Friday, 3 December 2021
 |
| today's route |
So when I was planning my trip today to Tombstone, I was delighted to find that AZ not only named a town David but actually elevated him to sainthood. So St. David was my first stop.
On the road
St. David (elev. 3,676) is less than 10 miles from Benson and looks like a nice little place. It was established in 1877 by Mormon settlers (the original St. David was an early Mormon apostle) and now has just over 1,600 residents. St. David, "Home of the Tigers," was the site of a CCC camp before WWII. I saw a sign directing me to "The Original Thomas Nut House," and I can't find anything online that tells me what I missed; Thomas Nut doesn't seem to have been an early Mormon settler or a local dignitary or even the name of one of the pecan orchards nearby.
I stopped at the post office, told them about my brother and asked if they'd be sure my card had a St. David postmark, which they gladly did with a hand stamp. I guess most mail gets sent to Benson for postmarking. Both the postal clerk and the man behind me in line looked delighted to hear my story, so it brightened the day for several of us. Then the dogs and I walked around a bit and got back on the road.
Tombstone
Tombstone, elev. 4,539', established 1879 - "The Town Too Tough To Die" - is a registered national historic landmark. I was curious about that slogan - too tough to die - and found this description of the town's history online. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-tombstone The town still has many of its original buildings, such as the original Cochise County Courthouse (the county seat is now in Bisbee). These next 3 photos, by the way, are all off the internet because I could never get any kind of angle to take my own.
 |
| county courthouse, built 1882 |
 |
| St. Paul's, built 1882 |
 |
| King Solomon Territorial Masonic Lodge #5 and Schieffelin Hall, built in 1881. |
Tombstone has put all its money on tourism: the main street is unpaved, dirt-covered, and pedestrian only. When I crossed it, I saw about a dozen men standing around in period clothes. The town advertises frequent gunfights, so I assumed they were waiting to reenact the OK Corral fight. Which didn't originally occur at the OK Corral but instead a few doors down the street. I think the movies are to blame for the mis-branding.
The real main street in town is AZ-80, aka Fremont Street. I'd hoped to be able to park somewhere and walk around the historic district, but there just wasn't room anywhere for us, what with the other main street being for pedestrians only. Instead, I found a place on the real main street, and the dogs and I walked around the block. That turned out to be lucky because that block included the old house owned by Wyatt Earp. I think it might be open to the public at times, but not the day I was there. These next 3 photos are mine.
 |
| The Wyatt Earp House |
 |
| information on that sign you can see on the right of my house photo above |
Nearby there's what appears to be a life-size statue of Wyatt:
As I drove out of town, I passed a sign for Boot Hill Graveyard, and another one for the Jewish Memorial National Historic Register. I assumed the graveyard would be as tourist-oriented as the rest of the town, so I didn't stop, but I was curious about the Jewish Memorial. Apparently, in the 1980s a local historian mentioned to a visitor who was Jewish that there was once a Jewish cemetery in town. They and a local friend, who was full-blooded Indian, went to look and found a mess. An old track led from Boot Hill down to an area overgrown with weeds and completely lacking in grave markers. But intensive hard work by the friend cleared up the ground, rebuilt the path, refenced the area and built a small memorial to the Jewish pioneers. Historians think as many as a tenth of early Tombstone inhabitants were Jewish. I never thought to question the religious affiliation of those early settlers, especially given Tombstone's reputation for lawlessness, but now I know.
Back on the road
As soon as I was out of town, I saw a highway sign that said, "Watch for Animals Next 112 Miles." That still seems like an odd message to me, though maybe other drivers don't have short-term memory problems like mine, but why would the highway department expect people to remember this message for 112 miles?
The countryside was unusual to me. Plenty of mountains fairly close to the road on both sides - some with sharp points and others that were rounded mounds. Lots of shrubs that were 4' - 6' tall and mixed with grass and cactus. I drove through both hills and flat lands.
When we got back to St. David, I saw a car stopped beside the road and 2 people standing near the sign with the town's name on it. A woman who looked maybe 40s was taking a picture of a man who looked in his 70s or 80s. I'm guessing his name was David.
Toward the end I saw a sign saying US-80 was designated Historic, so I looked it up. Back in the 20s, portions of US-80 were built in each southern state, and it was known as the Ocean to Ocean Highway. The sections in AZ constituted the first paved roads in the state. As new highways were built, it became less useful and in the 80s was finally decommissioned as a US highway and became a state highway instead, and that's what I drove on between Benson and Tombstone. I thought that ocean-to-ocean thing sounded familiar and learned that I drove Louisiana's portion of it during my month in that state. In several other states, it's been realigned as part of an interstate highway, but LA still embraces its history.
As I came into Benson I saw a sign I hadn't seen when I came in from the east: Elev. 3,580', Est. 1880. Benson has some murals around town, but none of them was in a place where I could easily take a photo - mostly local scenes.
Waiting as a train rumbled past, I realized I miss cabooses. They acted like a period at the end of a sentence. Not having them makes the train just sort of trail off like it forgot what it was going to say . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment