During the storm the snow barely touched the lower elevations of the Santa Catalina Mountains – so the morning after the storm, under a clear blue sky, instead of heading into the Catalinas I hiked out the Garwood Dam Trail, in the shadow of the Rincons, for a view of the snow on the top of the mountain…
We watched clouds swirl across the mountain peaks in the AM before we started – but Pusch Peak was clear and it looked like a great place to watch the storm… It didn’t take long for the storm to catch us though, waves of precipitation rolled towards and over us, rain first – then hail – then snow, when we reached the peak it had been eaten by the clouds – too cold to linger we started back down.
The Santa Catalina Mountains had several days of winter storm – while the links below are now ‘old’ a number of them have interesting pictures – some showing the snow on the mountain!
An obvious destination in Oracle State Park is the Windmill on the Arizona Trail – on this trip to the windmill I paid a bit more attention to the windmill itself and was able to learn more about it:
–Aermotor: Aermotor has been making windmills since 1888 and is still in business today! From the beginning their windmills featured a steel wind wheel – apparently a key feature because it was more efficient than the wooden wind wheels commonly in use at the time. Some articles about Aermotor’s history: Aermotor Windmill Company History, GasEngine Magazine – History Of The Aermotor Windmill Corporation, Watrnews.com – The Aermotor Company – Windmills Made in the U.S.A.
– J. Knox Corbett Hardware and Lumber Company, Tucson: While I can not read all of the smaller writing on the windmill there is enough to connect it to the J. Knox Corbett Lumber and Hardware Company.
William Corbett came to Arizona in 1877 – after working at Lord & Williams, as an Assistant Postmaster and as a paymaster in the army he returned to Tucson in 1890 and bought a hardware store on the corner of Congress and Main – it became the W.J. Corbett Hardware Company. William Corbett ran the company until his death in 1919.
J. Knox Corbett came to Tucson several years after his brother and worked selling news papers for the Arizona Daily Star, as a postal clerk, owned a stage and freight line, owned the Tres Alamos Ranch on the San Pedro River and was the Postmaster of Tucson. Knox established J. Knox Corbett Lumber in the early 1890s. After his bother’s death in 1919 J. Knox took over the W.J. Corbett Hardware Company and it became the W.J. Corbett Lumber and Hardware Co. After suffering a stroke 1922 Knox retired from the business and it was taken over by Hiram Stevens Corbett.
Hiram “Hi” Stevens Corbett – son of J. Knox Corbett and Lizzie Hughes (eldest child of Sam Hughes and Atancia Santa Cruz) – became president of the J. Knox Corbett Lumber and Hardware Company in 1923. Today “Hi” Corbett’s name is familiar to many in Tucson because in 1950 Hi Corbett Field was named in his honor for his work in bringing baseball to Tucson.
The J. Knox Corbett Lumber and Hardware Company – which eventually included a store on Speedway – closed in 1965.
The J. Knox Corbett House is now part of the The Tucson Museum of Art’s Historic Block. The Arizona Memory Project contains a contribution from the Tucson Museum of Art Research Library, Tucson Museum of Art Historic Block Homes – A Window on Bygone Days, that includes a great resource in learning about the Corbett family: A History of the J. Knox Corbett House and the J. Knox Corbett Family by Bettina Lyons (March 1981).
A sea of grass out to the Thimble, a ribbon of color down Sabino Canyon, looking up Bear Canyon to and past the Sycamore Reservoir Dam, back lit Saguaros and sunset light in Bear Canyon – every trip into the mountains is another chance to see something new – even the most familiar places are constantly changing, different light, season, weather, colors, wildlife, plants, friends… – and this was a particularly amazing day.
