Canadian-Traveler

Had us a nice drive to Wickenburg With regards to a severe wind warning for the day we took off early from Quartzsite. After a few miles on I-10 we turned onto the quiet Hwy60, which brought us through several old small towns. The grand mountain scenery on both sides of the highway was a bonus of today’s short trip. Approaching Wickenburg the first thing we noticed were all the fancy homes along the hillside. It became clear that Wickenburg was no poor community. Actually we thinking it was comparable with places like Santa Fe or even Sedona. The Vulture Mine Road turns to the right at the Safeway market and we followed it for a few miles until we saw the sign up the Vulture Peak Rd. Now that is a gravel road and we crawled along for a few hundred feet until we parked the rig. With the car I went ahead, checking out sites where we could park the rig. Only a short distance up the road I found what I was looking for and returned to Bea, who’d been waiting in the rig. Unlike down in the valley it was not too hot up here. A nice breeze was blowing (the big desert winds hadn’t yet started) and after lunch I got on a discovery walk with Molly. There are a few other rigs up here, but it seems that everybody is having a place for himself. After coffee we went to see Wickenburg. The town has a lot of new buildings, probably most being built during 2000-2006 and before the recession. But there is also a nice old town, which we really enjoyed wandering this afternoon. The Wickenburg area and much of the West became part of the United States following the Mexican-American War in 1848. The first extensive survey of the area was conducted by Gila Rangers who were pursuing Indians who had been raiding the Butterfield Overland Mail route and miners at Gila City. An 1862 gold strike on the Colorado River near present-day Yuma inspired hardy American prospectors and miners, to search for minerals throughout central Arizona. The names of these settlers now label many of the surrounding geographic landmarks, including theWeaver Mountains named after mountain man Pauline Weaver, and Peeples Valley named after a noteworthy settler. Among the gold searchers was an Austrian named Henry Wickenburg. His quest for gold was rewarded by the discovery of the Vulture Mine, where over $30 million in gold has been dug from the ground. Throughout the foothills surrounding Wickenburg are relics of other mines that stand as a tribute to the pioneer miner and prospector. I-10 East   Sonoran Desert On Vulture Peak Road Old Railway Wickenburg Old Train Station in Wickenburg Bea is ready for travel Bikes instead of horses in front of the saloon OK, but how to get the horse on the roof?? The “Jail Tree” If you got the impression that Wickenburg is capitalizing on its western heritage you are quite right. In this town EVERYTHING is about the Ol’West. And that’s what we and supposedly other visitors are coming for. Yeeha…