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 PEOPLE NOW: Dr. John Arnold

Believe It or Not, dear readers, sometimes it takes a newspaper report from halfway around the world - this one from Nigeria published yesterday to focus on an individual in Patagonia whose achievements in philanthropy and micro-business have touched the lives of millions around the world.
Like Dr. Delmar Mock, the subject of an earlier posting, John goes largely unnoticed or unrecognized here most of the time although the reach of his dedication has extended around the world.
You can view more details by going to http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/living/2009/aug/22/living-22-08-2009-004.htm
On weekends here in Patagonia, John opens Grayce’s Gift & Candle Shop, founded by his mother Grayce Bogden Arnold in 1975, as well as the Dia de Los Muertos Museum, which the Smithsonian Institute has recognized as the “first of its kind in North America.”

They are both located on the north side of Naugle Avenue or Route 82 at the eastern end of town
http://www.patagoniaaz.com/shop_Grayces.html

Among some of John's accomplishments cited in the article mentioned above, are 40 years of collaboration with Dr. John Arnold, the PPEP Board of Directors and dedicated staff carrying out the dreams to “improve the quality of life” of the farm workers and rural poor who visited the bus in those formative years. His work has been cited as national models 10 times in U.S Congressional Records, including citations by U.S Congressmen Udall, Kolbe, Grijalva, Gifford and Senators Deconcini, McCain, Kyl and Enzi of Wyoming. Also, his programmes have been honoured twice at the White House, among numerous other nationally and internationally recognitions.
We salute John Arnold both for his lifetime work in philanthropy in the United States and Mexico, and creating a legacy of achievement for future generations. Bravo!

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/living/2009/aug/22/living-22-08-2009-004.htm

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.

OPINION PIECE from another source

Dear Readers,
We urge you to pay attention to this pending budget "shortfall" that would eliminate funding for one of the keystone resources and repositories of Arizona History.
"Mother Mag" gives the facts and background along with a call for action

Daily Kos: What History Will Arizona Celebrate in 2012?

Patagonia Places: Historic Resources

PLACES: most residents either walk or drive by these locations all the time - hidden to some, but clearly marked on this 1994 Survey ... see a post by scrolling downfor some information about another location in Patagonia on the National Register of Historic Places
Please note that these places tend to cluster on a very walkable path in and around the Patagonia Town Park and can serve to anchor a self-guided walking tour through history at the center of town.
Plans are currently being developed by The Municipal Property Association, the beneficiary organization for this year's Patagonia Fall Festival, for looking at the health of the trees in the greenway in the heart of town and ways to regenerate its use and enjoyment by all.

Locations marked with black squares are individually eligible or a potentially contributing property in the mapping of the Town of Patagonia done by Don W. Ryden AIA/Architects Inc.

You might or might not be surprised that there are only two properties here listed in The National Register of Historic Places:

• Cady Hall/Patagonia Public Library @ 342 Duquesne Avenue
  
• The James Finley House ID Number 74000462

Other Potential Contributor Historic Properties include:
Richardson Park 4th Avenue & McKeown - no information there about the town founder
Patagonia Jail
McKeown & Third Avenue
Duquesne & Third Avenue
Lopez Pool Hall on Duquesne
Grammar School on the Heill
SW Corner of Lenon & 2nd Avenue

339, 355, 361, 371, 387, 423, 451, 455 McKeown Avenue
366, 292, 275 Duquesne Avenue
273 McKeown
321,381, 289, 430, 405, 414, 430, 433, 433 Duquesne
372, 357, 370, 406, 426 Santa Rita
469, 4, 542 Harshaw
191 Third Avenue
327, 355, 416, 408-410 Sonoita
384, 364, 335, 320,284, 280, 278, 274, 132 Naugle Avenue
195, 170, 261m 265 Third Avenue
345, 306 Pennsylvania Avenue

378, 330, 326, 322, 318, 354 Sonoita Avenue

PATAGONIA PLACES:The James Finley House on Harshaw Road

PLACES
National Register of Historic Places
Certification Date: 11/19/1974
ID Number: 74000462
Date: 1879
7.2 miles SW of Patagonia in Coronado National Forest.
Privately Owned

Built during the area's silver mining boom near Hermosa Mining Company Stamp Mill which was largest in Arizona Territory at time of construction

First Impressions #2: Patagonia Public Restrooms

When your blogger lived in New York City there was a segment on one of the local television stations called "SHAME ON YOU! "

With apologies ahead of time for the grossness of these images taken yesterday, April 27, 2009, this is what both residents - individuals and families - who use the town public park and visitors find approaching and going into the public restrooms prominently located on Fourth Avenue between McKeown and Naugle Avenues . . . see for yourself

Some weeks ago, a call was made from The Visitor Information Center following the complaint of a tourist to the town offices complaining about the dirty and rank conditions in the public restrooms . . . there was no assurance or response that these reported conditions would be looked into, so here for you, dear readers, to look at are what townpeople and visitors see in Patagonia's public restrooms.

Take a look! . . . sorry for not keeping this "hidden"

DIGGING INTO HISTORY: Uncovering Oldways Farming

Sometimes is what's you see all around you - the small wonders of Patagonia that might go un-noticed or "hidden" or neglected in the big landscape of The Mountain Empire - and sometimes it's what groups of people are digging into once again: to expose and reveal early cultures living on the land along the water-giving lifeways of The Santa Cruz River and its tributary streams that once flowed on the conflux surfaces here: places like Harshaw Creek along the gateway trails of what are now vacant "Ghost Towns" and places like The Sonoita Valley and Sonoita Creek that winds its way through history starting about eight miles northeast of Patagonia, weaving and carving its way in the ground through streets and through neighborhoods in town, past where the Wastewater Treatment Plant is located now (where people swam on Blue Heaven before it became polluted), on through what is now a riparian habitat restoration area under the land stewardship preserve of The Nature Conservancy, on through what is now The Circle Z Ranch, on to the man-made Lake Patagonia, and on for some twenty-plus miles from there into the 9,000-acre Sonoita Creek Preserve Natural Area.
The video embedded here shows an archeological dig along the banks of the northern reach of The Santa Cruz River in Tucson in the Rio Nuevo area uncovering and exposing evidence in the timeline of history of indigenous or "native" people cultivating foodcrops and living on the land centuries before the Christian and western world's concept of time began on the Georgian Calendar: 1,250 B.C. (before Christ) . . . it's now three thousand years later.
From the many stories told to me, the same evidence of much earlier cultures following the life-giving waterways of the Santa Cruz River in the headwaters rising in The San Rafael Valley and its tributaries like the Sonoita Creek, should be found here to honor and celebrate those that came before - before the lands became "divided" by the Spanish Conquest back in the 15th and 16th Centuries.
We've come a long way down the centuries- all of us who migrated here - but let us "not forget" those forebears who were on this continent before . . . the brave people who dedicated their lives to living on these lands . . . We just need to dig deeper.
Factoid: Santa Cruz County is the only county in Arizona that does not have an "officially recognized" site dedicated to native people.
To-go-to Information:
www.desert.com
www.azpm.org
www.cdarc.org

First Impressions: Entering Patagonia

In this posting you'll see two "drive-by" Welcome signs at either end of town, and a grouping of other signage after the overpass over Sonoita Creek just before Taylor Avenue on Route 82. Please take a look at the images taken two days ago, just in case they have not come to your attention recently.

The two identical 3 x 5 ft. yellow signs say the same things:
Welcome to Patagonia (that's real nice)
Step Back, Relax, Stay Awhile (that's nice too, but step back into what?]
Highlight one annual event the second weekend in October
Give credit to the Patagonia Area Business Association and a website address
. . . and nothing more, so pull over to the side of the road, stop, and whip out your laptop, IPhone or PDA to get information you can use? Come here once a year?

Surely we can do better.

Keep in mind that these two Welcome signs are what people - both residents and visitors alike - see entering town from the West and the East on a section of State Route 82 called the Scenic Patagonia-Sonoita Highway. If you're not using alternative means of transportation or traveling on backroads and trails, it's the only way into Patagonia from the neighboring towns of Nogales some twenty miles to the south and west, and and twelve miles north and east to Sonoita-Elgin.
Highway signs at town/city lines usually state Entering [Name of Town], Founded/Incorporated [The Year], Population, and Elevation, advise motorists to reduce speed ahead, and have directional signs to assist travelers for finding their way to destinations and points-of-interest, or to services available in the community [public telephone, visitor information, community services, police, or public restrooms for example].

The image of the group of signs shows a mish-mash of information (one of which is the Museum of The Dead recognized by The Smithsonian Institution] and points the way to only two of the five "Ghost Towns" found down the road to the left (?) - no wayfinding information about the town offices or traffic court, post office, fire department, the family health center, the marshal's office, a public telephone or public restrooms, the public library, food and shopping, gas station, visitor information, lodging, the Coronado National Forest, The Arizona Trail, The Tree of Life, The Nature Conservancy Sonoita Creek Preserve, or any other attractions in town.

. . . it's no wonder to me that people say "We're just passing through! . . . that's one of the consequences of calling Patagonia a hidden paradise.
When they do take the time to stop, they want to TO KNOW what there is to see, where to go, what to do, where to eat, where to stay, where to shop, where to relax or where to recreate or where to rejuvenate, where to walk, where to hike, where to bike, where to watch birds, where to go rock-hounding, where to camp, where to ride horses, how to get to somewhere in the area, how to find a guide for birding or hunting or historic destinations, or they simply say, "Tell me about Patagonia".

That's the reasoning behind our working on The Patagonia Heritage Tile Mural Project 2009 . . . those wishing to keep Patagonia "a hidden paradise" have just lost their way: Time to take off the blindfolds and open your eyes to the small wonders of Patagonia in the big landscape of The Mountain Empire

Places/People/Progress: RIDE THE WEST - HORSE PACK TRIP ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA

Let's put those three categories in perspective: the places have been here for centuries, people live on the land and progress is made respecting all three for creating a future legacy.
Some more details will be added later, but you might like to see that when you look at the website http://www.ridethewest.com/index.html,
the same person featured in an earlier posting here on a horse called "Howdy" is one of the partners offering packtrips into the big landscapes here.
For those who might get "saddle shy" overnight accommodations are affiliated with two distinct properties, The Esplendor Resort in Rio Rico www.esplendor_resort.com and Hacienda Corona de Guevavi www.haciendacorona.com in Nogales.
Rides are scheduled on Ride The West's event calendar on their website.
Happy Trails



RIDE THE WEST - HORSE PACK TRIP ADVENTURES IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA

Places, People & Progress: Challenge to Uncovering History

"As Time Goes By . . ."
Look closely, dear readers, at this recent digital image April 2009 taken from the Smelter Alley side of this property located at the intersection of McKeown & 3rd Avenues. WHAT do you see?

Really now, WHAT DO YOU SEE?

This is what residents of Patagonia look at either walking or driving by frequently year-in and year-out --and at the same time what visitors see when they come here: Junk? Overgrown backyard?

What's in there?

These are questions asked to me by visitors when I walked them around the streets of Patagonia.

Some remarked after coming here for many years that certain parts of the town were badly-neglected and had fallen into disrepair and what a sad-and-sorry reflection of the community it was to have this "just happen" . . .

Whose watch did it happen on? . . . or was no one watching at all? Or not caring? Or not, What?

Happily, that's not the case:
Last year some individuals - Ted Piper and Phil Ostrum among them -decided to do something.
They formed Patagonia Green Partnership.
Today you can see the work-in-progress at the same place that used to be at various times in Patagonia's history The Corbett Lumber Company and The Little Depot.
Soon to have an opening is a new business for the new lifeways here: Pilates of Patagonia . . . now that's what I call progress