John Wise

It was time to stock up on Maria’s tortillas again. These are handmade flour tortillas from a small shop in Mammoth, Arizona, and we love them. They are simply made of water, flour, shortening, baking soda, and salt; they are perfect. We found them a few months ago in the Giorsetti general store in Winkelman, which is south of Superior. Since our friend Arturo and his family recently moved to Tucson, we decided to drop by and say hello today.

We left around 11:30 in blazing sunshine. The temperature was about 108 degrees even though the radio gleefully announced it was merely 99 degrees. Apparently, they measure the temperature for the entire valley in some shady spot with a lawn instead of the usual sun-beaten concrete that makes up most of Phoenix. We slipped into Boyce-Thompson Arboretum as they were having a “Leafy Plant Sale – 50% off” sign on the road and picked up a jojoba plant. Caroline had wanted one for some time; she even tried to grow one from seeds, unsuccessfully. The friendly person at the ticket office informed us that our next stop, Ed’s La Casita restaurant in Superior, had been sold. No more spicy avocado salsa! For a moment, we contemplated driving on through Miami to Globe for a visit to the main Ed’s La Casita there, but that would have been a good detour, so we made do with a frozen lime bar for Caroline and Dairy Queen for me. Yes, folks, the Dairy Queen is open, even if it doesn’t look like it.

We turned off the 60 in Superior and drove south on Highway 177. Talk about a scenic back road! The desert vistas are spectacular. Highway 177 leads past the Ray Mines (sorry, we missed the overlook into the mines – more pictures next time, but that is a small corner of it in the photo above) and several tiny towns like Kelvin, Riverside, Kearny, and Hayden before reaching Winkelman. We stopped in Kearny to take a closer look at that town. There is a large school complex and a main-street-style road with shops and a motel close to the highway and nice-looking homes down the hill towards the Gila River. On “Main Street,” a plaque commemorates Stephen Watts Kearny, Brevet Major General of the US Army and the town’s namesake. He camped in the area with his troops in 1846. There is also a nifty engine that was used in the underground mine until it was retired in 1955. It was powered by compressed air. I snapped a couple of pictures and then jumped back in the car.

We arrived in Winkelman shortly before 2:00 p.m. and left with seven dozen still-warm tortillas. Yum! We broke into the first bag while we were still in the store!

We blew through Mammoth and Oracle to Oro Valley to meet with the Silvas, who turned out to still be unpacking and moving into their new house. Our visit was short, and before we knew it, we were back on the road traveling the Pinal Pioneer Parkway.

About halfway between Oracle Junction and Florence, which is the most beautiful part of this Highway in our opinion, is a picnic area next to the Tom Mix Memorial. Even though we’ve driven past the memorial at least one other time, we never stopped. Caroline had asked before, “So, who is this guy?” Today, we stop to learn more. Tom Mix was a star of silent films, westerns to be exact. He appeared in over 300 of them in the 1920s but fell out of the limelight when talkies appeared. Tom died right here on the highway to Florence in 1940 – apparently, he ignored warnings about some road damage and, during a rather bumpy stretch (a bridge had been washed away), a suitcase flung itself from the back of his car and crushed his head. After reading this description I began to wonder how there is no movie about this guy. The killer suitcase can be found in Dewey, OK, in the Tom Mix Museum. There is also the Tom Mix Comes Home Museum near Driftwood, PA, where they have a celebrity outhouse. Only in America. Need I say more?

Next, we stopped in Florence for a closer look. At first glance, this town seems dwarfed by several prison complexes right by the highway. There is a state prison and a detention center – and a Prison Outlet store! It has to be seen to be believed… Unfortunately, we got there after closing time, so we were unable to indulge in some binge shopping. You can buy hay, jewelry, clothing, and a load of other goods manufactured by inmates. Why they would call it “Outlet” is a mystery to us. Doesn’t that imply that some of these things are sold at a premium somewhere else? Can you imagine “Arizona Prison Stores” at your local shopping mall?

But the town of Florence itself is very nice and larger than it appears from the highway. There is a nice visitor center, a large county building (unfortunately in a state of disrepair), and a cute Main Street with brick buildings, a grocery, antique and hardware stores, and a couple of bars and restaurants. One of them (unfortunately I forgot to jot down its name) is open to 1:00 A.M.! Talk about nightlife in small-town America!

After our visit to Prisonville, we started on the last leg back to the Valley. Arturo and Guadalupe had recommended earlier that we stop at the El Rancho Mexican grocery store on Southern and Central, and so we did. Neither of us recalls ever seeing a grocery store that busy! Most impressive were the stuffed deli and bakery counters. Happy music blasted over the speakers while shoppers took a break and had a bite to eat on benches in the cheerfully decorated area near the produce section. Fresh salsas and desserts are also available, as well as homemade lemonades, horchata, jamaica, you name it. Further in the store are fresh cheese counters and the carniceria, where Caroline saw her first cow head sans skin but still including the eyes looking out, or maybe not doing that. It held an ear of corn on the cob between its teeth – decoration is key here when selling the entire head! Whole pig heads are also available, but not on display like the cow’s head. I like the fact that these folks don’t buy into the theory that the only edible meat is faceless steak! We picked up a couple of items, but unfortunately, they did not have cajeta envinada or the chilorio that we were looking for.