History Adventuring

If you've heard of the Praying Monk on Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, but haven't seen it yet, don't worry, you will. To find it, look for the camel's nose. And if you don't know what I'm talking about here, step back. The mountain gets its name simply because it looks like a camel lying down. The nose faces west. Someone once explained to me that the hump and the nose are two different types of rocks, but I wasn't paying close attention, so to me it's just a camel. The Praying Monk is an outcropping of rock on the camel's nose. It's best viewed from the north side of the mountain, like the photo in the postcard at the top of this post, but you can also see it very clearly if you're traveling east on Camelback Road approaching the mountain. Since I collect old photos, having a landmark like that gives me very clear idea where the photo was taken. Look over Hugh O'Brian's right shoulder in the photo below and you can clearly

Yesterday, after a day of history adventuring and time traveling with friends, I visited the Fry Building, which was built in 1885, and is on the northwest corner of 2nd Street and Washington in downtown Phoenix. If you've been downtown, you probably have gone past it several times, and you may have even stopped in for a burger at the Sports Bar, Majerles. It's owned by Dan Majerles, a former Phoenix Suns basketball player, and now the coach of the Grand Canyon University Antelopes basketball team. Dan's place, of course, doesn't occupy all of the Fry Building, but to me it's in the most interesting part. Elsewhere the Fry Building is just a typical old building in Phoenix, with the original bricks covered up ("modernized" is what it's called), but at Majerles, you can see the history. There are "ghost signs" on the bricks, and yes, they're real. If you go there, sit in a booth on the south edge of the restaurant. That's where

Back when I lived in California, I remember the bumper stickers that said, "Save the world, shoot yourself". And to me that sums up what a lot of people think about whether humans belong on this planet. I disagree. I think that humans do belong here. As a species, we have as much right to share the big blue marble as anything else. There are, of course, places where isn't isn't all that wise to be, such as where food and water isn't readily available, for example. And since I live in the desert, in Phoenix, Arizona, I'm where my species really needs to be intelligent to survive, and thrive. Unlike a lot of desert cities, like Los Angeles, Phoenix knows that's it's in the desert. The first priority has always been to make sure that there is plenty of water. If you know your Phoenix history, you know that Phoenix was built by a river which flooded every year and supplied an enormous amount of water. Water has never been piped in from hundreds of mil

I visited friends in Los Angeles last week and believe me, you can really see the effects of the California drought there. And of course, just about everyone I talk to, including people in Arizona, think that the water in Phoenix comes from the Colorado River. You know, Hoover Dam. It doesn't. But since that's the lifeline for places like Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, it's critical for them, and it's natural to think that it's also for Phoenix. Now don't get me wrong. Phoenix, Tucson, and other places in Arizona use CAP (Central Arizona Project) water, which is piped in for hundreds of miles from the Colorado River. But Phoenix, which was platted in 1870, has never relied on water from hundreds of miles away. It was built where there was plenty of water, and there still is, the Salt River. Anyone who has lived in Phoenix for a few years knows about the tremendous amount of water that comes crashing through the valley every year. That's the water that st

If you live in the Phoenix area, like I do, you will see a lot of elderly people, and a lot of hospitals. I live in Glendale, which isn't very far from Sun City, and believe me, I see a lot of people with grey, and white, hair. And Phoenix is where people have been coming for over 100 year to regain their health, and live longer. If you want to see evidence of that, just look around. There are so many stories of people who came out to Phoenix to live out their last few years and then lived a long life that it's practically a cliche. My favorite is John C. Lincoln, and his wife. She had been diagnosed with tuberculoses, and they moved to Phoenix to help her to regain her health, which she did, and lived to be over 100 years old. John died in his 90s. From the Sister's Hospital (which became St. Joseph's) to John C. Lincoln Hospital to the Mayo Clinic, Phoenix has been a place of compassion, and hope. If you read old articles about how confident the boosters of Pho

If you like old Western movies, like I do, you have seen reference to the Code of the West. And like so much fictionalized stuff, you may have wondered if it was just in the movies, or if it actually existed. Rest assured, it did, and does, especially in places like Phoenix, Arizona. The Code of the West, of course, was never written down. And it was open to a lot of interpretation. But it's a chivalry code, an expectation of how a man should act, whether he was a Knight, a Don, or a Cowboy. It led to some serious confrontations in the Old West, and it still does. If it puzzles you, it has to do with whether you see yourself as a good guy or a bad guy. And yes, it does have to do with men. Historically, men have had a tendency to kill each other. Getting men to not kill each other has been quite a challenge over the centuries, and has led to things called "laws". That is, if a crime is committed, society punishes. Of course, laws like that need to be enforced, and

I've always found it fascinating that the names of streets in a city can be a clue to its history, and Phoenix, Arizona is no exception. And one of the most fascinating "windows into the past" is Indian School Road. Yes, Phoenix had a school that was only for Indians. It was established in 1891 by the United States Government for the Pima people. Eventually, it was opened up to many different tribes, from many states, including California. It closed in 1990, and even for people who lived in Phoenix during that time, it was mostly a place of mystery. I am reluctant to share what I am learning about the United States Indian School at Phoenix. It seems to bring out what I call "all of the convictions of the uninformed". It seems that the less people know about it, the louder they are. And there are some people who would like to erase this part of history. But, to me, it's an important part of the history of Phoenix, of Arizona, and of the Southwestern Un

I recently spent about a week housesitting for a friend of mine in Calabasas, California, which is just west of the San Fernando Valley. That is, near Los Angeles. For those of you who are familiar with the greater Los Angles area, I was just on the other side of the Santa Susana Hills, west of the Valley, in Las Virgenes Canyon, north of the 101. And by "the Valley", I mean the San Fernando Valley. I lived there in the 1980s and always thought that it was funny that although there are a LOT of valleys in California, there is only one "the valley". I lived in Canoga Park, which was just west of Van Nuys. You know, the Valley - like Valley Girls, etc. If you know your California history, you know that communities like Van Nuys were annexed to the City of Los Angeles after the Owens Valley Aqueduct was completed in 1913. In fact, that's the story of political power in Los Angeles - whoever controls the water, controls the political power. Now, waitaminute

If you've lived in the Phoenix, Arizona area for a few years, like me, you know that every summer there are torrential thunderstorms and every spring the snow melts in the mountains northeast of the valley. What this all means is that Phoenix floods. When I was attending ASU, I saw some incredible flooding. Several of the bridges on the Salt River were knocked down. At the time, they were called the “100-year flood” and the “500-year flood”. And that's when I first started getting suspicious about how easy it was to deny that a desert city like Phoenix had any flooding problems. I was typical of most people, being a newcomer, I imagined that I was seeing something unusual. You know, something that only happened every 100, or 500 years. The important thing to remember is that Phoenix wouldn't be where it is without the huge amount of water it receives from the Salt River Watershed. Take a look at a map. Phoenix isn't out in the middle of the desert, it's at th