Pipe Springs National Monument.

 

We took a different route to the North Rim this time.  Rather than going back through the East tunnel and down through Kanab, UT; we went westward, then South and East back across the Arizona Strip.  The Strip is a high arid place better known nowadays as the home of the Mormon sect that still practices plural marriage.  Colorado City being its center about half way between Hurricane, UT and Fredonia, AZ; right on the state line.

Between Colorado City and Fredonia, we happened upon Pipe Spring National Monument. Another place to visit, and pick up another pin.

The Pipe Springs area has been inhabitated for centuries, most recently by the Paiute Indians before the white man came.  It is an important site in early Morman history, first visited by a Jacob Hamblin in 1858.  John wesley Powell used the springs as a supply stop while exploring the area, as well as many others.  An early Paiute shelter called a Kahn.

 

In 1863 James Whitmore acquired title to 160 acres surrounding the spring and started a settlement with dugout homes, corrals, orchards, and herds of livestock

A restored dugout home.

I liked the patterns in the glass of the reproduction windows.

Whitmore was killed by Indians and the Mormon Church purchased Pipe Spring from his widow.  A gentleman named Anson Winsor was sent by Brigham Young to oversee the herds of cattle owned by the Church that were herded there.  He built a fortified house over the spring that became known as Winsor Castle. The ranch prospered for many years before being sold by the Church in 1895.  It was also the site of the first telegraph office in Arizona, connected to Salt Lake City and the Church by the Deseret Telegraph Line.

Pipe Spring still flows from within it’s walls.

Keeping two ponds filled to provide irrigation, and water for livestock.

From 1895 till 1923 Winsor Castle was more or less a roadhouse.  Serving the neads of the locals, as well as the traveling public.

Pipe Springs made for a nice stop on the way to the North Rim of the GC.  I always like to learn a little more western history….jc