Steve Ayers

Fort Verde in Camp Verde AZ facelift needs help

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[Source: CVBugle.com, Steve Ayers] – – Rangers call for volunteers – – When the military constructed Fort Verde, they built it with the belief that the fort would remain serviceable for 10 to 20 years … max.  They had no idea that parts of it would still be standing 137 years later.  Constructed for the most part of adobe, it is a testament to the love and care given over the years by local volunteers and Arizona State Parks employees that anything remains standing.

That love and care is once again being requested, as the staff of the park embarks on a major repair project, starting at the Surgeon’s Quarters on the north end and working their way south to the park’s administrative building. “We are putting out a want ad, if you will,” says Dennis Lockhart, assistant manger of Fort Verde State Historic Park.  “Anyone who wants to come scrape paint, do wood work or plaster, or has skills in anything that might be of help, they are welcome to come over and be a volunteer.”  [Note: to read the full article click here.]

State Parks purchases Camp Verde’s Rockin’ River Ranch

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[Source: CVBugle.com, Steve Ayers] — Chalk up another crown jewel for the ever-expanding Verde River Greenway. This week, Arizona State Parks and The Nature Conservancy have announced the purchase of the historic Rockin’ River Ranch, located on the Verde River at the southern edge of the Town of Camp Verde. The $7 million purchase was made with money designated for the specific purpose of acquiring land for State Parks. Funding for acquisition comes from the state’s Heritage Fund, which comes from the state lottery.  [Note: to read the full article, click here.]

Creative grant writing may help fund park in Camp Verde

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[Source: CVBugle.com, Steve Ayers] — Sometimes it takes brute force to get things done. Sometimes it takes long and arduous hours spent burning the midnight oil. But sometimes all it takes is a little finesse. For months, the Town of Camp Verde has been developing a master plan for its new community park. Brute force and long hours were applied to the process so the plan could be completed in time to apply for a Heritage grant from Arizona State Parks.

The grant, which could be as high as $750,000, would be based on, and go a long way toward, building the park’s many planned amenities, if awarded to the Town. But like all grants, Heritage grants are cumbersome at best, rich in requests for detail and labor intensive for the applicant.  [Note: to read the full article, click here.]

Trekking to the source of Arizona’s Verde River

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[Source: Steve Ayers, CV Bugle] — The Verde River begins its journey in a labyrinth of Proterozoic rock, Cambrian sandstone, Devonian dolomite, and Tertiary gravels interspersed with the surface flows and underground intrusion of volcanic lavas.  Its path to the sun is complex and only know is it beginning to be understood.  Nevertheless, it emerges in a series of springs that feed a forest of willows and cottonwoods and in the process provide the lifeblood for a variety of fish, fowl and wildlife.

In 1996 the Arizona Game & Fish Department, with money from the Heritage Fund, purchased a checkerboard of parcels just down stream from the point where the river emerges.  Then last December, the Nature Conservancy, after 20 years of trying, successfully purchased a 312-acre parcel that included the very springs themselves and also received an additional 160 donated by the former property owners Billy and Betty Wells.  In February of this year, the Nature Conservancy sold off all but 20 acres to Game & Fish, retaining the first few springs.  [Note: to read the full article, click here.]