Spring is quickly disappearing into Summer. I thought it might be fun to look back on the past 10 week or so in which we’ve had several fine adventures … all within an hour or so of Tucson.

A month earlier, this was a scene of desolation. Now with their new spring leaves, these gnarled old mesquite trees proudly provide shade for picnics at Agua Caliente Park on a warm April Sunday.

Turtles bask in the warm spring sunshine in one of the 3 ponds at Agua Caliente Park.

Kannally Ranch Home at Oracle State Park. On weekends, guided tours are free.

Early morning fishing at Patagonia Lake.

An abandoned building near the east entrance of Aravaipa Canyon.

This model train is in the front yard of a Tucson residence … one of 10 on the railroad-themed home tour. Very elaborate setups. For scale, this engine is about 14 inches long.

Redington Pass east of Tucson. Worst road in Southern Arizona. The Friends of Redington Pass have been working to clean up the area with some success. The San Pedro River Valley is the green strip in the distance.

Fairbank Post Office is closed. Only ghosts live here now.

Fairbank fiddlers at a gathering to celebrate the old town on the San Pedro River near Tombstone.

Crossing Aravaipa Creek in March before the trees had their new spring leaves.

Southern Arizona Guide has over 50 original videos and a dozen slide shows about the most interesting places and people in Baja Arizona. To view some, go to SouthernArizonaGuide.com > Main Menu > Home > Our Videos / Slideshows.

Take one of the many tours offered by Into The West Jeep Tours and Mark and his crew will transport you back in time to the Old West of Cochise, Geronimo, Johnny Ringo, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday.  If you’re planning to visit Tombstone, these back country excursions are highly recommended.

You will not only see the rugged beauty of Cochise County from vantage points few get to experience. These jeep tours can also take you to historic sites and real ghost town, such as Fairbank, Gleeson, & Pearce.

On a pleasant Thursday in March (2013) Richard, my driver & guide, drove me through the hills above Tombstone to see the mining district that made hard-rock miners, like Ed Schieffelin, unimaginably rich almost overnight. As well-versed as I am on the history of this area and as many old mines as I have explored in my younger days, Richard explained a great deal that I had been unaware of. His shared knowledge was indeed an advanced history lesson taught by a man who is clearly passionate about his subject. He made the tour both enjoyable and enlightening.

We were in an open-air jeep that Mark had modified to handle the demands of the rocky, uneven roads up there. What had been a standard Jeep with stick-shift and 6-cylender engine was now an automatic with a powerful V-8 outfitted with some serious tread. This high-clearance beast could go anywhere it could get traction.

That said, they also have enclosed 4-wheel drive vehicles for those who want to see the Old West in climate-controlled comfort.

Into The West has several standard tours that take 2 to 4 hours and cost anywhere from about $55 to $95 per person. But they can easily create custom tours to suit the occasion, including weddings, cookouts, and outlaw shootouts.

Coming Soon
Coming up on April 13^th (2013) is their 3^rd Annual Cowboy Cookout & Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry with live Western music, beer garden street dance, & gunfight show at Doc Holliday’s Gunfight Palace. You can make reservations by calling 520-559-2151.

Death In A Tombstone Saloon: circa 1882.

Speaking of Doc’s, many of these Jeep tours include a half-hour gunfight in a mock 1880’s saloon on Allen Street near the Bird Cage Theater. These theatrics are what tourists want to see. However having seen many, I can attest that this one is by far the most realistic.

For more on Tombstone, check out our Southern Arizona Guide’s Tombstone Section, including my 1881 video interviews with Virgil Earp and Tom McLaury. Also, if you’re interested in some of the ghost towns you an visit on these Jeep tours, check out our Ghost Towns section.

In the Old West, a town was not official without a Post Office. Gleeson became official when the Post Office opened here in 1900, the same year Irishman John Gleeson discovered large deposits of copper nearby.

Mines Above The Ghost Town of Gleeson

Prior to Geronimo’s fourth and final surrender, the area surrounding what would become the town of Gleeson was claimed by the Apaches. Prior to the 1880′s, any lone prospector would have to have had a death wish to search for riches in these hills. The Navajo mined turquoise here, but they had to negotiate with the Apaches to do so.

With the discovery of copper, Gleeson grew quickly. Between 1900 and mid-1920′s Gleeson had a dozen saloons and restaurants, a fine hospital, a schoolhouse, even a theater. During these years, the population was as much as 1,000. More than half were Mexicans who worked the mines.

Like all mining boom towns, Gleeson had its lawless element. In the its early years, bad guys were chained to a large tree. But in 1910, the town was prosperous enough to build a substantial jail of re-enforced concrete.

Restored Gleeson Jail

The first schoolhouse was a simple, wood-framed building. But as the population grew, the town needed a new and much larger school. In 1917, the New Gleeson School opened. It must have been magnificent and a source of community pride.

But in the late 1920′s, the price of copper declined and so did Gleeson. By 1930, most of the residents had abandoned their homes and shops and the hospital was in disrepair. A few determined souls stayed on, but in 1945 the New Gleeson School closed and the few remaining students were bussed to Tombstone 17 miles west.

New 1917 Gleeson School

Today, perhaps a dozen people live in the area. You can see the adobe remains of the hospital, the dilapidated Bono Saloon, and several foundations. But the most enduring structures are those constructed of re-enforce concrete, the New Gleeson School and the Gleeson Jail.

A few locals have restored the Jail and created a small museum inside. It’s open to the public the first Saturday of the month. One day last year (2012) I was photographing the front of the Jail when a fellow drove up in a truck. He said he was the caretaker and asked if I would like to see inside. I did not hesitate. You can see the photo I took of the interior and a slideshow of my travels along the Ghost Town Trail from Gleeson to Courtland to Pearce, to Cochise by clicking HERE.

Ms. Karen searching for ghosts in the Gleeson Cemetery, January 2013.

The folks who restored the Jail have a fine website that features many historic photographs and a calendar of upcoming events. To visit, click HERE.

Ms. Karen & I, with friends Gary & Gini, went in search of sandhill cranes yesterday. Found some.

Sandhill Cranes In Formation Over Apache Station Power Plant

Our first stop was at the Apache Station Wildlife Area located along the western edge of the Willcox Playa. While here we could watch many formations of more than a hundred cranes circle and land in the adjacent field.

Sandhill Cranes Landing In Field At Willcox Playa

From the viewing area we had to watch them from a distance. A nice lady came along and told us they had been at Whitewater Draw the previous day and the viewing was much better. We thanked her and headed south about an hour.

Incoming Sandhill Cranes At Whitewater Draw

Whitewater Draw was definitely the better viewing area.

Whitewater Draw. Notice the hawk in the tree.

Sandhill Cranes At Whitewater Draw

When flying in formation and when they first land in the shallow water, these birds produce very LOUD vocalizations. But after about an hour, they settle down and all becomes strangely quiet.

Gary & Gini love ghost towns and had never been to Gleeson. So on our way back to Tucson, we spent some time checking out the ruins and the old Gleeson Cemetery.

Karen, Gary, & Gini at the ruins of the New (1917) Gleeson School.

Beginning this Friday, September 28^th, Old Tucson will be transformed for All Hallows Eve, not into a mere haunted house, but a complete haunted town. I’m going with my camera to see if I can capture images of ghouls, goblins, ghosts, zombies, and other terrifying apparitions and fiendish mortals.

Nightfall promise to be a long way from “Trick or Treat”.  Haunted World Magazine has named Nightfall among the top ten U.S. Halloween attraction four years in a row.

As it has for the past 22 years, this Old West setting for hundreds of Western movies, TV programs & commercials will feature one terrifying haunt after another, making it Southern Arizona’s best Halloween attraction.

New Haunts
Nightfall 2012 features the Hollywood-style stunts, pyrotechnics, and horrifying effects locals have come to expect. This year Nightfall features three new shows and three new haunted houses, plus with a new Dance Club.

Highlights this year include:

• Pappy’s Practically Perfect Prototypes: The incarcerated serial killer tests line of personal hygiene products for effectiveness and consumer safety on unfortunate “volunteers.”

• Death Before the Dawn: Paranormal researchers find terror when they investigate an abandoned amusement park with a dark and mysterious past.

• Terror Square, The Aftermath, Carnival Caverns 3D, Iron Door Haunted Mine: Unsettling encounters with horror – walking dead, a post-apocalyptic world, evil clowns and cursed miners’ souls.

• Demon’s Den is where the freaks go to party with laser light show and non-stop beats by DJ DU. Dance contests each Friday night with winners invited back for the Ultimate Dance Contest on Oct. 26th.

• The Gargoyles: Hysterical equal opportunity hecklers hurling nightly verbal assaults.

• Plus: Sinister characters roaming the night, festival-style food, snacks, beverages, and more!

NOTE: Due to their realism, some performances may not be appropriate for the easily offended. Subject matter may contain mature themes and innuendo.

Hours
Nightfall is open Thursday and Sunday, 6-10pm; Friday and Saturday, 6pm to midnight.

Lower Price During Opening Weekend
Save up to 40% on admission on Friday, September 28th through Sunday, September 30th with admission just $15 per person! Beginning October 4th, admission is $25 for adults (ages 12 and over) and $20 for children (ages 4 to 11).

For more information about Nightfall admission pricing, discounts, hours/dates and more, go to: www.NightFallAZ.com or call 520-883-0100. Old Tucson is located at 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ 85735.

Kentucky Camp Headquarters Building Restored

More than a hundred years ago, Kentucky Camp was the headquarters for the Santa Rita Water & Mining Company, which was formed to extract placer deposits from the Greaterville Mining District in the foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains 9 miles NW of Sonoita.

Gold, in the form of placer, was discovered here in 1874. Placer is a mixture of gold, sand, and gravel. Separating out the gold required water. But in the Greaterville Mining District, there was no permanent surface water, and the arroyos were usually dry.

Early on, miners here had to haul their pay dirt in sacks to the few running streams in the area, or haul bladders of water to their claims on the backs of pack animals.

At first, this laborious effort was worthwhile, but by 1886 the easy pickings played out and most of the miners moved on.

A Bright Idea
In 1902, along came James Stetson, a California mining engineer who had an idea to solve the water problem. He believed it would be possible to collect seasonal runoff into a nearby reservoir, creating a permanent water source, and thus making placer mining once again profitable.

Stetson sold the idea to investors and together they formed the Santa Rita Water & Mining Company. The mining operation took place in Boston Gulch and the company built facilities in neighboring Kentucky Gulch.

From 1902, the company had their headquarters and employee residences in what became known as Kentucky Camp. By mid-1904, the company had begun hydraulic mining and success seemed assured.

One Fateful Day
However, as so often happened in these early mining ventures, fate intervened. On May 20, 1905, Mr. Stetson was in Tucson for a Board of Directors meeting. He had taken a third-floor room in the new and very prestigious Santa Rita Hotel, located at Broadway & Scott.

Around 3 o’clock that afternoon, a maid working on the 2^nd floor directly below Mr. Stetson’s room heard a thud on the windowsill of the room she was cleaning. She went to investigate. As she leaned out her window, she saw Mr. Stetson’s dead body on the concrete sidewalk below.

Why Mr. Stetson fell out of his hotel window was never determined. Was he pushed? Was he drunk? We will never know.

The remaining partners tried to keep the mining operation going, but gave up in 1906. By 1912, Kentucky Camp was abandoned.

For information about the restored buildings & overnight stays at Kentucky Camp, click HERE to go to SouthernArizonaGuide.com.

I had been waiting months to return to Mescal and photograph the old place with dramatic monsoon clouds. I had photographed it in the spring, but the sky was clear and not all that interesting.

Yesterday late afternoon, Neighbor Roy & I trekked out there to meet Frank Brown, the caretaker, and see if we could get off a couple of dramatic shots.

All this past week the late afternoon sky has been dark & menacing … just what I was looking for. Yesterday … not so much. Nevertheless, here are a few shots to share. We’ll go back next week if the monsoon cooperates.

Frank Brown, the Mescal caretaker, occasionally gives tours. Totally worthwhile, not only because Frank is a great guy, but his stories about the many stars, such as Clint Eastwood, who have made Westerns here, are seriously interesting.

At the far west end of Mescal looking west into the setting sun. The buildings here are deteriorating rapidly. The owners aren’t spending any money to keep it up. Shame. If you want to photograph Mescal, we suggest you do so soon. The old town won’t last much longer.

On a related note, you can see our ghost town videos, such as Ruby, AZ, and slide shows, such as Gleeson & Pearce, at our website: SouthernArizonaGuide.com.

Last February, I had the pleasure of touring the ghost town of Ruby and interviewing Howard Frederick, one of the owners. Among those joining me were my visiting 93 year-old father, Bill; my acupuncturist, Dr. Clare, her husband, son, and sister, Ms. Karen; Ms. Sue and her visiting friend, Pam. In other words, I had quite the entourage.

It was a fun day trip that started in Arivaca where we enjoyed the 2nd Saturday street fair in the morning. We enjoyed lunch at Sweat Peas Cafe’ (which I definitely recommend) before heading south on Ruby Road about 12 miles to our destination.

Ruby, Arizona circa 2012

Given the length of material we gathered on Ruby that day, I broke up the video interview into two movies, both of which are on my website: SouthernArizonaGuide.com. Part II is entitled Ruby, AZ. Bats, Jaguars, and Murders. You’ll find it under Ghost Towns & Tours on the main menu.

I tried to upload the movie here but perhaps the file is too large. So, you can view Ruby, AZ Part I: History of a Ghost Town by clicking here.

Took a few days off to re-visit several of my favorite sights around Southeastern Arizona. Here are a few photos I took along the way.

Do you know where this is?

A Street Scene In Old Bisbee.

I’ll share a few more manana.

3rd & Allen Street 1937

In 1937, the nation was in the depths of a devastating Depression. And Tombstone was almost a ghost town. On my Southern Arizona Guide website, you can check out some old photographs I discovered in the archives of the Library of Congress. And reflect on what happened to bring the Town Too Tough To Die back to life.