No Turkey, Just Murder and Asbestos

We left our turkey snug and comfy, sitting in the freezer where it belongs and headed to the ghost town of Mule Hoof Bend with Larry and Jean and both pooches yesterday morning. We've read about it and had been told that it was worth seeing, so we finally decided to go. I have to admit, I was dragging my feet for a year or so on making the trip, I knew the elevations were well over 5000 feet and the views were spectacular. Whenever I hear someone say "Oh, the views are awesome" it gets me nervous because along with those views comes my fear of height issue. Well, this time was worth swallowing my fear because it turned out to be one of the most beautiful places we've been thus far. (Thank you Andy B for the history information, preview pictures and report on the road conditions!)
Mule Hoof Bend a former asbestos mining town is located high above the Salt River Canyon. It's got a rather sordid history because the owner of the mine, Guy Phillips was murdered there. His wife, Ruby Mae was charged with the crime but a jury failed to convict her, much to the chagrin of the sheriff at the time who thought he had a solid case against her. Guy Phillips had made a lot of enemies and when people were asked who they thought had committed the murder, they'd reply, "just open the phone book and stick a pin in any name".... I guess he wasn't a very nice guy. If Ruby did indeed commit the crime, people probably understood her reasons behind it, particularly the jury.
There are quite a few remains of the town including the house where the murder took place and even a small jail located in the basement of one of the buildings. Ordinarily, I believe the forest service would have "reclaimed" the entire town by bulldozing the remains, but in the case of Mule Hoof Bend, the whole place is built out of asbestos, even the stucco walls are asbestos, thus requiring a hazardous waste removal, a very costly proposition. Fortunately for us, there is a lot left to see, including the extensive honeycomb of mines located on a mountaintop above Mule Hoof Bend.
After seeing Mule Hoof Bend we drove further down the road toward Regal Mine, we didn't find the mine itself but we did find more and more ruins of abandoned cabins, houses and cars dotting the landscape.
The weather was as perfect as it could be, we couldn't have custom ordered a better day. We'll return to the area in the near future, there was just too much to see in one day, in the meanwhile, our turkey can wait, we enjoyed our grilled steak dinners and the company of a day spent with good friends a whole lot more.
Yep, we do have a lot to be thankful for....

Salt River Canyon far below

One of the mine tunnels

Inside one of the tunnels, they honeycomb the entire

mountain

Another rustic shack further down the road

Umm could you check my oil? I seem to have a "miss"

abandoned houses at Mule Hoof Bend

This small jail is located in the basement of one

of the buildings.

Buddy and Growlph ignoring each other

The murder house, not exactly house beautiful anymore.

More canyon views

Wow, that's a longgg way down!

The detective novels of the day covered the story

We'll never know who really committed the crime.

Ruby Mae and Guy are both dead and if someone else was involved,

they're not talking.

Short Run, No Gold

Just a short run this morning with our friend Larry. We'd noticed some old prospects dug into a hillside of one of the trails up a wash not far from our home so we decided to check them out. According to our information from the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, there were quite a few claims at one time in this specific area filed by people looking for gold. I don't know how successful they were or which of these mines might have produced gold, but there sure wasn't any evidence of it today. The old mines didn't look very inviting, none of them were cut into hard rock, just tunnels dug into the mountainside. Some had old timbers used for shoring, and some had experienced cave-ins sometime in the past, at any rate, we didn't feel comfortable enough to venture too far into their dark interiors. The old miners had to be a hearty lot, imagine crawling up the side of a mountain and saying, "let's dig here." We couldn't help but wonder what might have lay beyond the cave-ins, I suppose we'll never know.
If was a beautiful day, clear and cool with a slight breeze, perfect for a nice, comfy Jeep run.

The hillside is carved with old mining prospects

Here's an old bat outside one of the mines

This one was dug into fairly soft rocky dirt

The shoring of old wood and rotted beams didn't

do much to prevent the ceiling from collapsing



No gold, just rocks and dirt...darnit

I guess this cave-in will keep us

from finding what lays beyond

There's Roosevelt Lake

The group of buildings in the valley foreground is where we live.

Cherry Creek to FR 202

We've been wanting to check out a trail off of Cherry Creek Road for quite some time. The trail, FR 202 skirts the Sierra Ancha Wilderness as well as the Apache Nation's Reservation. It runs from above Roosevelt Lake to Young, taking many twists and turns along the way.
Yesterday morning we headed out with Jean & Larry to check it out. Of course we took the Jeep, but since Larry and Jean were taking Buddy, their HUGE dog, they took their Toyota Highlander, Buddy wouldn't fit in their Jeep. We were concerned that the trail would be too much of a hazard for the Highlander but it turns out we worried for nothing. The trail was a bit rocky in places but as we approached the northern end, the road smoothed out into a dirt super highway, dusty, but great traveling. The weather couldn't have been better, cool in the high elevations with the sun shining brightly. We stopped for a picnic lunch in the shade of a tall pine forest just outside of Young.
Growlph did just fine, he's a little trooper. Since he's such a Daddy's boy, he spent most of the trip with his head contentedly resting on Ralph's shoulder. It was a long trip, we left at 8 A.M. and arrived back home at 4 P.M., dusty and tired but very glad to be hitting the trails again. When we arrived back home, Growlph ate his dinner, then went to bed, growling at us when we asked "wanna go in the Jeep?"...smart dog. I seem to recall growling as well last night, when Ralph asked me, "wanna go Jeeping?" ... we can learn a lot from our dogs.

Smoke can be seen in the distance from a fire burning on

the Apache reservation.

The road was dusty!




A rustic corral along the way

Larry, Jean, Ralph & Growlph

(Buddy is in the Highlander)


Some cattle kept a close eye on us

Nice smooth road!