Small rooms of Yuma

It was mild enough when we went there last month, but Yuma gets as hot in the summer as you'd expect for a town within spitting distance of the Mexican border. It's an interesting little place in its own quiet way, just south of the confluence of two mighty southwestern rivers: the Gila and the Colorado.

All that wide blue sky (Kanab and Paria)

"But for me, oh it was the acting" (31s)
Only not in this case.

We saw the new Magnificent Seven a few weeks ago. (That was my allowance of murders for the month, can't watch any more for a while.) The story was interesting enough - it's a remake, and one of the classic plots, so no real surprises. The film likewise, especially in its context as one of a series (Seven Samurai, the original Magnificent Seven, and even The Avengers is not stretching the point too far.) The costuming was not bad, though the female pseudo-protagonist showed way too much bosom for a respectable woman of the period who wasn't at an evening party. (And not enough actual, y'know, character development. Ugh! Say it with me, boobs are not characters ... unless you're a comic strip.) Several of the characters were very striking - such a villain! - but for me, oh it was the scenery.

Image by Geraint Smith via jerrygarrett.wordpress.com

'Bonanza' set near Kanab, UT
On private property and unmaintained,
it is slowly succumbing to weather

I am enchanted with the cliffs and mesas of the region they call 'Indian Country' (which is gah, idk, hopeless understatement, much of the continent was Indian Country. However.) The ground in such shades of orange and brown among the green, it is no wonder the sky looks so blue. M7 was shot in New Mexico (and Louisiana, but that can't possibly be the landscape shots) but it could just as well take its place with dozens of earlier westerns filmed at Paria, Utah, or other locations not far from Kanab.

It is hard to convey in words how satisfying to the eye is the sweep of a long sagebrush flat, or a mesa rippling with golden-headed grasses, with the unpredictable shapes of the hills rising beside - the weird angles where different layers have been pushed, pulled, folded, or have eroded at different rates, the effect of patient wind and furious water, or long-dead volcanic eruption. In this case, too rivers and streams - though in our further west country, it is much drier.

from a prominence above old Paria town, GSENM, UT

Abruptly I want to learn how to ride a horse. (Up til now been afraid of horses for decades.) And oh, so looking forward to our trip to New Mexico later in the year.

Rock ghosts and jailbreaks: back in Pioche

After the rock ghosts of the morning, the Ghost Town Art and Coffee Company was a lovely place to spend an hour or two. Housed in a late 19th century workshop with lovely exposed rough wood, it's now a gallery for Kelly Garni's beautiful found-object desert art. And it's a coffeehouse with a simple menu - hot meals cooked on the barbecue out back, and a range of coffees and frappe drinks. There was a lot to love here - we had a coffee in the morning then came back for lunch!

Ghost Town Art & Coffee has treasure within

First, the room itself has clear eastern light, and the walls are full of interesting objects. The artist's workshop takes up a big part of one walland his work is displayed throughout. It's a simple, open plan - I imagine it's very snug, too, on a cold winter day with the woodstove roaring hot. There are a few tables, and some reading material which we pounced on - two books on the town's mad wild west history, by local author Leo Schafer. They're both out of print and hard to find and we haven't finished reading them yet, so I guess we might be back there yet again some time. Also, the food itself was very tasty! I think my idea of a latte is not quite the same as the local one, but I really enjoyed the burger at lunch and the iced tea.

Then, the art itself appeals very much to me, with its re-use of found objects from ghost towns. I guess there's some question as to at what point such objects become of archaeological interest - it must be a sliding scale - but I certainly have a deep sympathy with anyone who picks up bits of rusty crap off the ground. He makes them into flat wall pieces, and uses cut pieces of old sheet metal as backs for vintage photos. The effect is striking, the colours vivid yet organic. The artist was kind enough to talk with us for quite a while about his finds and his work - I was glad to have been there at a quiet enough time for that. This is only one aspect of what he does, as he has an interesting history as a rock musician as well. I loved this profile article, a copy of which is on the wall.

But we weren't just there to loll about in coffee shops reading local history. No, indeed. We had museums to visit. (Also stopped by the old Opera House - as you do. A future post though, opera houses.)

No one even knew his name: Pioche, NV

At Boot Hill Cemetery, Pioche, the graves
are decorated with boots, shoes, and flowers.

That's Pee-oatch, not Pee-osh. I wonder what Monsieur Pioche would think? Guess as long as that ore keeps being dug out and trucked off, maybe he wouldn't be too bothered.

They certainly pulled a lot of money out of the ground around here, and probably more than the $25 million of silver that showed up on the reports.

Pioche was a pretty rough town even by Western standards, back in the day. They say that of the first 76 deaths in the town, 75 were from unnatural causes. Or something like that. The precise story varies. The several cemeteries tell a tale ... this is the smallest and most rustic, and the only one we went to so far.

"Shot by a coward
as he worked his claim
No one even knew his name
Pioche Nev" 

Visiting the grave sites, lead poisoning seems to be right up there: "shot by officers 5 times", "shot while working his claim", "shot by in back 5 times from ambush". They buried these men with their boots on, and they say that's why it's called Boot Hill cemetery (one of many).

This is what they had in mind when they called it the Wild West, I suppose. It doesn't sound like the most fun a person can have (for illustration, watch an episode or two of Deadwood.) Makes for sobering visiting, and a half-disbelieving sense of unreality yet again.

Apart from a dodgy history and a lot of graves, Pioche is a quaint little town insinuated into the side of a steep hill and spreading down its slopes most of the way to the 93. Strictly, it's an unincorporated community. This surprised me as it's also the county seat of Lincoln County. Off Main St, the roads are narrow and twisty - luckily we didn't meet any oncoming traffic. Pioche has a variety of gritty historic buildings, including, notably, the courthouse that cost a million dollars, which you'll have to click through to or wait til next time we go because we, driving around bemused, clean forgot to photograph.

Aerial tram

If you like industrial ruins (yes! I do!), Pioche does have a fantastic aerial tram, mostly intact but out of service now. It dates to the 1920s or so, and is complete with buckets and 'danger' signs.

We spent a while poking round an antique store, and I bought three 1920s to 40s surveyor's notebooks detailing survey records of a nearby silver mine - mainly because I like the books themselves, oh such wabi-sabi, full of obscure hand-written pencil notes.

The Bristol mine can be seen, and its associated ghost town too, (if the landowner grants permission - it's still owned by the Company) but it sounds like it's an off road adventure so it goes on the someday list for now.

Back to Kershaw Ryan to cool our feet in the wading pool,
then for a quiet evening with a campfire.

Itinerary

Saturday: North on 93. Turn onto 321 and to Pioche. Northeast on 321 to rejoin 93. 93 south, back to Caliente and Kershaw-Ryan