| Tour: Old Sedona |
AB ART BARN 15 Art Barn Rd. This is right below the Sedona Art Center, and was George's fruit packing shed for his fruit. In the late 40s, Nassan Gobran moved to Sedona to teach art at the new Verde Valley School. Later in 1956 he taught the first summer artist classes at the Kings Ransom Motel (later Inn) until 1961. In 1958, he was able to organize the concept of an art center, initially called the Canyon Kiva Center. In 1961, it became the 'Art Barn' and the center of much the artist developement in Sedona.OLD METEORITE MUSEUM Right next to the Art Center, and part of the BW Arroyo Roble was the old Nininger Museum with the 2nd-largest collection of meteorites. It's now the eastern-most section of the hotel. If you visit Meteorite Crater east of Flagstaff on I-40, remember this little place. Nininger was a true believer! AJ ABRAHAM JAMES PLACE.  Today is in the Copper Cliffs area, below King's Ransom Inn on the creek off hwy 179. Abraham was the 2nd homesteader here (the JJ Thompson family being first; see Oak Creek Tour at Indian Gardens). Abraham initially rented at Page Springs in 1879 (next to the hatchery there; worth a visit for kids!). He moved up here and homesteaded. When the Owenby's came through in 1893 from Uvalde Texas, they stopped at the James place, before settling in further up the creek. Back then, that was it, unless you went down to Red Rock and the Carrolls (from which 'Carroll Canyon'). Later on, this general area became known as the Frank Hart Ranch.BR OAK CREEK BRIDGE. The first bridge here was in 1916 and later improved in 1928, using iron brought in from Clarkdale. Pictures always show it with an old car crossing (!) ... a truly beautiful view of old times. The next bridge was built in the 1930s. Neither of two major floods of 1939 and 1993 overcame that bridge but certainly made folks nervous each time! Today's pedestrian bridge is probably most similar to the original one. Walk it on a nice summer afternoon. BS BREWER SCHOOL.  Across from the Ranger Station on Brewer. This school is the THIRD version, built in 1943. The first school was also here, a 1-room affair in 1910. It became so popular (people moved in, to be close), it didn't last long before being replaced with a larger school in 1914, with the land donated later by Frank Owenby in 1912 (burned in 1943). What is so interesting is that schools largely decided where you lived in those days (like today!). People would literally move in the fall to be near any existing school. Red Rock (old community near today's Cathedral Crossing; see our Ranching Tour) had the earliest school (early 1890s) and the Thompsons (see 'AJ' below) would move over there in the fall, and live in a tent for the winter!BW OLD BREWER PLACE. Brewer Rd is named for Charlie Brewer's place in 1924. This was originally part of the Abraham James place, though Charlie bought it from Frank Hart. CS CARL SCHNEBLY'S PLACE. Where Los Abrigados is today. Actually Carl and Sedona were there for only about 4 years in the early 1900s. They built a beautiful 2-story house/resort/post-office/store, depending on which year. In the early pictures, you don't see all the large trees that are there today ... mainly red dirt and the hills behind. Grew strawberries and other delicious delicasies for Flagstaff delivery. Carl's nephew insisted Carl had Schnebly Hill Road built up to Flagstaff. Bud Purtymun insisted Carl wasn't here long enough and beside that, JJ Thompson started it before Carl got here. In the 1950s, the controversy was whether the road was public or private (a land-owner had blocked the road!). Today, Los Abrigados continues the tradition of Carl and Sedona, and the road up Schnebly hill is truly gorgeous (jeep travel beyond the first 2 miles). FA FIRST ASSEMBLY OF GOD First church in Sedona located where the Hyatt is now, up on the hill. Built by Jess Purdymun, previously a bootlegger but reformed. Church was later moved out to Dry Creek Rd in West Sedona. FB FIRST BANK. Supposed to have been at the corner of 89A and 179A, north of 179. A nice hotel there now. HD HART DAIRY located behind Tlaquepaque. Built in 1930. HG HARRY GIRARD (now Tlaquepaque). As with the Schnebly place above, this land changed hands MANY times. Harry had a plant nursery here in the 30s and 40s. He's most visibly remembered for the one who blasted the rock from the cliffs across the creek, where you see the various galleries! He needed fill and the cliff needed blasting (back then, dynamite was the developer's tool of choice!). Abe Miller of Las Vegas fame (early Las Vegas) used to vacation in Oak Creek (see our Oak Creek Tour: Garland's). His dream was for a hispanic style villiage shopping area, which later became Tlaquepaque. He died just 1 year after it was finished. Interestingly Harry's last home is El Prado and Harry's nursury is Bearcloud, both great art galleries. MORE INFO FH FARLEY CABIN / HOMESTEAD  100 Schnebly Hill Rd. Farley was one of the earliest homesteaders in 1908, coming in from Texas and settling up-stream from Abraham James. Buildings are from the mid-20s and early 30s.FS FOREST SERVICE / HART PUMPHOUSE.  As you're walking down hwy 179 across from Ranger Road, if you look down toward the creek, you can see it, quiet and lonely. It was built in 1935 by the CCC to get water up out of the creek over to the ranger station and also for local farmers (today's Los Abrigados and Tlaquepaque).H2 HART's 2nd 1939 STORE. BREWER RD where old 79 (now 89A) crossed the wash. If you look at the old picture of this store, it's pure 1950s tourist store! Big garish signs outside. Gas pumps, ice, groceries and other items needed. Later, it became Nelson's Shopping Center. HS  HART STORE #1 Corner of Brewer Rd and Ranger Rd. Today this is a REALLY nice little store for old-time shopping. Originally the 1923 store was built by Morgan Thompson with the first gasoline sold from drums. This was later purchased by L.E. Hart who added gasoline pumps in 1925. This road originally crossed the creek!JO JORDAN ORCHARDS  735 Jordan Rd. Also SEDONA HERITAGE MUSEUM. This was the Jordan place and now a GREAT museum. Worth AT LEAST an hour just to go around the old house. Additionally you can see 1929 tractor shed, the 1946 packing shed, old equipment, and examples of orchard trees. But the home is quite fascinating, being built in phases of western ranch style and all well preserved. Don't miss it! Walter Jordan, George's father, bought the land from Claude (George?) Black with an additional 65 acres in trade from Jessie Purdymun. Walter had previously farmed down on the Verde, where Jerome mining was expanding with new facilities in Clarksdale and Clemanceau. The problem of ALL farming in the Sedona area was that you could either 'dry farm', which many did, especially up on Grasshopper Flat (west Sedona). But for real results, you had to get water out of the creek. That involved two problems. For the early homesteaders, you needed to build a 'ditch' usually going upstream from the creek, diverting the water onto your land. Each homestead had varying levels of difficulty with both building a ditch (see Owenby ditch below) and maintaining it after creek flooding. Walter Jordan had a second problem and that was the Roosevelt Dam northeast of Phoenix. What? Roosevelt was the first dam built by US Reclamation in 1906 for the Phoenix area farmers (who were also having problems with irrigation ditches during floods!). Part of the 'deal' was that ALL upstream water belonged to Phoenix farmers as of that point in time ... including Oak Creek. Luckily for Walter, he already had water rights from his farm on the Verde. So after much effort, he was able to move the rights from the Verde to Oak Creek in 1928, since it was the same watershed. As you're looking downhill to 'Uptown', you're probably wondering how the water got uphill? George was quite mechanical and built a LARGE pumping apparatus at the creek to lift water into a ditch to flow into a small resevour above the farm. These days the resevour is over toward the houses looking north. The pump house was located about 1 mi north of Sedona below a bluff where a small 1980s rock house is located on the edge. On your drive back down to 'Uptown', on the left you'll pass a red-rock house ... this was George's rental house (470 Jordan Rd).JS JORDAN RETAIL STORE.  479 N Hwy 89A, currently a nice leather goods store. This store was built in 1939, after two things happened: George Jordan bought land from his dad (see JO above) and farmed orchards, and the new 2-lane highway 79 was built up the canyon and on to Flagstaff. This created a market of visitors and demand for fresh fruit. While you're down below looking at the foundation rock-work(!), down near the creek is the pump house that provided water ... 40 Art Barn Rd.ME MAX ERNST HOUSE 671 Brewer. Max Ernst lived here 1946-53. Max was a well known Dadist-style artist at the time. Again, stretch your imagination ... the houses around there AREN'T there! Some homes below on the creek. Brewer school. Ranger Station. Hart's store. Black's ranch and Girard's nursery. And peaceful, beautiful, beautiful red rocks. That's the world of the developing artists of the early 50s. Max was up the dirt road and his dream still resonates today. OC OAK CREEK MARKET (#235), OAK CREEK TAVERN (#241), HITCHING POST (#269) and BRADSHAW'S PHOTO SHOP (#299). All uptown hwy 89A northside (numbers=address#). If you trace Sedona's history, you'll see little groceries come and go all over the place! The OAK CREEK MARKET served the uptown area starting in 1945, and is now the Marketplace. If you drove in on hwy 179, you passed the 2nd location for this market (currently the Ace Hardware building in VOC). It subsequently expanded to the IGA in VOC! The OAK CREEK TAVERN was built in 1945 and was most famous for the Cowboy Artists of America organizing there in 1965: Joe Beeler, Charlie Dye, John Hampton, George Pippin and writer Robert MacLeod. (Also see the Pippin Museum outside of Prescott). These days the Tavern is the Cowboy Corral. The HITCHING POST was built in 1941 and was frequented by many actors in the 40s and 50s (eg 'Rounders' with Glen Ford and Henry Fonda filmed near Bell Rock). And most fascinating is BRADSHAW'S PHOTO SHOP. Bob (Bradshaw) quite clearly believed in Sedona's beauty, early on building a shop here (all by itself for a while) and of course photographing the whole area. Had a ranch where he often supported movie making. And some of the set's lumber enlarged his shop built in 1949. Go inside and look at the fireplace! Today it's Rollies. If you're interested in some of Bob's work, his son opened a nice gallery in the Village showing his work. Stop by! OH OLD HOUSES ON BREWER. In series south to north, Oscar Russell, Charlie Gaddis, John Ware cabin, and Ed Black (which remains). PO#2 was also along here at 45 Brewer. PO 1964 POST OFFICE 476 Van Deren Rd. These days it's the newpaper office, and has a really neat statue of a paperboy out front. Buy a newspaper copy and see what 'small town' really means! This was PO#3, before the present PO#4 next to Hyatt. Van Deren Rd crosses Jordan Rd and is named for Earl Van Deren, one of the early settlers and most importantly, Sedona's first sub-divider (a subsequent major Sedona industry that continues to this day!). RS RANGER STATION.  Brewer Rd, just south of Ranger Rd on the left. Built by the CCC. Back in the early 1900s, national forests were known as 'forest reserves'. With modernization (changing the name), came forest 'rangers' who local folk sometimes didn't appreciate (most well known being Bud Purdymun, who recently passed on). Rangers discouraged over-grazing and worst of all, started charging cattlemen and sheepherders for the range. But for rural communities, the forest service was a place for getting a job where jobs were few, telephone service (one-string, soft copper line), weather reporting, and these days, Red Rock Passes! The old ranger home began as a cabin in the early 1900s and the ranger barn in 1935. Both were in heavy use as recently as 2005, when the forest service moved south.SH SCHNEBLY HILL ROAD More details on the 'Oak Creek' History Tour! SL SEDONA LODGE  (currently King's Ransom Inn). OK, use you imagination one more time! Ignore the galleries and Hillside Sedona. Ignore all the cars on hwy 179. You see a dirt road (Big Park road) going south to Big Park. Iron bridge across the creek. It's the depression. A pretty-good size CCC camp up from the dirt road. Men going out during the day working dusty and hot CCC projects; evenings at the camp. Their families many, many miles away. The depression was not a good time. In the late 30s and 40s, with the arrival of movie makers, the old CCC camp was transformed into a sound-stage (old CCC garage) and Sedona Lodge for the actors. Time passed. Both were dozed. And now you see King's Ransom.SP STEELE PLACE (up Schnebly Hill Rd on the left). Actually this place was originally the Farley's and subsequently Bill Steele's from Sanderson Texas. Now hosts nice RV camping. SS SCHNEBLY HOME 290 Schnebly. 2nd home of Carl and Sedona after they returned in 1932, and worked for the Van Derens. Home was later given to them by the Jordans. Only foundations there now, but a nice garden area next to city parking lot. SU VAN DEREN's SUB-DIVISION.  Originally the Van Deren ranch, this whole area of small tight streets was Sedona's first sub-division. First, imagine the trees not there! And second, imagine the orchard going north toward Brin's mesa. And last (gulp), imagine mainly trailers! Yep .. early 50s. If you go into some of the early sub-divisions in west Sedona, you'll still see the trailers, which these days are NOT inexpensive at all!TH THOMPSON HOMESTEAD 40 Art Barn Rd. One of earliest homesteads. Two cabins with dog-trot still there. Later farmed by Frank Owenby and known as 'Chimney Flat'. TL 'THE LANE' or Jordan Road.  If you use your imagination (!), ignore
almost all the uptown buildings ... they're not there! Coming up from Hart's store (see above), you need to get up to your place in Oak Creek. Where hwy 89A goes now and lower was often getting washed out. So JJ Thompson (see Indian Springs on our Oak Creek Tour!) ran the road up Mormon Wash, under Steamboat Rock above and then into Wilson Canyon (at the present day bridge). Until the first highway went through, this was the entrance to Oak Creek. If you're wondering about 'Mormon Wash', the story is that a fishing area down below was used by Jerome executives who brought with them their 'wives'. Thus the name. There's a similar and more believable story at Indian Gardens!WS WAYSIDE CHAPEL  401 N Hwy 89A. This is across from the Best Western and great place for worship on Sunday morning! Originally it was the location of George Jordan's barn. Initially the American Union Sunday School met in the old Sedona school house. Later in 1946, Wayside was built from land donated by George and with much support from Sedona Schnebly; dedicated in 1950. The church you see today was built over-top the 1940s church! There's a bell atop the church plus a plaque, both in honor of Sedona. If you look on the left side, between buildings, you'll see what they called 'the cleft of the rock' in which the church was built! Behind the church at the corner of the public parking lot is a monument to Sedona Schnebly; their last house was on this corner above the church. |
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