Historic Empire Ranch Photoset • AZLumberjack • 2015-01-15 • HikeArizona.COM

Historic Empire Ranch, AZ

	2015-01-15
	15 by AZLumberjack

Historic Empire Ranch, AZ

Scenic Drive

Scenic Drive

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minermike

rwstorm

On Thursday, Mike (minermike) and I drove South to the Tucson area where we met up with Randy (rwstorm) and his friend Paul. This was not a hiking outing, but rather a couple of historic tours in the area. The first tour was a visit to the Historic Empire Ranch.The ranch is located approximately 50 miles south of Tucson in the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, situated in the Sonoran Desert and rolling grasslands. More detailed information on the ranch can be found here; http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/cultural/empire.html

As we drove into the homesite, the first impression is less than stellar because the buildings are in a state of improvement and some areas are locked. But what was open to tour was an interesting step back to a time long forgotten. The old home is a combination of Adobe Bricks and Wooden Planks and in its present form consists of 22 rooms. We leisurely walked from room to room inspecting the contents of each, kitchen, pantry, living room, library, etc. Some of the rooms were furnished with furniture, rugs and photos of the period.

There were only a couple of other visitors as we made our way through the old ranch house which dates back to the 1870's. The surrounding landscape presented rolling grassy hills with distant mountain ranges. The ranch must look great during autumn when all the Willows and Cottonwood trees are in full color.

Then it was off to our next historic location to see some hydraulic mining ruins.

Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Very little could be found in the deep grass lands.

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On every trip into the Superstitions, I find another Gold Mine. Today the mine was filled with Memories. I can not wait for the next trip.

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