12.07.2023 SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN MUSEUM

 

I'm a  little behind on posting! We've been riding our bikes around the resort. There are lots of other people people out riding too. Al has been doing some maintenance and updates to Mona. We got a keyless entry door lock that you can use a code or a fob to unlock. We also got a thermostat that I can operate wirelessly on our phones. That will be nice for the days we need to leave Marley back and we can monitor the temperature inside Mona. 

We went to the Superstition Mountain Museum and then the Goldfield Goldmine. 

Some very unique mineral formations that we saw. I can not find any information of these specific types of formations but included it because we found them interesting.

Dinosaur Dung-- We took this photo for Cashton because we thought he would appreciate the humor in a chunk of "Petrified Poop."

There was a small indoor museum that included several artifacts and displays of the area.

The museum includes 15 acres  of both indoor and outdoor displays. I'm glad I wore walking shoes!

Well-Boring Machine--this is the original 1903 version known as "The Improved Powers Well-Boring Machine--Outfit Number One." It could bore up to 150 feet and came standard with 7", 12", and 18" boring augers.

A headframe, originally from a small mine in the Wickenburg AZ area, is typical of the structures that were used for access to hard rock mines in the late 1800s at the hundreds of small mines throughout the Superstition mountain region.

An arrastra is a primitive mill for grinding and pulverizing gold or silver ore. Its simplest form is two or more flat-bottomed drag stones placed in a circular pit paved with flat stones, and connected to a center post by a long arm. A mule, horse or other means, pulled the arm around the circle.

As winter brought snow to their traditional villages in the high pine-forested mountains, the Apache migrated to the low deserts and built temporary winter villages. 

"The Apache people call this mountain “Tseh’-Hos-keet” (Rocky Outcropping). It is one of our sacred mountains where our guardians, the 4 Mountain Spirits, dwell. The Indeh’ (The People)–what Apaches call themselves–have long protected this holy mountain. It is to be respected and left undisturbed."

"The brush structures, that some call Wickiups, our people call “Gowah” (our home), and are made from two types of willow; Red Willow for the frame and Goodden’s Willow for the thatching. Yucca rope is used to tie the home together."

 Elk hide traditionally covered the top of the homes but here, tarp is utilized because this display is a permanent structure. The actual village would have been used only in the winter months.

 "All Apache dwellings located their doorway to the east to welcome every sunrise. The entrances were made just low enough to have all who enter bow before entrance. Then as they left, they had to bow to nature and give respect to the Creator’s work. Between the two Gowahs is a shade/ramada where crafts such as woven baskets, cradles, bows & arrows, and moccasins were made. It was also a place where family members shared meals or simply rested. The ramada support posts are made from Cottonwood trees, the thatching above is made from willow branches. With the arrival of spring, the Apache family would break their winter camp and move back up to their high country pine forest mountain homes for the other seasons."

There have been several plane crashes in the Superstition Mountains. This museum pays tribute to those who lost their lives with a display of wreckage items and a Memorial Bench. 

This is the 1914 Cossak 20-stamp ore mill, a critical piece of mining equipment that was state-of-the-art from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s.

 A stamp mill is a large mechanical device, essentially a monster mortar and pestle. It uses lift-and-fall motion of heavy steel stamps to reduce the size of the ore (rock containing valuable metals) it is fed, to a fine sand which is transported out of the mortar box as a slurry through screens.  The milling exposes the valuable metal (usually gold or silver) allowing its recovery by amalgamation with mercury or dissolution with cyanide as was done at the Cossak mill.   

You’re a prospector and you’ve found a source of material that you think may contain gold. Or you have a mine, and you only want to dig the best ore. How do you find out if you’re right or where the best ore is? That’s the assayers’ job.

Assay is the procedure used to measure the amount of valuable metal contained in ore. The assay office, located down the street from the Cossak mill, is a replica of a typical assay office that would have been associated with the Cossak mill. It houses all the period tools that would have been used and signage that takes the visitor through the process from receipt of samples to the final calculation of gold and silver content.

This 2,300 square-foot railroad layout contains more than 1500 feet of track. It includes passenger and freight trains pulled by steam engines and a trolley. Trains run though St. Amaro, an Arizona Territory in the late 1800s, to Dutchman’s Gulch, a frontier town typical of the 1920s–1930s, past the Roosevelt Dam, gold, silver and copper mines, rodeo grounds and ranches depicting what Arizona looked like in the early days.

In addition to depicting the five C’s of Arizona’s economy, Copper, Citrus, Cotton and Cattle, and Climate, the layout also includes a lumber camp and sawmill, and other track side industries. Frontier life from wagon and stage coach travel to everyday activities in a 1930s town are also featured.

Apacheland Barn

The Barn is a major building that was spared in both fires at the Apacheland Movie Ranch. The barn figured prominently in dozens of western films and TV western episodes shot at this location. It too, was donated to the Superstition Mountain Historical Society by the owners of Apacheland.

It was moved in literally hundreds of pieces to the museum’s grounds and is now has been reconstructed almost entirely of its original materials. The sheathing of the roof has been replaced and some of the shingles. It’s loft serves as a storage area while the ground level has displays of a number of vehicles representing the old west: wagons, buggies, stage coaches, etc. 

Inside the Barn.

A photo op inside the barn.

A display of some of the actors and actresses who performed in movies and tv series at Apacheland. 

The hangman's noose.

The Sheriff's Office and the Bank.

The Stage Ticket Office

Barber Shop

The sign on the floor reads:

Gold Prospector, Willy Runaway, stopped in for a haircut but the barber, Bob Cutter, noticed Willy had a bad tooth, (also the local dentist) Willy needs money to pay for the procedure so toss a dime, nickel or quarter into Willy's mouth. It will also help the museum too!

The Apacheland Movie Ranch opened with a single row of three-sided roofless small buildings on a site just off Kings Ranch Road in Gold Canyon. By the end of 1960, developers of Superstition Mountain Enterprises had constructed both sides of it's Old West main street and turned the site into a full blown movie set. The site became a Western movie mecca. More than 17 television series, 29 full length feature films and hundreds of commercials were filmed here. Some of the commercials were made as recently as a few weeks before the second and last for on Valentine's Day 2004, which destroyed Apacheland. Two buildings survived the fire, the Elvis Chapel and the Barn. Both were donated to the museum and relocated to the museum site.

The Elvis Memorial Chapel is a movie prop that was used in the 1969 Elvis Presley western “Charro!” — the only movie Elvis made in which he did not sing, but played a strictly dramatic role. During the movie shoot, a specially-made steeple was constructed and put on the chapel so that it could be blown off during an explosion central to the movie’s plot.

 The Chapel is a survivor of two fires: one in 1969 and one in 2004, that destroyed Apacheland Movie Ranch. The Elvis Memorial Chapel was donated to the Superstition Mountain Museum by the owners of  Apacheland, Sue and Ed Birmingham.

Charro was the only movie Elvis made where he didn't sing and wore a beard.

We wandered over to the Goldfield Goldmine for lunch at the Saloon. We will have to go back here to explore some more. There is so much we didn't see! We only ate here but it's an old mining ghost town with a saloon, bordello, several stores, an actual mine that you can tour, and a train ride. 

This was the view!

I've had better burgers for sure.

We had a great day of exploring!