A Walk in the Riparian

Dry San Pedro River - cattle under trees

We went back to San Pedro Riparian which is run by the BLM Tuesday afternoon.  We hiked this area last December and wanted to come back to go further on the trail, to see the ruins of a stamping plant and what else remained of the ghost town Fairbanks.  What surprised us the most was the dry conditions of the Riparian.  What is a riparian? It is the area along a river which serves many purposes: helps the stream get rid of energy with less erosion and flooding, has diverse habitat of animals and foliage, usually has a huge animal dependency to the water. Anyhow, we have visited many riparians on our travels but this one is quite unique.  At the turn of the century the town of Fairbanks was a thriving community with schools, banks, hotels, liveries, stores, etc.  Had a railroad here that was a major stop between Tombstone and Tucson.  As late as 1975 the town had a resident but now the it is just buildings and a ghost town.  Down the road from Fairbanks stood 9 stamping mills along the San Pedro River.  We wanted to hike to one of the last remaining structures of the Grand Central Mill, about 2 miles from Fairbanks.

Remains of Grand Central Mill

We knew that this was probably a free range area for cattle and horses and heard the rustlings in the brush and heard moo-ing.  Wasn't until our return walk back along the San Pedro where we saw the cattle standing in the dry river bed.  Found the stamping mill - was amazed at how big it was.  Must have been quite noisy - 24/7 workings and the pounding going on must have heard for miles. Saw what was left of the mill and also some foundations of buildings - probably in support of the mill.  Dave discovered an open mine shaft and he got pretty close - said he couldn't see the bottom.

Ranger Robert

Along the way ran into a woman weeding and discovered that she was with the BLM doing trail maintenance.  She said that we would find another person a little farther.  Talked with him for some time about what his work is - a Ranger with BLM - and his history, was a National Park service employee doing fire fighting (we can certainly relate to this from this past summer) and also as a ranger.  When he started as a ranger here at San Pedro there were 2 other rangers with him and with the cut backs - he's the last man standing.  We also talked in length about buying American made only - which we strongly follow - not patronizing stores that bring in products from out of the country and we also buy from the mom-and-pops' businesses when ever we can before going to the chain stores - helping keep the small business going.

The trail was flat and packed dirt going out to the Mill but on our swing around along the River it became sandy and hard to walk.  We both ended up limping by the time we got back to the car - me for my foot problem and Dave from twisting his knee.