HikeArizona.COM

After I failed twice to find it in person, Google showed me where the Klondyke Cemetery is hidden. As I suspected, it is now behind the ranch gates, apparently on private property. Photos of the notable tenants are posted on findagrave.com, but they're not very good. Has anyone had a closer look?

No cemetery, but when in the area 11/25, I picked up a flyer for the Klondyke Store, which is for sale for a mere $375,000.
Now if I could just win the lottery like the owner of Hannigan Meadow Lodge... :bdh:

The owner of the HannAgan Meadow Lodge that won the lottery does not own it any more, from what I have heard. They walked away from it broke, I heard. Like a lot of lottery winners, they did not know how to save any of it for their old age, I guess.

If I win the lottery I am not buying anything big and expensive. I am going to put it in the bank, and I am going to NEVER EVER EVER have to work again. I HATE working. Buying something, like a resort, that makes you have to work all the time is just asking for trouble. You will never find a general manager who won't rip you off, so forget being able to hire someone to run it for you. That is a pipe dream, finding that perfect manager. You will be stuck running the damned thing 24/7. And it probably loses money. So there goes your lottery money, down the drain. There is no freedom in owning a small business. You have to BE there all the time to take care of it. I would rather travel, and own absolutely nothing more than a truck and camp trailer. At least if you are working for wages you can say, "take this job and shove it" and walk away with no backward glance. The idea that small business is this great freedom-producing American dream is a bunch of BS, especially that type of small business that keeps you tied to one place, selling beer and gasoline. Ugh.

I walked off a job in Yuma two years ago. It was a great feeling!

Thread hijack by the second post.
It's nice to know hikers have ADD.

ADD? All Discussions Debated?

I have never been to Klondyke. It is on my list, though. I just saw several areas of AZ last weekend I had not seen before. The road from Superior through Kearny to Hayden/Winkelman. Aravaipa. Roosevelt Lake. That was great!

Moovyoaz wrote:I picked up a flyer for the Klondyke Store, which is for sale for a mere $375,000.

I don't see how that place could ever pay. In 2005 I just missed seeing it open.

azbackpackr wrote:The owner of the HannAgan Meadow Lodge that won the lottery does not own it any more, from what I have heard.

Was that this year, or a prior owner? I hope that place is generally busier than what I saw. They had more specials on the menu than customers the night I ate there.

I think it happened awhile back. I seem to recall the previous owners got it back. I could be wrong. Since I am living in Flag, I don't know who to ask right now, either.

So much for winning the lottery.

I met the Hannagan Meadow Lodge owner (Tom Waite?) in 2005, prior to hiking the KP Trail. He told me that he was a construction worker in Tucson before he won the lottery. He said he always wanted to own a forest lodge, so he quit his job and bought Hannagan. I remember he showed us a poster of a female wolf he said he saw every morning from his porch. At least he got to 'live the dream' for a little while iI guess.

So not to TOTALLY hijack the thread, the reason I thought of the Klondyke Store was it sure SEEMED like a cemetery, which could be a good business to buy.. since people are just dying to get there!

I'm still amazed that the Klondyke store was a going concern any time in the last 30 years. Somebody probably kept it going long after it made no financial sense.

If you ever spent time in the Wilcox area, you would have a better understanding of the mind set. Same for much of rural Arizona and New Mexico for that matter. It's a lifestyle not understood by you city folk. Kind of like living in a trailer park, or marrying your cousin! That's why Baxter Black lives in Benson.

Who the heck is Baxter Black? Some country singer? I like country living, but I have to draw the line at listening to that stuff.

I live in a trailer park. I own a house, in Eagar, but live in a trailer in Flag right now. It is the 5th trailer I have lived in, in Arizona.

I have lived in remote rural Arizona for a dozen years, (I just moved to the big city, Flagstaff, a month ago).

I do understand rural businesses. But we are talking about winning the lottery, and what some city slicker would waste their lottery money on.

Rural people usually eke by, by having a number of irons in the fire. They tend to have a lot of hands-on skills. In addition to owning the little gas station-convenience store, they may run a few cattle, or maybe a family member teaches school or works for the county. They may have a tow truck or a back hoe which they use to make money. They may board horses, drive a school bus, sell Mary Kay cosmetics, run for local office, grow and sell hay, buy and sell livestock, put their bull up for stud, raise Jack Russell terriers or run a beauty parlor out of their front room, have a vending business they set up at the county fair and other local events, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. If their family has been in the area a long time they probably own their house and property outright. How is some city slicker lottery winner going to understand this lifestyle?

A lottery winner would be better off figuring out an inexpensive lifestyle that can be maintained for a long time, and carefully budgeting for that, to avoid having to get back into the work force. For example, you can buy a modest house in Springerville for $50,000. You can easily live in Springerville for around $15,000 a year, if your house is paid for. This is more sustainable, in my view, and would give you a home base, just in case you might want to go to New Zealand or Kenya or Alaska once in awhile.

@azbackr
I agree with what you're saying; until recently, my family owned a dairy farm off McDowell, along the Aqua Fria. I've worked the the ag industry most of my life, and have walked the walk. Given the money, I sure wouldn't but something like that; heck, a dairy was enough of a money loser!

BTW, Baxter Black is a cowboy poet, humorist, author, and former large animal vet. He's been on NPR for years. Google him, he's an interesting fellow; just don't drink whiskey with him!

With all the free advertising the Klondyke Store is getting here on HAZ maybe it is or sometime will be worth a mere $375,000. ;) :whistle:

By the way I am a big Baxter Black fan as there is nothing more fun than cowboy poetry around a late night campfire.

Moovyoaz wrote:If you ever spent time in the Wilcox area, you would have a better understanding of the mind set.

I know what you mean. My grandfather was 99 years old when we finally got him out of the farmhouse. He had been driving without a license for five or six years because he knew his cataracts would prevent renewal. Nobody in the area would complain because they all grew up knowing him and the outsiders who tried to gentrify the nearby town in the 80's were long gone.

The store in Luna, New Mexico, which also included the US Post Office, was for sale some years back, for around the same number of bills. It was closed because no one bought it. I have not been by there in over a year, so I don't know if it is open again. Luna is just about as remote as Klondyke--perhaps more so, being further from an interstate.

The Stuart Books building in Springerville, which is a very large but very old and weird building, was for sale a couple of years ago for over half a mil. Everyone thought that was totally ridiculous. It never sold, of course, and now the bookstore space is a thrift store for the Round Valley Animal Rescue group.

My sister bought a defunct country store in Cedar Bluff, IA (something of a ghost town) and converted into a home with a couple upstairs apartments. She lived there for a few years before she got tired of driving to town for everything.

And don't forget the guy who bought the whole town of Bumblebee back in the 70's I think. That and the Cleator bar are big money makers.

The Rye bar is for sale because the owner passed away. When I think of the place, I remember the old picture hanging over the bar of the Sleeping Cowboy on a cloud, put out by A-1 beer back in the back 60''s. Good like A-1 beer Al McCoy used to say. But I digress...

Moovyoaz wrote:The Rye bar is for sale because the owner passed away.

I wondered what happened to that place.

Well, heck, back in the 70's...that doesn't count. You could buy a house in Jerome or Bisbee back in the 70's for a couple thousand dollars. No one saw the potential, except the hippies.

Back in the 70's I lived in Mission Beach and the rent was $75 a month! Back in the 70's a lot of things, such as campgrounds and national park backpacking, were free! Back in the 70's I went to Italy for 3 months for a school, and the total cost including airfare, room, board and tuition was $900. Back in the good old 70's...