El Dia de los Muertos

November 1, 2009


Weather: Another blue sky day in the 80's.

Today we decided to take a drive up to Prescott , AZ. Prescott is northwest of Phoenix and about an hour and a half drive up I17 and then over A69 to the northwest. Prescott self-proclaims itself to be "Everbody's Hometown" and it is a very friendly town with a real hometown atmosphere. Prescott's population is a little over 43,000 and is the county seat of Yavapai County. The center of town is dominated by the courthouse square which of course has the old cut stone courthouse that is still in use today. The courthouse has large lawn spaces around it with a lot of very large old trees. The last time we were there there was a town festival going on and the lawns were covered by minstrals of various kinds. Below is the sidewalk along the west side of the square and across the street parallel to the courthouse is "Whiskey Row". More about that below.




Abraham Lincoln established Arizona as a separate territory dividing it from New Mexico in 1863. Prescott was picked to be the capital apparently because gold had been discovered in the mountains nearby and like today politicians like to be close to the money. Below is the loghouse build to be the first governor's home. It remains today as part of a museum complex. A Victorian home was built just across from it providing a more elegant home later on.
The thing that I had probably forgotten or maybe never knew (sleep through class that day?) was that Arizona remained a territory until 1912 when it was admitted as the last of the 48 original states.



Below is the original windmill installed to pump water for the town in 1876. It was added to the National Register in 1981. It is called the Iron Turbine and was manufactured by the Mast Foos Co. in Springfield, OH. Very unusual blades to catch the wind. Maybe they knew something about the efficiency of windmills back then or maybe not as I've never seen another like it.



Prescott is a nice town with friendly people. We had a number of nice discussions with town members while there. We stopped in "Grandma's Bakery on W. Gurley St.. A real small bakery on the lower level of one of the older buildings. The lady there admitted that she was not Grandma but her assistant. Really good cookies and pastries and suggest a stop there if you are in Prescott. Talked to another retiree out for his afternoon walk. He said that it gets down to 15 degrees sometimes during the winter and usually stays about 10-15 degrees cooler in the summer than Phoenix. The altitude of 5,400 ft has a lot to do with that I would think. Some of the accolades given to Prescott include:

• "Top Adventure Town" by National Geographic Adventure Magazine
• "Top Trail Town" by Trail Runner Magazine
• Courthouse Square made list of Top Ten public spaces in America
• One of top 5 places to retire by Money Magazine.
• And numeous others

A little bit about Whiskey Row. The full block on the west side of the courthouse is referred to as "Whiskey Row". Back in the "old days" the street side was lined with bars and popular with the cowboys and others finding their way through town. In behind the bars was more establishments that had something to do with "red lights"? And behind that a mini China Town.

In 1900 there was a bad fire of unknown origin and a lot of the bars caught fire. According to legend the drinkers merely took their drinks in hand and walked across the street to the courthouse grounds and watched the fire. An exception was the clients of the Palace Hotel and Bar were so endeared to the bar that they removed and carried the bar and the back bar out of harms way across the street. It was stored until the building could be rebuilt and then the bar was put back. Below is a picture of the entrance and swinging doors to the Palace Hotel and Bar.

We were in town on November 1st and the town was celebrating "El Dia de los Muertos", a highly celebrated day in Spanish speaking cultures. It's a day of remembering family members, friends, or anyone that you feel of importance. I would relate it kind of to Memorial Day. It's a day of praying for people who have died, decorating tombstones, etc. The interesting thing is that it has a real macabre angle to it. Skulls made of sugar or other materials are popular, skeletons, and other ways of creating a death image of who you are honoring or remembering.

Small altars are set up with trinkets or things of interest relating to that person. The museum complex had provided an area for people to set up these displays. Note below - great grandma maybe!

Okay here's an odd one - someone set up a display for the rapper Tupac.

Ending on a different note below, there was a lot of music and dancing by the folks of Spanish heritage. A lot of dancers in beautiful costumes, Mariachi bands, etc. that performed all afternoon.

Well it was another of day of adventure, learning, and travel enjoyment. Wouldn't it be great to travel across the country and spend time to learn the history and heritage of people. What we saw was probably just scratching the surface of Prescott.

Life is Good!