Indians, Cowboys and Queens

The Amerind Museum in Dragoon is the creation of William Shirley Fulton of Connecticut.  Combining his wealth as a foundry owner with his passion for Native American artifacts, he created this museum as home to relics dating as far back as 12,500 BC and ranging along the Pacific coastal countries of North and South America.  He sponsored and participated in the digs that led to the discovery of artifacts used by Inuits, Hohokam, Apache, Dine (Navaho) and other tribes.  Rooms in the museum are filled with baskets, pottery, daily implements, woven blankets, etc. left by both the Native tribes and by the Spanish Conquistadors.  No photographs are allowed but their website www.amerind.org has many pictures of what we saw.

Our guide explained that the dry climate of the Southwest has allowed for the preservation of the many items of daily and ritual use found in caves and in digs.
He also talked about the development of techniques and skills as the tribes traded with each other and as they faced new challenges due to changes in the environment.

The Art Gallery doors came from a chapel in Michoacan, Mexico and were carved in 1665.  

Among its art collection are works by Bill Mooney whose contemporary Native American and wildlife paintings make him one of the top Western painters.  A 1900 painted Story Robe shares wall space with his modern work making an interesting contrast in styles.

Our lunch was at another Western movie location site.  The Triangle T Guest Ranch, near the museum, offers dude-ranch style accommodations, a restaurant and movie backdrops.  The guest ranch began in 1922.  It was acquired in 1927 by Metta Tutt who named it Triangle T.  Later it was purchased by John and Dorothy McLeod who got rich on South Carolina land and then lost their money.  He was able to keep the ranch going by using his connections with New York money-people and the Hollywood set that his wife knew from her quarter horse breeding.

Upon entering the restaurant we were face to face with a massive boulder acting as backdrop to the bar. 

 The room used to be the patio but after a fire burned the former restaurant, the new restaurant was built around the boulder. 

Above the bar is a sign “ychjcyfqftwwp.” 

This is a trick to entice diners to ask what it means and, to obtain the answer, to fork over money for the Wounded Warrior Project.  It worked and we all happily donated to learn the “code.”

The thirty-foot mural decorating one wall originally hung in the Hidden Valley Inn in Sabino Canyon.  One of the owners explained the painting and pointed out the various characters appearing in it.  Among the subjects in the mural are John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood and John McCloud. 

Kixx Brook, the country singer stayed here and Cosmo Magazine recently did a swimsuit shoot. 

Recently released documents revealed that after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Ambassador to the US was interned on the property. 

TV shows like The Lone Ranger and movies like 3:10 to Yuma were shot here. This was part of the set for the movie.

Rose Tree Museum

Guinness Book of World Records proclaimed the rose tree in Tombstone to be the World’s Largest back in the 1930s.  Well, it’s still growing and blooming with lovely delicate white blossoms. 

The tree was the backdrop for the Coronation of the Rose Queen. 

She was selected from a group of four young women from Tombstone High School.  We watched the coronation along with members of the Cameo Ladies, Vigilante Ladies and others dressed in the apparel of the 1880s.   

 Displays in the museum showcase pewter items, Royal Dalton pitchers, and this “gossip mask.”