“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.”
—Hal Borland
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Year’s End
The Apache Trail
“The Apache Trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have. To me, it is the most awe-inspiring and most sublimely beautiful panorama nature has ever created.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Map of the Apache Trail
We headed for Apache Junction to pick up the start of the Apache Trail. Long used by the Apache Indians, the trail became a stagecoach route through the Superstition Mountains in the 1800’s. Today, the route from Apache Junction is officially known as State Route 88.
Goldfield
Mammoth Saloon in Goldfield
The first stop on the trail is the old Ghost Town of Goldfield. In 1890, Goldfield was booming, with three saloons, a brewery, blacksmith, general store, meat market and a boarding house. Once thought to overtake the town of Mesa in population, the mine’s vein suddenly faulted, and the ore quality dropped. From there, the town withered in the desert.
Goldfield’s bordello
Today, you can tour the played out Mammoth Mine, ride the narrow gauge train, eat outside the cafe, or have a cold beer and meal in the saloon. I will say that the ice cream cones are damn good, especially when the waffle cones are fresh out of the oven.
Canyon Lake
The first reservoir on the Salt River is Canyon Lake, which was formed after the building of the Mormon Flat Dam in 1925. Steamboat rides are offered on the lake, and hiking trails abound.
Tortilla Flat: Population 6
Superstition Saloon in Tortilla Flat
We stopped in Tortilla Flat, for what I hoped would be lunch, but it turned out that I was the only one hungry, so we only looked around. I heard the food in the saloon was the best in town, but even that did not convince the relatives.
Inside the Superstition Saloon
The saloon boasted one dollar bills as wallpaper, and bar stools that were actual saddles.
The trail gets interesting
The trail turns to gravel once you travel past Tortilla Flat. Gravel may be a generous term, silt may be more accurate. Either way, I had a blast. The road is a switch-backing, sandy, twisting bundle of pure overland fun.
Apache Lake
Apache Lake
Apache Lake is the next reservoir. The lake is formed by the Horse Mesa Dam, which was completed in 1927. It’s a lake I’d like to come back and explore. The fishing is suppose to be great, and the access restricting. Perfect.
Roosevelt Dam
The 357′ Roosevelt Dam was built between 1905-1911, and raised 77′ in 1989. The addition increased the storage capacity of Roosevelt Lake by 20%. 42 lives were lost building the dam.
Theodore Roosevelt Bridge
Highway 188 used to cross the river over the dam. With the ambitious remodel, the highway was realigned over the newly built Theodore Roosevelt Bridge.
From the bridge, the Apache Trail officially ends. To complete the loop back to Apache Junction, head towards the town of Globe.
Tonto National Monument
The view from Tonto Cliff Dwelling
The Tonto National Monument is on the opposite side of the highway from Roosevelt Lake. The cliff dwellings of the Salado people are the main attraction. More on these in a future post.
Tonto NM cliff dwellings
Globe, AZ
I had heard that the Burger House in Miami was well worth the stop, but I also heard that it was incredibly popular, and I was starving and didn’t want to risk a line. We swung into Globe instead and ate at Nurdberger. The small cafe did not disappoint. Worth the stop, after a day on the trail.
Fats
Pioneer rock & roller, Antoine “Fats” Domino Jr has died. From 1950 through the early 1960’s, Domino had over three dozen Top 40 hits, 23 gold records, and sold over 65 million singles.
The New Orleans artist, with his Cajun accent and boogie-woogie piano, had a style all his own. Elvis Presley once said, ” …Rock ’n’ roll was here a long time before I came along. Let’s face it: I can’t sing it like Fats Domino can. I know that.”
Domino was 89.
Fats playing the Carib Theatre, Kingston in 1961
Rest in peace, Gwen
“We can’t expect the world to get better by itself, we have to create something we can leave the next generation.”
— Gwen Ifill
Revisit: Manatee Springs
A kayaker paddling up to the Springs
A quote I found posted at the Springs:
“Having borrowed a canoe from some Indians, I visited a very great and most beautiful fountain or spring which boils up from between the hills about 300 yards from the river, throwing up great quantities of white small pieces of shells and white shell rock which, glittering through the limped eliment as they rise to the surface, subside and fall again round about on every side.
The bason of the fountain is nearly round and about 100 yards in circumferance. The banks round about of a moderate steep assent cover’d with broken white shell and the water gradually deepns to the center of the fountain, where it is many fathoms deep. The fountain is full of fish and alegators and at great depth in the water appear as plain as if they were close at hand.
The creek that runs from this immence fountain is above twenty yards wide and runs very swift into the river, carying its sea green transparent waters near 100 yards a cross the river, the depth of the water of the creek 10 of 12 feets—where we see a continual concourse of fish of various kinds such as garr, catfish, mullet, trout, bream of various species, silverfish and pike, and the monstrous amphabious maneta: A skeleton of which I saw on the bank of the spring, which the Indians had lately killed.
The hills that nearly incompassed the spring were about 15 or 20 yards in height next the river but the land falls away considerably from the top of the hills and becomes a lower flat or nearly levell forest of pine, oak, bay, magnolia, and cabbage trees. The soil of the hills a loose greyish sandy mold on shelly and limestone rocks. The water of the spring cool and agreeable to drink. The Indians and traders say this fountain vents the waters of the Great Alatchua Savanah.
—William Bartram, July 1774
Yukon Time
Whitehorse Rapids, Yukon River circa 1898
“Geography has kept the Yukon to a slower pace, so that if I wasn’t exactly traveling backward in time, I often had the illusion of drifting more slowly in the present.”
—John Hildebrand – “Reading the River”
First Atlas
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum: Courtesy of the Library of Congress
On this date in 1570, the first atlas was published by Abraham Ortelius, a Flemish book collector and engraver. Called Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theater of the World), the groundbreaking work was a collection of 70 maps, all organized logically by continent and/or region.
Ortelius died in 1598, but the atlas continued to be published until 1612, running a total of 31 editions. By 1612, the atlas had grown to include 167 maps.
“Buy an atlas and keep it by the bed—remember you can go anywhere.”
—Joanna Lumley
Happy Birthday Sir David
A young David Attenborough from Zoo Quest for a Dragon
Renown broadcaster and naturalist, David Attenborough, celebrates his 90th birthday on Sunday, May 8. Attenborough took a 3 month training course for the BBC at a time when he did not own a television and had only seen one television program in his life. He was officially hired by the BBC in 1952, and by 1954 Attenborough had teamed up with Jack Lester of the London Zoo for Zoo Quest, and a phenomenal career was launched.
Attenborough in the recently discovered color footage of Zoo Quest Photo credit:BBC
The BBC recently pulled some Zoo Quest footage from the vault and discovered it was all filmed in color, even though the show was broadcast in black & white. They have made the previously unseen color film available online, and it is some remarkable footage.
Attenborough is no doubt best known for his Life series, starting with Life on Earth from 1979. Many leaders in their fields quickly warmed to Attenborough and agreed to be filmed for his programs, including Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, Richard Dawson, Jim Watson and Francis Crick.
Attenborough with two young gorillas
When asked about his future plans as he entered his late eighties, Attenborough stated: “If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I’m not. I’m swanning round the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune.”
The man has led a remarkable life. Happy 90!
He even narrates Adele:
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