A Couple of Hours in Wickenburg

 We have driven through Wickenburg AZ several times, usually in a hurry and on our way to somewhere else. Other than stopping for a quick bite to eat and maneuvering the two round-abouts that were added in the last road construction project, our assumption was of a small community with very little to offer. We changed our minds last Thursday. Geocaching in old town, uptown, historic town, and out of town showed the best of the old west community.

This was my first experience with a park with exercise equipment.

There were maybe 10 stations with instructions for upright

and wheel chair bound people.

Can you spot the geocache?

(It's a fake rock.)

But more intriguing than the outdoor gym, were the trees.

The trunks and limbs grow horizontally.

I have no idea the name of the tree.

This lady is waiting for the train.

The community has LOTS of statues, many of them horses.

This caboose was one of three train cars at the ATSF station.

Our final stop was south of town at the 

Hassayampa River Preserve.

The river is 100 miles long, but in this area of the 

preserve the river is an oasis in the desert.

Hassayampa is an Native American word meaning

upside down water.

For most of its 100 miles, the river flows underground.

But at this area an underground rock wall forces the water

above ground for about five miles. It then retreats as it continues

its flow southward to the Gila River.

The Brill Ranch was the first owner of the land that is now the preserve.

Frederick Brill built an abode house on the land he purchased

in the mid 1860s. He was quite an enterprising man. 

The ranch had a beef herd of 1000, a dairy farm, an orchard, a market

sized vegetable garden, a fish farm, and was a stage coach stop.

The ranch house is now the visitors' center for the preserve.

The docent graciously let me peak into the rooms of the 

original adobe house. This is the kitchen with the original

cookstove. One of the preserve's volunteers spent many hours 

cleaning the stove. They hope to use it in the future.

These were the only cupboards in the room.

Stage coach travelers ate and played cards with

the ranch hands in this room.

This beautiful large room was added probably during 

the Garden of Allah period.

Wickenburg is worthy of more than a drive through.

We will go back and spend more time in this

interesting community.