windmill

Headless Windmill in Geesaman Wash – 8/5/2016

Updated - Posted - Charles Miles
Headless Windmill in Geesaman Wash at 'Deep Well'. August 2016.
Headless Windmill in Geesaman Wash at ‘Deep Well’. August 2016.

As a result of the mining and ranching history on the east side of the Santa Catalina Mountains there are a seemingly infinite number of dirt roads criss-crossing the landscape. One of these roads splits off from the Black Hills Mine road and works along the ridge between the Geesaman and Stratton Washes. Below the road, in Geesaman Wash, at a site labeled ‘Deep Well’ a headless windmill stands near a large, impressively full, water tank – the solar panels that replaced the windmill sit below the old tower.

Finley Geesaman, 1830-1917, staked a number of claims in the Old Hat Mining district and this wash and a mine group higher on the mountain bear his name. A short obituary appeared in the Arizona Daily Star on December 18, 1917:

Finley Geesaman.

Up to 9 o’clock last night, pioneers of Tucson visited the Reilly Undertaking parolrs [sic] to take a last look at the long familiar features of Finley Gessaman [sic], who died Saturday night at a local hospital after a brief illness, at the age of 87. The remains will be shipped this morning to his boyhood home, Quincy, Ill., to rest beside the graves of his father and mother. Mr. Gessaman is survived by a number of nephews and nieces, beneficiaries under his will of an estate estimated at about $60,000. His holdings include a number of claims in the Catalina mountains. Once the owner of the old Condon mines, he sold them to the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining company.

There are two photos of F. Geesaman in the Geesaman Family Newsletter #11 (Volume III, July, 1977, No. 3) – a portrait and a photo of Geesaman in the door of a cabin in the Santa Catalina Mountains. These photos accompany a letter written by Geo. P. Myers to Miss Amanda F. Geesaman of Rouzerville, Pa. after Geesaman’s death.

A horseshoe in the Deep Well area of Geesaman Wash. August 2016.
A horseshoe in the Deep Well area of Geesaman Wash. August 2016.
A flower surviving in the middle of Black Hills Mine Road. August 2016.
A flower surviving in the middle of Black Hills Mine Road. August 2016.
Marked on the map as 'Drill Hole' this small site sits on the slope of Alder Canyon below Black Hills Mine Road. August 2016.
Marked on the map as ‘Drill Hole’ this small site sits on the slope of Alder Canyon below Black Hills Mine Road. August 2016.

Phone with Windmill, Redington – 7/16/2016

Updated - Posted - Charles Miles
The payphone in Redington. July 2016.
The phone in Redington. July 2016.

Near the San Pedro River, between Redington and Cascabel Road, at the edge of Redfield Canyon, across from the Carlink Ranch, in the ‘town’ of Redington, with the top of a windmill visible over the trees and protected by a cholla stands a lonely phone. There are roads, homes and ranches  along the San Pedro River so I suppose the phone makes a certain kind of sense – but mostly it just seems strange.

Crossing the San Pedro River on the way from Redington Road to the town of Redington and the Carlink Ranch. July 2016.
Crossing the San Pedro River on the way from Redington Road to the town of Redington and the Carlink Ranch – cows in the distance. July 2016.

The Redfields settled in the San Pedro River Valley in the 1870s when Apache Raids were a concern and soldiers traveled from Fort Lowell over Redington Pass to protect residents. In 1879 the Redfields petitioned for a post office to be established, but the site could not be named after a living person so the name ‘Redington’ was used instead of Redfield. In the late 1880s Henry Redfield sold his ranch and moved to Benson – the ranch was eventually acquired by the Bayless family who had established the Carlink Ranch 1884. The Carlink Ranch is still operating today, run by descendants of William Bayless. The Post Office operated until 1940 and at one time the town had both a school and a general store.

Ventana Windmill, Alder Canyon – 7/7/2016

Updated - Posted - Charles Miles
A baby Desert Tortoise speeding across a road above Alder Canyon. July 2016.
A baby Desert Tortoise speeding across a road above Alder Canyon. July 2016.

From Black Hills Mine Road, near Ventana Tank, a side road leaves to the south and takes you down to the bottom of Alder Canyon to the Ventana Windmill.

The remains of the Ventana Windmill in the bottom of Alder Canyon - now replaced by a solar powered pump. July 2016.
The remains of the Ventana Windmill in the bottom of Alder Canyon – now replaced by a solar powered pump. July 2016.

The Ventana Windmill is still where the map marks it – but now it lays in the canyon bottom watched over by the solar panels that replaced it – the solar pump is working well judging by the overflowing tank attracting swarms of insects.

Bees near Alder Canyon. July 2016.
Bees near Alder Canyon. July 2016.

Up a side canyon bees hang from the canyon wall – I feel lucky to see them, and lucky to have seen them before I was closer. Still in the side canyon an open sluice gate seems to suggest there was more water here at some point – but it is so dry, and hot, that it is hard to imagine. The old structure makes me think about a piece of the canyon’s history – from GOLD PLACERS AND PLACERING IN ARIZONA by Eldred D. Wilson:

ALDER CANYON PLACERS

Placer gold occurs in Alder Canyon, on the northern slope of the Santa Catalina Mountains, from near the National Forest boundary to within a few miles from the San Pedro River. These placers have been known and intermittently worked in a small way for many years. The gold-bearing gravels are reported to occur as dissected bars or benches along the stream and to some extent on the spurs between tributary gulches. The gold is coarse, flat, and ragged.

During 1932-33, a maximum of fifteen or twenty men carried on rocking, sluicing, and dry-washing operations in this field. Most of them were transients who remained only a short while and won but little gold. J. W. Lawson, postmaster at Oracle, purchased approximately $45 worth, near 936 in fineness, during the year. The Alder Canyon placers were credited with a placer gold output of $704 during 1934-40.

Water works near the Ventana Windmill in a small side canyon. July 2016.
An open sluice gate, no water in sight… An old structure near the Ventana Windmill in a small side canyon. July 2016.

From the windmill a rough road heads up Alder canyon and another climbs steeply up the other side of the canyon and continues thru a gate out onto Davis Mesa.

The road off the Black Hills Mine Road down into the bottom of Alder Canyon and to the Ventana Windmill - the tank and solar panels that power the pump that replaced the windmill are visible in the bottom of the canyon. July 2016.
Looking back from Davis Mesa at the road from the Black Hills Mine Road down into Alder Canyon and the Ventana Windmill site. July 2016.

Oracle State Park, Aermotor, J. Knox Corbett Lumber and Hardware Company – 12/5/2015

Updated - Posted - Charles Miles
Aermotor Windmill Vane - on the Arizona Trail in Oracle State Park. December 2015.
Aermotor Windmill Vane – on the Arizona Trail in Oracle State Park. December 2015.
Markings - J. Knox Corbett Lumber and Hardware Company (or variation). December 2015.
Markings – J. Knox Corbett Lumber and Hardware Company (or variation). December 2015.

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).