2/20 Ajo Historical Museum, AZ

I had quite a bit of trouble finding this museum because when I did a search on my iPhone, it said it was permanently closed and did not include an address.  Luckily the very helpful ladies at the visitor center had told me it was open Thursday through Sunday, and drew me a map to get to the place.

It is located in an old catholic church, next to the open pit mine, but west of the village itself.  I found a very knowledgeable volunteer there who welcomed visitors and gave us a lot of history of the place.  

The church also had at one time included living spaces and offices for the priest and other church personnel, but they all left when the mine closed because so many of the town's residents had also left.

Outside the museum was a collection of old mining equipment, including this ore carrier.

 

 

I assume they brought this from Ohio via rail.  

 

 

 

A lot of previous residents of the village have donated belongings from the early part of the 1900s, when the town was booming. 

I have been trying to remember what they called those all-in-one very early kitchen cabinets.  I remember my dad had an old one in our garage when I was growing up, but I never asked him who owned it.  I am guessing it belonged to his mother. 

And some of the items found in the area from indigenous, pre-Spanish times. 

An old photos of the pit mine and some of the nearby buildings. I believe this was before it expanded, however.  

There is a dirt parking area on the road that goes to the museum where you can pull over and view the pit as it is now. 

 Impressive!!!

 

 

2/20 Village of Ajo on the Way to Organ Pipe National Park, AZ

Organ Pipe Cactus National Park, which I will write about in a separate post, is about 6 miles from the Mexican border, but it is 127 miles southwest of Phoenix and 172 miles east of Yuma.  Basically, it is about 140 miles from a Walmart Supercenter or other large grocery or big box store.  If you have not stocked up and need groceries, gas, propane, hardware, or a restaurant, your only solution is the small town of Ajo (pronounced Ah-hoe), which is about 34 miles north of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Park campground.  

It has a couple of grocery stores, a hardware store, gas stations that sell propane, a few restaurants, and places that provide most of the other things you might need.  It also has an interesting historic town center, a very large now-closed open-pit copper mine, a small museum and a population of about 3,000 people.  It also has an interesting town center built in Spanish revival architecture. 

The first thing you notice as you drive into or through Ajo are the huge piles of rock along the highway.   This dark rock is the over-burden that was removed from the huge pit mine just southwest of town.  There had been a small mine in Spanish times, but in 1911, the mine was purchased and expanded, causing Ajo to boom.  The mine employed more than 1,000 employees and was in operation from 1916 to 1985, which a strike caused the owners to close it.  (More about the mine in another post.)

The mine owners also constructed a processing plant to concentrate the ore, and this white rock, I was told, was the leftovers from that processing. 

You can't miss the town square because the highway goes right past it.  The buildings on the outside of the square contains a post office, visitor center, and several shops and restaurants. 

 

This part of the town square contains the visitor center. 

A view of the square and some of the shops.  I noticed that there was a market of some sort on Saturday, but they were closing down by the time I got there for my museum visit.

View of the arcade of small, retail shops. 

Directly across from the town square is the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, completed in 1927 and still in operation.

Also opposite the park, but father down the street, is the Curley School, which served the town until the mine closed in 1985.  It has currently been transformed into 30 apartments and work spaces for artisans at reasonable rents.   

Now, on to more about the mine and the local museum!!

2/12 Clark County Wetlands Park, NV

I'm baaaack!!!!!!!!   I was sitting on the evening of February 12th, getting ready to post on my blog, when my computer screen completely went grey.  I tried restarting it, but nothing.  I then noticed that the lid of my laptop did not close properly, which was very strange.  A quick visit to Best Buy's Geek Squad the next day confirmed that my battery had been fried and needed to be replaced.  Unfortunately, Best Buy did not keep a supply of HP batteries and they had no time to order one for me, but they referred me to a source which directed me to Amazon.  It took almost a week to get the new battery, but I had gotten warnings about trying to install it myself since I had to completely open my laptop case.  

Anyway, the battery arrived, and I got an appointment with a Best Buy in Tucson, where I had gone by then, and got it installed for no charge.  Whew!  

All I can tell you is that living without a computer is frustrating.  I could check email and a few websites on my cell phone, but the tiny screen was difficult to read, so I had basically two full weeks of cold turkey not being able to access my schedule or other documents for the entire time.  Luckily, nothing was disturbed or deleted, and I am now moved on from Tucson and ready to try to catch up with my posts.  

I do back up my laptop about every couple of months on an external hard drive I carry with me, and periodically switch that hard drive out with other ones I keep in a couple of safety deposit boxes.  

So, I want to share with you something I discovered after visiting the Las Vegas area several times over about 8 years.  Not that I like Las Vegas, but it is near two of my favorite campgrounds, which I have just posted about--Valley of Fire State Park and Willow Beach Marina along the Colorado River south of Hoover Dam.  And that is, believe it or not, THERE IS AN ACTUAL WETLAND AND NATURE RESERVE RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF THIS VERY DRY AND DESERT CITY!  

I discovered this wetland a couple of years ago, but did not have much time to visit it, so I was happy to be able to go back there twice in this month.  It is huge and really impressive, so I strongly encourage you to take time for a walk here if you ever find yourself in Las Vegas. It's on the southeast side of the city, not too far from Henderson, NV. 

 

 

There is a large and very impressive visitor center, which includes spaces for educational programs, exhibits, and a gift shop.

 

 

 

 

 

Just a sample of the exhibits here that explain how this area became a wetlands in such a dry desert.  Basically, Las Vegas is in a valley, and it has always had a river running through it, so the wetlands is very old.  

 

 

 

 

Even if the visitor center is closed, there is this display, plus some paper maps at the entrance.

 

 

 

 

 

This view shows you how close the city of Las Vegas is to these wetlands.   

And there are at least two large pond areas that give ducks and other water birds a place to rest and eat before continuing their journeys.  This is the pond on the west end of the wetlands.

Another nice thing is that most of the trails are paved.  There is also a convenient rest room that is open from dawn to dusk, even when the visitor center is closed.

The ponds are connected by tiny streams of flowing water. 

 

 

It had rained heavily the day before I took these photos, and I can attest to this particular pathway to the ponds on the west side of the wetlands being very slippery.  I did not fall, but I had to grab the wooden railings a couple of times.  

I am pretty sure this is really a black-capped sparrow. 

This pond is on the east end of the wetlands.

 

 

 

I am not sure what they were constructing, but this area is the group camping area. 

 

 

I noticed these fairly recent plantings in several area.  Not sure if they were planting grasses or shrubs or whatever, but clearly they are working to restore some parts of the wetlands. 

This was a tiny stream hidden under a lot of grasses that went under a small bridge on the walkway.  Nice to hear the sounds of running water.

Overall, it was a very pleasant day for a walk.  And amazingly quiet for being on the edge of a large city. 

Anyway, check this place out if you are ever in Las Vegas.  Much more peaceful that downtown!