Historic Route 66 from Holbrook to Albuquerque

 Today we completed 4 of the 6 Adventure Labs highlighting the Historic Route 66 from Holbrook to Albuquerque. One of the two in AZ highlighted and emphasized the Native culture along The Mother Road.

Weather Rock

always fun to read

As I mentioned yesterday, this area of AZ focuses on dinosaurs, petrified wood, and the culture of the Natives who live in this area. This is the first blue dinosaur I have seen. Who says dinosaurs were green or brown? Maybe they were blue!

and more wigwams (or teepees)

More beautiful petrified wood. My personal thought: how tragic it is to see amount of petrified wood that was taken from the petrified wood now national park prior to it being recognized as a landmark that should be saved. We have driven through part of the national park and there is not many fallen trees to show it was once a forest area. 

typical green dinosaurs

Querino Canyon Bridge

This bridge over the Querino Canyon was built in 1929 as part of a grand rehabilitation and relocation of Route 66 across northern AZ. It was just one of several bridges, drainage construction, and at least 25 miles of roadway.

The bridge is a concrete decked steel trestle with three Pratt deck trusses supported by steel piers. Concrete abutments support the 77 feet long, 20 feet wide bridge from below.

It had a beautiful view of the Querino Canyon, but as you can tell by the first photo the road is not paved. This is a section of Route 66 which has not been preserved, but is an important connection for the native communities north of I-40.

Gallup, New Mexico

R.E. "Griff" Griffith, the brother of the famous movie director D.W. Griffith visited Gallup in the 1930s, fell in love with it, and in 1936 commissioned Joe Massaglia to build a hotel. The result is the three-story structure of brick, stone and wood on Historic Route 66 that feels like a cross between a Southern mansion and rustic hunting lodge. Employees were trained by the Fred Harvey Company.

From the day of its inception, the hotels been linked to the film industry, serving as a filming location for Billy the Kid (1930), The Sea of Grass (1947), Four Faces West (1948), Only the Valiant and Ace in the Hole (1951), escape from Fort Bravo (1953) and The Hallelujah Trail (1965), among others.

During its glory years, the El Rancho was the definition of luxury and included many amenities that were lacking in other typical tourist hotels of the day. With the opening of Interstate 40, the property fell into decline. Armand Ortega bought the hotel at a bankruptcy auction and restored the property. The Ortega family has a long history dealing in Native American jewelry and artwork in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The hotel is open and rooms can be booked. We noticed some renovating going on on the outside of the hotel. If you chose to stay at El Rancho you would be joining such film starts as John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Errol Flynn, Kirk Douglas, Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, Mae West, Lucille Ball and Joan Crawford (and probably many others) who also signed the guest book at El Rancho.

We did not take the time to go inside to see this historic stop.

Destination: Holbrook AZ

We left our winter home this morning for our return to SD. My goal was to be on the road by 10:00 AM and we made it at 9:59. 

Our destination was Holbrook; not that far north. Holbrook is home to 20 Adventure Lab caches and some others. After all, geocaching is the reason for leaving this early.

snow in the Payson area

Welcome geocache at Holbrook

Tranquility Park built by Girl Scout Troop 151 with labyrinth, painted rocks, and a high favorited geocache.

Holbrook has many dinosaur statues and lots of petrified wood rocks/boulders around the town.

We also stopped at the city cemetery for a geocache honoring Mary Blevins.

And we stopped at the city library for a geocache. Hubby mentioned to the helpful library staff that we were traveling back to SD. The former head librarian heard SD and stopped to chat. She grew up in Brookings and her sister lived in the same community as some of our relatives. Small world.

The Route 66 Adventure Lab caches brought us to the Wigwam Motel. This was on the west side of town, an area we had not driven to/through in any of our trips through Holbrook.

Each wigwam is a 'motel' room, available to rent. Each wigwam is made of concrete and is 21 feet in diameter and 28 feet tall, equipped with toilet, sink and shower and a vintage car parked in front of it.

The first Wigwam Village was built in Kentucky in 1938 by Frank Redford. Chester E. Lewis loved the idea so much he paid Redford huge royalties and built a total if 7. [This Holbrook Wigwam Motel] is #6 in the series and was added to Route 66 in 1950. In the village there are 15  free standing teepees (although the local Navajo traditionally use hogans in this particular area) positioned in a semicircle. Due to the interstates coming in and detouring traffic from towns like Holbrook, Lewis had to sell his business and today only two other villages are still in operation and only one other Wigwam village is still running on the Mother road.

The motel also has a display of vintage cars. I am not a car enthusiast, so I have no idea of the years or the brands, other than thinking my folks may have had a similar model.

One of the two surviving Wigwam Villages #2 is in Cave City, Kentucky and the other #7 is in San Bernardino, California also on Route 66 and it is still open today. 

Maybe a 49 Mercury? I know my folks had one (or one very similar) when they married. It was the car I got to drive when I was three years old. Okay, I got to steer it. Alone. 

The interstate system hurt business and Lewis sold it in the 1970s and the new owners sold gasoline. After Lewis death, his widow and children bought it back and reopened it as a motel in 1988. Part of the central office was turned into a museum with Mr. Lewis collection of Route 66 mementos, petrified wood and Indian artifacts.

and our choice for dinner

appropriate decor - good food - worth the stop

The Fountain Turns Green

Sherry joined us for the geocaching event at Fountain Hills on St. Patricks Day. This is an (almost) annual event but the first time Sherry has been able to attend. There was a good crowd of geocachers, around 50, so we got to visit with some people we don't see very often.

The centerpiece of Fountain Hills is our beautiful fountain which is one of the world's tallest man-made fountains. It serves as a focal point for the community and attracts thousands of visitors each year.

The fountain was built in 1970 by Robert McCulloch the year before reconstruction of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, another of McCulloch's projects. The fountain sprays water for about fifteen minutes every hour at the top of the hour. The plume rises from a concrete water lily sculpture in the center of a large man-made lake.

The fountain, driven by three 600 horsepower (450kW) turbine pumps, sprays water at a rate of 7,000 gallons per minute though an 18-inch nozzle. With all three pumps and under ideal conditions, the fountain reaches 560 feet (170m) in height, though in normal operation only two of the pumps are used, with a fountain height of around 300 feet (91m). When built, it was the world's tallest fountain and held that record for over a decade. 

At 560 Feet, being one of the "World's Highest Fountains" it is 5 feet taller than Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It reaches 110 feet higher than the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, and is more than 3 times as high as Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone Park. ~ Town of Fountain Hills website

The fountain water color starts clear until the green dye reaches the pumps. Those of us who have been to the event in previous years thought this was the highest we had seen the water shoot into the air. All three pumps were working this year. In doing some research I read how the tradition of the green water on St. Patricks Day started.

Do you know how the green fountain became a St. Patrick's Day tradition in Fountain Hills? Here is the story of turning the fountain green on St. Patrick's Day thanks to Alan Cruikshank and Martin Dawson from the book “Rising Above the Rest.”

Fountain Hills is widely known throughout the state for its St. Patrick's Day celebration when the world famous fountain is turned green.

It began when a young cowboy and building contractor named Terry Gill moved to Fountain Hills from Lewiston, Montana. Of Irish heritage and having a mischievous personality, he decided to ride his horse, Dollar, through the local taverns on St. Patrick's Day 1978. There were only three at the time -The Alamo, The Village Pub and the community's first bar, The Silver Stein (originally known as the Fountain Mountain Inn).

Riding through the front door of the Stein, he caused quite a commotion and damage to the entryway. Terry was more than happy to pay for the damage. Thus began both the reputation of Terry Gill and the traditional celebration of St. Patrick's Day in Fountain Hills.

Later that year, during a Christmas party hosted by Martin and Cheryl Dawson, a discussion arose about Terry's antics the prior St. Patrick's day. Participating in the discussion were Terry Gill, Dee Grimal, Jim Gar, Duke and Joan Miller, John and Barb Kuchan. Jim and Maggie Lavoie, Bill Lavoie, Steve and Patty Nelson, Bob and KC Evans, Archie and Priscilla Archambault, Bob and Linda Travis, John Mitchie and Bob and Chris Trice.

As more libations were consumed at the party, the subject of Terry's heritage and subsequent St. Patrick's Day performance were brought up, with Terry being quite proud and boastful of his efforts. When asked what he might do for an encore on the next St. Patrick's Day, he replied he wanted to turn the fountain green.

Martin Dawson, being of a long line of Irish heritage himself, pushed Terry one step further. He made a challenge to him to water ski around the Fountain as it turned green. Dawson offered to pull him around the lake with his green SeaRay boat.

The challenge was offered in the form of a bet. It was agreed that Gill, Dawson, John Kuchan, Steve Nelson, and Bill and Jim Lavoie would meet at the Silver Stein at 10 a.m. on March I7, 1979, with the boat in tow. From there, they would proceed to the fountain pump house just prior to noon to prepare to add the dye (provided by the ever-helpful Bill Fisher, Fountain Hills Project Manager for developer MCO Properties). The bet's catch? Any of the participants who didn't show up would lose $250.

Word spread about the planned activities, so a large crowd turned out at Fountain Park to see if they would happen. At 12 noon on St. Patrick's Day, the fountain rose and transformed into an emerald green geyser. All but Kuchan successfully skied around the fountain. Kuchan, a local building contractor, was known for always having a short cigar in his mouth. A series of photos on the front page of the next edition of the The Times of Fountain Hills showed Kuchan go underwater at the outset of his run, only to resurface with his cigar still wedged into the comer of his mouth. But, he never was able to get up on his skis.

Because this event was so successful and memorable, it became the start of a tradition that continues to this day. ~ Arizona Office of Tourism: Fountain Hills

The wind direction changed and the spray reached us on the shore. No matter how many times I see the fountain turn green, it is an exciting experience, especially on a beautiful day surrounded by friends.

There are many sculptures on the west side of the lake. This one, First Love, caught my eye. And that was St. Patricks Day 2022.

*Remember, you can click on any photo to make it larger.

 

Some Geocaching Fun

Our time at our winter home is on the downside reminding us there were some geocaches we had planned to find this season. We had two fun excursions this month worthy of sharing.

The first was a stop at a large geocache. We knew it was a neighborhood library before we arrived, but it still was a pleasant surprise.

Not the typical shape or size of the Little Libraries we usually see in neighborhoods.

The book is cabled to the library.

Someone looking to get a library book could not miss this is a geocache and not a book for swapping.

It blends in very well on the shelf.

This location was also a Farmers Market stand displaying some desert plants for sale, some seeds, and some seasonal garden produce. A fun little surprise in a valley neighborhood.

Before we all leave for the season,  we joined Bill & Donna on a trip to Goldfield to eat at the Mammoth Steak House. None of us ordered steak, but did have good food.

We stopped at a fun gadget cache in our neighborhood. Sherry was with us as we were on our way to an event on St. Patricks  Day, thus all the wearing' of the green!

The object was to move a heavy metal ball from the bottom of the box to the top of the box using the spoons to lift and move it, then drop it into the hole at the top. The ball rolls down the back of the box tripping a lever which opened a door exposing the container holding the log book and little trinkets. Definitely not as easy as it looks!

Another fun geocache!

A Superior Visit

After our drive along Old US Highway 60, we continued east on new US Highway 60 to the community of Superior. It was time to eat and we needed to check on some of the geocaches we have placed in that town. 

Main Street was busy! Most of the vehicles were parked at two locations: Porters and the Silver King Smokehouse.

The last time we ate at what is now The Silver King Smokehouse, it was Porters. Porters has moved to the south side of the street and farther west. (Porters is known for their burgers.)

There were only a couple of empty tables on the patio. The inside also had lots of diners. It was about 2:00 when we stopped.

We chose the sampler platter of 3 meats and 1 side. We were well into enjoying our meal when I thought about the photo! We had turkey, brisket and ribs with fries. Three sauces were available for us to try: BBQ, BBQ Spicy and Gold (a mustard-y flavor). The tray was empty when we were done.

This employee had just checked the cooking meat in the largest of the two smokers. The patron must have had a question or a compliment.

The smokers were HUGE! No little BBQ grills or soldered barrels! These smokers are the real McCoy! (Notice the picnic tables rather than the tables from cable spindles.)

I don't believe the inside has many changes from Porters to Silver King, other than maybe different lighting and the green plants.

We made a good choice. They serve only smoked meats and salads. It was delicious.

one of the many murals in Superior

A tribute to a local veteran on the wall of the VFW. I think this was a new mural as I do not remember it from our last visit.

This creative and colorful fence caught my eye. Superior is an artist community as mentioned in my blogs from the Superior Home Show posts in late February from past years.

Note to the locals reading this blog post: The Buckboard and Barmacy are open on the weekends only. (Info from our wait staff.) Yes, the hotel is available for reservations, but not food.