PATAGONIA PEOPLE & PLACES: "Hummingbird Heaven"

In doing research for a posting on this Patagonia Heritage blog after finding out about Marion's passing on Sunday on a birdwatching forum, it came to my attention that very few, if any, local Patagonians had received the news of her death at that time.
The "local grapevine" - or how the news usually gets around town- had simply been co-opted in real time by the huge network of Marion's admirers from around the world on the internet.
Patagonia people and the places they create here oftentimes are appreciated and recognized more by wider national and international interest groups than local residents. The location of The Paton Hummingbird House now appears as a destination on the new Visitors' Guide for Patagonia-Mountain Empire for the first time in 2009 www.patagoniaaz.com . . . a somewhat overdue, but nonetheless welcome, addition to putting Patagonia "on the map" of birding adventure destinations from around the world.
There appear to be no data to record the number of visitors attracted to this location here annually, but from experience working in the local visitor information center, it is a prime attraction with tens of thousands of birdwatchers coming here.

More importantly - and this is vital to The Patagonia Heritage Mural Project 2009 in showcasing the legacy of what one person and one place here in Patagonia creates for future generations - What will now happen to this world-famous location?
For the time being the Hummer attraction continues the way it has been. "Business as usual" according to a telephone call to Robin Baxter who's keeping all the feeders filled.

(Photo Credit Wally Paton, from an article by National Wildlife Federation)

Back in 2004 in a National Geographic Magazine article, the writer had this to say about "Hummingbird Heaven" . . .

Patagonia is a tiny hamlet located in the Sonoita Valley in southeastern Arizona. A few blocks from the main street through town, on the edge of the The Nature Conservancy's Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve, lies a nondescript ranch house that is no less than one of the most famous bird-watching sites in the world.

This is the home of Marion Paton, but it is more than just a home. It is an open, living museum dedicated primarily to observing hummingbirds in Mrs. Paton's backyard.
Now, you don't need an appointment to visit Mrs. Paton's backyard. You don't even have to knock on her door to ask permission to go around the side of the house to the viewing area. Just walk in through the gate and past the blackboard inscribed with the recent bird species seen in the yard. You'll be met with a view of nine (count them, nine) hummingbird feeders lined up along the side of her house.
For the better part of two days in late March, I stood in the hot sun in Mrs. Paton's backyard, next to whichever feeder I thought gave me the best chance to get a great photograph of a broad-billed hummingbird, a black-chinned hummingbird, or the exquisitely exotic violet-crowned hummingbird. I was lucky on all three counts.
Throughout the day, Mrs. Paton fills up the feeders with sugar water, waters the lawn, and mingles with the visitors, which I figure must add up to well over a hundred per day. This totals well over 30,000 visitors per year. Imagine opening your home to this many people, asking in return for only a small donation to cover the cost of the sugar water. (There's a tin can attached to the fence for this.)
I would say that if anyone deserves the title of saint (at least, bird-watching saint), it is Mrs. Paton.

Hummingbird Heaven
Marion Paton's place is located in an area of southeastern Arizona that is also referred to as Hummingbird Heaven. Here, during the breeding season, you can observe (in addition to the violet-crowned hummingbird pictured on this page) the broad-billed, blue-throated, magnificent, and Lucifer hummingbirds—all of which are regional specialties that poke into this tiny area of the United States from their winter homes in Mexico and Central America.
You can also see more widely ranging North American hummingbird species such as the black-chinned, broad-tailed, rufous, calliope, Costa's, Allen's, and Anna's hummingbirds in this region. Indeed, virtually all of the North American hummingbird species except for the ruby-throated hummingbird can be seen in Hummingbird Heaven, depending on what time of the year you visit the area.

Just down the road from Paton's is the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. Here such rare bird species as the gray hawk, northern beardless-tyrannulet, rose-throated becard, thick-billed kingbird, and green kingfisher can be seen, along with about 300 other species.

Stroll along the stream and cut back across the floodplain to the visitor center. It's a beautiful hike!

PATAGONIA HERITAGE People & Places: Honoring "Country Doctor" Delmar Mock

Too often we forget outstanding individuals who have made their indelible mark on the culture and traditions of Patagonia - like Dr. Delmar Mock who found his Eureka! in southeastern Arizona.
Your blogger had the pleasure to meet him just last week around the occasion of both his and his wife's Cleo's 93rd Birthday observed without fanfare but radiating quiet devotion and loving warmth to each other at their home, much like their lives throughout the 37 years of community service with people here, covering 2,500 square miles and driving between 2 and 3 million miles.
At a time when the country is in the middle of "reforming" healthcare this beloved gentle man and his wife, of uncommon passion with a strong faith and indomitable spirit,
defined the role and the living legend of the disappearing country doctor.

Here's a direct quotation from the foreword to the book - that should be taken to heart today: "Life is a struggle, at best, and not everyone could fit into the demanding professional life-style of small-community health care as presented in the ensuing stories. Yet hundreds and thousands of small communities still exist where willing caregivers could still go to serve their fellow men rather than live their lives fulfilling selfish interests.
Our wish is that this story may be a stimulus to young professionals in the healing arts who may choose to join in the march to care for the grassroots medical needs of our country. [bold emphasis mine]. We need - and salute - medical specialists and their gifts. Yet we hope they will understand that small community practitioners are not second-rate caregivers. We grassroots caregivers often have to stand alone in making treatment choices, some of which may have a life-or-death impact on the patient."

ANOTHER QUOTATION FROM THE DOC:
"One of the needs of the world today is to reuse the stepping stones of the past to carry us into the future." Yeah . . . & Amen
The Doc is commemorated here with this marker in the park named after him for his 37 years of community service

A book published in 1999 and available at Mariposa Books tells that life story.
Fool's Gold: Chronicles of a Country Doctor The Story of Dr. Delmar Mock
by Carolyn Rathbun-Sutton

Patagonia: This Place Matters

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is running a Summer Photo Contest requesting entries for pictures.
It's a nation-wide call for individuals and groups to upload and send photos of locations in their communities of particular important that they choose to promote.
You can hit the following link to send emails to friends, to upload videos on YouTube, or to add to the area on Flickr
http://www.preservationnation.org/take-action/this-place-matters/
You can likewise have Patagonia photos from the family attic or dusty family albums or tucked away in drawers scanned in the local working group's workstation inside Mariposa Books and the Visitor Information Center, if you'd like to bring a place in Patagonia to the forefront or out of its hiding place - bring it back into its place in the progress of Patagonia.

Wayfinding & Landmark Snarfing

Image featured is an equipment van for the Adventure Cycling Association - a group with headquarters in Seattle, Washington - from an overnight stay here a couple of weeks ago in the public park area dedicated to Dr. Delmar Mock for his 37 years of service to the community on a plaque on a stone historic marker at the west entrance to town. They planned their stop here last November asking for a permit for overnight camping from the town clerk Randy Heiss at that time ...new lifeways making use of one Patagonia's many resources. They found their way here . . .
Readers might ask about our Patagonia Heritage Tile Mural Project funded by a grant from the Arizona Office of Tourism Rural Tourism Development Grant Program "So why do we need to work together to develop the opportunities for increasing visitations and tourism here in Patagonia?"
Who benefits directly and indirectly?
Can we afford not to plan for smart and intelligent growth?
Why do visitors want to come here?
Why do we live here? How did you or your family find their way here?
What legacy do we want to create for future generations?
Do we have a sense of pride in the places that are here?
...or is it a matter of "benign neglect"? or wanting to keep Patagonia "a hidden paradise"?

While hosting travelers wanting information who come into the Patagonia-Mountain Empire Visitor Information Center - they WANT TO KNOW locations and directions and find their way to our regional attractions and services available in the communities. Show and tell me what's great about Patagonia ...How do I get to the lake? Where do I find the birds? Where can I go hiking? Where can I stay? What's there to do? Where can I eat? Is there a bank? Where's the library? Where's "a hot zone" for internet access? Is there a notary public in town? How do I get to "The Ghost Towns"? Where can I camp? Where can I bring my horses? Where can I buy stamps/mail a letter?
They still ask about The Museum of The Horse, even though it moved out of town more 20 years ago!
What's surprising to me is that people who have lived as close as Tucson - about one hour away! - for 8, 10 or 20 years have never taken the time before to travel here [lack of regional exposure and marketing], while travelers from as far away as China,Russia, France, Spain, Germany, England, Bulgaria and South Africa do find their reasons to visit here!
The Heritage Tile Mural Project is a primary wayfinding source of information that showcases our community and region, points of interest and attraction, activities and natural resources, visitor services, and encourages landmark restoration and community development in the process.

The link below is to an organization called Historical Marker Database.
Go to it and check if you see anything at all in Patagonia ... -
http://www.hmdb.org/Results.asp?State=Arizona

Likewise --- and this is a somewhat of a surprise - there are major omissions in a map of milestones here in Arizona: go see for yourself
http://www.azpbs.org/arizonastories/milestones.php

People, Progress & Places in One Legacy Marker

 
To give you an idea of a research target for our Patagonia Heritage Tile Mural Project 2009 take a look at this historical marker for The Mowry Mine.
You'll note that the infamous Sylvester Mowry didn't appear on the scene here until 1859 although his name somehow got attached permanently to this mine that had been worked for centuries before by native labor and Mexicans. So-called "Anglos" wrote that history apparently and dominate our interpretation of what has come before. Mr. Mowry was a Confederate sympathizer during the American Civil War; he was imprisoned for being on the wrong side of that conflict.

The weather-beaten marker is mounted on a locally-quarried fragment of granite in the center of town at the intersection of Naugle & Third Avenue.

Certain facts in the progression of history are better represented than others, leaving gaps in a balanced legacy:

"Worked by NATIVE LABOR" ... We had "natives" here in Patagonia? Did we forget?

"under the direction of Jesuits" . . . Yes, it appears the Black-Robes did more than convert the natives to Christianity

"Later by Mexicans" . . . yes, but how about some more details? . . . and for how long before The Gadsden Purchase in 1853-54?

"Nearby Ghost Towns and Cemetery are reminders of frequent Indian raids" . . . You mean the mines went out of business due to attacks by Indians? HUH? and local residents couldn't defend their lives and properties against raids?
Reminders - for the purposes of accurate local history - should also include the Boom-to-Bust cycles of mining companies and external events outside Arizona.


Who's buried in the local cemetery who was killed by the Indians? Can that be verified? Where are the records and archives located?

And Patagonia was called "a sleepy town"???? . . . Somebody got that all wrong!
And, it appears just by the notations on this legacy marker, that it was never "a hidden paradise"...Not then and not now.

Please join the local working group for the Arizona Centennial Heritage Project - we've got a lot to do