Inflation?

Greetings on this Merry Christmas Day!  Happy Holiday wishes to one and all.  May your stockings be filled with glorious gifts all year long.

We posting up here today to talk about one stocking that filled with a lump of coal--The Salt River Stocking.
The Salt River stretch from the Highway 60 bridge down to Roosevelt Lake is Arizona's premier whitewater run.  Since it flows early in the year, people come from all over America to enjoy its mystique and Sonora Desert charm.  Back in the Really Old Days there was no permit required except for a token payment to the White Mountain Apache Tribe.

My, my how things have changed.  Permits have been required ever since some dork blew up Quartzite Falls and prices have increased steadily over the years.  This year, the price of a Salt River permit went into the stratosphere.  It's now $125!!!!!  But wait, that's not all--there's another $10 fee to apply online.  The old form of a mailed application is no longer accepted.  Plus, you have to pay $20 for an inflated Indian permit, too, and that is PER PERSON.  All those going on the Wilderness trip are REQUIRED to spend $40 per person--that's a permit for two days. Here's how the cost for a 10 person trip would calculate: $135 for Forest Service Permit ($13.50 per person) and $40 for Apache permit for a total of $53.50 per person or $535 in permit fees for the trip!!!!!!  That's before the cost of the shuttle.  WOW!  That's simply amazing.

OK, here are the links:

Forest Service permit page
Online application page
Indian Permit Discussion Page
Indian Permit Cost Page

All we can say is--Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!  Cheers, jp

Tip O' the hat to Tap, Gaby, Marie & Steve

What's a recipe for a great story? First, let's start with two damsels in distress. Whip them well into the wilderness. Sprinkle in a mountain lion, some prayer and a dog. Next add heaping dose Camp Verde's Andy Griffith (AKA Tap Parsons). Stir and let simmer for 47 years. Finally, serve with a well seasoned storyteller--none other than Steve (Twain) Ayers.

The December 3rd Camp Verde Bugle dishes up a real story for the ages today entitled, "Heaven-sent: Camp Verde man's kindness opens a lifetime of adventure." Reporter Ayers pens a classic feature tale about a classic Camp Verde icon's role in an informal 1963 wilderness rescue of two teenage girls. It's a heartwarming story guaranteed to bring a glow to the spirit of anyone who knows Tap Parsons. As I read Steve's fine story I almost felt like I was watching either "It's a Wonderful Life" or The Andy Griffith Show.

Tap and I go "way back," as they say, easily more than 25 years. He was always one of my "best buds" in clannish ol' Camp Verde. Somehow, we always felt we were related in some distant genealogical way. Photos of Tap's Dad and Grand Dad looked almost identical to pictures of my Dad and Grand Dad. Neither one of us had time or inclination to research our respective family trees to prove a genetic connection. After a few years, we both just assumed we were somehow related and left it at that. Even though I was labeled an environmentalist, Tap liked me. And even though Tap was The King of The Good Ol' Boys, I liked him. Tap ran Pack Saddle Liquors so our paths crossed often. Tap cared about the Verde River a whole lot more than anybody knew. We had a lot in common and it was always a pleasure to enjoy Tap's gentlemanly hospitality.

Imagine my delight and surprise this morning when I came upon Steve's story in the online edition of the Bugle. Steve's well written words sure brought a lump to my throat and put a mist in my eyes. Obviously, the story existed in its own right. However, no one would have ever known about this story if Steve hadn't stepped into the soup to craft a classic. Stories exist but they don't really become REAL stories until someone takes time to tell them. Thank You, Steve, you played just as vital a role in this story as the protagonists did themselves. Pat yourself on the back and pin yer another gold star on your Life Chart today! YA DUN GOOD!

Click here for the story as it appears in the Camp Verde Bugle.

If the newspaper link fails to function, click here for an archived PDF of the story that we've put up for posterity on our Google Doc's account.

Victorville Car Show

Technically, this doesn't have anything to do with Arizona.  But, "untechnically," it DOES!  Why?  Because it's on Route 66 and, hey, we're all connected, ya know?  Route 66 is the fabric of our cultural quilt! This is an awesome slide show of a November 6th car show.  Sit back, turn up your speakers and enjoy!

Bootstraps and Beto

Back in the 90's sometime I can't pinpoint, a little decrepit hot dog cart showed up one day on a dusty corner of Camp Verde. A smiling Hispanic guy stood beside it waiting for somebody to buy something--anything. He had nothing except the hot dog cart and a smile. And an attitude. A VERY positive attitude born from a life of danger and adversity.

Somehow, against all odds, the people of Camp Verde began pulling their pickups onto the weed-choked lot to buy something from Beto. Maybe they spent a buck or more--nothing he sold was expensive. But they spent and they spent and then they spent even more. Maybe it was the food. But most likely it was just Beto's smile and banter and "can do" attitude." Who else could stand in the scorching sun, the dust devil winds or the humid cold of a Camp Verde riverside winter? Only Beto and his loyal family, that's for sure.

I watched this bootstrap saga unfold for several years as I drove back and forth to my day job beside the Verde River. Little by little Beto pulled and tugged on those bootstraps until he had a small shack from which to serve food. You couldn't really call it a building--it was pretty much just a lean to. Only in Camp Verde and Yavapai County could someone get away with this type of plywood contraption and call it a restaurant. But to Beto, it was a Palace and it was ALL his and his family's!

Little by little, that shack grew and grew until it stands proud today as a real restaurant with real restaurant fixtures just like real restaurants do. Watching Beto pull off that modern miracle was a real inspiration to me. It's something I will never forget. It was vivid, living proof before my very eyes that a a big smile, a positive attitude and total Faith could overcome any obstacle and reach that elusive light at the end of the tunnel.

I never knew Beto's own personal story. Little did I know what a rough life this guy had before he washed ashore in a dusty Camp Verde eddy. Now that Ace Reporter Steve Ayers has brought this man's life to press, the story burns even brighter in my mind's eye.

Thanks, Steve, "Ya dun good" once again! Keep up your great work!

Click here to read Beto's story as told by Steve.

Hopi Tribe Rescues Homol'ovi Ruins

Not far from Winslow lies a magical place called Homol'ovi.  Over 300 Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites are situated on 4,500 acres that were designated as an Arizona State Park in 1986.  On February 22 this year, Homol'ovi was closed, becoming yet another victim of Arizona's budgetary night of the long knives. 

Today, the world-at-large learned the Good News--The Hopi Tribe rode to the rescue of Homol'ovi!  They're pitching in a whopping $175,000 cash money to reopen the park full time, 12 months a year. 

Cedric Kuwaninvaya (Sipaulovi), Hopi Council Representative and member of the Hopi Land Team,undoubtedly spoke for the feelings of many Hopi when he said that after the closure, "Hopi became worried that once again, the pot hunters could start desecrating our ancient homelands"

Less than 8 months after the official closure, The Hopi Tribal Council  on October 19th voted 12-0 to approve a resolution providing funds to reopen that special place.   Shortly thereafter, State Parks Director Renee Bahl (at right in photo at left) joined resolution co-sponsor Norman Honanie to formally sign an agreement.

The news was revealed in the October 27th edition of The Navajo-Hopi Observer through a Special to the Observer submitted by Louella Nahsonhoya.  You can click here to read the entire NHO article.  We also printed the article to PDF format and have archived it in our Google Docs.  You can click here to download the PDF file.


This historic agreement is Huge News to anyone who knows about Homol'ovi and its relationship to The Hopi Tribe.  It is definitely a cause for celebration, too!  A date for re-opening of the park has not been announced.  We will follow this story closely to learn the date as soon as it is set by officials from State Parks and The Hopi Tribe.  We can guarantee you it's going to be a major occasion along The Little Colorado River and a very emotional moment as well.  We sure hope we can be there.

Our congratulations to The Hopi Tribe 
for going way beyond the extra mile 
to make history happen!  THANK YOU!


Here are some other resources:

The Wiki on Homolovi  
The Arizona State Parks Homolovi website
The Homolovi Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society. 
A 2008 article on Suvoyuki Day at Homolovi 

Valley Farmers Markets

View Valley Farmers Markets in a larger map

There are a lot of Farmers Markets in the far flung reaches of the so-called "Valley of The Sun." They convene at various days of the week and times of operations are all over the chart, too. We think we're going to have to make a custom spreadsheet to figure out when to go where if we want to visit a Farmers Market!

We've created a Page above this blog that links to a longer description of the various markets. We have already spent 4 hours making this Google Map. That's because we did our own analysis of each market.  Be forewarned, we were VERY sarcastic and downright rude in our comments about most of them!

This winter when we go to the Valley, we really want to have our options WIRED!

Kingdom of The Spiders

(Editor's Note: This is an evolving blog post. It was most recently updated about 2 pm, October 28. The latest news appears at the bottom of the post--BELOW the Spider Guy thing.)

Above is the bottom portion of a poster promoting the 1977 B-Movie entitled "Kingdom of The Spiders."  (The whole poster is thumbnailed below.) Look closely, that's an artist's rendition of Camp Verde's Main Street shown in the poster!

Anybody who knows anybody in Old Camp Verde knows someone who knows somebody who was an extra in the movie.   The movie has gained a modest new bit of notoriety since it was brought back to light early this year in DVD form.

Back in late July, the Camp Verde Bugle carried a snippet from someone who touted the idea of a "Kingdom of The Spiders Reunion" this coming Saturday out behind the Camp Verde Town Hall. We commented on the story this morning and then began enjoying a "blast from the past" today as we dug into the movie's history.  Click here for the Wiki on the movie.

We have three primary items that have tied us to this movie.  We knew one of the screenwriters for the script. In fact, Susun worked for Alan and his wife for seven years.  She became a Dear Friend of the Family and I got to go along for the ride.  Click here for the Wiki on Alan.

Secondly, for years we mistakenly believed that an piece of airplane fuselage at the McGuireville Exit was part of the movie set.  We helped perpetuate this rural legend.  McGuireville is Home of The Goat Ropers and the old dead airplane on top of a auto repair shop really added some suave and debonair ambiance to the place, especially with a backstory like Kingdom of The Spiders!

And, third, we actually watched the movie way back in the VHS tape days!   The movie isn't much.  Well, maybe that's an exaggeration.  The movie is nothing, really.  But it has a endearing quality that's common to campy films of yesteryear, especially when you can recognize the movie locations, props and sets.  Besides, the whole story line is so perfectly "Camp Weirdy" in the first place.  It kind of goes with the turf, if you know what we mean.

One of the reasons it has ticked up a few notches on the Retro Radar is because William Shatner (Remember that guy from something called Star Trek?) plays the lead role.  We embedded a YouTube of Shatner's Top Ten Ridiculous moments in the movie at the end of this blog post.  Enjoy!

Journalism Pro Steve Ayers is doing a story in tomorrow's Camp Verde Bugle about the weekend Reunion. We suspect there will be a followup story as well.  Consequently, this blog post is certain to be amended numerous times in the next few days. Click here for the original July 29th snippet in the CV Bugle.

The Camp Verde Bugle carried a great story by Reporter Steve Ayers in the Wednesday, October 27th issue. You can click here to read it. Basically, Steve Goetting, the promoter of the Spider's Reunion knows what he is doing. He's played a pivotal role in keeping alive the Camp Verde Pecan & Wine Festival. That was a tough nut to crack! (Pun intended.) So, a Spiders Reunion ought to be a piece of cake for this guy. If there's anything more then a tepid response to the first reunion, we strongly suspect it will become an respect rite of annual passage in Good Ol' Camp Weirdy. You have to realize some background perspective here. Camp Verde is pretty small TODAY. Back in the late 1970's the word "smalltown" was a classic understatement...or perhaps an exaggeration, depending on your viewpoint. Back in the last 70's there was only a hard core cadre of pioneer ancestors who still called Camp Verde home. The population then was minuscule compared to today. Chances are the number of local extras used in the movie comprised the bulk of the sleepy-eyed town's able-bodied population. If there were maybe 100 extras in use, that could have been at least 50% of Camp Verde's active adults (sic). What a hoot!  Stay tuned.

Ace Reporter Steve Ayers continues to flesh out the Spider Thing!  His latest story is all about the wild and crazy set in the middle of Camp Verde and how the airplane pilot was arrested.   It's an awesome story.  Click here to check it out. 

Nice Trail News

Anybody who spends any time someplace once called "off the beaten path" realizes just how beaten most backcountry paths have become.  The last 10+ years have seen a dramatic and appalling increase in renegade ATV trails.  Some of the most egregious of such trails are those made by bubble brained bubba boyz whose claim to fame is "high marking."  They are proud to say their machine can go higher and steeper than anyone else's machine.  It's actually a variation of the age-old male "size thing" except it is played out on your public lands.  At least the snowmobile people who engage in High Marking leave no trace of their frivolous so-called sport.  Those who practice this arcane activity in the Sonoran Desert create nasty natural resource damage what can last a lifetime or longer. 

And so it is that we read with great interest an article by one of our Journalism Faves, none other than Joanna Dodder Nellans, in the Prescott's "Daily Courier" newspaper.  There's a major trail on what we Verde Valley people call "the back side of Mingus" that's known as the Great Western Trail.  It's quite a famous trail, actually.  (Click here for the Wiki on the GWT.)

Naturally, there's a vicious High Marking spot along the GWT back behind Mingus.  No doubt this spot would have become ever more damaged if not for a rescue/intervention effort by some thoughtful and caring motorized recreationists.  Back in early October, a group of about 20 off road enthusiasts teamed up with some help from one of Smokey's Gang (AKA:  the USDA Forest Service) and installed water bars, moved boulders and otherwise did whatever they could to heal the destruction wrought by the High Markers. 

We love these kinds of stories.  The key "between-the-lines" factoid here is that it was the motor heads themselves who sought out the Forest Service to do the project.  Smokey's Gang wisely took them up on their offer.  It's interesting to note that Smokey's Gang wasn't looking for volunteers to help heal this spot--it was the motor heads themselves who got the ball rolling.  The Forest Service is usually more than willing to stand around wringing its collective hands about off road damage.  However, Smokey is typically long on talk and short on action when it comes to dealing with the often disastrous affects of unchecked off road abuse.

We sure hope more off-road people step forward to mitigate the destruction of the bad actors in their crowd.
This story represents a very positive development.  Thanks, Joanna, for your time and professional effort in featuring this vignette.  And, thanks, of course, to those 20 some people who made this nice trail news happen!

Click here for Joanna's story as it appears in The Courier.  If and when that links fails to work, you can click here for a copy we printed to PDF and archived in our Google Docs.

Our leaves aren't the only laggards

As card-carrying Snowbirds, we're now totally tuned into turning tree leaves.  Our Snowbird travel schedule is remarkably simply: "When the Leaves are gone, so are we."  The leaves in Idaho Falls are hanging on long than anyone we know can remember.  We thought it was just an Idaho phenomena until we read story in the October 19th "Arizona Daily Sun."  It seems that the area's legendary aspens are taking their sweet time turning colors, too.    The Sun doesn't allow printing of its articles so we've decided to put most of the text of the article into this blog post.  It is below. You can click here to see the original article.

"By Randy Wilson, Daily Sun Editor:

It might not be official, but it's hard to ignore the evidence. This might be one of the latest fall color seasons in Flagstaff on record.  A hike this past Saturday morning on the lower Weatherford Trail found fully-turned doghair aspen -- but bigger trees that were still entirely green.  The same reports have come in informally from hikers on the southern end of the Kachina Trail, where the big aspen have another week to go, as do the trees at so-called "Aspen Corner" on Snowbowl Road.  But others have reported a full turn in the groves lining Forest Road 794 east of Highway 180 and west of Fern Mountain.

And the big, still-green grove I reported on two weeks ago off Forest Road 418 at the Arizona Trail on the far northern slopes of the San Francisco Peaks also has nearly turned. But that still leaves much of the Kachina Trail and the aspen groves of Hart Prairie to enjoy for perhaps another week -- if there are any leaves left after this week's series of predicted storms.

Why so late a turn this year? One reason has to be the warmer daytime temperatures and the absence so far of a really hard frost that will kill all the leaves.  This past September in the Flagstaff region wound up being one of the warmest on record, and the first half of October has started out with above-average temperatures, too. All that extra sunshine and warmth seems to have kept the green chlorophyll pumping overtime.

But why are the bigger, older aspen last to turn? I haven't gotten an answer to that question -- perhaps readers will supply one."

End of quoted story

Lake Mead @ Historic low level

Lake Mead is the Grand Daddy of Colorado River reservoirs.  The heroic construction of Hoover Dam is easily one of the greatest civil engineering achievements of the early 20th Century.  As much as we loathe dams anywhere and especially on the Colorado River, we will always stand in awe of the sheer brawn and brilliant daring of those daredevils who somehow put Hoover Dam together.  Seventy-five years ago, Hoover Dam was complete and beginning to fill for the first time.

Guess what?  Two days ago--Sunday--the level of Lake Mead fell to a level last seen 75 years ago when the reservoir was filling.  Amazing but true!  The water level in Lake Mead is nearing a point at which mandatory water rationing will begin.  With a strong La Nina taking shape in the Pacific Ocean, it's highly unlikely that this winter's snowpack will do anything to rescue Lake Mead and its water users from almost certain rationing in 2011.  The only recourse water managers have to draining down Lake Powell help Lake Mead.  That's like robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Nobody really wins in that scenario.

We've archived the article about this development in our Google Docs.  You can click here to read it.  We're sure there will be a lot more coverage about "whazzup" with Lake Mead.  Stay tuned to this saga, we ain't seen the weirdest yet!

Cheers, jp

PS--About the photos:  The top photo is from July 1983 when Lake Mead reached its highest level of 1225 feet.  Luckily back then, Wayne R., myself, Bonnie F. and a female friend of Wayne's traveled over from Flagstaff to watch the water flowing over the spillway.  It was a sight none of us will ever forget!  I can still see it in my mind's eye as if it was yesterday.  The other photo shows Lake Mead near Hoover Dam with the water level down 103 feet.  Bear in mind, the water level is now down 137 feet so it's a lot lower than shown in the photo.  These are historic times!

Mid-October news roundup

As usual, there's lots going on down in The Verde.  Here's some highlights I gleaned from various newspapers this mid-October morning.

The Forest Service decided not to appeal a Magistrate's ruling that slammed the infamous Red Rock Pass.
You can read all about it by clicking here. 
If we were light enough afoot, we'd leap up and click our heels! As we said in an earlier post: Justice Prevails!

Trails are in the news elsewhere.  There's a 90+ page trails document and a related planning document making the rounds of various municipalities and gov't entities in The Verde.  It's a superb document, easily one of the best trails documents I've ever read.  It takes a logical, prudent and rational approach to planning for a comprehensive and coordinated trails system through the far flung reaches of the entire Verde Valley.  Click here to read the news article.  The Camp Verde Bugle also published an editorial promoting the trails thing.  You can click here to read it.  If you are really interested, you can click here to read the 90+ page document.
As you know, we're major fans of "all things trail" so we're highly interested in the outcome of this process.

Bald eagles are in the news once again.  You can read about the latest developments by clicking here.

Cornville has a food bank and might soon get a thrift store.  As t-store addicts, this is Big News!  Click here to read the story.

The Jerome State Park reopened this week.  It's a great story.  Click here for the news item about the reopening.  The full story of how this state park came back to life is told in more detail in another story.  Click here to read it.

Some Yavapai-Apache Youth were engaged in a Verde River cleanup effort.  That's actually pretty unusual and, therefore, a genuine news item.  Click here to check it out.

The Verde NRCD is doing some really great stuff.  We are SOOOO proud of Jodi Allen for her tenacity and dedication in sticking with this embattled organization through thick and thin.  I think the NRCD is finally "out of the woods" and back on track to great things.  Click here for the draft minutes of their October 11th meeting and you will see what I mean.

Finally, as you know, we are quite fond of following the Harry's Hideaway restaurant blog and Twitter.  It turns out that Harry cooks by prime numbers.  No kidding.  Click here to read the story.

Well, that's about all the news of interest I can find this morning.  Cheers!, jp

Diablo Burger Tops Arizona

We read Flagstaff "Arizona Daily Sun" online edition on a pretty regular basis.  Today, we spotted a story entitled "Diablo Burger garners national attention."  Huh?  So, there's this USA Today Travel feature that aired September 30, 2010, and it names Diablo Burger as THE Best Burger joint in the entire State of Arizona. Imagine that!

Well, we'd never heard of Diablo Burger so this was fresh news to us.  So we hot-footed it over to the Diablo Burger website and instantly became totally raptured by the place.  Even though we're still 750+ miles and several weeks away from our Arizona Winter Sojourn, we're practically frothing at the mouth to chow down on a Diablo Burger.  This is precisely and exactly the type of eatery we want to support and celebrate.  They are all about LOCAL and, better yet, their beef comes from a couple of legendary ranches over by Chavez Pass flanking the famed Palatkwapi Trail.  The company's website is a total hoot and a genuine delight to read.  Here's two sample snips from the website:  "Why don't you take charge cards?"  Answer: "Because banks don't serve cheeseburgers."  "...gastronomy: another word for cheeseburger."

OK, here's yer linkages:

Click here for the Daily Sun snip that alerted us to this place.
Click here for The USA Today story.
Click here for the Diablo Burger website.

As a side note, the whole USA Today article had some very personal connections.  Get this--the top burger joint listed in my home state of Indiana is West Lafayette's Triple XXX.  My Mom worked as a cap hop there in 1941!  In fact, she was walking to work there on Dec. 7th, 1941 when she got the news about Pearl Harbor.  I grew up with the Triple XXX so it was a shock to see it listed as Indiana's top burger place.

Next, Utah's top burger hot spot is in Kamas.  Kamas is a pinprick on the Utah map.  Oddly, however, five years agot to the day today, we were arriving in Kamas to do a volunteer stint with the Forest Service there.  Sadly, we never went into that hole-in-the-wall place.  Somehow, we thought it would be your typical frozen burger fare.  Nobody in Kamas ever even mentioned the place. 

And let's move on to Wyoming.  Note that La Barge is listed as having the top burger joint in the state.  La Barge is truly in the middle of nowhere.  See for yourself on Google Maps or Mapquest.  But there's a heck of a giant story hiding there in La Barge and it's all about burgers. Click here for the story. It's been on our list of places to go for several years now.

And lastly, Idaho's top burger place is in Coeur D'Lene.  We were up there for a statewide volunteer conference in February and walked right past the place and didn't go in!  It looked so incredibly non-descript that we feared it would be just another Greasy Spoon serving up the same rubbery Sysco frozen burger patties.  It all goes to tell you can't tell a book by its cover or a burger joint by it's appearance.

Congrats to Diablo Burger--it's an honor you can savor forever!

Cheers, jp

Good News for Ancient Elders

To say the Verde Valley is rich in archaeological sites is like saying the Vatican has a lot of Roman Catholics. There are at least 2,500 archaeological sites in the Verde Valley and probably far more than that. Over the generations since the Anglo conquest of Native People here, those ancient sites have been repeatedly raped and robbed of their priceless artifacts.  This pillage continues with each passing day as both the criminal and the clueless continue to cart off every ancient shard they can carry.  As this pitiful trend continues unabated and unchecked, layer upon layer of our Native Heritage disappears forever.

Anyone with a caring heart who visits any of the Verde's haunting cultural legacy sites can feel the presence of our Ancient Elders echoing on the winds.  The Spirits of the Native People are alive in these places.  Those people may have been dead for a millennia or more, but their essence remains long after their once proud stone homes have melted into rubble.  The detritus of the art and craft of their life's arduous work tells a tale of dedication, tenacity, ingenuity and, as Steven Ambrose would say, undaunted courage.

Throughout our 30 year association with the Southwest's amazing cultural legacy, we have been continually saddened and perplexed by the population's addiction to possession of ancient artifacts.  Why can't they simply leave them alone?  Why do they have to take them away?  What's wrong with leaving them alone?  Perhaps these questions have no answers.  Perhaps there is some strange primal urge that compels a vast majority of people to steal our heritage for themselves.  I, for one, will never fathom the answers to such questions.  They are for much smarter people to ponder.  However, I can guarantee you one thing--I will respect and honor the memory of our Ancient Elders by leaving every artifact I find precisely where I found it.

Now that I have finished my Sermon this morning, let's move onto to the "Good News" referred to in this blog post's title.  In a seemingly infinite cavalcade of sad news, we present here two Bright Stars of Good News!
Both stories are authored by (Surprise!) Reporter Steve Ayers whose expertise is discussed in the post below this one.

The first news item relates to the Tuzigoot National Monument in Clarkdale, Arizona.  If you've ever visited that old 1930's museum there you know what a funky throwback it is.  It's a classic example of how people once viewed (and simplified) the Life & Times of our Ancient Elders.  I've often thought Aunt Matilda could put on a loin cloth and feel right at home there in the Tuzigoot Museum.  It had a certain funky homeliness that endeared it to the Gray Hair Set.  The previous Superintendent of Tuzigoot couldn't have cared less about the place.  He was totally uninterested in bringing Tuzigoot's displays and interpretation into the late 20th Century.  The new Superintendent has had a heaping full plate dealing with the rampant neglect heaped upon all three of her properties: Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well and Tuzigoot.  It's only now after almost 8 years in charge that she's been able get some attention for Tuzigoot to the tune of almost a half million dollars!
The whole museum is going to be upgraded and the exhibits will be modernized and visitors will now be able to understand the REAL story of the place, not some fanciful, dolled up Middle American idea of what life was like there.  It's a VERY refreshing development and reported quite well by Mr. Ayers.  You can click here for the newspaper's original presentation of the story.  If this link eventually fails to work, you can click here for our archived Google Docs PDF printout of the story.

OK, let's move on to Good News Item #2.  Once again Mr. Ayers wrote this story.  That isn't much of a surprise either because he is on the Board of Directors of the very organization he is describing.  Since we've already given you some idea of his concern and deep involvement in making History Happen (in the blog post below this one), we're sure you will realize why he's writing about something he's involved in.  It's a new kid on the block called The Verde Valley Archaeology Center.  They are dedicated to the LOCAL preservation of significant physical remnants of the Verde Valley's Ancient Elders.  The formation of this group is a huge news development.  They have a tall mountain to climb but that's not the point.  The point is that they are making a statement and establishing goals and objectives and showing some real class with their efforts.  In my book, it's important to step up to the plate and take your swings in the Big Leagues.  Sure, you might strike out but, then again, you can't knock one over the centerfield fence if you didn't stand up to bat!  Somehow, I suspect that the VVAC will be a major hitter in the local leagues and, as the years pass, will become a force for the Good in terms of preserving what little is left of our cultural legacy and heritage.

Click here for the newspaper's story about VVAC.
Click here for our archived PDF of the story.
Click here for the VVAC's Most Excellent website.

Thanks, Steve, for reporting on these stories.  And Thanks to all those who are working hard to make these great things happen.  The Spirits of the Ancients Elders are Smiling!

Ayers helps history happen

Years ago we were in a very small (and the only) grocery store in Superior, Arizona.  I noticed two faded bumper stickers wedged between some paperwork in the little so-called "customer service booth."  The stickers said simply: "History Happens."  Yes, indeed, history does happen.  Actually it happens two different ways.  First, the events and people who are part and parcel of what we call "history" do their thing.  That's when History Happens for the first time.  But History Happens yet once again when thoughtful people bring it alive for future generations to ponder and enjoy.

Oftentimes as History is happening, those who doing what they do don't remotely realize they are making history.  Most people think that making history is something like giving the Gettysburg Address or cutting down a cherry tree or dying on some lonely hilltop at the Little Big Horn.  History is so much more than such iconic events--it's actually the stuff of everyday life.  How we manage to survive in our various daily worlds is actually the heart and soul of history.

The Verde Valley and especially the Lower Verde is lucky to have a bright new star on the History Horizon.  His name is Steve Ayers and his day job is as a reporter for The Camp Verde Bugle.  Every newspaper has a derogatory nickname and this one has often been the Camp Verde Bungle.  However, with Steve's professional talents now always evident, it's easy to forego the old Bungle Daze and refer to its proper, legal name.

Steve has an obvious fascination with history and how History Happens.  And he's making his own mark by bringing history back to life in an area that's quite literally dripping with significant history.  Steve's on the Board of the Camp Verde Historical Society.  (The group's acronym is the same as the high school's: CVHS)  For years, if not decades or perhaps generations, CVHS has been a rather stagnant group making little significant progress in the preservation of the history of the Lower Verde.  Bea Richmond was the group's main mover and shaker and with Bea's efforts some things did get accomplished.  Now along comes Steve and he's obviously provided a spark that's clearly jump started CVHS into new levels of enthusiasm, action, and, yes, even actual results.  History is Happening once again in the Lower Verde and it's a refreshing and exciting development.

Want some proof?  Ok, how's this?  Steve took the lead on producing a book of historical photos of Camp Verde.  That might seem like a simple task.  However, given all the intrigues and tangled family subplots in Camp Verde, we're amazed this book ever got off the ground much less got published.  Hats off to CVHS and Steve Ayers for making it happen.  You can click here to read the newspaper story about the book.  (NOTE: If the newspaper link fails to work, click here for a PDF copy of the story we've archived on our Google Docs.)

Meanwhile, Steve is helping History Happen by researching and writing professional quality newspaper stories about all sorts of historical topics.  His latest is on the pioneer photographers of the area.  Anyone who knows anything about the tedious nature of historical research will appreciate the time and effort that went into this story.  Reading Steve's "History Happens" stories are a real delight for me and we will do our best to bring them here whenever we see them.  Click here for the pioneer photographer story as it appears in the newspaper.  (NOTE: If the newspaper link failt to work, click here for a PDF copy archived on our Google Docs.)

Thanks, Steve, and keep up your GREAT Work!

Cheers, jp

Neon Lady takes final dive

(See Note added 10/25/10 below)

Mesa Arizona's Main Street is an eclectic mix of various cultural metaphors. On one hand, the congested stop-and-go thoroughfare is a throwback to the kitschy mid-century icons of pre-interstate America. On the other hand, today's Main Street reeks of all of the obnoxious, annoying detritus of urban decay. A few fading icons of the Dina Shore Daze share space on this strip with loan shark shops, Mexican tiendas and sleezy used car dealers. What were once proud, modern motels have now become fading sepia halftones of their former selves.


This week's amazing storms brought a final end to one of Mesa's most enduring and loved Main Street signs--the famous Neon Diving Lady. Yep, she's gone. Flattened amid a spray of millions of tiny glass shards. At least she went out in spectacular fashion. Pity the poor sign who's final day is dangling on a crane cable while destined for the oblivion of some forlorn scrap heap.

We've always admired the Diving Lady. There are no signs left on Main Street that come as close to the neon grandeur and prim dignity she displayed. She was tireless in her performances, always hitting the blue neon pool with such perfection. She never complained. She never sought out coveted sports endorsement contracts. Even if she never won any awards, she will always reside in the Hall of Fame of Fabled Neon Signs.


Thankfully, a few people were caring and thoughtful enough to enshrine The Diving Lady forever on YouTube. The video shown above had only a mere 50 views when I found it this morning. One can only imagine how many views it will have over the many years to come as the lore of The Diving Lady becomes yet another urban legend.


The Arizona Republic carried the story of The Diving Lady's demise in the October 9th edition. We printed it to PDF and have stored it for posterity on our Google Docs site. You can click here to read it.

NOTE added 10/25/10--The Diving Lady Sign Saga continues! Efforts are underway to restore the sign.  Click here to read all about it.

Justice Prevails!

Oh, boy, I am a Happy Camper here on the morning of October 1st!  The US Magistrate, none other than highly-regarded attorney, Mark E. Aspey, issued a blistering 33-page ruling that struck down criminal charges against a hiker for failure to pay his fine after being ticketed for not having a red Rock Pass on display in his vehicle.  Gosh, it's really a superb story and we are positively jubilant about it.  JUSTICE PREVAILS!!!!!!
Click here to read the story as it appear in today's Sedona Red Rock News.  We've archived the story in our Google Docs so we can savor and enjoy it for years to come.  WHA--WHOOO!!

Harrys Hideaway in Cornville

Something's going on in Cornville. Whazzup, you say?  Well, it seems that the whole Cornville scene is a changin' for the better.  There's a new restaurant in Cornville.  Yep, it's called Harry's Hideaway.  I learned about it when I roamed down to the Verde Independent newspaper.  Phil Wright wrote a nice article and listed the restaurant's website.  So, I moseyed over there and was shocked.  I was expecting just another plain vanilla restaurant website.  Ho, Hum.  Well, I was shocked.  It's a GREAT website!  If the food and service and hospitality are anywhere near what is reflected in the website, then this little place will be tremendous and a genuine asset to Cornville and its nearby cousins, such as our winter home near Montezuma Well.

I called The Goatherder right away and asked him if he'd heard about it.  He was aware of it but hadn't paid any attention to it yet.  I respectfully requested that GH go forthwith and check it out today.  I am very impressed.  This is the kind of news you can use (and eat).  Disclaimer--edible news is easily my favorite news.


Meanwhile, as I was talking with GH, I noted that Harry's got called off the sidelines for mid-field action in the Celtic Fest last weekend because a Fork In The Road closed.  Oops. GH's son, Josh, got stiffed for two full weeks of wages at the Fork.  (We will resist the temptation to use the word "fork" in another context.)  We sure hope this doesn't dim young teenage Josh's interest in and enthusiasm for learning about the restaurant trade.



Well, suffice to say, we are excited about Harry's Hideaway and can hardly wait to get back down there sometime before December to give it a try.  In the meantime, how's about all the Verde Valley readers of this here blog go check it out and give us some reports back.  OK?  OK!  You can bet we're gonna be avid readers of that restaurant's blog and Twitter.  You can click here to go to their website.

The Cornville Sisters

The Camp Verde Bugle newspaper has a great story September 22 entitled "A tale of two Cornvilles." Judy Miller actually went to the only other Cornville in America. It's in Maine. Judy wrote an awesome comparison of the two communities, highlighting their similarities. Then she proposed that the two places become "sister cities." Sister Cities are nothing new--practically every Tom, Dick and Harry town has one. But they are rarely between "sisters" of the same name. What a novel and intriguing idea. It certainly has me interested in Cornville, Maine. The two places are 2,817 miles apart, according to Mapquest. It would take 43 hours of non-stop driving to get from one to the other. Cornville, Maine, is truly out in the middle of Nowhere, Maine. Anyway, you can click here to read Judy's excellent article.

Here's an interesting "aside" on Cornville and many other American communities. Judy was kind to the Post Office in her article. The legend I've heard (and repeated for over 25 years) is that when Mr. Coane turned in his application for a Post Office to be named after himself, the Postal official in D.C. in the 1880's looked at it and declared, "This idiot doesn't even know how to spell the word "corn!" So they simply scratched out Coane's name and put in "Corn." Such behavior was common then. In my years of reading history, I've stumbled on many instances of such postal behavior. The latest was this year over in Wyoming. The people there turned in for a Post Office named "Never Sweat" and the postal people threw it out and named it Dubois instead. Senator Dubois was in charge of the subcommittee that oversaw post office appropriations. Arco, Idaho, is another one close to home. The place was known as "Root Hog" and the people turned in for the name "Junction." The postal people threw that out and arbitrarily named the place for a visiting German count Georg von Arco who was visiting Washington at the time. Bannack, Montana is another one nearby. They applied for the name Bannock with an "O" but the postal people decided they didn't know how to spell and changed the "O" to an "A." Bannock with the "O" was correct because the people wanted to name their town after the Bannock Indian Nation. Nope, now way, the postal people once again decided the locals didn't know how to spell!

What's ironic here is that Cornville, Arizona, really once WAS a great cornfield in the prehistoric days. But it only accidentally wound up being named Cornville and not Coaneville.

No juice from Hoover?

I haven't been paying much attention to the ongoing drought in the Southwest. It's Sunday morning and one of my favorite activities is reading our local Sunday newspaper and then roaming to read the various online newspapers around the West. Since Susun is in Vista, California, now, I decided I'd read the local newspaper there. Much to my surprise, there's an excellent article an a possible shutdown of electrical generation from Hoover Dam, maybe even as early as within the next couple of years! This is definitely a "must read" article. It's now archived on our Google Docs. Click here to read it.

109 in Phoenix on September 18th!

Yes, the high temp in Phoenix broke the all time record for a high temperature this late in September. The previous record of 107 was set in 1980, THIRTY years ago! Today's high here in Idaho Falls was 83, notched between 3-6 pm.

SOURCE: http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/09/18/20100918phoenix-weather-heat-record-high-brk.html

Ranch House Coalition formed in Lake Montezuma

Awhile back we talked about the dilemma in Lake Montezuma. Private developers have robbed the community there of its heart and soul by shuttering the Ranch House and letting the golf course die. Alas, its entirely within their private property rights to do what they did. Legal? Yes. Morally wrong and unethical? You betcha. These developers are poster children for why a lot of Arizonans have such a low opinion of land developers. It's taken quite some time but the local citizens seem to be rising up about the matter. Theirs odds of rescuing the property are slim and none and Slim just town, as the saying goes. But at least they are TRYING to do something. That's better than sitting at home wringing their hands and raising a fruitless hue and cry.
If anything, their mere efforts to organize are providing a glimmer of hope (even if hope is a mirage) and such glimmers have a huge psychological impact on the collective community psyche. That's a good thing, it's like therapy---almost--and it surely doesn't cost much real cash to organize and talk big talk. We wish them well, they surely have a huge windmill to tilt against! You can read the latest by clicking here.

Cottonwood Commemorative Coin

COTTONWOOD - The City of Cottonwood is offering a token of its 50-year history of incorporation. Get your collector coins while they last.

The 50th Year Birthday commemorative "challenge coin" reflects the community's strong affiliation with the Verde River and the towering cottonwoods that line the river.

The specially made collector coins bear a reflection of the Arizona flag on one side and the city logo, the Cottonwood and Verde River on the opposite side.

The coins measure 1.5 inches in diameter and bears a copper hue, reflective of the Verde's copper industry era of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The coins are in limited supply and available for $5 at Cottonwood City Hall.

Call 634-5526 or email Kayla Allen at kallen@cottonwoodaz.gov

Northern Arizona Wildland Fire Overview

The bulk of the Year 2010 fire season has passed in Northern Arizona.  To date, fires in that vicinity have cost at least $30-million.  However, fire suppression costs there  have been only about 3% of the national cost of fighting fires so far this year.  The Schultz Fire around the San Francisco Peaks was the most devastating fire of the year.  The true cost of that loss isn't calculated into the $30-million.  The scars there will take a few generations to heal.  Meanwhile, flooding in the fire aftermath has been severe and will continue mostly unabated for years to come.  Cindy Cole of Flagstaff's "The Arizona Daily Sun" did a nice wrapup article in the Setpember 12th Sunday Sun. Unfortunately, I can't print the article to a PDF file so you will have to click here to read it on the newspaper's website.

Tovrea Castle still alive

Even though this doesn't relate to the Verde Valley, per se, it is still all about an Arizona icon, a mythical symbol that hovers in the backbrains of untold generations of Arizona residents and visitors alike. There are few more iconic icons than Tovrea Castle, sitting as it does lonesome and aloof on a cactus-studded desert outcrop smack dab in the middle of urban insanity down in Phoenix. Susun grew up casting glances Tovrea's way. Personally, I can't think of a more haunting and endearing landmark for the 1920's dreams of desert developers. There's something about Tovrea Castle that causes it to stick in your synapses. I can remember so many times when Susun's Late Mom or her Dad Don would make some remark about Tovrea Castle. Don simply couldn't drive past the place with starting some story or other about Tovrea.
It's that way for any one who's ever lived in Phoenix or been a regular visitor there.
I was very happy to find this story front and center on the September 13th issue of The Arizona Republic. I've archived it in our own Google Documents so it can be accessed forever. (Click here for the article.) If you know anything whatsoever about Tovrea, you are going to appreciate this story. Enjoy! Cheers, jp

New Ranger at the Verde District

Most Western States have a lot of US Forest Service lands. Arizona's no exception. The Verde Valley is basically surrounded by Forest Service land and numerous large pockets of public land exist with the valley itself. The Verde River long ago provided a natural boundary marker with which to divide various Forest jurisdictional boundaries. Four National Forests--The Coconino, The Prescott and the Kaibab and the Tonto technically each have a chunk of some portion of the Verde's geography. The "Coke," as it's called and the Prescott (pronounced Press-KIT) are the two major players. Two Ranger Districts vie for Top Dog of the Verde. One is the Sedona-Red Rock District and the other is the Verde District.

Our own personal career became involved with the Verde District way back in 1981-1982. By the time 1989 rolled around we actually had an official agreement to use a small portion of the maintenance area for an office of the Verde NRCD. We worked for years ON the Verde District property without ever being an official Forest Service employee. Dear Friend Tom Bonomo was the District Ranger all of those years. Tom retired a few years ago and a Dee Hines took his place. Well, Dee moved over to the Apache-Sitgreaves earlier this year and the powers that be finally got around to naming his successor. She's Celeste Gordon who's most recently of the Coronado National Forest. A story about her is available here.

We're interested in the new Ranger because she will be working closely with Dear Friend Dexter Allen who's the Wild & Scenic River Ranger for the Verde River. Dexter has his warehouse there on the Verde District even though his actual office is over in Sedona. Hopefully, the new Ranger will be very supportive of Dexter's program. We thought it would be useful to put up the article about her here for future reference.

Gas Prices

As anyone who travels well knows, gas prices are often uppermost in mind. It's still probably at least two months until we head south for the Snowbird Season. However, it's not too early to begin watching how gas prices ebb and flow between now and then. Up here in Idaho, we have been hard hit by high prices this summer. The bright red color of the gas temperature map tells the tale. Meanwhile, Central and Southern Arizona are enjoying prices as much as 50 cents a gallons cheaper than Idaho. Many locations in Tucson are right about 2.40 (or lower) now. Northern Arizona is always higher and looks to be only slightly less than Idaho.
At today's prices, it's going to cost us $200 one way coming south. We shall see what the spring prices hold. The above graphic can be found at Gas Buddy. Click here to go to that website. We've used Gas Buddy since the summer of 2002. It's an awesome website and we're thankful that it exists!

Moonscape in Verde Valley?

Yep, you betcha!  An enterprising reporter for the Camp Verde Bugle wrote a great historical piece recently.  Practically everyone we know in Arizona knows that the lunar astronauts trained for their moon missions out in the cinder fields north of Flagstaff.  That's old news.  What none of us knew was that they had TWO training sites--the famous one by Flagstaff and the heretofore unknown site right smack dab outside of Cottonwood near the Ogden Ranch Road.  Amazing but true.  The gubmint used huge quantities of explosive to blast hundreds of craters in the Mingus Mountain foothills.  When it was too cold and snowy to train up in Flagstaff, the astronauts came down to Da Verde to train.  It's an amazing story.  We printed it to PDF and then uploaded the story on our Goodle Doc's so it's preserved for posterity.  Click here to read all about it.

Drought studies reviewed by Payson Roundup newspaper.

I've always thought it a tad weird that a newspaper would be named for a weed killer!  Anyway, back in the day when The Payson Roundup got its name, roundups were something you did to cattle, not weeds.  This sleepy newspaper rarely published much more than bowling league stuff.  I've often thought that Rip Van Winkle's cousin was actually the paper's publisher.  Well, imagine my surprise when I discovered in the Roundup a nice overview of some University of Arizona studies on drought.  Click here to read the story.

Snowbowl set back...again

Perhaps the Arizona Snowbowl's quest to use reclaimed Flagstaff waste water for snowmaking might qualify as Northern Arizona's longest running political soap opera.  We've lost count of how many years this issue has been contested through the NEPA process, the courts and the arena of political theater.  It's possible that the issue might even span a generation or two.  There's no end in sight after this week's vote by the Flagstaff City Council.  As nearly as we can tell, the Council could have accelerated the process by selling POTABLE water to Snowbowl.  They voted 5-2 to nix that idea, thereby keep the reclaimed agreement on the table.  Now, as the Arizona Daily Sun reports, "Federal courts will next rule on whether reclaimed water is safe for such use, and an injunction could delay construction perhaps by one to four years by rough estimates if there is a likely appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals."  Watching paint dry looks positively FAST compared to this process!
Click here to read the latest installment in this story.

Verde Valley news roundup

Even though it's still more than two months before we head south, we're ramping up our interest in Arizona's Verde Valley news and events.  We will periodically print and archive various news stories to link to blog posts here.

First, the Really Big News: Neighbor Gary W. went over to our house this week and knocked down some of the rampant weeds.  Our use of a pre-emergent chemical didn't work on the nightshade species.  It apparently worked well on tumbleweeds, though.  You can see the results in the photo above.  THANK YOU, GARY!

Today, we have numerous other items of interest.  First, one of our actual neighbors (and the person who scared off the vandals that broke our windows) ran in the Democratic primary for the right to challenge Senator John McCain.  John Dougherty actually received 58,898 votes!  Even though he lost by a wide margin to winner Rodney Glassman (84,635 votes), it shows Dougherty must have put in a lot of time and effort during his campaign.  Dougherty's vote total was 23 percent of ballots cast in the Democratic primary.  Even though Dougherty may not realize it now, just having participated in that election will pretty much change his life from this point forward.  It will be interesting to see what he's "up to" when our paths cross next.  John and his wife are regular walkers out in the Old Field of Montezuma Well National Monument's wild western end.

Speaking of The Well, as we call the National Park Service property, our neighbor Gary W. told us yesterday that almost the entire Old Field is now a "sea of tumbleweeds."  That's no surprise since the Park and its contractors made a terribly disturbed mess of the alkaline soils there this past spring.  We are now going to have our hands full stemming the inevitable tumbleweed tsunami.  The prevailing southwest winds will blow them straight toward our property this fall and winter.  Since the Park put up a new and tight boundary fence, we expect to see a giant mountain ridge of t-weeds piled up along our south property boundary.  Ah, well, life with the Park as a neighbor is an often bumpy ride.  They live in a world of their own and all we can do is be rather mute observers next door.

On a positive note for The Well, their Staff received some press recently for their Green Rangers program. It seems that the National Level NPS leadership has passed down word from on high that all parks should work harder to engage youth in the NPS mission. The Green Rangers program is apparently unique to the Verde Valley NPS properties and attempts to teach children what it takes to preserve natural and cultural resources.
We've archived this particular story on our Google Documents as a PDF.  You can click here to read it.

A 10+ year planning and construction process for the redesign of Highway 179 came to an end last month with a big hoop-dee-doo celebration in the Village of Oak Creek and Sedona.  It's all done and speeches have been made and ribbons cut and maybe even the dust has settled, too.  Hwy. 179 is one of our most traveled routes when we are living in Arizona.  It's our link to and from many of our Dear Friends as well as our lifeline to our favorite hiking trails in Red Rock Country.  It's actually a little hard to believe what transpired there since the late 1990's.  Arizona Dept. of Transportation was ramming a horrendous plan for the highway down everyone's throats.  There seemed to be no hope that the Darth Vader ADOT plans could be changed.  Somehow, local people banded together in a David-style group called "Voice of Choice" and brought down the ADOT Goliath.  The whole saga is a true miracle in every sense of the words.  Everyone came out of this epic looking and smelling like a rose.  ADOT's won some awards for its All American Highway and the Voice of Choice people are now local legends in their own time.  The road is now a dream to travel and we can get to and from Sedona much faster, easier and more safely.  Our hats will be forever to Dear Friend Jim Bishop for the behind-the-scenes role he played in the early days of Voice of Choice.  Without Jim and his peers, that area would have been forever destroyed.  THANK YOU, JIM!  Click here to read a wrapup article about the hoopla last month.

Some things never change.  People have been talking about "saving the Verde River for way more than 20 years.  Heck, that was the essence of my whole career there from the early 1980's until our retirement in January 2001.  For 20+ years that's all I lived and breathed and preached.  The bottom line is very basic: more people = more water usage.  Duh?  What a novel idea.  Well, it seems that the only thing that people can do is simply "study" the situation over and over and over ad infinitum. And so it continues to go.  Among the galaxy of various groups that purports to have leadership status over who's up to bat on behalf of the Verde River is a creature named the "Verde River Basin Partnership."  The group was actually formed by Congress as part of a complex deal to trade a huge chunk of land to some guy in return for remote, arid land of little use to the public.  VRBP finally got some money and so now, guess what?  They are commencing to once again study what will happen when the projected 200,000 people come to live in the Verde Valley by the Year 2050.  You can click here to read all about it.

The aftermath of the housing bubble continues to impact an area not far from our Arizona home.  Technically, we live in a community called Rimrock.  But the vicinity is much better known simply as Beaver Creek.  These days it might even qualify as Greater Beaver Creek.  Within Beaver Creek, there are such places as Lake Montezuma, Montezuma Well, Rimrock, McGuireville (Home of the Goat Ropers), Indian Lakes, Thunder Ridge, etc.  Back in the day, there was once a great golf course and restaurant over in what's now called Lake Montezuma.  It had been a grand ranch in the early days of Beaver Creek.  The 1960's developers chopped up the ranch into teeny, tiny parcels, threw down a golf course, Photoshopped the lake into artificial grandeur and spawned a dubious development that somehow eventually became legitimate.  Lake Montezuma now actually has its own Zip Code so we suppose that means it has come of age.  The golf course and restaurant were a true Point of Pride for the people of Lake Montezuma.  Even though the course wasn 't really much, it drew duffers from far and wide during the winter months.  Back when money was free and easy, some developers bought the whole kit and ka-boodle and had grandiose plans for condos galore and all the related bells and whistles that only deranged developers can conjure up.  Well, along came Polly and the whole house of cards tumbled down when the housing bubble burst.  So what did Dick and Don Developer Do?  They closed the golf course, shuttered the restaurant, turned off the irrigation, let all the trees die and the golf turned into a nightmarish moonscape.  Naturally, this caused a hue and cry from the residents and their wailing has beengoing on for a few years now.  County officials wring their hands but simply can't find it in themselves to knock the crap out of the developer--heck they don't even seem capable of rapping his knuckles with a ruler.  The county has been in bed with developers for as long as the county has existed.  It's in their DNA so that's no surprise.  Anyway, yet another chapter in this long running sad soap opera played out recently when the developer got yet another six months to "proved up" on their sorry and disastrous deal.   You can click here to read all about it.

The Verde River stretches from the high, wide, lonesome country way up near Seligman, Arizona, and eventually flows clear down to a point near the Phoenix metroplex.  Since white people took over the place, there's been a lot of weirdness happen along the length of that river.  One particular place of perennial weirdness is called Childs, Arizona.  It was once a community but now it's a mere memory.  That's another story and a long one to boot.  Lots of weird things have happened at Childs.  Why?  Well, there's a hot springs nearby and for some largely unknown reason, weirdos are attracted to hot water than flows mysteriously out of the ground.  It just goes with the turf.  OK, since the Verde is still a river that means people will always attempt to paddle it in various boats and flotation devices no matter what the flow level.  Summer's low flows do not deter paddlers.  So....three kayakers were paddling in or near Childs the other day and this guy starts shooting at them with a 30.06 rifle.  One bullet apparently came within six inches of one of the boats.  It's VERY rare when river runners get shot at from shore.  It happens so rarely it generally makes news in the river runner circles nationwide.  From our perspective, it's just yet another weirdo chapter of Verde River history playing itself out at (where else?) Childs, Arizona.  The story has all the weirdness you would expect from an incident such as this.  You can click here to read it.

In reading the various news of the Verde Valley there's the typical litany of sad stuff.  A minister charged with child molestation, a wrong way driver on I-17 who died in a head-on, a suicide on Midgley Bridge, and all of the other detritus that seems to collect iin the back eddies of humanity.  We'll cover such things as a guy shooting at kayakers because that's personally relevant.  But we won't cover stories such as the above.  They are all too common everywhere in America these days.  The only thing we're interested in are news and events that are rather unique to the Verde Valley itself.  We welcome any suggestions for future topics.  Please leave your idea in the form of a comment below this post.  Thanks for reading & Happy Trails!

Cheers, Johnny Montezuma

The 2010 Monsoon

So far, it's not looking like a real "good Monsoon."  Yes, rain has migrated from the Gulf of Mexico but, no, it hasn't been uniformly beneficial to the Great State Of Arizona.  Within the past few years, maybe even dating back to the late 1990's, the monsoon's arrival and dependability has been very widely variable.  All Arizonans, whether they moved to the state this year or 120 years go have opinions about "the monsoon."  We all love to discuss this phenomena and we all love to ENJOY this phenomena.  It's "The Arizona Way!"

Unfortunately, things don't look real good for Arizona's water situation.  After enjoying a wildly successful winter snowpack, things changed.  Now, it's Back To The Future, as some Climo People say.  They say, "Hey, we're in a long term drought and a single year doesn't change a long term trend."  Well, we beg to differ but our begging doesn't change weather!

Click here for the Climate Prediction Center's website.

Verde Valley Swift Water Rescue Team nabs 1st Place

We're beginning once again to keep an eye on Verde Valley News. Our primary source is the online version of The Verde Independent. We were delighted today to see that the Verde Valley Fire Department's Swift Water Rescue Team took 1st place in a state competition. You can click here to read the article in PDF form.  Back in The Dark Ages, there was no such things as a Swift Water Rescue Team anywhere to be found in or near the Verde.  We remember being called in to advise a rescue in January 1993.  In the February 1993 flood, authorities had to use a local kayaker to help rescue people.  Finally, the Sedona Fire Department began to get interested in Swift Water Rescue, primarily because of Tim Lefler's leadership, as I recall.  Somehow I think Tim has his fingerprints on the process that led to the VVFD doing so well in this latest contest.  Tim and Maria Elena are now our neighbors in Arizona and we say, THANKS, TIM, ya dun good!

Easter Peak for Grand Falls?

Oddity of oddity--it looks like Grand Falls is going to peak on Easter weekend.  Strange but true.  All the planets and mudballs have aligned and Chocolate Falls will be wowing the assembled crowds this weekend.  Here is the predictive hydrograph.  You be the judge!

Verde River Trip Summary

I've been working for over 2 hours this morning writing up my account of my Verde River Trip this past weekend.  I realized that the account would make a single blog post far too long.  So, I split up the account into 9 posts, including this one.  That way you can read as much or as little as you may wish.  Hopefully, the blog posts are logically titled and organized.  If not, tough luck.

In a nutshell, it was a wonderful trip in every way.  My eternal thanks go out to Dex & Jodi for the great gift of their dedication to the Verde River.  Dex is now the River Ranger for the Wild & Scenic River.  he has a warehouse that would easily rival any commercial outfitter.  He works with a cadre of devoted volunteers who obviously love him.  He has at least 20 such volunteers who serve on a regular basis and another 50 who serve now and then!  As a volunteer manager myself, I can tell you this doesn't happen by accident.  It takes a special skill and talent to attract and keep such devoted volunteers.  Way to go, Dex!

Dex has mastered the arcane bureaucracy of the Forest Service and he is doing a great job in every aspect.  We are so proud of what he has accomplished on behalf of the Verde River.  He's the reigning Old Man River!  Jodi's talents and personality are such gifts in so many ways.  You GO, Girl!

It was inspirational and poetic for me to travel with these two wonderful humans.  It really brought everything full circle for the three of us to be on the river together at this time and in this context.


The simple word "thanks" doesn't do justice to the gratitude I feel for the honor and privilege to travel on the Verde with Dex and Jodi this weekend.  I will be forever grateful to have had this experience.  May you two enjoy Happy Trails Always and All ways FOREVER!  THANK YOU!

Water

Way down below, you will find the hydrographs for this trip.  The flow was clearly well above 2,000 cfs during our Verde River trip.  This is a flow that's quite rare on the last weekend in March of any given year.  During the early 1980's, a flow like this would have been pretty normal.  Then along came the drought.  Flows like this vaporized during the drought.  It was a delight to have this much fluffy water during a nice, sunny warm time of the Arizona Spring. 

It was windy and rather cool Saturday but at least it was a tailwind.  The overnight low was 28.  However, on Sunday, the temps rallied into at least the upper 70's and probably the low 80's.  Sunday's overnight low was a mere 46.  All of this great weather made the cold water feel quite user-friendly.

The Verde River's famous rapids have undergone a lot of changes in recent years.  It's not the same river I remember.  Pre Falls and The Falls are truly knarly at these levels.  I wouldn't want to run either one of them.  We sneaked through the trees on river right to get into a position to scout a "must do" ferry over to a small eddy above the Falls.  Luckily, we all made the run.  If you miss that small eddy, you're going over The Falls and you're going to swim--guaranteed! 

After we got our boats into the little eddy, we then lined them on the far left side of The Falls.  The lining job was especially tricky but Dexter was in charge and his experience with this procedure made it look easy.  All of the many features of The Falls look MUCH different than I remember them.  The wave train has changed, the Ladders slot on the right is no longer feasible--there's at least two more keeper waves and the ledge hole looks far more frightening than I can ever recall.

Trust me, there's no way I'd want to run Pre Falls either!  Both of them looked very scary.  You couldn't pay me to take people through either of them in a commercial raft.  Nope.  No way.

Punk Rock is Punk Rock.  It's a hug the left shore and hope for the best.You really have to work at it.  Bushman has two really big, Grand-Canyonesque waves and you can't miss them.  If you're lucky, they won't flip you.  The vegetation has squeezed the river flow in a lot of places and rendered normally tame rapids into forces to be reckoned with.  There are a lot more potential "wrap rocks" sticking out here and there than there used to be.

Dex says it gets a lot easier at lower flows and becomes even more problematic at higher flows.  I guess that's to be expected.  It's not the same old casual Verde it was throughout the 1980's and 1990's.  It's definitely a formidable river now.  Buyer beware!

Usage

The Verde River is now surprisingly little used.  Frankly, I couldn't believe how few people there were on the river.  I was shocked.

Here we have a free-flowing river that doesn't require a fee or a mandatory permit.  It's over 2,000 cfs in near perfect weather.  The desert is coming alive with flowers--the scenery and wildlife are spectacular.  The rapids are in rare form.  But where are the people?  Amazing but true--there were essentially no people on the Verde River during our trip.

Dex and I speculated there would be 100 people on the river this weekend.  Gee, we sure would have lost a bet on that foolish prognostication.  We counted only 17 people on the river on Saturday.  On Sunday, we saw only people we had already counted the day before and NO other boaters coming down to Childs!  Nope, nary a soul.  So, that's it--17 people besides ourselves.

Rumor has it all of the Flagstaff and Prescott boating community was on the Salt day stretch.  Go figure.  By the time you pay for gas to the Salt and pay the highway robbery Apache fees, you could easily hire out two or three shuttle drivers!  Plus, your total time away from home would be a lot less and your total time on the river would be a lot greater than the Salt.  Go figure.  Meanwhile, as far as I cal tell, the Verde was running BIGGER than the Salt that particular weekend!

As near as we can speculate, usage is down because of "buzz" about the vegetation and the Childs road.  We discuss these two factors below.  They are legitimate factors and could well be limiting usage forever from this point forward.  There's absolutely no doubt that the vegetation is a genuine concern.  Likewise, if you don't have the right vehicle(s), you could have a world of hurt on that Childs Road.

In some ways this lack of usage is sad, in other ways, it's great.  For those who have the equipment, skills, and experience, the Verde now becomes a rare adventure.  Here's a great chance to test your gear and mettle while seeing hardly any people.  How good is that?  Very good!  Also, from a biological point of view, this means the wildlife basically outnumbers the people!  We had some great river otter sightings--my best ever--got up close and personal with a Mexican Blackhawk and saw eagles in the sky and on the nest.  The Verde is becoming that "wild kingdom" experience we always dreamed it could be back when "riparian restoration" was the buzz phrase for river fans and managers.