Phoenix Risen - Another Great Trip to the Arid Zone

Is this a state flag or what?

I was back in Arizona again, visiting my good friend Michelle and exploring more of the fast-growing and increasingly cool (and I don't mean air-conditioning - that's a given) area around Phoenix. There's a lot to the place, and this is the high season (roughly October to June). The biggest revelation to me was the prevalence of agriculture in what first appeared to be scrub and cacti.

White Tank Mtn. petroglyph uploaded by Roger inkart/Wikipedia Commons

Phoenix, named for a bird who's the symbol of rebirth, is the most reinvented and reawakened area in Arizona. Nomadic paleo-Indians roamed the Salt River Valley about 9,000 years ago, following their primary prey, mammoths. Around 1,000 BC, introduction of maize by groups coming north from Mexico brought farming and a more settled way of life. The Hohokam – a cultural group from northern Mexico -  first settled the area around 1 AD, establishing roughly 135 miles (217 km) of irrigation canals (which would later become  the basis for modern canals and aquaduct projects). The water these canals transported enabled the Hohokam culture to thrive throughout the Phoenix Basin, and by 1300 AD, the Hohokam were the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest, and the most populous native community north of Mexico City. The Phoenix aquaduct system was the largest single body of land irrigated in prehistoric times in North or South America, perhaps the world. Hohokam mounds (sometimes referred to as ballcourts) around which cities grew, can be viewed in Greater Phoenix (Pueblo Grande), Mesa (Mesa Grande), Florence (Casa Grande Ruin) and elsewhere. A Hohokam-era petroglyph in the White Tank Mountain Regional Park west of Phoenix may have been a record of a 1006 AD supernova visible in the area.

Our bad boy, Jack Swilling

The Hokokam civilization disappeared from the area by 1450 – drought and intermittent flooding are cited as possible reasons. By the time the first Europeans arrived at the beginning of the 16th century, the two main groups of natives who inhabited the area were the O'odham (Pima) and Sobaipuri tribes, who were reluctant to share the area with American invaders. The first non-native settlement in the area was military: in 1865, the US Army established a fort nearby to quell the “uprisings,” and built a hay camp on the south side of the Salt River in 1866 to supply their horses.
After the Civil War, Confederate veteran Jack Swilling saw the potential in the area and, enlisting the labor and investment of nearby miners, began developing an agricultural venture based on the Hohokam canals.

Swilling suggested naming the town "Stonewall,” after Stonewall Jackson; another proposed name was Salina, which had been an early name for the Salt River. However, in light of the continual rebirth of the area from the Hohokam civilization onward, the name Phoenix stuck. Prescient as he was, Jack Swilling was never able to overcome his addiction to drugs, liquor, and highway robbery, and died in jail while awaiting trial.
Phoenix was incorporated in 1881, and has continued to be an agricultural area that depends on large-scale irrigation projects. Arizona's economy has been traditionally based on the "Five C's": cotton, citrus, cattle, climate (thanks, snowbirds!), and copper.  More about the place (and cotton and climate) to come....

Cactus in the White Tank Mountains By John Menard, Phoenix, USA

Richmond—a Dazzling Discovery for History

View from Ford Point

I’m always willing to explore a destination, even one with as unsavory a reputation as Richmond, California. The place has been represented as the poster child for deteriorating neighborhoods, crime—sort of the worst of Oakland, air-lifted and plunked down a little farther north. Things are definitely changing.

The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and Richmond Main Street Initiative are fighting back, and they mean business. There’s nothing like money to revitalize an area, but it means nothing if no one cares. I met more dedicated, sincere, hopeful people in the two days I spent in Richmond than I’ve seen in a long time. Most of the development is taking place in the northwest end of the city, near the artsy enclave of historic Point Richmond (a former railroad town developed in the 1890s), and around nearby Ford Point and Marina Bay.

Miller/Knox Park, Point Richmond

Point Richmond has been a cool spot for decades, and home prices there reflect it. Summer brings a compact farmer’s market with live music, and three of my favorite hang-outs, Hotel Mac (happy hour and food), the Up & Under (great pub food), and the Baltic (fun bar and great music) are open year round.

Photo courtesy of SS Red Oak Victory

The real prize in the area for historians, cyclists and strollers is the Ferry Point Loop & Shipyard 3 Trail in Point Richmond (about 5 miles) that passes the Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline, the S.S. Red Oak Victory (a WWII ship open for tours—and movies!--built in the shipyard), and the Marina Bay Trail near Ford Point (roughly 4.5 miles), that circles Marina Bay, following the coastline to the Central Ave. trailhead; the trail is marked by a WWII National Historical Park including Rosie the Riveter Museum (displays and excellent historical documentaries). The trails are connected by a series of city streets: Canal Boulevard, W. Cutting Blvd., Hoffman Blvd and Harbour Way South (about 2.5 miles). I didn’t think much about WWII—it seemed the distant past, though I knew my father served on a railroad battalion in France. The Rosie Museum’s films and exhibits helped that part of my history come to life. And a good cup of strong coffee from nearby assemble restaurant, sipped while watching sailboats on the bay made for a lovely day.

Mom, my brother, dad in uniform

Of course, it helps if your introduction to the city is a reception catered by assemble, with an evening’s worth of fine wines poured by the Rhone Rangers, held in the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. The Rhone Rangers are a national affiliate group who grow and produce wines from grapes originally grown in the Rhone region of France. The work of two excellent vintners I sampled have tasting rooms in unusual places: Rosenblum Cellars in Alameda, and Bonny Doon in the scenic little enclave of Davenport, on Rte. 1 north of Santa Cruz. The East Bay Center, led by artistic director Jordan Simmons with dozens of classes in music, acting and other disciplines, would make a believer out of anyone—it’s that inspirational.

Photo courtesy of East Bay Center for the Performing Arts

NEXT: RICHMOND 2: A SECRET ROAD AND THE COOLEST B&B--IN A LIGHTHOUSE! ON AN ISLAND! FOGHORN INCLUDED...