Chloride Murals

Today was moving day.  We said "seeya later" to Kyra because we hope to hook up with her again in a week or so after she gets some routine maintenance done on her rig.  We didn't get a real early start because we had morning Happy Hour before hitting the road.  We stopped to de-sewer and water the rigs and took our time because both P&H and us needed to really flush the tanks good because its been a while.  Nice to do that once in a while to keep anything from building up.  Kingman AZ is our proposed destination today.

We headed down highway 93 and across the new Hoover Dam bridge again.  As we were traveling along I got to wondering what the thought process would be when deciding to set up a residence in this country.  Would you look out over all the cactus, mesquite, and cholla and say, "there, thats the spot I want to build a house?"   As we drove along there were many many houses and trailers just out in the desert. Most were in a sad state of repair as well.  The one below was one of the better ones.

Lots of really junky yards too right beside the highway.

Just before we got to our turnoff into the BLM site we are going to spend a couple nights at, we came to a screeching halt for an accident.  Good thing we only had to follow along for a short distance before pulling into our final destination.

We drove around the circle drive and decided on a spot facing east.  That will give us morning sun and afternoon shade and will work well for the solar panels too.

We are right by a hitching post so I would imagine lots of people use this area to load and unload their horses after using all of the trails around here.

Very unique hitching post

As I was starting to level the Ponderosa, I looked up and noticed that the traffic was still moving at a snails pace.

We had a little afternoon snack and decided to head over to Chloride AZ to see their famous murals.  First of all we had to figure out what time it was because we lost an hour from Nevada and then the question was if we lost another hour for daylight saving time?  Answer is NO.  Arizona is one state that has not changed their clocks to and from Daylight saving time since Oct 29, 1967.  After figuring that out and setting our watches, we headed out on our tour.

On entering the town of Chloride we saw a fence covered in old rusty relics.  There was also a Texas gate there to keep the critters out.  Sue had to take a picture. It was obvious that time didn't really matter here.  It was like a town stuck in time.

Here is the picture Sue took.

The town of Chloride is about 20 miles north of Kingman and was founded in 1862. It was the center of silver ore production for the area and in the early 1900s, Chloride was the county seat and had a population of more than 2000. Today, Chloride boasts the oldest continually operating post office in Arizona but now only has a population of 352. 

The village is a collection of vintage miner's shacks and heaps of rusting equipment left over from the glory days. Many of the current residents are artists, and whimsical sculptures made from mining artifacts line the streets. 

A gas station.  Looks like it serves train engines too.

The old railway station

Art (or junk) lining a street

A bird in a guilded cage

A mine ore car.

Local miners still prospect in the area looking for undiscovered seams of silver from the now-defunct Elkhart lode.

You can file your claim here.

After a brief tour of the town and a stop to ask directions, we headed up the mountain to see the murals. In 1966, Roy Purcell with the support of local residents painted "The Journey," a 2000-square-foot set of murals on some boulders about a mile and a half outside of town. We headed up a dirt road for about a mile before we found them.

The road was well marked with little paintings on rocks showing you the way.

Very interesting murals on the rocks.  From May 27 to June 2, 2006, Roy Purcell along with other artists returned to Chloride to restore the faded murals which were originally painted in 1966. With the help of some area business's sponsorship and 10 other artists, 19 murals were restored, adding vibrant color to the faded panels. One of the things we noticed was the bright colours.

The Journey - images from an inward search for self

On the other side of the road were some petroglyphs drawn by the early natives.

The girls decided to walk on the road while Harold and I headed up the mountain in search of the spring the locals talked of.  They said maybe there would be wild horses there but we were not lucky enough to see them.

We found the spring coming down the side of the mountain but no wildlife.  We turned around and met up with the girls on the way down again.

Pat and Lexi

Even the dogs enjoyed the walk.

The tour in itself was quite nice but the fact that everything in town was closed was a bit of an anti climax to the trip.  This little town has wonderful reviews and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to kill a couple hours.  The road to the murals is a dirt mountain road with some rocks so I would say to take the equivalent of a Jeep.  You don't need 4x4 if you turn around at the murals, but if you go farther you should have it.  We enjoyed the trip a lot.  On the way out of town I saw this old Motor Home.  All I know is that it is a Dodge.  Does anyone know anything more about it?

We headed for home and had a nice steak supper.  After supper we saw the most beautiful moon coming up over the hills.

Tonight we are on a little piece of unofficial BLM land near Kingman AZ at 35.20496, -114.0958 and this is the view from our window.