Pipe Springs National Monument

When we were going through Arizona a few weeks ago we stopped at the

Pipe Springs National MonumentStan

Here is a link so you can go on a Virtual Tour of the Winsor Castle

http://www.nps.gov/pisp/

I have wanted to stop here several times when we have pasted by.

I remember my Grandpa Leslie and Grandma Mildred Nelson bringing me here when I was little.

I remember taking a picture with my Grandpa and Grandma right here by this same wagon.

Stan, Heather, Me and Sarah Hendrix enjoyed going on the tour of the Winsor Castle

Heather did have several questions for her dad after the tour was over. The tour guide had some of her MORMON information a little bit off...

Here is a picture of the watch tower

Stan telling the tour guide.... about the History of Pipe Springs...

Heather and Sarah sitting by the pond

In the basement where they made cheese and butter

The Spring Room

Each day, the ranchers would milk between 80 and 100 cows. Some of that milk would be brought into the spring room and placed in shallow pans on the cooling rack shown above.In the cool temperatures of the spring room the cream would rise in the pans and be skimmed off. The cream was then churned into butter.

Each day, the women and children would churn up to 40 pounds of butter; they would also produce 60-80 pounds of cheese. Some of the butter and cheese was produced for family use, but the majority of these dairy products were bound for St. George, Utah

Sarah and Heather by the Spring that is in the Basement

View of Mt. Trumbull from the Veranda

Going across the Catwalk to the other side

The childrens room

The 10-ft x 12-ft, outward swinging gates at each end of the courtyard could be opened wide to allow entry of the wagons in which the ranchers would haul the cheese and butter produced at the fort to St. George, Utah, some 55 miles away -- a four-day trip by wagon.

The Veranda

Here is a little bit of History of Pipe Springs:

Pipe Springs was discovered and named by the 1858

Latter-day Saint missionary expedition to the Hopi mesas led by Jacob Hamblin. In the 1860s Mormon pioneers from St. George, Utah, led by James M. Whitmore brought cattle to the area and a large cattle ranching operation was established. In 1866, conflict with the native peoples of the area, Navajo and Paiute, flashed into violence, and by 1872 a protective fort was built over the main spring. The following year the fort and ranch was purchased by Brigham Young for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Bishop of near-by Grafton, Utah, Anson Perry Winsor, was hired to operate the ranch and maintain the fort, soon called Winsor Castle. This isolated outpost served as a way station for people traveling across the Arizona Strip, that part of Arizona separated from the rest of the state by the Grand Canyon. It also served as a refuge for polygamist wives during the 1880s and 1890s. The LDS church lost ownership of the property through penalties involved in the federal Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887.
Although their way of life was greatly impacted by Mormon settlement, the Paiute Indians continued to live in the area and by 1907 the Kaibab Paiute Indian Reservation was established, surrounding the privately owned Pipe Spring ranch.
In 1923 the Pipe Spring ranch was purchased and set aside as a national monument, a memorial of western pioneer life.

This was a fun little stop that I hope Stan,

Heather and Sarah enjoyed.

I know that I did.