14 - V BAR V RANCH AND JEROME, ARIZONA

It's another day and another attempt to get to V Bar V Ranch and see the petroglyphs we have heard so much about. 

 Once again the sky is dotted with hot air balloons. This one got fairly close.

So after another hour and a half drive north of Phoenix, this time we actually turned the right direction and found the correct location.

As we walked onto the property, there was an old abandoned fireplace/chimney. 

On the back side of the chimney was the brand, V BAR V in amongst vines climbing up the bricks.

There was a small Visitor Center and then a trail one-third of a mile back to where the petroglyphs are located.

We arrived there about the time it opened in the morning, so we followed the Ranger to the site. I was glad to see that the petroglyphs are behind a locked chain link fence for the sake of protection.


There are 1,032 individual drawings located here that have been identified so far and they make up the best preserved petroglyph site in the Verde Valley.


These images have been pecked, ground or scratched onto the walls over 800 years ago between AD 1150 and 1400.

This is a close-up of some of the drawings. You can decide what you think they mean. The green at the right is just moss that has grown on the rock and not part of the original drawings although it sometimes fills in the lines of the carvings.

The remarkable images you can see here include a walking human figure with what looks like a burden basket, a cougar-like creature on the back of a deer, stick figured lizards or human forms with different sets of legs and arms, girls with whorls of hair on the side of their heads and an image of heron-like water birds. 

The Ranger told us all he knew about the petroglyphs at this site, what they were and what they mean. However, he would always come back to the meaning...well, "Nobody really knows what they mean."

These two panels are of a much older style and are thought to be centuries older than the other drawings and done by other tribes.

As we have seen in so many other petroglyph sites, this has a sample of "Moron Glyph." The ranger said that it was signed by "J B Putt Head." There was also one other location where someone had scratched in their initials. Other than that there was not a lot of this here, no doubt thanks to the locked gate.


The ranger said the "Moron Glyph" was probably done about 30 or 40 or more years ago before the site was fenced in to protect from such desecration. It's sad that people have no respect for this ancient art work.


Very near this place was Montezuma's Well. The well was a desert oasis. It is very deep and underground water flows into it constantly. It was considered a holy place of emergence in some tribal histories.

It's unknown how deep the well actually is. They have tried to measure it several times without success. Suffice it to say, it's deep!


The legend is that anything put into the well comes back up. 


A very different world exists under the calm surface of the Well. There are no fish, instead, thousands of freshwater leeches swim under the surface. At 55 feet, divers report that fine sand boils up in a swirling, cascading mounds.


In 2006, divers put cameras, rovers and sensors into the vents of the well. The legend held true...every piece of equipment they put in was pushed back out.

From the far side of the Well, we could see ancient ruins built into the walls above the water.


From here it is not far to the little copper mining town of Jerome. It now would probably considered a ghost town except it has been filled with artists, galleries and shops. 

You can see the "J" for Jerome on the mountain top from far across the valley before you start the climb up the mountain.

Jerome is very high up on, and literally hangs off the side of a mountain. Highway 89A zigzags up the mountain side and back and forth on the streets of the town before twisting back down the other side of the mountain.

There is nothing beyond the curve of this road besides air in case you don't make the curve. Most houses are very old, but still somehow manage to hang off the side of a mountain.

Streets are very narrow with very little parking space except some empty lots where buildings have been torn down.

In recent years, they have paved over all the cobblestone streets and sidewalks and added one-way streets for the sake of safety.


Which brings me back thirty years to the story of Darcy, Linda Smith, the dog and I and our driving trip from Kansas to California.


After our terrifying trip down Oak Creek Canyon, we soon found ourselves driving up the side of this mountain with the big "J" (for Jerome) on the top. We didn't know what we were doing there or why the map had directing us there.


We only knew that it was extremely scary on this twisting, narrow road. 

The view over the edge, if we had had nerve enough to look, was beautiful. You can see all the way to the snow covered mountains beyond Flagstaff.

Thirty years ago it was on this very corner that was one of our most memorable moments in Jerome.


All of a sudden we turned this corner on the then cobblestone street. There was no obvious difference between the cobblestone street and the cobblestone sidewalk. It all looked alike.


I remember screaming, "Linda, we're driving on the sidewalk!!!" (I think she was driving at this time but in our panicked condition, who knows?) 


Linda's prime method of keeping me sane in situations such as this one, as I was freaking out, she was laughing her head off. Weird as that may sound, it worked and after many hilarious misadventures, we somehow made it to California in one piece.


Next blog posting....Deer Valley Rock Art and Pioneer Living History Museum.