making owls cool since 1986

We moved to Arizona to see burrow owls. Where the hell are all the burrow owls?

Thursday, December 06, 2007

The Gold King Mine Museum and Ghost Town

While in Jerome, Erin and I visited the Gold King Mine Museum and Ghost Town. As it was Thanksgiving day, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It is definitely a tourist trap. It's kind of like paying $6 to walk around a quasi-organized junkyard. That doesn't sound too cool, but it ended up being a pretty rad trip.

Ok, we didn't take this picture of this dude(I ended up finding it online), but we met him and he's awesome. He was working the saw mill when we were there. He asked where we were from, and when we said "Tempe" he said, "Is that part of that rat race down there in the Valley?" He asked what we were doing there and I told him I was studying at ASU. The next day we ran into him in the center of Jerome. He was driving an antique car with a California Highway Patrol car door fastened to the front of it and the biggest shotgun I have ever seen hanging out the passenger side door. He was just getting to the car as we passed. He stood on the door frame of the driver's side door and addressed me with, "Hey, you a professor yet?" Then he directed our attention the CHIPS door and said, "I ran into someone on my way back from California." He called the car his "going to town car" and when I said "That's a big gun!" he just said, "Yep."

As if that dude wasn't awesome enough, while we were at the Ghost Town, he introduced us to a mammoth donkey (Pictures are forthcoming...we took pictures of the donkey with a Holga camera, but forgot to get some digital pictures). The donkey's name was Pedro Gonzales Gonzales Gonzales. The dude had a dirty "Vote for Pedro" patch on his hat. Anyways, we were looking at these goats and hanging out with Pedro Gonzales Gonzales Gonzales when the awesome dude came along and started feeding the donkey and the goats donuts. It was hilarious.
The donkey didn't like the cream inside, so the awesome dude fed the goats the cream part and the donkey the pastry part.

We saw this bus on the way into the ghost town. I want it really bad. It's a cabin bus.
I think this dirty mannequin is supposed to be a hooker, but I don't know why.


When I was young, I went to my Uncle Burt and Aunt Mary's trailer in the woods in Douglas. Uncle Burt had a huge collection of broken down cars, trucks, and RV's. If only they had known that such a collection could qualify as a ghost town, perhaps they could have capitalized on all those wrecks!
"If Clinton's the answer, it must be a real stupid question."


This sign is paid for by JFPO, or Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership, Inc.

I have read some reviews online of The Gold King Mine Ghost Town, and some were rather disparaging. Sure, there are a lot of busted buildings and wrecked cars, but fun is what you make it. This place is really quirky and the people there are friendly and interesting. Also, for six bucks, it's a pretty cheap way to spend an hour or so just poking around in neat old stuff and watching hoofstock eat donuts.

2 Comments:

Blogger Damien said...

that sounds like the best trip ever

8:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awsome!

Needless to say I eagerly await photos of Pedro Gonzales Gonzales Gonzales.

3:07 PM  

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