Fort Rucker up in the Chiricahua Mountains as well & I'll include that blog & photos shortly. Our drive & hike into historic Fort Bowie through Apache Pass was another good day for us which I will also post shortly. THE CRUMBLING SALOON IN GLEESON WHERE JOHNNY RINGO WAS LAST SEEN AT THE BAR
Just so much to see & do in the American southwest & with every mile comes a new vista. No excuse for getting bored in this kind of country & the west has a real habit of growing on people & anyone we've come across traveling there.....love's it there. We met a fulltiming RV couple last winter in Yuma who are now beginning a trek across country to Florida for a wedding. They have just spent the last few months in Oregon & Colorado. This is an excerpt from DOUG & JOANNE'S blog about how they feel about having to leave the west for awhile. They were both originally Floridians.
(Quote)"Tomorrow we head out across the plains heading for Lee’s Summit Mo.(on their way to Florida) Neither of us want to leave the west and in particular Colorado. We know we are westerners at heart and love the wide open spaces and sheer beauty out here. To head back to the land of wall to wall condominiums, convenience stores at every intersection and big bill board advertising will be quite a let down for us but it will be nice to see friends and family." (Unquote)
SOMETIMES ONLY PART OF CRUMBLING STONE FOUNDATIONS ARE ALL THAT'S LEFT LIKE HERE IN MILLVILLE, AZ.
A few weeks ago or so I posted a blog about our solar system for boondocking. I had a few inquiries about that but didn't have the exact details in front of me. I came across that paperwork this afternoon so if anyone out there is interested in what you need to get set up for solar just email me & I will send you all the detailed nuts & bolts info including cost of everything. We had our solar installation done by THE SUN WORKS in Slab City, California in December 07. Solar Mike is the fellow you want to talk to.
Stayed tuned for more ghost towns in the days ahead.
FAIRBANK'S OLD FORGOTTEN CEMETERY
GROANER'S CORNER:(( What do prisoners use to call each other while in jail........Cell phones.
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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
TO-DAY WE RAMBLED AROUND IN THE GHOST TOWN OF GLEESON ARIZONA
I think it had to be one of the coldest nights we've had so far. Left a hose nozzle & sponge in a bucket overnight by mistake & this morning they were froze solid in the ice. Strangely enough the plastic nozzle didn't break & has survived to squirt another day. Cloudy to-night so maybe we'll get a little break from the frosty temperatures.
Rene & Jim rolled out this morning around 9 a.m. headed for New Mexico & Texas. They are booked into an RV park to-morrow somewhere near the Arizona & New Mexico border. They don't travel with a television in their rig so they wanted to be at the park to watch their appearance on television Sunday night Feb. 15th. The program will air on PBS & is called, Why We Love Our Cats & Dogs. Their dog Jerry, who they lost to cancer last year will be part of that show. Rene & Jim's website is http://www.liveworkdream.com/
INSIDE THE CRUMBLING SALOON
We had some DVD's to take back to the Elfrida Library this morning so we figured we would do that & head out northwest of Elfrida to the old mining & ghost town of Gleeson. It's one of those places that you could drive through & never know it was there if you weren't specifically looking for it. Spotted a few old tumbledown houses first & then the cemetery. No ghost town is complete without it's past inhabitants buried somewhere near by. The cemetery is on a slight hill at Gleeson's west end & overlooks what was once a bustling mining town of 500 people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleeson,_Arizona
The cemetery is mainly overgrown now but part of it is still being used. Small piles of rocks mark some of the gravesites while others have old iron gates surrounding them. The weather has worn names off some stones while some have crumbled into the dust. I'm sure there are many more people buried here than time remembers.
GLEESON'S CEMETERY
From the cemetery we stopped at the ruins of an old house where I took more photos. If only those old crumbling walls could talk. We saw a long white building on the north side of the road with some people standing behind it so headed over that way. It was a Jeep tour guide giving a couple of people a driving tour of the area. He was very friendly & gave us some history on Gleeson. Not sure if the gun & holster he was wearing was real or just a prop. We don't see things like that in Canada!! The long white & deteriorating building we were standing beside was once Gleeson's lively saloon. It was here that Tombstone's Johnny Ringo was last seen alive.
The building is locked up because it is crumbling & not safe to enter but we did find a small space in a front window that I was able to get my camera up against & take some photos of the interior. It wasn't until we got home & I could look at the photos that we knew what the inside looked like. Appears to have been a stage at the far end & there is a large mural clearly visible on the north wall. I'm sure this was probably a very lively & rowdy old west place in it's heyday. Afterall, it was a mining town. Part of the roof has caved in & I think the building is beyond repair which seems too bad because I'm sure it probably has some historical significance to the late 1800's. I did manage to scramble my way through the brush & have a peek into the rear of the basement but it was pretty deteriorated in there with parts of the floor coming down. If there are such things as ghosts, I think this old crumbling saloon probably has it's fair share of them.
ONLY THIS OLD JAIL HAS BEEN RESTORED
From the saloon we went a short distance up the road to the old jail which is in the process of being restored by a private party. Managed to take a few pictures of the interior through a small window in the door. All these photos I'm mentioning will be in to-days web album. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/ Across the road & up a bit is the ruins of a large building that once housed Gleeson's school in the basement & a large dance hall upstairs. This was a very solidly built building with a lot of concrete in it. Probably the center of a lot of Saturday night dances years ago. One can only imagine the outcome of those nights where guns & alcohol to-gether were commonplace. FORMER SCHOOL & DANCE HALL
Our last stop before leaving Gleeson was the old adobe ruins of the hospital. Just some sections of walls standing with long gaunt windows in them. Couldn't help but think of all the pain & suffering that must have taken place inside these walls many years ago. There appeared to be a large round well on the south side of the hospital as well. In the distance I could see where the mining operations had taken place & wondered how many mine accident victims would have been brought down out of those hills by cart or horseback to this very hospital. GLEESON'S HOSPITAL
It is so hard to comprehend how people lived & died years ago in these small mining towns scattered throughout the southwest. But, at least some of that history is still here for people to see if they are interested. And it is what's left of these small towns that is the true history of the west. A lot of people come to see Tombstone Arizona thinking that is the original old west but Tombstone has become so commercialized that it is nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction there. If there is any originality left, it is lost in all the glitz & Hollywood glamour. If you want to see the true old west as it once was you have to get out & hunt down these little ghost towns scattered over the desert sands. But, be prepared to be disappointed if your expecting to see what you have so long been watching in Hollywood movies. You will come face to face with the reality of time & it's effects on man's history. So, bottom line......if you want to see a Hollywood ghost town, go to Tombstone. If you want to see the real McCoys, get your driving map out, get your hiking boots on & search out places like, Gleeson, Pearce, Fairbanks, Charleston, Millville, & countless others in this area. Last year in New Mexico we found places like Chloride & Hillsboro just to mention a couple. In California last December it was the mining town of Tumco.
http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/83THELITTLEWESTERNTOWNATTHEENDOFTHEROAD
http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/82THROWINGSNOWBALLSINTHEEMORYPASS
http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/THEOLDTUMCOMININGSITE
We were back to the ranch by 1 & spent the rest of the afternoon resting up from our ghost town venture in the morning. Next week we'll go have us a look at what's left of the town of Pearce. More old ruins, more old cemeteries & more old ghosts.......................
THEY SAY THERE ARE MANY GHOSTS HERE
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Friday, January 30, 2009
LISTENING TO ROY ROGERS & THE SON'S OF THE PIONEERS
Being parked on a large slab of concrete is sure helpful in keeping the motorhome a bit cleaner. Four dusty boots & 12 dusty paws can sure haul a lot of the old west into the rig in a hurry. There was some kind of mining operation on this hill years ago with a bunch of concrete pads poured for buildings. The buildings are long gone but the slabs are still here making for a great boondocking spot. Even though we have a mat & doggy bed outside for Checkers on the concrete, she always manages to find a pile of dirt to flop in & laze the sunny days away. I call her the old dust bucket dog. AFTERNOON SIESTA FOR THE BIG DUST BUCKET DOG
It was nice to look out our window this morning & see 5 cows standing outside the rig looking back at us. Across the valley the sun was lighting up the Huachuca mountain range just west of Sierra Vista. Heard a couple of ravens somewhere nearby & the sounds of the cows moooooing down by the water tank sure made for a nice morning. The warming rays of the morning sun soon pushed the night's cold air off down the valley & we had the start of another beautiful day here in southeastern Arizona.
Broke my garden rake on some tough ground while making a new firepit but with a little duct tape & a band-it clamp I had it back in operation good as new. Kelly headed into Sierra Vista around 9:30 & I was sooooooo glad she let me stay here at the camp. Groceries, laundry, & of course, the shopping thing was just not up my alley. Plus, when your traveling like this in an RV it's good for each other to have their own space at times. So, it didn't me long to get a campfire going & haul out my favorite old western CD. Slipped it into the rigs CD player, cranked up the volume & stretched out on the lounge chair outside as "The Sons of the Pioneers" took me back to days long ago in the old wild west. Blue Shadows On The Trail, Ghost Riders In The Sky, Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Along The Santa Fe Trail, Red River Valley, Wagon Wheels, Moonlight On The Prairies, Peace In The Valley, Rainbow's End, Along The Navajo Trail, Empty Saddles In The Old Corral, Cool Water, I'm An Old Cow Hand From The Rio Grande just to name a few. And of course my favorite, Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie. The Sons of the Pioneers have a beautiful harmony & their rendition of this song is superb.
LISTENING TO MY OLD WILD WEST TUNES
We are camped in the Tombstone Hills & the old west town of Tombstone is only about 3 miles over the hills to the northeast. While listening to these songs one wonders about the characters who lived & died there back in the 1800's. Charleston is just down the road with it's own wild west history as is other small ghost towns nearby. As I look out over the hills nearby I can almost see the riders on horseback making their way through the sage & mesquite along dusty trails between the ranches & towns. They may have passed over this very spot where I'm sitting here typing this. Cochise & Geronimo roamed these hills & the U.S. Cavalry was based about 9 miles from here at Fort Huachuca. This area is rich in American history, legends, ghost towns, & wandering spirits. Over the next month or so we hope to visit many of these places & with a bit of luck, maybe feel the legendary spirits of the old west .
Kelly made it back from Sierra Vista around 3:30 with lots of groceries, a new doggy toy for the gang, & a couple of new T-shirts for me. The T-shirts had been marked down 75% at Marshalls. Most of my T-shirts look like they've taken a heavy load of buckshot:(( They haven't:))
HOISTED UP OUR COLORS TO-DAY
The temperatures started falling around 5 so we retreated indoors & that was about it for another day. No idea where we're headed to-morrow yet, but I hope it's another canyon hike somewhere.................. THE WHETSTONE MOUNTAIN RANGE
No, this is not a vacation.....this is a lifestyle:))
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
TO-DAY WE FOUND THE RUINS OF CHARLESTON ARIZONA
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 28/09 (Computer seized up a couple times Wednesday night so couldn't upload the blog. About half the web albums made it & I'm uploading the rest of the pictures right now....Thursday morning)
A chance encounter with the older couple while on our walk this morning led to some better information as to where the elusive ghost town of Charleston could be found. We had been close the day before, but not close enough so we decided to go back this morning & have us another look.
Started off on the other side of the San Pedro river this time heading for another ghost town called Millville. Charleston & Millville were separated only by the river but Millville was going to be much easier to find because of paths, directions, & reader boards. The brochures & the BLM officer yesterday told us there wasn't anything left of Charleston except a few old adobe foundations. That information is misleading. The brochures also state there is more left of Millville than there really is. Again misleading. It's obvious the BLM authority do not want people finding the ruins of Charleston so all the emphasis is put on the Millville ruins..........of which there isn't much left aside from a few old stone foundations scattered amongst the thick underbrush. The Gird House is one of the few recognizable foundations left.
SPLASHING ACROSS THE SAN PEDRO & THE CEMENT BRIDGE CULVERT UNDER THE RAIL BED
http://clantongang.com/oldwest/charles3.htm
http://www.azkatz.net/Sites/Quiz/Lesson1.html
We finally left Charleston to it's ghosts & memories around 1:30 & headed back to the river. Off with the shoes & socks & away we went again, tippy toeing through the shallow & icy cold waters of the San Pedro. Shoes & socks back on, up the bank & through the graffiti infested cement culvert to a wide wash on the other side. Followed this back for aways until we picked up the Millville trail again which in turn led us back to the parking lot & our car. We had been gone about three & a half hours. Boy, was it great to sit down in those comfy car seats at last.
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