Heritage Fund

Folks want to save historic mine

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[Source: Griselda Nevarez, Cronkite News Service, Arizona Daily Star]

Photo by Griselda Nevarez

Dave Rodgers often journeys from his home in Surprise to explore remnants of the Vulture Mine: a tree where those who stole gold were hanged, machinery that crushed ore to remove gold, and even clothes and shoes that miners wore.

Taking self-guided tours, he and others can examine stone walls of what was the home of Henry Wickenburg, who discovered gold here in 1863; towering wood rigging used to lift ore from the shaft; and other relics from an operation that yielded $200 million worth of gold before closing in 1942.

“Everything is just there like it was the day they shut down the mine,” Rodgers said. “They just left their stuff and walked off.”

Up to 5,000 people once lived in Vulture City, the community that sprang up around the mine. Stories of spirits roaming the ghost town continue to draw visitors.

But years of weathering and neglect have taken a toll. The 11 buildings that still stand, including two schoolhouses and the assay office, have crumbling walls of stone and adobe. Wood roofs and walls are in even worse shape, and nails and pieces of metal pose hazards for visitors.

Marty Hagan, a Wickenburg resident volunteering on a recent weekday, said preserving this site would not only safeguard an irreplaceable piece of Arizona’s gold-mining past, but also benefit the community.

“We have a legacy in our own backyard, and they don’t realize that,” he said.

The nonprofit Vulture Mine Preservation and Restoration Association, of which Hagan is vice president, launched in 2009 to protect the history that survives here. The group would like to restore the buildings, offer guided tours, showcase artifacts and add shops and restaurants.

But it may not get the chance.

The owners of the 274 acres that include the mine and its surroundings want to sell, but the association can’t afford the $3.5 million asking price, which has dropped from more than $6 million over the past few years.

Members of the group have tried unsuccessfully to assemble enough in donations and grants to purchase the property. Now they’re hoping that a buyer steps forward to help them. “We want someone that’s willing to work with us to save it so that we don’t lose its history,” he said.

The mine could have qualified for money from the Heritage Fund, which draws on lottery proceeds to fund grants administered by Arizona State Parks. But the $10 million grant money was swept up by the Legislature to help balance the state budget.

James Garrison, state historic-preservation officer for Arizona State Parks, said the Vulture Mine is worth preserving. “The mine itself has simply played an important part in the development of Arizona,” he said.

In the late 1800s, the mine was one of the biggest attractions for pioneers who came to Arizona. The U.S. government used its gold to help finance the Civil War and later used it to help finance the Salt River Project.

Garrison is working with the Wickenburg Historical Preservation Society to add the mine to the National Register of Historic Places. That would make possible U.S. preservation grants, though the current federal budget has frozen those funds. Adding the Vulture Mine to the register also would make it eligible for grants from the Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America, two national groups that work to uphold properties of national significance.

Cindy Thrasher, president of the Wickenburg Historical Preservation Society, said the remaining artifacts reveal history that can’t be found anywhere else in Arizona.

IF YOU GO

Wickenburg is about 170 miles northwest of Tucson. The Vulture Mine site is open to the public daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Esperanza school to sell commemorative bricks for its garden

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[Source: Coty Dolores Miranda, AZ Republic] – When Kyrene de la Esperanza fifth-grade teacher Sylvia Rios goes through the elementary school’s 2-year-old Discovery Garden, it’s a walk down memory lane. Lining the meandering pea-gravel path are engraved bricks honoring some of the students she has taught the past 14 years. Her two daughters – Gabriella, who attended Esperanza, and Liliana, a first-grader – share her pride in the garden and the engraved bricks that were first installed last year.

“As a teacher, it’s exciting for me to walk through and see the engraved bricks of former or current Esperanza families and staff members,” she said. “I’ve witnessed students in the garden and the first thing they look at are the bricks.”

In 2006, Esperanza applied to the Arizona Game and Fish Department for a $10,000 Heritage Fund grant, funded by Lottery ticket sales. The school received it in May 2007. The following spring, after construction of three new Esperanza classrooms, the Discovery Garden began taking shape with the help of parents, staff and community volunteers as well as $5,000 in private donations and another $10,000 of in-kind donations for plantings and landscaping.

Though other Ahwatukee elementary schools, such as Kyrene de las Lomas and Kyrene de los Cerritos, also have gardens, Esperanza’s is unusual with its 25-foot pond and pump to recycle water in a free-falling stream over rocks – a feature made possible with the assistance of Paul Holderman, Pond Gnome founder and creator of the Phoenix Zoo koi pond [to read the full article, click here].

Heritage Fund gives head start to Chiricahua leopard frogs

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[Source: AZ Game & Fish News Media, 2-23-2011] – Celebrating 20 years of conserving Arizona’s wildlife

One of the most beneficial sources of funding for Arizona’s wildlife and outdoor recreationists is the Heritage Fund. Two decades ago, Arizonans overwhelmingly approved the creation of the fund, which, among other things, directs money from lottery ticket sales to the Arizona Game and Fish Department to invest in conservation efforts like educating children about wildlife, acquiring critical wildlife habitats for sensitive species, and protecting and recovering many of the state’s imperiled wildlife.
  
One sensitive species benefiting from the Heritage Fund is the Chiricahua leopard frog.  This medium-sized frog was once abundant throughout the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. It has a green-brown skin color with numerous dark spots on its back, thus its name “leopard frog.”

Reductions in the frogs’ distribution the past few decades prompted their listing as federally threatened in 2002 under the Endangered Species Act. Reasons for declines of wildlife species are not always clear, and several interacting factors are often at play. Biologists generally agree that predation by introduced species, especially crayfish, American bullfrogs and sport fishes, and chytridiomycosis, a fungal skin disease that is killing frogs and toads around the globe, are the leading causes. Other factors have also contributed to their decline, including degradation and loss of wetlands, recent catastrophic wildfires, drought and contaminants [to read the full article, click here].