The famous American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” For another man of Emerson’s time, James Addison Reavis, who would become Arizona’s most …
Since I began my adventure journey a few years ago, I’ve seen a number of ghost towns. On a recent trip through California, however, I was privileged to visit the most intact ghost town I have seen so far. Welcome to Helena, California. The story of Helena is similar to many towns like it. What …
In a small town outside Prescott, Arizona, a monolith to a bygone era stands proudly amongst the pine and summer homes. Created around the year 1880, by Jake and Joe Carmichael, this kiln was used to convert oak wood into charcoal to be used in the smelting operations of a nearby silver mine. Using a …
This Historic Ranch House, known as the Bowen Stone House, has stood tall in the canyons of the Tucson Mountains for nearly a century. Moving Southwest in the 1920s, Sherry and Ruby Bowen, transplants from Rockford, Illinois, hoped a change in climate might also result in better health for the increasingly sick, Ruby Bowen, who …
I LET MY SADDLE FALL, MY WEARY HORSE I TEND, DEAR LORD I HEAR YOU CALL, FOR I’VE REACHED THE END. Poetic and unsettling, what’s known as the Cowboy Prayer, reads more like a lament. Permanently transfixed along the divide between civilization and the Prescott Wilderness, sewn into a large boulder and overlooking a small …
This lovingly-crafted stone and mortar home was once that of the Robert Clevenger family, in the early 1900s. Built in Queen Creek Canyon, the northern wall is the canyon, itself. The majestic Picketpost Mountain looms to the South, and the ghost town of Pinal once stood less than one mile to the east (as the …
This cross proudly stands atop the hills overlooking the small Arizona town of Superior. Around the time of its creation, much of the town’s residents were devout Catholics. So, on May 3rd, 1936, a group of miners set out to construct this monument overlooking their homes and workplaces, to be blessed by a town priest, …
This historic graveyard, in Southern Arizona, is all that remains of the ghost town of Silverbell. Before Arizona became a state, and the west was still wild, mining activity, according to Arizona State University, began in the area during the 1870s with Charles Brown, a Tuscon resident. His work lasted only a few years before …
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The Homestead Act, enacted during the time of the Civil War, allowed for any U.S. citizen, or would-be citizen, to claim 160 acres of government land, provided they worked to improve the land through cultivation and other means, among other caveats. In the early 1890s, Charles Ludwig Veit, a german immigrant, claimed his 160 acres …
Read more “Historic Cabin And Springhouses Of Northern Arizona”
Not too long ago, while taking my date for a fun day of ruin-hunting, in Sedona (romantic, I know), we were cutting through a wash, still a good mile or two from our destination. I was looking to the sides of the canyon as I always do when looking for ruins. That’s when we saw …
Read more “The Coolest Abandoned Home I’ve Ever Seen! (Elvis House)”