Shafted Again

Did anybody catch that made for TV movie, "The Andromeda Strain" on the Biography Channel over the Memorial Day week-end? They're still airing it, in case you didn't see it. I didn't watch the whole thing. But I was watching the commercials.

On May 1st, at the Superior Town Council meeting, the businessman who owns the bar/restaurant that is never open appeared before the council and asked permission for a commercial for Ford be filmed in town. It would take part of Friday afternoon and most of the day on Saturday and involve closing portions of Main Street for filming. In his words, this Ford commercial would be aired during the release of the remake of "The Andromeda Strain" and would look something like this: A couple would be traveling on a long journey and come through our town, taking a careful look at Main Street and be so intrigued with it, then go about their business and wind up at a big casino (presumably Vegas) but remember our town longingly with the end result being Superior's Main Street superimposed with the Manhattan skyline in the background. The gist of the commercial would be that the journey is more fun than the destination. (Sounds like Harley Davidson's advertising, huh?)

So the Mayor and the Town Council gave their approval and the Ford people gave the council a measly $750. for the recreation fund. (Let me tell you, Superior, the Going Rate for commercials up here in Marin County is WAY more than $750! You could have held out for more!)

Anyway, I wanted to watch the movie to see how they portrayed our town. Goodness knows, Superior has been having some Hard Times lately getting the ball rolling economically and maybe this would add some impetus to it. HARDLY! The ad I saw showed an attractive young couple drive into Main Street and park and get out. The montage quickly showed shot after shot of our decaying downtown buildings, notably the ones owned by the professor in Tempe who buys up all the Main Street business buildings and then waits and lets them rot away... (the why? hasn't been made clear to me yet). The girl looks to the guy, pulling her jacket closer around her (obviously the commercial made it look like it was real cold that day, instead of the ninety five degrees it really was when they filmed) and she whines, "This is spooky! Let's get outa here!" And they jump in the pretty Ford Focus and speed out of town and arrive breathlessly seconds later at a rockin' rollin' casino with lots of neon and scantily dressed young people falling out of it.

I was astounded and upset over it! Once again, Big Business had set about to show our pretty little town in a bad light. Will they never stop? What is about the purity and simplicity of Superior that we all love that makes business and society yank it down and mess it up? I think next time a commercial is made in Superior, the Council and the Mayor better be asking some more detailed questions and ask to see a storyboard before agreeing to what one man's version of the commercial will be. ... And ask for more than $750, why don't you? If the movie people are that hot to use our town, the least we could do is ask for $1,500!

A Pretty Corpse

Once again, I'm going to blog on the proposed Resolution Copper Mine that wants to get started in Superior. Every time I write about it, I get read by folks in Virginia and Washington DC and sometimes in faraway countries around the world. I'm not doing this to gain readership. I'm doing it because something doesn't smell right. And it seems there's very few people that really know what is going on.

This week, some friends back in California sent me an issue of the 'High Country News'. The February 18 issue. It had a six page article on the perplexing problem of whether or not Superior, Arizona should accept the proposed mine Resolution Copper has for it. The editor and writer spoke to economists and townsfolk and miners and Indians and the copper company itself. And their conclusions? The copper mine probably isn't the best thing that could happen to Superior. Because of the short intensity of the high tech mining that is done these days, the area won't be able to sustain the Boom it needs and within a very short time, will be back to hard scrabble times. The Big Money the copper mine is promising Arizona and the US in return for the Land Swap (still before the Senate) won't be enough to sustain the local economy and the few jobs that will be available for the locals during the short term, aren't going to be there for long. So any big growth for Superior won't be sustainable.

Then the news gets worse: IF the Land Swap bill goes forward, Senator McCain made some environmental provisions for the British owned Resolution Copper (partly owned by Rio Tinto, a global mining company). The part I had heard about that gave me chills was that NOTHING would befall the copper company if worse came to worse and the Apache Leap mountain imploded under the block caving methods they mean to do at more than seven thousand feet deep under the mountain. That part just leaves me numb! But now, there's more. Under the Land Swap bill, McCain would exempt Resolution Copper from following the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). There would be no public oversight on copper smeltering or how much groundwater and Central Arizona Project water would be used. The company has said they would pump the billions of gallons from the old Magma Mine mineshaft down to the valley in Pinal County where it will be purified from other water, but again, with no NEPA public oversight, nobody will know how much good fresh water is being diverted.

I don't understand why the citizens of the US are expected to conduct their business in an orderly manner and follow all the environmental rules and regulations set down by the Feds and the State, but that some big global company can get away with not following the same rules. NO FAIR!

I think, and again, this is my opinion, but I think this Land Swap bill needs to be folded up and put away in somebody's desk. Resolution Copper will just fade away and go down to Indonesia or Mongolia to reap (rape?) what it can from those countries coffers of copper. Superior doesn't need it. It has had its mining. It still has its looks. It's going to be getting better from the good folks who are willing to work to change it for the better. But it's not going to be from another "Copper Boom".

I guess we need to tell Senator McCain and the other senators that might be inclined to vote for the Land Swap Bill that you can dress a corpse up in pretty clothes and make her look good, but... she's still a corpse. Superior doesn't need this mine. There's better days ahead of her than that road.

The Back of Beyond

We journeyed into nowhere...desolation...a landscape of natural delights and spiraling jagged mountains and hillsides of slippery stone today. No place we traveled was the same on one side of the mountain as it was on the other. There were white rocks in one gully; ruby red rocks glistening from a cliffside on the next turn; full sandstone yellowy formations in a further valley; slope after slope of regimented saguaro forests; and one burbling stream after another to ford with the intrepid Cruiser. We had ourselves "A Day!"

Glo and Al came up from Casa Grande for this foray into the desert outback and Chuy accompanied us, of course. We told Bill to lead us where he wanted to go, we were glad to follow. Bill thought the back side of Picket Post would be a good place to try. He was thinking of a road he'd seen disappear in that direction but never got to follow, so that's where we headed It turned out to the Best of the Best! (so far, at least!) We stopped first at some lichen rocks erupting from the earth into big crumbling sections. They looked like big loaves of bread that hadn't been kneaded well and turned into crumbs when taken out of the pan. They were sturdier than just crumbs, however, and allowed themselves to be climbed and Bill got all the way to the top of the highest peak and took some wide angle shots of the mountains looking back toward Superior. We picked up chunks of rose quartz that was hiding under the brown crusty outside of the rocks (again, like good white bread hiding under an overbacked crust... was I hungry or what?), and we ended up picking up a surprisingly good assortment of rocks. But then Bill could see the road went farther west, so we piled into the Cruiser and continued on.

We traveled up one mountain and skittered and chattered our way down the other side, then ford streams and lumph over boulders and rocks in the streambed. Then we'd start winding our way up the next mountain. On one of those ascents, we moved aside for four ATV's to come past. We asked the leader about the road they'd taken and he said at the next fork, they'd gone left and run out of road. He thought the way to the right was clear. Then he looked longingly at Bill's Cruiser. "I've got one just like yours," he grinned abashed. "But my wife won't let me take it off road." Bill smiled back sympathetically, "That's what they're made for."

At the top of the next mountain, we stopped to take more pictures. We could have been perched on top of the world, we had the whole Superstition Wilderness scattered out before us. You could even see the Weaver's Needle twenty or thirty miles away standing sentinel. As we gathered back into the car, Bill's phone rang. It was startling to get a phone call in the so-called "middle of nowhere". It was our friend, Pam, calling from Dillon Beach. We started jabbering away to her, trying to tell her how gorgeous the view was right from there. And it was equally hard to try and remember that it's still winter and raining in Dillon Beach when it was sunny (though chilly, yes it was!) in Arizona. I couldn't help but feel the wee bit apologetic for having things be so lovely for us.

So that's why I wanted to send this picture today and tell you folks, whereever you are!, that it's just Ducky here in Arizona. And we're having a really lovely time even if we miss you folks at home. And if I haven't met you yet, then you'd better book yourselves a trip to Arizona, for this is just the best place I've had fun in for a coon's age! Look at what you're missing!

The Subject is Dogs

This is my new town. It's new to me even though it's officially a hundred and thirty years old. So it's my new town. I shot this picture of it today from way off west in the desert looking east toward the town. That's Picket Post Mountain to your right and Apache Leap way back in the rear and if you squint real hard you can see the white roofs of the town just in front of Apache Leap.



The reason for taking this picture that far away is because tonight I'm going to expose a nasty little secret of this new town of mine. And it's not especially a nice thing to tell folks about so that's why I'm showing the town at a distance, not close up and in love like I have been showing. Our town has an animal control officer. He's hired by the town apparently and doesn't have anything to do with the county. He does things his way. Which is, round up all the loose cats and dogs that bother the town. And it's a fact: this little town has way more barky dogs than it needs. I'm quite sure it has more than its share of cats too. But when this guy 'rounds up' the critters, according to the stories I've heard, he doesn't bother to take them to any shelter to be cared for, he disposes of them promptly. (That's right: you do the math.)

Now I got this information from a group of dedicated, horrified ladies who are working to get a proper animal shelter started here in town. Where dogs and cats can be spayed or neutered and then suitable families can be found for them. A much more humane solution than a quick dispatching of them. They are working their collective buns off to round up as many strays as they can and get them cared for with help from far more humane shelters 'down in the Valley'. They had their hands full last week when it rained hard all day and the animal control officer collected seventeen animals and even he found it too difficult to "off" them all so he called the ladies up and deposited all seventeen with them. (Yes, THOSE were cared for, carted off down to the Valley and hopefully homes can be found for them.)

But I had my own little scare today after we returned home from shooting this picture. Our beloved puppy, Chuy, (I must remember to include his picture on this blog soon, being's he's the Cutest Puppy In The World currently) was put into his outside pen under the deck to get used to being shut up in a pen when Mom and Dad aren't around. We hope to start Harley riding soon and Chuy hasn't learned to ride on the bike yet. So we found a nice shady spot in the dirt and set his pen enclosure up there. Bill was afraid Chuy might dig out from under it but I assured him Chuy would be much happier in the dirt rather than on the cement slab behind the house. Bill went about his chores. I starting cutting out fabric on the sunroom floor. Occasionally, we'd hear Chuy bark. But finally, after about an hour there was silence, so I figured he was sleeping.

Wrong. Chuy dug under his enclosure and came zipping up the back steps. Bill went out the back door and found the eager puppy waiting at the door for us. We let him in, I snatched him up and covered him with kisses. What a good puppy not to have run away! For even with his dog tags and micro-chip, if the Evil Dog Catcher had caught my puppy, would he have been dispatched summarily? Whew!

So we breathed some big sighs of relief and realized it was our Lucky Day after all. And we've moved Chuy's pen out from under the deck and it's now sitting on hard cold cement. But the puppy won't be digging out no more! As far as the Evil Dog Catcher and this town's Sinister Secret, well, I'll keep you posted. I know there'll be more to come!

Superior Streets

The streets of this town are so different from anything I've seen in California, I just have to blog about them. Maybe if I looked real hard in some dim corner of California, I might find something to compare them with, but coming from the over grown jungles of Sonoma and Marin Counties, Superior streets are unique.

First off, there is very little business. I don't really know when the 'season' would get going down here. Maybe it happened in December. It's usually just as quiet in July and August because of the heat. Maybe it just doesn't happen down here. But the streets are quiet. Main Street is definitely The Best. It's wide and two laned. You can park diagonally on it, like some of those wide open streets in Australia and still have room for ten wheelers to pass, occasionally there is one, a ten wheeler,I mean. There are nice sidewalks to walk on. The City Council has seen fit to provide lots of wide benches to sit on and while away the time with one's neighbors. There's even some beautiful planter boxes with cactus and bougainvillea on two or three of the downtown blocks. Main Street runs for a quarter mile or more, all under the watchful gaze of the mountain where the Silver King mine was located. It's beautiful. It's like stepping back in time. And it's damned quiet!

I remarked to Bill on a walk up Main Street today that it would be odd to even meet another person. I guess that's why I get reminded of all the spirits and ghosts lurking in the many shuttered up buildings on Main Street. This town was bustling once. It was a municipal center. This town had LIFE! I refuse to think that Superior is dead. I prefer to think that it's just mulling over its possibilities for life in the Twenty-First Century and hasn't decided what it wants to be yet.

One of the best buildings in the whole town and the one that has consistently captured my imagination is the old 1908 Magma Hotel. It sits right on the corner of Magma and Main, the downright epicenter of town. It was built in two sections, brick buildings on either end of a showy adobe center and courtyard. In its day, it featured a bar (standard equipment for a Western hotel), restaurant and upstairs rooms. You can still see the rooms. Now, better than ever. For a month ago after some torrential rains, the adobe facade of the hotel sloughed off and crumbled into the street. It's a devastating loss for the town with the demise of the treasured building. The town is fussing with the owners over who is responsible for razing the building. The owners feel betrayed by the town council over having to contend with too much government bureaucracy in the first place before they could do the repairs that needed done ASAP. There's a lot of finger pointing and more controversy. (Boy, I have to admit this town does have some controversies going for it!) And before it's all said and done, more recriminations will be heard, I expect. But the greatest loss will be the town's and the townspeople for losing this treasured landmark. I hope it isn't entirely razed before some miracle intervenes and it could be rebuilt or reconstructed. The town won't be the same without the Magma Hotel.

Anyway, I'm new here. I'm just reporting on it. Watching what will happen. I think the town will pull through. The only thing it's got going for it currently is its Soap Box Derbies and the occasional movie filmed here. It's great for those two things, of course. But it could be so much more. If only.... Stay tuned. I know there will be more!

Superior, Arizona

There's a little town in central Arizona I want to introduce you to. It's an old copper mining town that came into existence a hundred and twenty five years ago. It started out as a silver mining town and in the 19-Teens changed over to copper for the next eighty years. Since the early 1990's the mine has been closed and the town has lagged behind.

It's not a big town. It's got a population of nearly four thousand and the majority of the people worked the mine before it closed. It's located sixty miles east of Phoenix and sits under the jutting, majestic peak of Apache Leap. The mountain is a red monolith with bulging pinnacles crowning its summit. It earned its name by General Hooker's men rounding up a hold out band of Apache warriors the Army had destined for an internment camp back east sometime in the 1880's. The Army figured they had them cornered once they'd crowded them onto the steep rocky pitches of the mountain's top. Rather than face the ignominy of incarceration, one by one the warriors leaped to their death from the massive rock.

Superior and the mine and Apache Leap have weathered the past and the present over these many years. You can't have one without the other. They make up the whole. And one wouldn't be the same without the other two.

So now the problem arises: There is a Land Swap before the House and the Senate for a British mining company to come into Superior and re-open the copper mine. It would bring the ailing little town new prosperity and assure the townspeople that their children wouldn't have to move away to make their way in the world. It would insure there was a vibrant livelihood in the town once again. It promises to get the boarded up storefronts on Main Street unboarded and thriving again. In short, it promises to bring Superior back to life after its long hiatus of mine closure and few jobs. But what the Land Swap would do is take away some of the Apache land that was promised by Eisenhower in 1955 to stay in natural lands and award it to the mine for land to be mined on. The method of mining the British company prefers is one called cave blocking, where they would dig down into the bowels of the earth by seven thousand feet to cut out big blocks of ore to bring to the top. The weight of the mountain above it would subsequently fall in on itself when enough of the ore had been removed. Impacting, is how the mine describes it. Imploding the mountain is how the Apaches and some retired miners look at it. There is no guarantee that the Apache Leap mountain would not suffer an impaction. Indeed, if that should happen, the little town of Superior that nestles at the mountain's feet could well be threatened too.

So now the friendly, hard working people are at an impasse. Some are convinced the mine would be the best thing for this ailing community with abject poverty and low paying jobs. Others are just as convinced that the mine could ultimately cause the demise of this sacred Apache land and change the landscape forever. Friends and neighbors are at odds with each other and old resentments are simmering. It's hard to go into any store or public gathering without the question of the copper mine getting trotted out and argued over.So what's the coincidence here? It's that for all of the arguments over whether the mine is a good thing or a bad thing for the town, there is one area that everybody is in agreement upon. And that is their heartfelt hope that they all want what is Best for the town. They all want Superior to survive and want the town to prosper. How that will happen is yet to be decided. But what I'm praying is that folks will recognize that they are all in agreement in wanting their little town to thrive, without changing the fact as to what Superior is.