Slate Creek Hike

2/25/08

A Beautiful day! Clear blue sky, sunshine and 70º makes it a perfect Arizona day. Since the trails are still too muddy for good Jeeping, we decided to take a hike up Slate Creek. We were trying to locate a possible ghost town in that vicinity when we made the skeleton discovery a few weeks ago. We were able to locate the few remains of a mill which once stood alongside Slate Creek. The mill was used to crush rocks in order to remove the raw ore. The mill was an unusual one because it served two purposes, one to crush stone and the other was to grind grain. One side of it was devoted to ore, the other contained a grist mill, serving the residents of the area back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Not much remains of the mill except a few foundations, flooding in the area had pretty much decimated any remnants. At least we knew we were on the right track because the mill indicates there were enough people in the area to support a mill.

Slate Creek itself was full of surprises. We've never seen the kind of deep purple slate that lined the creek. Beautiful small waterfalls and erosion has created lovely little pools of crystal clear mountain water. The colors have to be seen to believe. Be sure to check out the pictures, the colors are well represented in the shots of the creek. As we progressed up the creek, we saw traces of mining having been done in the area, pipes and pieces of ore car track protruded from the river bed. We also came upon an old grave...Oh NO..NOT another one!  Whew, this time it was just a grave, no bones and no name to identify who it belonged to, just a simple cross made of some sort of pottery. Just above the grave was an old Juniper tree and in the center of the tree was a wreath which once stood on the grave, but over the years, the tree had grown through the wreath, raising it in the air as it grew. Not a bad final resting place, a very peaceful scenic spot.

We'll return again, there's still a ghost town to be found somewhere out there....

 

Hohokam Skeleton Update

                             

2/22/08

We just learned that the skeleton we found is that of a Hohokam woman. She was about twenty five to thirty years old when she died. The other two skeletal remains weren't complete enough to tell their age or gender, although speculation by archeologists is that they are male. It isn't a burial ground, so it leaves experts wondering why the remains were found in close proximity to each other. We'll post more if we find out anything further.

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Clouds, Snow and Firewood

2/21/08

After a couple of more days of rain. We decided to put our cabin fever to good use and go cut some firewood. We've gotten permission to cut wood from a ranch nearby. We were going to cut some firewood yesterday, but the chain saw was being temperamental and wouldn't start. (my theory, it's been hanging out with the Jeep too long and has learned some bad habits from it). Anyway, after a new spark plug and some cussing, the saw started just fine this morning.  The morning was beautiful, partial sun with heavy storm clouds adding dimension to the snow topped mountains.

I'm sure I'll be aching and groaning tomorrow, this old gray mare ain't what she used to be, but for now, it was sure good to be out viewing such beautiful scenery and getting a bit of exercise.

Ahhh there's nothing like a hot shower and a good afternoon nap. I'm headed there right now...

 

Exciting Update on Skeleton(s)!

                

We're pretty excited! We spoke with Mike Sullivan, archeologist with the Heritage Department of the Tonto National Forest, he's the one who actually removed the bones we found from the site last Saturday evening. He said there was more than one skeleton, two, possibly more. They are Hohokam Indians and the bones are in remarkably good condition since they'd date back probably 600 to 700 years. He's not sure if there will be further examination of the bones because, as is customary, they will be turned over to the Salt River Community of Pima-Maricopa Indians for ceremonial reburial. The Pima's are the nearest descendents of the Hohokams so they would have reburial rights. He said no artifacts were found, but that further excavation of the site will be done once the red tape involved has been cut and he'll keep us posted on anything else that might turn up. He also thanked us for turning in the find, he said that all too often, finds like this one wind up on someone's coffee table as a conversation piece.

Of course, this explains the small size of the skeleton, prehistoric Indians were quite small in stature.

Here's a couple of links with some pretty good reading about the Hohokams.

(click your "back" button to return to this journal)

THE HOHOKAM OF THE SOUTHWEST

Hohokam Indian Page

 

UPDATE: Human Skeleton

2/11/08

We just learned that the site where we found the skeleton has been declared an Archeological Site. So that means the skeleton isn't of recent vintage. We don't know yet what the era, or gender of the skeleton is, but we'll stay on top of things and hopefully find out further information. The Arizona State Land Museum people will be handling things with cooperation from the Tonto National Forest Archaeologist. Interesting stuff for sure!

We're glad the skeleton wasn't Jimmy Hoffa or some Phoenix gang banger whose body had been dumped there by his "homies". 

Return to Slate Creek (skeleton location)

2/10/08 

After yesterday's excitement, today was rather anticlimactic. We returned to Slate Creek this morning to see what, if anything had been done about the skeleton we found yesterday. The skull, neck, arm and shoulder had been removed, presumedly by the Tonto National Forest archaeologist. They left the rest of the skeleton still buried beneath a large mound of sand, silt and rock, it'll take quite an excavation to remove the rest of it if they choose to. We'll give them about a week to make a determination of who, and how old the skeleton appears to be, then we'll begin bugging them for information. Hey, it's "our" skeleton and we want to know!

We checked out the rest of the immediate area, searching for clues about a possible ghost town in the general vicinity. We did find a few remnants of the old mining mill that used to stand on the hillside above Slate Creek. That particular area has been subjected to some heavy flooding over the past recent years, so much of the ruins have unfortunately been washed away. We also saw evidence that mining had been done at one time very near where the skeleton was found. It's a very interesting area because the heavy flooding has washed so many things down river to be caught in tree branches and rocky outcroppings. There's an old truck, 1940s vintage as well as an old VW, also of the same era, smashed and decaying in the now dry part of the riverbed. I'm sure we'll return there again. It'll take some hiking (and lots of stamina) to get into the mountains to search for the ghost town remains, but we'll do it, our curiosity is driving us.

Bones! DOUBLE YIKES!

2/9/08

Well, where do I begin? This was certainly a different kind of adventure for us, to say the least. We took off this morning to see if we could locate the remains of an old mill and from there, speculate on the location of a ghost town in that vicinity that we've heard about. We knew the location of the spot where the mill was, there doesn't appear to be much left of it, most has been washed away during heavy flooding. We decided to take the trail less traveled and so on foot we headed past the place where the mill once stood to see if anything had been washed downstream. We came to a large washed out area along Slate Creek so we decided to climb down the embankment and take a look in the riverbed. Standing above the riverbed, we saw a bone. We see a lot of animal bones on our treks, but this looked a bit different. It looked like a human arm bone, aww no, it couldn't be...could it? We began to climb down the muddy embankment and as Ralph was helping me slide down, I glanced to my left, there imbedded in the dirt was something that looked different from anything else around. Upon closer inspection we both decided it sure looked like a human skull. YIKES! Should we go phone someone and report it? Me, being a person who is into details, decided we should poke around a bit. I wanted to be positive it was human remains before we phoned, we would have felt silly if it turned out to be just a buried ball or gourd. Ralph carefully removed some of the dirt from around it, coming to a neck bone and then the shoulder bone...and the lone bone we saw at first was indeed human upon closer inspection. DOUBLE YIKES! Yep, time to go and call authorities. We thought we could wait along the rather busy Beeline Highway and flag down a cop, the road is usually crawling with them. While we were waiting two really nice guys on motorcycles stopped and after explaining to them what we'd found, we asked if they could phone 911 for us. They turned out to be retired cops themselves. They couldn't get a signal on their cell (that's one reason we don't carry one..no signal in the areas we go to) So one of them rode up ahead to see if he could get a signal. After about 20 minutes he returned telling us that authorities were on their way. First DPS (Highway Patrol) came, taking our information and making copies of our driver's licenses...maybe we've been watching COPS too much, but for some reason, we felt uneasy when the officer "ran" our identification. I guess we came up clean, cause our licenses were returned to us. Whew! HA! By this time, Sheriff's Deputies arrived, then a Forensic team, they then phoned for a Tonto National Forest archaeological expert but they were coming a long distance so we couldn't wait because our pooch was home alone waiting for us.

As I'm writing this, all we're left with is a lot of curiosity about the skeleton we found. We don't know if it's recent, ancient or what the circumstances were of the person's demise....and what were they doing buried under so much dirt. We're hoping to be able to find out some more information in a week or so from the authorities involved, I'll post up any details here if we find out more, so be sure to check back.

We'll return to the area again, we think there's still a lost ghost town out there somewhere, next time, perhaps the trip will be a bit less eventful!

A little over five hours later, we're tired, but still buzzing with excitement over our adventure. Who says life in the boondocks is dull?

Zadora Mine in the snow

2/2/08

Jean came up from Tucson with Larry this weekend, so we went to Zadora Mine, Jean hadn't been there before. The trail was muddy from melting snow and ice and all the normally dry creeks and washes were flowing from the runoff. There were a couple of "iffy" places along the trail, one that was pretty scary because it crossed a small creek, but in the place we would normally have crossed, there was a pretty deep washout with water flowing into it. Both Jeeps made it through okay, but there was a bit of consternation about the return trip. Fortunately, again, both Jeeps made it through on the trip back as well.

Zadora Mine was pretty much as we had left it before, although this time water was dripping from the ceiling of the mine forming frozen icicle stalactites. Larry climbed down the rocks and into the tunnel to see how far he could go while Jean, Ralph and I remained outside (so we could help Jean file the insurance papers if anything happened.)   Larry reported back to us that the shaft didn't go very far in, he said that it looked as though it had been closed off and that the ceiling had collapsed in several places. We left wondering what was beyond the closed off tunnel. We'd all love to find an old mining car, but the odds are against finding something like that. We trekked up the mountainside above the mine and checked out the vertical shaft which would have probably connected beyond the point of closure of the adit below, but it would take someone younger and more foolhardy than we are to venture into the vertical opening without knowing what lies below. Zadora will have to remain a mystery, if there are secrets deep inside, the old mine isn't revealing them.

 

Tags: Arizona, exploring, mines, jeeping