It was 2:30 in the morning on Independence Day, when two of my friends, Kaleb (AKA, Squatch) and Ryan, arrived at my door. We had a planned adventure that day based on a tip I had received. With three hours until sunrise, we hit the road. Our destination: a rock quarry hiding something more than … Read more ..read more

???? ??, ???? You’re aboard the steamship, Columbia, en route to Portland. San Francisco, wherefrom you departed the day before, now seems a distant memory. It’s dark, almost pitch black, and thick fog blankets the sea. An otherwise cold night is made bearable under the gleam of a state-of-the-art lighting apparatus, the first of its … Read more "The Lonely Lighthouse of Punta Gorda ..read more

This panel, tucked under the roof of a small overhang (maybe 15 feet up) is found overlooking a prominent river in Central Arizona. Many ancient sites are found in the area, but this is credited to the Apaches, suggesting a more recent date than other rock art; probably up to 500 years. Decades ago (as … Read more "Apache Lunar Calendar ..read more

Roughly centered 30 miles down the I-40 between Flagstaff and Winslow, taking a dedicated exit marked “Two Guns,” will take you to a forgotten place, the likes of which modern civilization had only begun to tame as the grip of the Wild West began to loosen. This place, once a bustling must-stop off the Mother … Read more ..read more

The famous American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” For another man of Emerson’s time, James Addison Reavis, who would become Arizona’s most … Read more "Arizona’s Most Prolific Con Man ..read more

The American Southwest is replete with the tales and mysteries of an ancient people, as told through their enigmatic rock-writing, also known as, the petroglyph. From these ancient peoples, one culture differentiates itself from its prehistoric brethren in a number of ways; one of these being their motifs, such as the somewhat unsettling, “pipette.” Pipettes, … Read more "The Hohokam Pipette and Possible Mesoamerican Connection ..read more

Imagine with me for a moment, you’re a miner, in the 1920s. Your employer has commissioned you and your fellow workers to dig extensive tunnels beneath the rocky ground of the Verde Valley. Somewhere, in the midst of your work, as you trace through the rich layers of salt, you find it—a body! This body, … Read more "The Verde Salt Mine and The Importance of Salt Through History ..read more

To the Prehistoric (and perhaps some modern) Yavapai, many of the ancient sites of the Verde Valley, particularly in Sedona, were the dwelling places of the Legendary Kakaka, that is, ‘Little Indians.’ These Little Indians, they believed, were the originators of their songs and dances, having taught them everything. It was said they had the … Read more "The Legendary Kakaka of the Yavapai ..read more

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Cibecue Creek, a tributary to the Salt River, in the White Mountains of Eastern Arizona, from which flows the beautiful Cibecue Falls. Did you know, however, these tranquil waters were host to a bloody massacre in the latter 1800s? In the years leading to this night, following … Read more "The Cibecue Creek Mutiny and Massacre ..read more

Last summer a friend and I embarked on a nine day journey up the West Coast. We had dozens of planned stops, but we spent our first couple days just outside Los Angeles. It was this day last year, among the multitude of stops, we visited one place truly unique from all the others; that … Read more "Abandoned Los Angeles Zoo ..read more