Historic Stairs in Mining Towns

 We drove to Miami and Globe on Friday (last week) to do some more geocaching in the two communities that have a history in copper mining. Some of the stairs were built to help students get to and from school and are still accessible. Some of the stairs were built in the mid-1930s by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) and formalized routes first created as shortcuts by the residents. Geocaching made us aware of the staircases in the communities built on the sides of hills. An artist program in Globe decorated the stairways in the photos in this blog post.

a LOT of stairs!

painted marbles

quail stairs

tiles on these smaller steps

painted decor on the bridge steps

stairs and a bridge

painted poppies on another LONG set of stairs

(students using these stairs)

in Globe

I did not take any photos of the stairs in Miami as they were not decorated

this mural is in Superior, another mining community

Broad Street in Globe

another mural in Globe

The other reason for visiting Globe last Friday was to attend an event hosted by our geocaching friends, Sherry and Jon. On March 1, 1872 Yellowstone became the world's first National Park. The event was a gathering to celebrate National Parks. Those of us attending who had a National Park T-shirt wore it to the event and were in a group photo. (There were other geocachers in attendance!)

There are so many California poppies growing along the road through Miami and Globe and they were all in full glory on Friday. There was a planter with one poppy in the little park where we gathered for the geo event. The one bloom made me very happy. I got my poppy photos for the season!

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.

In the Shadow of Picket Post Mountain

 Earlier this week I had to go to Superior to do some maintenance on a geocache I placed, so we combined that needed trip with finding some geocaches. Some of the geocaches Hubby found when he and Don,  another resort geocacher, went on an adventure in the jeep in February 2013. I have whined about not getting to those caches for several years because of the historical significance of the area. We had the jeep and the time on Monday.

These wagon tracks were made by heavily loaded wagons transporting ore from the Silver King Mine to the mill in Pinal City a short distance south west of this location. 

The wagon wheels were constructed of wood with iron tread which ground groves into the solid rock. Also noteable is the round depressions between the wheel tracks are said to be from the mules pulling the wagons stepping in the same place each time they passed.

Hubby's foot in a rut to show the depth of the tracks.

We had been to the wagon wheel tracks years before we were geocaching and when the road to the tracks was accessible from Hwy. 60  

This photo from our visit on February 20, 2007 shows the indentions that may have come from the mules' hoof prints.

Carol is standing in an area much deeper than where Hubby was standing. (photo from 02/20/2007)

I had forgotten there was a sign showing curious folks where to walk to find the wagon tracks. I'm thinking the sign is gone as the tracks can not be located directly from Hwy. 60.

The other historical site I wanted to visit was Pinal City. While doing research for the geocaches I placed in Superior, I read about this early mining community and was interested in seeing it first hand.

An imprinted brick or stone from days gone by. I can not read it.

Several red, clay bricks were laying around. 

One of two wall foundations I saw at Pinal City.

Pinal City's post office was established on April 10th, 1878 and was discontinued November 28th, 1891. Pinal City was the milling site for the nearby Silver King mine, about five miles to the northeast. Originally called Pickett Post after Pickett Post Butte, Pinal City grew to a size of over 2000 residents. The town had it's own newspaper called the Pinal Drill. The community had everything anyone would want. When silver was de-valued in the late 1800's the town quickly dwindled and in 1890, only ten people were left. Unbelievably absolutely nothing is left today. The remains of the mill site are still visable. 

The berries crowning a pin cushion cactus I happened to see while checking out Pinal City.

Erosion wash outs and Queen Creek (an actual creek) make for interesting driving. We did watch vehicles come through two areas we did not drive. This road was just below the hill and location of Pinal City.

The view looking east, southeast of Pinal City. We geocached in the area of the dark 'hole.'

We found two other geocaches connected with Pinal City ghost town. Hubby and Don had found these also, but I was happy we trekked to them because they were certainly worth the view.

Hubby told me to go up on top to find the cache. This is what I saw. No geocache.

He didn't remember it was at the base of the hill, in the hole. 

No geocache? That's okay. I'll take photos! These deciduous trees will loose their leaves sometime in January or early February and will begin to grow new leaves beginning in March. This is looking north and over Queen Creek.

We crossed Queen Creek to get to the first geocache and continued up the mountainside, through a barbed wire fence, over dormant grass to the side of this cliff for another geocache, hidden near a cave of sorts.

Again looking north, Queen Creek is along the line of trees. Someone was brave enough to drive the roads/dirt tracks as in an earlier photo. The jeep is parked on the other side of the grouping of yellow trees on the right.

Interesting overhang near the 'cave.'

We took the road to get back to the jeep. We did not have to crawl through the fence or cross the creek, stepping on wet rocks. Another successful adventure. No more whining on my part. Geocaches and photos...I'm good!

When I was walking around at Pinal City, this rock caught my eye. A fossil! Now that I have it home and cleaned, I'm not sure if it is a worm fossil, or just a great squiggle from another mineral. Since I carried it down the hill, I'm going with fossil! It will go in my AZ rock display, joining many other AZ rocks I have collected while hiking and geocaching.

Picket Post Mountain

(view from Wagon Tracks or Pinal City)

Copper Town Tour and then Some

Last Saturday started with a stop at one of Hubby's favorite breakfast stops. We can't drive through Superior in the morning without eating at...

pancakes, of course

then onto Globe. This part of the day's adventure had three purposes: to see geocaching friends, Jon and Sherry; to add another county to Terry's AZ geo stats; and to do an Adventure Lab cache recently published giving all of us a little more experience with the newest geocache type from HQ. 

Terry & Jane's first cache in Gila County

they found it rather quickly

without Hubby's help

Then it was off to Claypool for the first stop on the Copper Town Tour and learning about copper mining and its importance to this area and Arizona.

looking for the correct answer to the first question,

making it much harder than it was

an average sized dump truck in a mine scoop

the smelter, one of two in AZ today

at the rod plant where pure copper sheets

are melted and cast into coils of copper wire

We completed the other two stops on the Adventure Lab Copper Town Tour and were awarded with

completed!

Sherry and Jon led us to a historic stop with a geocache in downtown Globe.

a replacement tree, but the story and location are historic

love learning things like this

(click on this and any photo to make it larger)

our time in Globe ended with a FTF

First To Find on a Lifeisguud geocache

A fun and successful morning before driving back to Superior and the Home Tour mentioned in the previous two blog posts. Three-fold mission accomplished and then some!