Springerville to Safford, Wilcox and Tucson, Arizona
September 22-23, 2020:
I leave Springerville, Arizona about noon time heading south on route 191.
As I arrive in the town of Alpine my GPS directs me to take route 180 and 78 which crosses back into New Mexico and looks on the map to be a much longer route. It also winds through the rugged mountainous terrain of the Mogollon Mountains. I stop and refer to my road atlas again which does not help much, there really is no easy route to get between these two points. Ultimately, I continue on route 191 which is a long 100 mile stretch of paved forest road through the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest with no towns, no services, nothing but winding curvy roads. If you wish to get away from people and civilization, this is the place, although there are many forest service campgrounds, hiking trails and forest service roads to explore.
This forest has suffered heavily in recent fires, thousands of acres show burn damage in the last decade or so. About at the mid point, I come upon a sign indicating no RV’s or trailers over 40 foot beyond this point. The road was a handful up to that point, but doable with a large RV and I wondered how much more restricted it might get ahead. The only difference was that there were more steep descents with linked S-turns, seemed like 25 in a row and then another 25 tight 10-15 MPH curves. At this point, I was thinking I had taken the shorter but way slower route.
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| Very few large trees survived the fire |
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| A view from the road looking down at the another hairpin curve far below |
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| Near the end are some hoodoo rock formations |
Eventually after driving about three hours with few stops I come out of the near old growth protected National Forest and into the enormous Morenci Copper Mine where the mountain sides have been stripped bare. This is quite an alarming sight from this approach and the road goes directly across the mined area for miles and miles. It is one of the largest copper mines in the country and the world. One side of my brain is amazed at this technology and what our civilization has accomplished and the other side of my brain is sickened and disgusted with it all. God should not be happy ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morenci_mine
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/morenci-mine
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| You come around a corner and BAM, a denuded mountain confronts you |
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Followed by mountain sides that have been stripped clean
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| Terraces of dry lifeless rock left behind |
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The road goes directly through the center, I feel like I'm going to hell ?
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Soon after the mine I see an old church just off the highway that looks interesting. I do a quick U-turn, park and walk down this old downtown street. This is the historic old mining town of Clinton, Arizona with most of the buildings well preserved and unchanged from the early 1900’s. It appears partially deserted, I see no one around, everything is closed, it's mysterious but then a person exits from one of the doorways. A mile down the road seems to be a newer part of town where there is a old train depot and an out of service track leading downhill into a tunnel. I make a mental note to return here on a future trip.
A few days later, in Tucson, I research this and find that people are calling this a ghost town and that a ghost hunter TV program did a segment on it some years ago.
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| This photo may be haunted, I straighten it, then import it into this blog and it goes crooked again ? |
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| I wonder what this building was with it's large arched openings |
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| This town is considered to be one of the best preserved examples of the Arizona Territorial style |
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| Still active ? |
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| A very nice decorative iron front |
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| This is a museum, now closed |
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| A vintage 40's Chrysler across from the museum |
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| A downtown parade photo on the museum window |
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| A believe it was a washed out section of track that caused this disaster |
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| The one building on the street that definitely looks open for business |
Shortly outside of town the highway widens and climbs steeply uphill for miles into a high desert landscape. I continue to the City of Safford, Arizona where I decide to stop for the night. Safford is a ranching and farming area with a pleasant, but uninteresting downtown surrounded by poor neighborhoods, predominantly Spanish. Outside of the downtown is the usual sprawling ugly strip mall new business district. The photos below make the downtown area appear much better than it actually is, it usually goes the other way. The following morning I walk the main street, nothing is open, no one is on the street, there are few stores of interest and they have this sound system playing pop music. Not my kind of town, sorry to say.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safford,_Arizona
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| A very nice welcome mural |
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| There are many Hispanic farm workers here who make up about 40% of Saffords population |
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| The old Safford Theater is under restoration |
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| Brick sales help to fund the restoration |
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| Another nice downtown mural |
In the morning, I get on route 191 south which leads to route 10 west and my final destination of Tucson. It’s a good travel day, I’m in no mood to stop except for the town of Wilcox which is a favorite. I just love the main street look, the Rex Allen Museum, the park area next to the railroad tracks and the old historic depot. The depot is one of the few, possibly the only, remaining original depot constructed of Redwood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willcox,_Arizona
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| I'm a little suspicious of this Creation Station ? |
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| The Bud Light Bullpen ? |
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| The Wilcox Historic Theater |
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| Welcome to Wilcox which really was a cattle capital in the early 1900's |
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| Nice antique and collectables store in Wilcox |
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| A very interesting Museum even if you don't like cowboy singers |
I go in an antique store with lots of great old signs, old advertising signs attract me, but are super pricey. I end up buying a few postcards, but the woman there tips me off about the pioneer cemetery a mile or so away. It is old, but is sadly vandalized and abandoned to the elements with many fallen and broken headstones. It appears that at one time someone maintained the cemetery and had made wooden markers to identify the graves. For whatever reason, that ended years ago, most of the wooden ones are now fallen over, faded or broken and the dead are now forgotten.
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| The cemetery entrance is plenty cowboy ! |
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| The gate is slowly coming unhinged, I expect it makes some spooky sounds at night ? |
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The welded steel sign seems to be a tribute to one of the notorious Earp
clan made famous at Tombstone, Arizona |
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| Slowly disintegrating into the Earth |
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| The broken stones are sad like broken Indian pots |
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| One of the nicest stones in the cemetery and she lived to a ripe old age |
I arrive home in Tucson about 2 PM where it’s really hot, close to 100 degrees, but I'm happy to be back and I have a lot of catching up to do.
This summer trip is a hard one to asses as it’s been such a weird year. Many of my favorite activities; live music shows, concerts, festivals, museums, libraries and going to restaurants and bars were lacking due to the pandemic. It was also stressful going into these small rural towns where Covid-19 precautions were very lax. In spite of that I learned of and saw many wondrous sights.
