REMEMBER TO CLICK THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM & HOVER YOUR MOUSE OVER EACH ONE TO READ THE CAPTION
The old tumbling down Adobe walls along the San Pedro river in the heavy Mesquite underbrush of Charleston Arizona marks the spot of a long dead ghost town. A few miles up the road is the bustling main street of a town very much alive.....Tombstone. And in the same general area are two other little western towns in various states of.....dead or alive.
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FAIRBANK, Arizona was once a bee hive of activity along the banks of the San Pedro river complete with a busy 3 line railway stop, post office, saloon, general store, a school, & all the other buildings & business's that once made for a rootin tootin lively little western town. The people are long gone now, the school has been restored, the remains of the old saloon, post office & store are fenced off for safety purposes & an old sign hangs on a sun drenched withered wooden building telling you to.....beware of rattlesnakes!! We walked around the remains of Fairbank & it's old forgotten cemetery half a mile away on a craggy rock strewn hill back in March of 08 & you can read our blog of that day HERE & see our photos, HERE.
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PEARCE, Arizona was another typical tough little western mining town back in it's day & a few of it's buildings are still somewhat alive. You can drive right into the town. Gold was discovered nearby in the 1800's which resulted in a stampede of people from Tombstone. Pearce's old mining remains are still very visible high atop a rocky outcrop southeast of town. The lady in Pearce's OLD PEARCE POTTERY STORE on the southeast side of the intersection is very knowledgeable about the town's history. My blog for our visit to Pearce is HERE & my photos of the town & cemetery are HERE. 
We will be returning to this ghost town area of Cochise county late next month when we head back to, 'The Ranch.' We will once again be ranch sitting for RV friends Jeanie & Ray while they head off on a 3 week cruise with friends Rosanna & her Mother, Carol from the Paws & Hooves Ranch which we visited last March. I will blog about & post some photos about our 7 week ranch sitting job & the Paws & Hooves gang earlier this year in a later blog. And I will get Sergeant John & his Hudson Hornets in there too:))
Picasa 3 has just released it's 3.5 version & I downloaded it last night. Biggest advance is in the 'face recognition department.' For you folks who take a lot of people photos this is probably a good thing. You can read about & download it here. PICASA 3.5
Last night's video is only the 3rd video I've ever put in the blog in the past 2 years so just want to assure our 'air card' readers that it is not something I make a habit of. We use an air card while traveling as well so know the frustration involved in watching those precious Gigabytes been chewed. A Verizon store manager in Casa Grande, Arizona last winter told us he figured because of the evolving technology that Verizon would be taking the cap off the 5 Gigglebyte limit sometime this winter but I'm a little skeptical of that!!
Loaded up Max & Checkers this morning & we took the big wheels for drive up to Wal-Mart in Goderich & back. I was lucky enough to get myself smartened up this time & stay with the rig while the engine was running. Three weeks ago I started it up in the driveway, forgot about it & left it running for nearly 5 hours. In my world, some days just aren't quite as forgetful as others....sometimes:((
GROANER’S CORNER:)) To-day I have an original groaner written by myself. But, not to worry. I won’t make this a habit. SANDRA over at the Nightly News had mentioned seeing spider webs a few days ago on her walk & that reminded me of something. I wrote this following piece back in 1969 & it is called:
INCIDENT IN A FOREST
The spider spun his silken vines
Back and forth in magical lines.
First he went up then he went down
Then he came back and went all around.
Soon it was done and paused in the breeze
Enchantingly silent among the still trees.
The night passed on and gave way to the sun
But the spiders work wasn't quite done
For a passing fly in all innocence flew
Straight into the web & mornings still dew.
The spider advanced with caution and stealth
To claim his victim of bountiful wealth.
The fly in desperation struggled but knew
That for him this was his final adieu.
A struggle ensued in the morning light
A struggle that lasted on into the night.
First they went up then they went down,
Then they came back and went all around
Finally it was done and they paused in the breeze
Locked in death among the still trees.
Al Bossence 1969
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So there ya go……..told ya it was a GROANER!!
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
The historic town of Fairbank used to be a very important transportation hub. Three railroad lines passed through Fairbank including the New Mexico & Arizona which connected Fairbank to Benson & the Mexican port of Guamas. In the 1880s, at the peak of the silver boom in & around Tombstone, Fairbank served as a central point of entry & exit for miners, prospectors, materials, & ore. Tombstone was not connected to the railway until 1903 so passengers had to take a stagecoach from Fairbank. Passengers who stepped off the train in Fairbank in the 1880s would have seen an elegant hotel and restaurant, a post office, railroad depots and several other businesses. 
And so it was that we pulled off the highway into a dirt parking lot & down around a short road to what was left of the once booming little town of Fairbank. Well, there isn't much left but a sign tells us that it is probably one of the last authentic places with some original buildings intact. The old schoolhouse has been restored & is now a museum but it was closed to-day. There were 3 wooden buildings of which 2 were locked. The small open building was probably for horses years ago. A handwritten sign on another building said for us to stay back because of rattlesnakes. The largest building is completely enclosed by a wire fence with a no admittance sign. This was the General Store, Saloon, & Jail years ago. Plans are in the works to restore this building & a new steel roof has already been put on to protect what's left of the interiors. The San Pedro River & old railway line run along a short distance west of the buildings. 
It was Fairbank's old cemetery located about a half mile north of the town down a narrow dusty mesquite lined road that interested us the most. The cemetery is located atop a rough & rock strewn hill with a narrow footpath leading up to it. As we walked up the path I imagined how many of Fairbank's residents had been carried up this rocky stretch to their final destination. I also thought of all the people who flock to Tombstone's Boot Hill & believe that to be a real authentic cemetery. Oh sure, there are people buried there all right, but anything you see above ground has been manufactured & jazzed up for the tourist trade. I wonder what people would think if they ever saw a real western cemetery, untouched by human hands for over a century. I'm sure a lot of folks would find it boring with it's piles of stones, brambly mesquite trees, decaying old wooden crosses, & rusting gates & fences. No fancy or humorous inscriptions on the tombstones, because there are no tombstones. Just piles of rocks & stones on the gravesites with a few old tattered & broken wooden crosses that have stood the winds of time. Anything inscribed on a piece of wood has long been weathered out by the Arizona sun. There are no flowers here, no manicured trees, no finely mowed grass. Just piles of rocks marking the end of someone's life. No one to remember, no one to care. 
And so we made our way back down the hill of forgotten dreams & walked the half mile back to our car for some much needed water. Tucson tied a heat record to-day at 91F which was first set back in 1910. We probably topped out somewhere around 85F in our area & by the time we made it back to the car from the cemetery Kelly had a headache from the heat. The sun just seemed to ignite your skin everytime it touched you. I've heard it called a dry heat down here but I think it's more like a fry heat. Thank heavens for A/C in the car. The heat must have been brutal in the old days in these parts. Hard to comprehend people out in the hot sun digging holes in the hardened ground searching for silver, gold, & copper, day after day. I'm sure it led many to early graves. 
From Fairbank's we headed west to Whetstone where Kelly had seen a pottery place advertised on TV. Browsed around in there for awhile & thankfully came away empty handed. Headed back down highway 82 past Fairbanks, through Tombstone & south to Bisbee. Stopped along the highway in Bisbee at a scenic look-out & took a few more photos of this picturesque little town in the mountains. And, it seems everytime we go to Bisbee it seems to expand it's boundaries. To-day we stumbled into a little town once known as Warren, but has been annexed by Bisbee so falls under the Bisbee name now. A couple of weeks ago we came across San Jose which is another little town also now under the name of Bisbee. So, for anyone going to Bisbee, be aware that it is made up of 3 separate little towns. Or is it 4. There is another little section on Erie Street that seems to be a whole street complex unto itself & if you find The Bisbee Breakfast Club........you have found Erie Street. The BBC - 
