HACKBERRY, AZ ~ May 12-13, 2007

When we left Grand Canyon Caverns it was time to look for a place to camp for the night. At least it was early enough that we wouldn’t have to set up the tent in the dark this time. We drove through Peach Springs, Truxton, Valentine, and Hackberry on old Route 66. The town of Hackberry was named after a large Hackberry tree that grew by the spring. Prospectors found a rich vein of ore here in the 1870’s.

The Hackberry General Store with its old vintage gas pumps and signs, not to mention a 1957 Corvette in mint condition, made for an interesting photo stop. The store contains a few grocery items, but most of it is Route 66 memorabilia and souvenirs. In fact, the eclectic hodgepodge appearance of the Hackberry General Store is what inspired Lizzie’s Curio Shop in Pixar’s Cars movie, complete with the “Here it Is” sign. The only thing I didn’t like was, one wall at the back of the store is covered with a collection of pictures including some scantily clad ladies on motorcycles, etc., which I had to steer my young son’s eyes away from. I don’t mean to sound like a prude, but even if you look at someone with lust on your mind, you have committed adultery in your heart.

We went south on Hackberry Road which is a graded gravel road that meets up with I-40. From there we went west on a dirt road across an open range, heading in the direction of the Peacock Mountains, until we found a good spot to stop. It was somewhere near a wash and a power line. The stars that night were brilliant and numerous; we could even see the Milky Way galaxy. Sometime just before dawn a coyote howled right outside our tent. I was sure Josh would be scared to death because he’s afraid of coyotes, but he hardly even stirred. I asked him about it later, curious as to why he wasn’t frightened by this coyote that was so close. Josh matter-of-factly replied, “I thought it was a rooster.”

Way out there in the middle of a high desert plain, the place came to life at sunrise with the songs of birds chirping in the piñon and juniper trees. Rich wanted to explore the area a little more, so after we broke up camp we went driving toward the Peacock Mountains. The road got worse the farther up we got, so we decided to turn around at a windmill up ahead. Much to our surprise, this was an old windmill probably dating back to the late 1800’s because the tower was made of wood rather than metal and it was still standing in good condition but was obviously no longer in use. The wind vane said “Aermotor Co. Chicago.”

When we got home I did a Google search and found an Aermotor website! The company is still in business and they’ve been making windmills since 1888. Although in 1986 Aermotor was purchased by an investor group, relocated to San Angelo, Texas, and its name was changed to Aermotor Windmill Corporation. Here’s an interesting fact: Aermotor also built the first electric transmission towers and most of the nation’s forest observation towers.

After admiring the windmill for a while and imagining what it must have been like in the past when the cowboys were working there, we headed back down toward Hackberry Road. Along the way we saw a bunch of cows with calves and noticed some more interesting things. First there was a melon plant growing on the side of the road, in the middle of a dry sandy area all by itself. It had large green leaves and big orange flowers. (A Buffalo Gourd maybe?) We were amazed that such a plant could survive and even thrive out there in the open desert like that. We kept smelling a terrible odor, though, and couldn’t tell if it was coming from the plant or if there was a dead cow in the vicinity!

As we were nearing Hackberry Road, we saw that the dirt road we were on had a row of rocks running alongside it. In an adjacent field, more lines of rocks went off in different directions. They weren’t arranged in squares like prehistoric Indian dwellings but went diagonally at different angles. The pattern didn’t seem like natural rock outcroppings either. There was a little wash running through there and a couple of animal trails leading to a watering hole. Could it have been some ancient attempt at water diversion or something? We walked around looking for clues and trying to figure it out but it we were still scratching our heads when we left.