Content including photographs are Copyright © 2009 - Don & Linda Gilmore
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Shown here -- Wellton, Arizona.
If you've never been to Wellton, Arizona -- hopefully this will get you to think about day trips to the area. First off there is the Pioneer Musuem. Run by Vince and only open in the Winter months. Just ask anyone in town for directions. This is a quaint little town in the desert with a nice motel on the South side of Interstate 8.
Here's Vince showing Linda some of the large number of artifacts that are on display here. Some of which were put here by Vince who has a wealth of information about the area, it's history, the old time travelers, and prospectors that ended up in the desert here.
One of the major souces of income here is from farming. Ever wonder where the cotton that's in your tea shirt came from? Good chance this is the place. Of course they also grow a wide variety of vegtables here also because of the fantastic Winter climate.
Why is this photo here? They're just farm sprinklers right? Your right they are. If your going to take snapshots then the photos above and below this one are probably better for story telling. But this is artistic! A different angle, with a shallow depth of field. Want to know how to do this? See the
Photography
section of the site here in the desert.
The new way to scare off the rabbits - that's right there's a lot of rabbits out here and they love the lettuce and other young plants that are planted for them here in the desert. This is a humain and neat idea to keep them out of the fields. These are made from a metal plate, stuck into the dirt.
Don't forget to visit the Gila River? Well at times and in different places it does have water at varying levels. It depends on how much water is in the Painted Rock Dam up above. Here's the old bridge that washed out. It used to go to the little town of Roll. The road we were on when we took this picture was completely washed out in March 15 -2005.
This is part of the older tracks that run into Wellton and then on to Yuma, Arizona. This rail line is hardly used anymore. The railroad came to Wellton back in 1887. This was a real boom to the town and everything and everyone in the desert in the West. It did eventually put a lot of wagon train masters out of work.
This is what is left of the town of Dome. Actually now (only a few years since this photo was taken) there's only one wall left. This was a small town just West of Wellton that had it's own school house -- and cemetary. The cemetary is still in tack, for now! This was a gold mining area and a lot of gold is still found in the washes near here today. Nice nuggets I might add! See our
Gold in the desert section of the site.
Baker Tanks! Interesting place in the desert just Southeast of Wellton. It used to be an old Boy Scouts retreat. The tanks have water in them most of the year, although there are times during dry spells when they don't. You can find toads here when they have water.
One of your day trips in Wellton or if your coming from Yuma, Arizona should require a fishing license! The canals, and the water holes in the Gila River are loaded with nice bass like the one Linda is holding here.
Antelope Hill; the Indians knew it well. This was a favorite spot for them to come and take special kinds of rocks to make mortar and pestles. While there they left their mark with litterally hundreds of petroglyphs on the rocks on the North side of Antelope Hill. You can't miss the Hill; the West side of it has been quarried and the white cuts can be seen for miles.
Another petroglyph at Antelope Hill. So why did we write up Wellton, Arizona? There's probably not very many hits on Google for it. Because it's an interesting place that a lot of people have never heard of, and that is what we do -- provide pictoral information with enough written info to give the desert traveler an idea of what goes on here. We are the leading reference for Desert Day Trips and tend to stay on top for years to come. Have fun.........
