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| Picture by Kolohe |
Dos Cabezas ("Two Heads" in Spanish) was named for a nearby mountain that appears to have two heads when viewed from a particular angle.
Officially, Dos Cabezas is a ghost town; but there are still a few people that live in the area.
The town was founded in 1879 to support mining activities in the Chiricahua Mountains. Soon, Dos Cabezas had a blacksmith shop, hotel, general store, saloons, and 50 adobe buildings. At one time the town had a population of 300 people.
However, as the mines played out, people moved away and today only a few of the original buildings and adobe walls remain.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Glassmountains.com |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Not far from Dos Cabezas are the remains of an automobile that was apparently attacked by Indians a number of years ago. The driver's skeleton still has an arrow that pierced through the chest.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Located at Eastern Arizona College Discovery Park Campus in Safford (population 10,129) is the world's largest camera obscuras, a solar telescope, and a Space Shuttle simulator. There is also a small train that runs around the campus.
Unfortunately, when we arrived, the main building door was locked and there was a sign stating the facility was closed for a special event.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
On the way into downtown Safford there was a unique "insect" mailbox by the side of the road. Hopefully, this was not a biting insect that would scare off the mailman.
Around the county courthouse were a number of murals pained on building walls. One mural had an interesting Doc Holiday quote that said: "There is no normal life, there's just life."
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
On the edge of town there was an unusual house on a hill that was built from an abandoned water tower! It would have been interesting to see the interior of the house.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
As we were driving along Highway 70 east of Safford, there was a historical marker commemorating the 1846 discovery of a snowfree trail from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to California. The expedition was led by General Kearney and guided by Kit Carson. Surrounding the historic marker was a profusion of wild yellow flowers.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
The exact route of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's 1540 expedition across what is now southwest United States is unknown, but it is believed that while following the San Francisco River he went through the site of modern-day Clifton (population 3,933), Arizona. US Highway 191 that now passes through Clifton is marked as "Coronado Trail."
In 1878, the first jail was built in Clifton by blasting two cells in the side of a mountain. One cell had an opening to let in light, but the other cell was completely dark.
A gated rock exterior entrance led down several feet to the cells' entrances, which were also gated. It was reported that no one ever escaped from the jail.
One wall of the exterior entrance structure was made from rocks containing various minerals. I am not a gemologist, but some of the minerals appeared to be turquoise. Surprisingly, no one has chipped out the stones.
Now the rest of the story: After completing his work, the miner that blasted out the two jail cells celebrated by getting drunk and shooting up the local dance hall. He was arrested and became the first prisoner to be incarcerated in the new jail.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Adjacent to the jail entrance is a small steam locomotive that was part of the Coronado Railroad. In the same general area there is a restored train depot and a veterans park. The depot was closed, but it is now the Clifton Visitor Center and Art Museum.
Behind the train station is a birding area that runs along the San Francisco River. Birding guides were available at the trailhead, but we did not hike any of the trails.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Web Picture by Ron Reiring |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
The Greenlee County Museum is located in the historic downtown part of Clifton, where the streets are barely wide enough for two cars to pass. It appeared that most of the stores in the downtown area cater to summer tourist traffic, rather than local residents. We were there during the off-season, so many of the stores were closed.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
We had planned to tour the ghost town of Shakespeare, but forgot that when we crossed into New Mexico we were in a different time zone and it was an hour later. The ghost town entrance was closed, so Kolohe said that she plans to return someday because she really wanted to see all of the old buildings.
I took a picture of the entrance from a nearby hill, but later found out that what I had photographed was not Shakespeare, but just some farm buildings. Apparently, Shakespeare cannot be seen from the road.
Lordsburg (population 2,335), New Mexico, has a nice Veterans Park and just down the road is the Lordsburg Memorial Park. Nearby, there was a pickup truck that was built using incorrect measurements. Someone forgot to tell the builder that pickups have long boxes and short hoods, not vice versa.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
The Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Museum looked like an interesting place to visit, but it was closed when we visited the area.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
While traveling along Highway 90, we crossed the Continental Divide at 6,355 feet. Little die we know that toward the end of the week we were going to be driving in snow when we crossed back across the Continental Divide.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
When we lived in Arizona, Silver City was one of my favorite places to visit. One time I drove out of my way, just so I could eat that the Red Barn Restaurant. Unfortunately, the Red Barn closed a few years ago and the building was demolished.
The Silver City downtown area contains a number of historic buildings, painted murals, mosaic pictures, and sculptures, which are all very interesting.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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