If your perspective is the fancy Sedona and the old run down Jerome, you just fell off the turnip truck! Nope, as a Sedona resident, you were
'up in the red rocks'. Drove
your dusty old wagon up to Jerome and Flagstaff and back. Camped along the way. Hot and sweaty. Sometimes creeks over-flowed and you were stuck.
(SEE HIKE) With that in mind, Sedona has had four growth periods, each overlapping with the previous:
(1)
Oak Creek Canyon Settlers. The early 1900s were a period of exploring the West, proving up homesteads. Magazine thrillers. Zane Grey's first books!
(2)
Orchard growers. For the miners (Jerome) and loggers (Flagstaff). Eventually all three died out in the 1950s.
(3)
Ranchers and sheepherders. The high desert was warm in the winter, with late-spring cattle and sheep drives up onto the Mogollon.
(4)
Artists, movie-makers, and retirees. Starting in the 1920s and still going strong!
Today, you will see each of these periods mixed in together:
OLD-TIME MUSIC!!Back then you
made your own music. Several:
'Banjo Bill' Dwyer: banjo (Oak Creek canyon)
'Dad' Dumas: fiddler (lower Oak Creek)
Jess Purtymun: accordian; fiddle (Oak Creek canyon)
Kenner Kartchner: fiddle (forest reserve)
Today, it's the
Old-Time Fiddlers in Cottonwood!
CLICK HERE, FOR SOME OLD TIME GOSPEL MUSIC!
Wayside Chapel