Fort Huachuca “Wah-chew-kah”

 

I met a couple while hiking that knew the local area really well.  They suggested a visit to the museums of Fort Huachuca.  As it was only twenty miles or so from where we were camped, we made the drive down.  A very nice museum giving the history of the fort and its many missions.  Founded a decade or so after the Civil War, with a mission to control the Apache’s.  It has a long and interesting history.

Home of the Buffalo Soldiers.

There were lots of pictures and displays regarding missions against the likes of Pancho Villa and Geronimo.  Also an area honoring the Indian civilian scouts.

The fort is also home to the US Army Intelligence Center and museum.

Lots of super snooper stuff on display like this Enigma cipher machine which was used by the Germans during WWII.  The good part is the allies had broken the code even before the war started and was able to decipher German messages.

More snooping devices such as pens, pencils, thermos’s, and radio transmitters masquerading as a tree limb.

 

Do you think military drones are a modern day invention like I did?  This one was used in the fifties.

And one from the seventies.

I like the part about catching it in a net.  Like a butterfly!!

Overall it was an interesting place.  Makes you wonder who and what is watching.  Just to make things interesting, you could see this guy from thirty miles away, just sitting there in the sky.

To quote from Wikipedia,

“The fort is also home to a radar-equipped aerostat, one of a series maintained for the drug enforcement administration by Lockheed Martin.  The aerostat is based northeast of Garden Canyon and, when extended, supports the DEA drug interdiction mission.”…..jc

Bisbee, AZ

 

What can I say about Bisbee?  Is it an old mining town, wild west town, artists colony, old folks, young folks, weird, wacky, or eclectic?  I think the answer is yes to all.  I could enjoy living in Bisbee. 

The town itself is rather vertical, with lots of steep alley’s and long rows of steps to get from level to level.  It seems those that built the houses walked to work each day.  The automobile wasn’t in the original developmental plans.

 

                          

The narrow streets meander wherever.  There aren’t any blocks in old Bisbee.  Just finding a place to turn around was something of a challenge.  Lots of stuff to draw the eye as we wandered around.

Even a vacant lot becomes a canvas.

 

                            

I always seem to stumble upon one of these somewhere along the way.

A shot of the hole that kept Bisbee going before it was rediscovered and made into what it is today.

A great little town to spend much of the day in……jc

Road trip to Bisbee via Tombstone

Saturday, February 2

We decided to take the drive to Bisbee today.  Have been told it was a unique town worth seeing.  As Tombstone was on the way, we stopped there for a short time.

Not much there to attract our attention except the courthouse museum.  Tombstone got its beginning in 1877 when silver was discovered in the area.  By 1881 the population had grown to near 10,000.  By 1886 the boom was over, but approximately 37 million dollars worth of silver had been mined in that period of time.  The courthouse was built in 1882.

Filled with artifacts from the heyday of Tombstone, along with actual records of many of the happenings of Cochise County.

 

Of course, there was mention of the Earp’s and Doc Holliday.

 

Shootout at the O K Corral in eight pictures.

Justice was administered, legal or not.  Notice the coroner’s cause of death.

                           

Invitation to an official hanging.

The end of the line for some.

                                     

Other miscellaneous pictures from inside the courthouse.

 

 

                                  

A great old building with squeaky floor boards.  Filled with the artifacts which tell the true history of Tombstone. 

On to Bisbee in the next post….jc