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Traveling on Highway 80, between Bisbee and Sierra Vista, one cannot avoid the mounds of gold that clings to the San Pedro river winding it's way across the Cochise County landscape. A most aesthetic sight that is here today-gone tomorrow. Catch it if you can.

 

Photo Tour of Cochise County

Land of the Historical West CD

that contains 325 photographs from all over Cochise County , 6 videos, 3 maps. Activities - Attractions - Historical Locations - Ghost Towns - Celebrations - Treasure Sites & Stories - Monuments - City and Town Web Pages.

 

Send $6 cash for postage and handling to Digital Photo Service, 963 Hwy 92 Bisbee, Arizona. 85603

Sierra Vista Folks take their Veterans Day Parade Seriously and have a lot of fun showing respect for our nations military. The boulevard was lined with Americans of every nationality watching the proud old timers along with sharp marching solders of every service and special forces. Clowns, dignitaries,  grade school children singing patriotic songs. High School bands, Miss Arizona and Miss Sierra Vista marched down Fry Boulevard in the fresh morning sun.

Steven King's, Desperation Nevada Movie Set was up and running last Sunday night. The Old Lowell theatre was made over into an exotic Chinese theatre of the 40's. Many of the stores were repainted and redecorated to fit the theme of the period and theatre.  The movie people said they would be filming in and around Bisbee for at least till the end of the month, of November 2004, The last thing they did before someone shouted, "Roll'em", was water down the street, and run me and my camera off the

set. Richard Feorintino's (upper left) Stock Exchange Bar and Restaurant on the Gulch, has been used for many movie set locations including, Young Guns and World Gone Wild. At the time of this photo they were filming upstairs where,  lawyers and stock brokers had their offices in the early 1900's. Richard remodeled them just this year. It seems, at least a couple times a year, somewhere in Cochise County is used as a movie set.

Helldorado Days in Tombstone, celebrated this year on October 16-17, is always colorful and exciting, while it's another reason for folks to dress up in period costumes and play the roll of different characters of the Tombstone Historical West. That's got to be Johnny Ringo trying to blend in with the wooden Indian. In 1850, John Peters Ringo came into the world somewhere in Wayne County Indiana. Johnny Ringo drifted around Missouri and Texas until he came to rest in West Turkey Creek Canyon, leaning against an Oak tree, with a bullet in his head, July 13, 1892. He was buried on the spot where he died. The who-done-it of his death remains a mystery. Ringo aligned himself with the Clantons in the feud with the Earps, and was thought to have been the bushwhacker of one of the Earp brothers. Ringo's grave site is still attended by the private property owners. On this website; http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/johnnyringogravesite.html photos of Ringo's grave can be found. Some of he costumes of the old Tombstone characters are more obvious than others and the roll players come from all over to parade down Allen Street during the festival.

Ghost Town Hunting in Cochise county is great fun and photographically rewarding. Thirty years ago, many towns in Cochise county were on their way to becoming ghostly, but since then people have moved mobile homes into the old towns, or fixed up some of the existing residence and are perfectly content with the peace and quiet of these ghostly surroundings. Cochise was a railroad town just west of Wilcox, when on Sept. 9, 1899, the then sheriff Alford's three deputies robbed a train as it stopped for water 4 miles east of Cochise. The plunder was $58,950 of newly minted gold coins  headed for Tucson Banks. The deputies were discovered, by a Wells Fargo agent named John Thacker, while spending the shiny new coins in Wilcox saloons. They ratted on the sheriff as being the mastermind of the robbery, for a shorter sentence, but did not know where Alford hid the rest of the loot. Sheriff Alford plea bargained with the court, who sentenced him to only 10 years in the Yuma prison, if he would tell them where the rest of the loot was hidden. After the sentence, and Alford was cooling his heels in the scorching dusty confines of Yuma prison, the authorities approached Alford for the whereabouts of the rest of the stolen gold coins. The fallen sheriff refused to tell, saying that he couldn't be tried for the same crime, and would do the time on his ear. After Alford was released, he returned to Wilcox to a hostile law and detective  environment that followed him around night and day. One day Alford managed to just disappear. Officials learned later that Alford died in Panama after living a modest life. Some say there's about 5 million in gold coins buried somewhere south of the railroad tracks between Wilcox and Cochise. (Source for this story was Thomas Penfield's book, "A guide to Treasure in Arizona".) The ghost town of Fairbank had a riding club composed of men and women bathed in frontier elegance. Many of the old buildings are still standing and has become a bird sanctuary. Gleeson and Courtland are draped in ghostly ambiance of a now dead quiet mining town lost in time. The Pearce store is just across from a mundane looking hill that produced 80 million in gold at around $12 per ounce for the Englishman who owned the ranch land. Dos Cabezas was a gold mining town that would thrive and die at times over the past 100 years and yet, still has working gold mines backed against the mountain foothills under the twin peaks. The roads are good enough for a passenger car. Bring your camera. This article will not tell you which ghost town belongs to what photo here, but then, the fun is in the discovery.

    

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A Publication of the Cochise County Center for Tourism and Information On-Line.

"Land of the Historical West"  and all pages copyright August 1, 2004