Superior, AZ (3/27/2019)

The main reason for going to Superior is to visit Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park.  This park has a great reputation as a showcase for desert plants and home to a variety of birds.  I didn't expect a lot of birds at this time of year and, frankly, even so it was a little disappointing that only a few birds were present.  Good thing I didn't go with great birding expectations.

The park has some beautiful wildflowers mixed in with the cacti and other desert plants.  In my opinion, they should have even more blooming flowers, since there are many more types on display along highway medians and in the nearby desert.

Set in a canyon surrounded by colorful mountains, the park does a great job of showing an amazing variety of desert plants.  The trail winds for miles through numerous specialty areas, meaning that most of us older tourists are unable to see it all in one visit.

Local crafts are available for purchase, such as carvings of various animals found in this area.

Artifacts from Ancient Puebloan ruins are on display, such as this metate and mano, used to grind corn or other grains.

I wonder how many people have sat on this tree over the years.  Enough so the bark has been worn smooth.

One section that I particularly enjoyed was the Australian display, not only demonstrating indigenous plants, but a sheep shearing station and related items.  It reminded me of a novel, The Sundowners, I read as a youngster.  Later made into a movie.  Robert Mitchum starred as a nomadic sheep shearer who set the record for number of sheep sheared in a day.

The town of Superior, about 70 miles east of Phoenix, has a colorful history.  In the 1870s, before a town even existed, U.S. Cavalry ambushed a band of Apaches here, killing about 50 warriors.  The remaining 70 Apaches saw no chance for victory or escape, so they leaped to their deaths from a mountain now known as Apache Leap (seen here behind a very colorful home).

The Silver Queen Mine was started around 1875, but silver played out and copper ore was very deep, so the mine eventually failed.  The town was originally named Queen, but that changed several times until being named Superior, for the Lake Superior and Arizona Copper Company.  Boyce Thompson bought the mine in 1910 and had the Magma Copper Company in production by 1912.

Magma closed in 1982 due to increasing production costs and declining copper prices.  Operation resumed in 1990, but ceased again in 1996.  Some level of copper mining is active again, but I found no information about it.

Superior seems to have become something of an artist's colony, judging by the colorful homes and businesses there.  A number of movies have been filmed in Superior, including scenes from How The West Was Won and Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet.

As noted earlier, I enjoyed some of the wildflowers growing along the highway.