Our AZ Finale: Sedona

There is nothing quite like a desert sunrise! What a way to begin our last full day of being tourists in Arizona.


The Red Rock Scenic Byway was our gateway to the world-famous Red Rock Country of Sedona. This picturesque road begins on the southwest edge of the Colorado Plateau, the largest plateau in the United States. It is comprised of iron-infused red rocks and fascinating geological features, which includes hoodoos, natural bridges and canyons. This short drive is packed with adventure — from hiking, biking, golfing and the sheer majesty of the scenery. Since we were in a hurry to get home, we enjoyed as much of the majesty of the scenery as possible.
There were a lot of audible oohs and ahs on this drive.






Below is the famous Snoopy rock (picture Schulz's loveable character lying on his dog house). Next to it was this formation which Steve thinks looks like the silhouette of Lucy, Charlie Brown's nemesis. Funny stuff.

How did Sedona get its name? By the turn of the century, about 15 homesteading families called this area home. T. C. Schnebly was an enterprising young man from Gorin, Missouri who had married Sedona Miller. T.C.’s brother, Ellsworth, had moved to Arizona for health reasons, and convinced T. C. and Sedona to join him in red rock country. The Schneblys built a large two-story home that also served as the area's first hotel and general store. T.C. saw a need for regular mail service, and organized the little village’s first post office. T. C. suggested the names, Oak Creek Crossing and Schnebly Station, to Washington, D.C., but the Postmaster General at the time had a prejudice for one-word names for postmarks. Ellsworth advised him, "Why don't you name it after your wife?" Hence the town was born. Interesting, right?
We tried to visit this amazing monument but there was no parking for our vehicle. The Chapel of the Holy Cross was inspired and commissioned by local rancher and sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude. In 1932 she was inspired to build such a church by the construction of the Empire State Building. Staude initially attempted to do this in Budapest, Hungary with the help of Lloyd Wright, son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. However, their attempt was aborted due to the outbreak of World War II.

With this unfortunate turn of events, she decided to build the church in her native home land, Arizona. It is built on Coconino National Forest land. The late Senator Barry Goldwater assisted Staude in obtaining a special-use permit. The chapel was completed in 18 months at a cost of US$300,000, in 1956.



For a brief, though very interesting, history lesson, we visited the Sedona Heritage Museum, whose focus is on ‘modern’ history from 1876 to the present. Our first stop was at the Telegraph Office to learn about the Golden Age of Western Movies. Almost 100 feature films and countless video productions and commercials have been shot either in full or in part in the Sedona area. For three decades, Westerns were the most popular movies in America. From shoot'em-ups to romance, dramas, and the singing cowboy films, they attracted audiences around the world.
Moviemaking in Sedona began in 1923, with Zane Grey's silent film the Call of the Canyon. In 1945, John Wayne came to town for his first stint as producer. For his Angel and the Badman film, a western town street set, a sound stage, and a motel were built. That area is now the Sedona West residential subdivision where the streets are named after movies made there, like Johnny Guitar, Pony Soldier, and Gun Fury. During its heyday of film-making, almost every major studio and every major star worked there, including James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Sterling Hayden, Joan Crawford, Glenn Ford, Robert DeNiro, Robert Young, Hopalong Cassidy, Tyrone Power, Rock Hudson, Donna Reed, and hundreds of others.
At the Walter Jordan home we learned about, among many things, agriculture. In the beginning it was for home consumption, or for a limited seasonal market in Flagstaff and the boom town of Jerome. Using water from Oak Creek, both the Native Americans and the first Anglo settlers irrigated small patches of ground to raise food for their families. Every homestead had a vegetable garden and a collection of chickens, turkeys and pigs. Cattle provided beef as well as milk and butter. But it was fruit growing -- particularly apples and peaches -- which played the most significant part in the early Sedona economy.
After farmers learned to channel the water of Oak Creek for irrigation, they planted larger orchards. The Schuermans planted a vineyard, growing grapes for wine and finding a ready market with local cowboys, Jerome miners and Flagstaff loggers. The Jordans, Pendleys and others blasted out irrigation routes and moved the water through ditches, flumes and pipelines. Fruit was driven to markets in Jerome, Prescott, Flagstaff and Phoenix. Oak Creek Canyon fruit was so popular, that people from Phoenix drove here just to purchase fruit at fruit stands. Commercial orcharding all but disappeared from this area by the 1970s-1980s.
While Sedona’s red rock formations and pinion-juniper landscape made an ideal setting for Hollywood’s cowboys, the real cowboys were hard at work riding, roping and branding. These were not just rodeo sports to these hardy men — and yes, women, too. Ranchers moved their cattle from their winter ranges around Sedona to the tall grassy meadows of the Mogollon Rim in summer. Families moved with their herds, putting their children in area schools during the winter months. The U.S. Forest Service managed then, and still manages today, a grazing permit program for ranchers.


So why the turquoise arch at the museum? When McDonald’s representatives approached the city of Sedona about opening a location in a new shopping center, they engaged in discussions with all the city officials. Unlike the typical McDonald’s design with its trademark large arches and red and yellow palette, the West Sedona plans were designed to ensure consistency with the Pueblo-revival style of the shopping center without taking away from the surrounding area’s natural beauty.
Whether they knew it or not, their collaboration would lead to building one more attraction for visitors to Sedona. Today, tourists from all over the world stop at the roadside restaurant not only to grab a bite to eat but to snap a picture with the only turquoise arches in the world. While we didn't stop at McDonald's we enjoyed seeing the arches at the museum. The one on display was replaced as it faded to a color that was no longer accepted as true turquoise. Wild right?!
This desert escape was five days of some pretty amazing vistas, unique experiences, and unbelievable memory making.

"Arizona’s history is as layered as its landscapes,
every road a path to a piece of the past.”
– David McCullough

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