Cara's vacation scanned photos - Trip out west #2

My new project for the summer is to get some of my photos scanned and organized into the computer.  There is really no reason to have print photos and they take up tons of room, but more than that I did not do what my father lectured on for so many years.  I did not write on the pictures.  I did not put dates or places or names.  Now I wonder about the pictures.  So this project hopefully will have me not only reminiscing, but will have also educate me as I dig back into history, mine and the places I have visited.

Years ago I organized all my print photos into categories and boxes and typed up explanations of the photos on index cards thinking that some day my kids would inherit these photos and wonder about them.  I pulled out the box labeled "wedding" and "vacations" as it was the box that weighed the least.  I thought the vacation pile would be more historical and entertaining and so far I'm right on the money in that.  I should have probably started with the smallest category of vacation pictures and worked my way up to the largest pile, but instead I just grabbed a pile.  It happened to be another trip out west, this time with my mother and my friend Kim Smith.

 And since I'm going to all this work I want to have something to blog share with my blogging friends the photos from my past.  This was my second trip out west.  It was spring time in 1989 and Kim was living with me at my parents' house.  Connie wanted to visit her sister in Arizona, and Kim was a world traveler and a great driver, and so we headed out to explore the west.

It was just me, Kim and Connie in the green station wagon.  I can honestly say that until we reached Arizona I don't have much memory of the trip.  I don't know how long it took us to reach the state of Arizona.  I don't remember stopping along the way in motels, but I'm sure we did that.  I vaguely remember doing some driving and then being relieved and sleeping in the back of the car.

Of course we stopped at the Grand Canyon and explored.  I'm not sure if Kim had been there or not, but it had been 17 years since Connie and I had been there.  Words can not describe the beauty of the Canyon.  It is something everyone should see in his life time.

I took hundreds of photos which I have in an album somewhere in my house.  I suppose that will be a project at some point, but for now these photos that didn't make the album (and are probably extras) will be on my computer until I get to the others.

On the South Rim of the Canyon is a structure called Hermit's Rest that was built in 1914.  It's main structure was designed by architect Mary Colter and represents the western terminus of the Rim Trail.  It was built as a rest area for coaches operated by the Fred Harvey Company which took tourists to what was once the Hermit's Camp.  I researched this information in looking for the answer to this picture.  I found the information on Wikipedia, so thanks to them for the above info.

In searching the above information I read that Mary Colter had built four buildings as a set that are now on the National Register of Historic Places.  Since I also had the above photo and no clue as to what it was I searched the other three buildings and found that this one was one of the set.  This is the Desert View Watchtower also located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It is 70 feet high and was completed in 1932.  Mary was employed by the Fred Harvey Company so that is how she got the job of creating these buildings.  The Watchtower was the last in her series of buildings.

After the canyon we headed to Tucson.  Or maybe it was the other way around since I really don't remember, and Connie's mind isn't too helpful at this stage of her life.  Kim probably remembers everything about the trip as she has one of those minds that remembers practically being in the womb.  She is one of three people I would go to for information of the past, the other two being my Auntie Marilyn and my daughter Madison.

Connie did remember that the ghost town that I had pictures of was in Tucson so I started there in my investigation of the above photos.  There are quite a few ghost towns in that vicinity so it took some time and some great help from Yahoo in locating this information.

Turns out this wasn't a ghost town but an old movie set called Old Tucson Studios.  It was originally built in 1938 by Columbia Pictures and was built as a replica of the 1860's Tucson for the movie Arizona.  

 

Several movies and television shows were filmed here including one of my favorites, Little House on the Prairie.  The place became a tourist attraction in 1960 complete with gun fights in the streets.  I remember the re-enactment of the gun fights because I thought that was cool to see after being a big Gunsmoke fan.

After this trip I do believe we visited and met Auntie Marilyn on the campus of the University of Arizona.  We hooked up with Maya and then followed Auntie Marilyn out to where she lived and taught school on an Indian Reservation.  Those pictures are in an album and not on tap to be scanned any time soon so the next vacation photos will be of various trips I took to Cape Canaveral in Florida.