John Wise

On the lookout for old buildings, peeling paint, and rusting junk, this was the theme of a solo trip east toward the New Mexico border today. This building was nearly left to decay before it was rescued to turn into a museum. The Bullion Plaza School opened back in 1923 as a grammar school and then, by 1994, was no longer safe, so it was closed. The museum that is housed here now has limited hours, so it’s better that you check their website before just showing up. To visit the newly christened Bullion Plaza Cultural Center & Museum, click the link on the left.

Leaving Phoenix via Mesa, I passed through Superior and Globe before arriving here in Miami. This place is nearly a ghost town, or should be: not much left in the way of infrastructure, but a lot of potential for a nice old cozy town if people would make the investment. Then again, I say this about all the old towns I visit. Back in its heyday during the 1930s, about 7,500 people were living here with the local mine humming; today, the population is down to about 1,900 and shrinking.

Further down the road, I’m stopping in at the Eastern Arizona Museum in Pima (originally called Smithville by its Mormon settlers) it’s one of the few towns on this stretch of Highway 60 that has been growing over the past 50 years!

Oh, how I wish that someone would gut the old Pima theater built back in the 1930s and restore it. Caroline and I would certainly travel out this way for festivals and special screenings if we could make a full-fledged event with all the amenities of it.

So maybe if some of these buildings are beyond being repaired under sound financial terms, then build modern lofts in their place with the amenities that would make them desirable.

Clifton, Arizona, and its neighbor Morenci are the last towns on the Coronado Trail Scenic Byway going north before you enter the twisting 94-mile drive to Alpine, Arizona, which will likely take you about three hours to navigate. To say there are a lot of curves is an understatement. An interesting fact to keep in mind as you transition from desert to alpine terrain, you will go through as many “Life Zones” on this one road in Arizona compared to driving nearly any other from Mexico to Canada.

This feeling of being out West and walking the streets where people who lived here nearly 100 years ago would recognize most everything, though it would have greatly aged and fallen into decrepitude, is something I probably don’t experience often enough to sear the images into my mind. Maybe taking more photos will help?

Doesn’t look like this doorknob has been used more than a few times in the past 40 years.

The Velvet Ice Cream company is still in business 86 years after its founding. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see what the shop looked like and to listen to the customers back when this freezer was new, and an ice cream treat was one of the great luxuries in life.

Sometimes, the train didn’t need to be a diesel giant to drag the ore out of the mine, and the old steam engine would do the trick.

On the way back, I stopped at Fort Thomas to check out this memorial. Turns out that Melvin Jones was born here in Fort Thomas, Arizona; he was the founder of the Lions Club, whose mission is to address the betterment of members’ communities and the world. And that’s how I spent my Thursday.

Took a drive up Highway 99 today to Winslow, Arizona. I found some lunch and then drove around town, checking out some of the older parts that were falling to ruin. This iconic “Standin’ on the Corner” spot in town used to be part of the main thoroughfare back when Route 66 sliced across America. Progress brought distress to a lot of the towns that were cut off as people sped by on Interstate 40.

Whiting Bros. Gas and Motels was a chain of small businesses here in the Southwest, with their first gas station popping up in St. Johns, Arizona, back in 1926. By the 1990s the Whiting company was essentially finished, though one gas station still retains the name over in Moriarty, New Mexico. Update: the building in this photo has since been demolished.

LZ Budget Motel was also once a Whiting Bros. property, but it changed hands over the years until finally, by the time I arrived here in 2002, the place was shuddered.

Due to America no longer being able to create jobs in areas outside our major cities, we are witnessing the total decay of our past. Instead of investing in infrastructure like broadband and giving investment incentives to entrepreneurs to open shop in places like Winslow, we are letting them crumble. Then again, we have failed to invest in our education system instead of opting to accept mediocrity so that even if tech jobs came to these parts employees would have to be imported. Update: most of these buildings have been demolished.

Hard to tell just how big this fire is, but one thing is obvious: it’s burning. I’m driving back down Highway 99.

These old classic cars are probably beyond repair and make me wonder if Winslow is effectively in the same condition.

It is seriously beautiful out on these open plains. Too bad others may not agree.