History Adventuring

If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you have probably seen some very cool-looking old bank buildings. My favorite one is at 44th Street and Camelback, and is a Chase Bank. But it was originally built as Valley National Bank, and it's a reflection of the vision of one man, Walter Bimson. Walter Bimson Time-travel with me to Arizona in the 1930s. It's the time of the Great Depression, a time of despair. Many people felt that the great American dream was over. The roaring twenties had crashed terribly in 1929, and the United States was suffering from the worst unemployment in its history. Banks had collapsed, many taking with them life savings. Needless to say, confidence in banks was low. But Walter Bimson, who became president of Valley National Bank in 1933, was one of those "unreasonably optimistic" people who somehow seem to make things happen anyway. His goal was to make loans, which he did. Nowadays giving loans to people who may or may not be ab...

If you were at the Five Tribes Treaty of Peace Celebration this year, you saw a color guard. That's a group of soldiers, often veterans, showing respect by carrying flags, including the United States flag and the POW (Prisoner of War) flag. And if your first thought was "ho-hum, same old thing that every community does on a special occasion", look again. These people are Indians, and they have served the United States since 1863. If you're like me, and learned about "cowboys and Indians" from old western movies or TV shows, the Five Tribes Treaty makes no sense. I mean, aren't the cowboys supposed to be fighting the Indians? That's what I was taught. But this was an alliance. The United States military needed the help of the Five Tribes, and the feeling was mutual. They had a common enemy - the Apaches. Now, waitaminute, this was a long time ago, and the Apaches have not been the enemy of the United States for over 100 years. In fact, neith...

If you look on Google maps at about Litchfield Road and Peoria, you will see the name of Bumstead. And for years I thought that this was the only thing left of the Tal'-Wi-Wi Ranch of Dale Bumstead. But the ranch is still there, it's where the reeeealllly tall palm trees are, along Litchfield Road. If you live out in the west valley you've probably driven past them a million times. Let's time-travel back to the 1930s and visit the original ranch. According to a booklet that I have,  Tal'-Wi-Wi is Hopi for Happy Village. I don't know if that's true or not, I'm skeptical about things attributed like that, but since this is a blog post, if I find out more, I'll come back here and update it. Update - see comment below. But now let's go meet Dale and his wife Eva. In the mid-thirties, this area was part of the Agua Fria Project, which was a failure. The idea was to bring water down from Lake Pleasant and turn the area between the White Tan...

Time-travel with me to Phoenix in the 1940s. We're relaxing at the King's Rest, which is at 801 S. 17th Avenue, which is 17th Avenue between Van Buren and Buckeye Road, or back in the 1940s just along along the highway. The highway takes a sharp turn at Van Buren and goes all of the way to Apache Junction, by the way. As of this writing, the King's Rest is still there, and is called Las Casitas. But the glory days of the old highway are long over, and it puzzles modern day people like me, who have difficulty imagining that 17th Avenue was an important highway. But it was. It's a sunny day and feels good to relax out in the sun on the lawn. There are sun umbrellas on the table, but I don't really need it, I just tipped my fedora slightly to the southern sun. It's winter, and it's seasonably cool, but luckily the King's Rest is Air Cooled if I want to come back in the spring or summer. There are other people out there enjoying the day. Some are chat...

When I moved to the San Fernando Valley, which is part of Los Angeles, California, in 1986, the air pollution was terrible. The air was always brown, and the mountains could only be seen on rare clear days, like after a rain. Efforts had already begun to try to get air pollution under control in Los Angeles, but it really hadn't shown much, except that it made people angry that they had to follow a lot of new rules, such as having their cars inspected for emission controls. The air pollution devices that had become popular in the 1970s were pretty easy to remove, and so the state enforced laws requiring their use. Nowadays, when I visit there, I am amazed at how clear the sky is. People wonder if I am kidding, as it's still pretty dirty, compared to the blue skies of Minneapolis, or Phoenix. But it is so much better! Even before the suburbs started growing in the San Fernando Valley, it was a windy and dusty place. My research has shown that apparently the thought was ...

Let's follow the water of the Salt River, beginning in Scottsdale and ending in Peoria, Arizona. If your first response is "hey, there's no water in the Salt River", sorry, you're just looking in the wrong place for the water. The Salt River marked on maps is just an empty gouge that goes south of the airport. There's some water over by Tempe, but most of the water of the Salt River flows through the canals, and has done so since the 1880s. Let's start in Scottsdale, at Pima Road a little over two miles north of Indian School Road. We could have started further east, in the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, or even as far back as Roosevelt Dam, but it's a long trip, so this will make it shorter. And we will go most of the way across the valley! But don't worry, we won't need to paddle our little boat very much, we will be going with the current, as the valley slopes west-southwest. We're on the Arizona Canal. We will b...

The Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, is on 59th Avenue and Greenway Road, which is a mile north of Thunderbird Road. If you ever wondered why, all you have to do is to do some time-traveling. Let's go back to Glendale in 1940. Now let's go waaaaayyy north of Glendale, out into the middle of a bunch of empty desert. We're standing in the middle of a square mile bounded nowadays by Thunderbird Road, Greenway, 59th Avenue and 51st, and it's been dedicated as Thunderbird Field. No, not because of Thunderbird Road, it was just because it was a cool name. Really. And the main buildings, which were at the northwest corner of the field, were designed to look like a Thunderbird from the air. You can still see it, although a lot of other buildings have been added. Take a look at Satellite view and you'll see it. The Thunderbird is flying towards the northwest. Flying over Thunderbird Field in 1942. You're looking northwest. Th...

When I lived in Los Angeles, back in the 1980s, I use to love to visit the La Brea Tar Pits. Part of the reason is because it was free. And it still is. No, I don't mean that you can go into the museum for free. But the Tar Pits are free. That is, the open space between Wilshire Boulevard and 6th Street between Fairfax and Curson. Yes, those are the tar pits. And it's what the greater Los Angeles area looked like before it was all covered up with concrete, freeways, donut shops, and malls. It was tar. I went there a few years ago with my brother, who, naturally, seemed puzzled when I said, "We're here!" as we walked out into the open space. The Tar Pits isn't a museum, it's a place. It's a place of oozing tar, which was been oozing for over a thousand years. When you walk there, the bottom of your shoes get black with tar, which is oil. You know, Black Gold, Texas Tea. The land under the greater Los Angeles area is richer in oil than Texas. ...

Like most non-Indian people in Phoenix, the only thing I know about the Pima Indian Communities around Phoenix is that there are casinos there. Actually, the only Indian Casino that I've been inside of was the Talking Stick, which is over by Scottsdale. And just south of where I live, in Glendale, is the Vee Quiva (gotta do some research on that!) which is in Komate, which is part of Laveen, Arizona, on the Pima Gila River Indian Community (Reservation). Support Arizona history by becoming a patron on Patreon Click here to become a Patron! History Adventuring blog posts are shared there daily, also there's "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, and super high-resolution photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona This past weekend I went there. No, not the casino, the Gila River Indian Community. My interest in Phoenix history had led me to find out more about the Five Tribes Treaty of Peace Celebration . And since I'm not interested in "back in the ...

There is something wonderfully timeless about living in Santa Barbara. There's really no sense of the passage of time because of the wonderful marine layer that keeps the shadows soft all day. The days always start very soft, and the fog "burns off" at about 10, but the sunlight isn't harsh. I would often look out and wonder if it was 11 am or 3 pm. It was just daytime. And the seasons never seem to change in Santa Barbara. Not really. Not like the seasons I grew up with in Minnesota, where it's mosquito season, then it snows. It's always nice in Santa Barbara. I would forget if it was February or September. It all felt the same. Even the postcards that I used to buy when I lived there in the 1980s were of images from the 1950s and 60s. No one seemed to notice, or mind. The first time I grabbed a couple of postcards to send to friends I didn't even notice how old the images were, I just mailed them off. But the timeless quality of Santa Barbara wo...

If you know your Arizona history, you know that the Hohokam people didn't just live around 46th Street and Washington, which is where Pueblo Grande has been preserved. Their civilization spanned out all over the Salt River Valley, where Phoenix is nowadays, and way beyond. And so with every step you take anywhere in the Phoenix metro area, you are walking on ancient Hohokam ground. I call it all "Pueblo Grande" from anywhere you stand in the valley, looking in any direction - towards South Mountain, Camelback Mountain, the White Tanks, you name it. The Hohokams at Pueblo Grande. You're looking towards Tempe over the Salt River.  South Mountain is in the background at right. This is 46th Street and Washington, Phoenix, Arizona. So, if you're wondering why it wasn't all preserved, well, it's because the city of Phoenix is on top of it. And if you live in or around the Phoenix area, that means under where you are right now, where your car is parked,...

I've lived in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, for over twenty years now. But it still amazes me that there are peacocks living right nearby. The peacocks live at the Sahuaro Ranch (yes, it's misspelled that way), which is between the Glendale Main Library and Glendale Community College (between Peoria and Olive and 59th Avenue and 63rd Avenue). Peacock at the Sahuaro Ranch in the 1940s, Glendale, Arizona No, they aren't in cages, or in some type of display, they just wander around the grounds. They roost in the trees there, or on the buildings. Sometimes they wander over to the library, but I've never seen them on campus. And from what I've been able to find out about them, they've been there since the 1930s. The Sahuaro Ranch itself has been there since the 1890s, and is now a park which includes historical buildings, picnic areas, playgrounds, and stuff like that. And there are peacocks wandering around. Peacocks are amazing to see, esp...

My fascination with the history of Phoenix has introduced me to the Pima and Maricopa Indian people. And the more I learn, the more I realize how much these people have been woven into the history of Arizona, and especially Phoenix. Walk with me. It's 1859 in what would one day be Arizona. We're Pima Indians, and we have been watching strangers wander through our land, which stretches down to Mexico from the Gila River, which is just south of where Phoenix will be someday, for hundreds of years. Our tribe has welcomed peaceful trade, and has strongly defended against attack. A reservation has been created by the strongest ally we've ever had, the United States of America. Time-travel to 1863. The Five Tribes Treaty of Peace is signed, creating an alliance with the United States Military and the the five tribes, the Pima (Akimel O’odham), Maricopa (Pee Posh), Yuma, Hualapai, and Chemehuevi people. It's now 1891 and the United States Indian School at Phoenix is e...

Even I remember the trees in Phoenix. I collect old photos of Phoenix, and from 1870 to about the 1980s the city had trees. There were a LOT of them back before air conditioning was invented, but the trees really started disappearing after the 1980s. I guess I can understand why people have cut down the trees. I suppose with the very efficient air conditioning in cars and buildings nowadays trees aren't really necessary. And they do take up space that can be used for more parking spots, or lanes of traffic. To my surprise, I've even seen people comment on social media that apparently trees can't be grown in Phoenix, and that's why there's so few. I wish that I could take them back in time to the trees that I remember, and have them see the trees in the old photographs of Phoenix. Trees along a canal in the 1920s, Phoenix, Arizona Yeah, I'm a tree-hugger. I hate to see trees being cut down. I give a sad smile when someone proudly tells me that th...

If you're like me, and you've learned about "cowboys and Indians" from old movies, TV shows, and simplistic memes on the internet, you probably think that you know the real history of Indian people in Phoenix, Arizona. If you do know your Arizona history, you know that the Five Tribes Treaty of Peace was an alliance created in 1863 between the United States Military and the the five tribes, the Pima (Akimel O’odham), Maricopa (Pee Posh), Yuma, Hualapai, and Chemehuevi people, and has stood for over 150 years. It's celebrated every year at the Gila River Indian Community. Follow History Adventuring on Patreon Click here to become a Patron! History Adventuring posts are shared there daily including "then and now" photos, billboards, aerials, videos, and super high-definition photos of historic Phoenix, Arizona Time-travel with me to what would someday be Arizona, and Phoenix. In 1863, it was the New Mexico Territory. To say that things were a m...