Pipe Spring National Monument
Just up the highway from our RV park is an important historical property known as Pipe Springs. It is named after a natural spring that emerges from the hillside on this property. It is a rare permanent spring that the local Kaibab Paiute Indians have used for hundreds of years. When Brigham Young ordered the expansion of the Mormon/The Church of Jesus Christ of The Latter Day Saints community a group of followers led by Jacob Hamblin took ownership of the spring in 1858. After attacks by Indians during the Black Hawk Indian War a fort named Windsor Castle was built to protect the ‘new’ inhabitants. Today a co-op between the National Parks Service and the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians have constructed a Visitor Center, and Museum to explain the human history of the area over time.
The tour started in the inner courtyard of “Windsor Castle” where a NP Ranger gave a short but informative chat about this National Monument. You can see in the photos that the fort was fairly opulent for the day having two storeys. In the rooms under the lower side of the courtyard is the actual spring (now piped). These rooms are dug into the earth keeping them cool and therefore the natural rooms for the larder and cheese making rooms. It was the ‘locking up’ of the spring that deprived the Paiutes of their historical water supply and thus cause conflict with the new settlers. When you see the wide open desert plains of the area the value and importance of the spring is evident. The museum was good with the emphasis on the original inhabitants, the Kaibab Paiute Indians. After a good look about we headed back to the RV for a catch up on overdue jobs.
Kanab, Utah and Fredonia, Arizona
We stayed at the Wheel Inn RV Park at Fredonia though the main township is 7 miles north at Kanab. So we were ‘living’ in 2 states at once. This next gallery will show some of the sights of both towns. Check out the 1st pic. Couldn’t get away towing a rig like that in Australia. Probably not the next either. We had some good neighbours here too. Canadians Frida and Ken. He’ll blame me but Ken was so sociable he had hangovers each morning after our round fire conference.
I don’t know what it is but every town apparently has to put its initial on the nearest hillside and Fredonia did the same on the side of a small mesa north of town. There’s a few more photos from about town with the remainder excluding the last 3 showing the extraordinary geological landforms in this part of the world. One day while going into town to shop we noticed the icicles on a fence by the road. This was around midday so you can guess how cold it can get here.
Little Hollywood
Kanab’s main claim to fame is their title of “Little Hollywood”. When you click on the link to IMDB you may notice there are 187 entries and as you look through this gallery you’ll see some of these mentioned. To start the gallery we visited the “Little Hollywood” museum. And you can see some of the actual sets from movies and TV shows you will have heard of and probably seen. To capitalise on their fame the town fathers have placed throughout the town many pedestal signs with pictures of the stars or shows that makes Kanab synonymous with the movie world. What I have here is a very small part of their collection.
Vintage Car Rally
Nothing to explain with this gallery. We came across hundreds of vintage cars due to a national rally being held here in Kanab while we were here. Again this is just some of the cars all of which were driving around the region enjoying the great weather.
Cheers for now
Garry and Shane