[FastrThnU]

Not exactly MTB related, but I thought some in here might be interested in this:

http://southmountainhistory.blogspot.com/

It's a site where I'm posting info about the history of South Mountain including the building of the park, as I uncover the info.

The article about the building of Kiwanis Trail is really cool...70 members of the Kiwanis club did it in a single day in 1925 using 12lb hammers, shovels and rakes, and had Budweiser and ice cream afterwards. Hard to imagine that being done nowadays without going through all sorts of red tape.

The article by C. M. "Charlie" Holbert describing possible hikes on South Mountain is great as well.

Richard

 

[chongoman]

Thanks for posting this. Very cool stuff.

 

[CactusJoe]

"Santa Cruz hill is a spot sacred to the Indians of Guadalupe"

:thumbsup:

 

[chollaball]

cool stuff.
this explains a lot about Kiwanis trail - how they were drunk and slap-happy on ice cream knocking it out in 1 day

look forward to reading more on your blog!

 

[Noelg]

Joe Melczer had ice-cold Budweiser for the boys and on their return from the trail-blazing he stood ready with chilled beverage for the thirsty.

The original Cactus Joe! :thumbsup:

Very nice.

 

[CactusJoe]

The original Cactus Joe! :thumbsup:

Very nice.

I come from a long and distinguished line of beer-swilling hooligans that station themselves all over the mountain ready to provide refreshment at a moments notice. We are the last remnants of the Church of the Unlabeled Beer.

 

[C.J.]

Very cool & excellent project. It is good to know one's own area and it is easy to see the continuing allure and fascination of the desert. When you read the trail accounts, I think, in comparison, that aspect of our experience is still shared.

 

[chollaball]

Very cool & excellent project. It is good to know one's own area and it is easy to see the continuing allure and fascination of the desert. When you read the trail accounts, I think, in comparison, that aspect of our experience is still shared.

dayum!
that was too deep for this early in the week...:idea: i think i need to visit the Church of the Unlabelled Beer...ahh crap its too early in the week for that too. :madman:

 

[CactusJoe]

dayum!
that was too deep for this early in the week...:idea: i think i need to visit the Church of the Unlabelled Beer...ahh crap its too early in the week for that too. :madman:

The Church of the Unlabeled Beer is always open and in session, brother. Come over for a sermon that will "refresh" your soul. :thumbsup:

 

[bike=good]

that is sweet... reminds me of a thread (i think) a while back with the historic photos from hidden valley.

dayum!
that was too deep for this early in the week...:idea: i think i need to visit the Church of the Unlabelled Beer...ahh crap its too early in the week for that too. :madman:

too early in the week??? wah? there is a too early in the week? Unless you're talking about Sunday between 2am and 6am when you can't buy beer, I don't know what you mean.

 

[Noelg]

that is sweet... reminds me of a thread (i think) a while back with the historic photos from hidden valley.

That was Richard too! :thumbsup:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=220203

 

[FastrThnU]

Thanks everyone - it makes it seem worth it.

Its good to know all those hours spent in the library are appreciated.

Not sure if people realize this or not, but *nothing* from the Az. Rep. (or Gazette) before 1990 is digitized or indexed in any way (not even a paper index). The only way to get to this information is to drive down to the downtown library (or ASU, or the Capitol Building) and scan the microfilms manually.

It actually takes 2-3 hours to go through 1 month of Microfilm..and that's just scanning the headlines. The "screen" on the reader doesn't even show the entire page width, so you have to constantly move back and forth to read the entire page (or read the entire reel left side, then the entire reel right side). Sometimes I'll go through 1 or 2 months and not see a single article...and then you'll get 4 or 5 in a single month. Just the way the news normally is, I guess.

So far I've only gone through about 12-15 months worth of stuff, but would like to eventually read everything from about 1915 to 1989.

I have quite a few more articles to post, but I have to admit I posted some of the best articles first. A lot of what I have is just logistics of getting the CCC camps setup...drilling wells for water, trying to convince the "powers" to continue on the project...originally the CCC camp was only going to be here 1 year. They ended up being here 8-9 years I think. I do have some more trail stuff though and I'll post that in there too.

Also if anyone has any leads on certain dates or at least years that specific events may have happened, please let me know. Actually any info (photos, memories, etc) would be great to send my way.

Thanks,
Richard

 

[FastrThnU]

Geronimo...err Hieroglyphics Trail article added.

New article posted about the opening and dedication of Hieroglyphic Trail in 1930. A few more new articles added also.

http://southmountainhistory.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Richard

 

[tjkm]

Nice work!

Very cool blog. I enjoyed the articles and photos. Thanks for taking the time do put this together.:thumbsup:

 

[ttocs]

haunted cave???? where is that?

 

[Kymmster]

Any info?

Did you find any info on the world class sanitizing that Trail Doc did on the waterfall a few years ago enabling all of us mortals to be able to ride it???? That's what I want to hear about?

 

[FastrThnU]

haunted cave???? where is that?

I don't know. I guess you would have to try to follow those directions. I've done a lot of searching and I haven't been able to find anything out about it.

I have a whole list of questions I would like to get answered, and that was one of them. I'll eventually post my list on the site. One of them was what is Wonder Rift, but P. J. Conover, the current park ranger told me it was an old name for Fat Man's Pass...then I read that article by Holbert that confirmed it.

Richard

 

[FastrThnU]

1930's South Mountain Park Master Plan Map posted

Awesome map from the 1930's (exact date unknown) has been uploaded to my South Mountain History blog (http://southmountainhistory.blogspot.com) Click the small map to bring up a full size readable map.

This map shows existing and planned roads and trails. There's a legend which shows which already exist and which are planned.

The map shows the Park Circle Drive which was to go all the way around the park, the 500ft tunnel through Telegraph Pass which was to meet Park Circle Drive on the south side of the park, the Pima Road that was to go from Buena Vista point through the park all the way down to Pima Canyon. Some info I've read shows that they wanted to build all these roads but ran out of time.

Also check out the trail names:

Estrella Trail
Delta Trail
Maricopa Trail
Rattlesnake Trail
Maricopa Spring Trail
Pima Trail
Coronado Trail
Ames Trail
Padre Kino Trail

The only trails on the map that have the same names as the ones today are Kiwanis and Mormon.

Enjoy!

Richard