On Saturday, May 15, 2021, Vincent Randall, a true Clarkdale Native and Dilzhe'e Apache Elder, was honored by the Clarkdale Heritage Society and Museum as the first recipient of Legacy Award. The presentation was at 10:00am at the View Deck of the Clubhouse. 

 

As the event was scheduled prior to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, it was not open to the public. Mr. Randall, his wife, Erie, his brother, dignitaries from the Yavapai-Apache Nation, Clarkdale elected officials, the Museum Board and Town Manager Hlavinka attended. 

The award, a beautiful copper sculpture of a tree, was presented by CHSM President Michael Lindner. 

“The tree represents life and family roots and the copper signifies the richness of history,” Mr. Lindner explained. 

Mr. Lindner recited many of Mr. Randall’s accomplishments including Educator, Coach, Yavapai Apache Nation Chairman, and Yavapai Apache Nation  Historian.

Mr. Randall added another profession: mowing the lawn of Mr. Lindner’s grandparents home. 

After his gracious acceptance of the award, Mr. Randall regaled the crowd with stories of his tribe’s history. Pointing to a stunning vista, he said, “That was where my family’s camp was.” 

He indicated the location of his grandmother’s wickiup and the nearby Apache ceremonial grounds.  

Painful history was shared as well. In 1875, his ancestors were forced to relocate to San Carlos, a brutal journey the many did not survive. As a child, Mr. Randall was not permitted in many Clarkdale facilities, such as the pool.  

“They had another pool over there for brown skinned kids,” he said. He noted, however, that class divisions were more financial than racial. 

Mr. Randall expressed gratitude for the opportunity to share his stories and explained the importance of doing so. 

“You have to share your stories,” he said. “Otherwise, someone else will come along and tell them, someone who wasn’t there, didn’t live it.” 

Mr. Randall’s First Friday presentation can be viewed at the CHSM website.  

CHSM appreciates Mr. Randall’s many contributions and looks forward to learning much more from him. 

Have a comment? please email clarkdaleheritage@gmail.com  

The letter from Clarkdale's Mrs. Connor explains to her friend in Albuquerque how her mother's day unfolded back in 1986. 

In this excerpt she  writes that she had 3 guests "for dinner and really had a wonderful buffet dinner at El Tapatio.  They loaded our plates with  delicacies leg of lamb, shrimp, mashed potatoes,  gravy, hot biscuits, French string beans with a delicious sauce large white sliced mushrooms with the best sauce over them that I ever ate. We drank a quart of champagne which made it all taste better."  Followed by two rubbers of bridge she wrote "I was the winner this time"  

Don Thomas of Clarkdale was quoted "It was Santa Fe that delivered coal.  It came from Farmington, then to Gallup.  The train became Arizona Central line and is now Verde Canyon Railroad which currently delivers to the Cement Plant." 

From 1913 to 1989 the line was operated by the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.  Construction from Cedar Glade west of Drake to Clarkdale commenced on February 13,1912 and was completed on February 1, 1913.  (Wikipedia)

Have a comment? please email clarkdaleheritage@gmail.com

The Clarkdale Historical Society and Museum is delighted to announce the all-new 2021 Virtual Historic Building and Home Tour.

Each current owner will host a walk-through of the building, comment on its history, point out original features and, in some cases, share old family photos. CHSM will augment the commentary with historic images from the Museum’s collection.

The 2021 Virtual Historic Building and Home Tour is expected to be polished and ready for visitors by early summer 2021.  Cost for participation is expected to be a modest $20 and donations will be used to help upgrade exhibits for the Museum’s planned reopening. As the name suggests, this tour is virtual. Participants can view the tour at their leisure; there are no date or time constraints.

This event would not be possible without a generous donation from a CHSM member. To offset other expenses, sponsorships are being solicited. Sponsorship range from $50 to $250. Please contact CHSM if you are interested in a sponsorship CLICK HERE.

Please visit the CHSM website (www.clarkdalemuseum.org) often for availability and purchase details. Regular updates will be posted in the CHSM newsletter, which is distributed free of charge.

CHSM is an all-volunteer organization that welcomes new members.  To join, please visit www.clarkdalemuseum.org.

 

Have a comment? please email clarkdaleheritage@gmail.com

Arizona has been known as the State with 4 "C's.  Citrus, Copper, Cattle and Cotton.  Some would add a fifth "C" being Climate.  Since Clarkdale was founded the same year as Arizona gained statehood we have our list of The Clarkdale Arizona 4 "C"s....

1)  Citrus in Clarkdale at the time of the town's incorporation was grown in Jordan's two major orchards - one along the river at the current slag site and the other at Haskell Spring.

2) Cotton was grown by the Sinagua at Tuzigoot, evidenced in their Museum.

3) Copper is the reason for Clarkdale's founding by William Andrews Clark.

4) Cattle has been part of Clarkdale's history, including the Town Police rounding up Perkin's bulls in the seventies and locking them in the school athletic field... but that is a whole other story.

Have a comment? please email clarkdaleheritage@gmail.com

On February 24, we lost our good friend Bill Snyder, aka “Mr. Clarkdale”.  Bill has been a familiar face in our downtown for 45 years.  As the story goes, while living in Oklahoma in 1976, Bill received a job offer from Landmark Land Company and had the choice of relocating his family to Carmel, California or Clarkdale, Arizona and he chose Clarkdale! 

 

As Vice President of  Landmark Land, which operated under the name of Clarkdale Realty, Bill was responsible for managing the Clarkdale holdings including the entire historic downtown business block, remnants of the smelter, and hundreds of acres of undeveloped land.  The business block buildings were 61 years old when Bill arrived and were showing serious signs of decay.  Bill went right to work  and hired work crews to replace roofs, paint the store fronts, and make other needed repairs.  A short time later Bill acquired the Clarkdale Highlander Laundry.

After Transylvania International Inc. acquired Landmark Land’s Clarkdale holdings in 1983, Bill started his own real estate management company (Group 2) and started a Mini Storage business.  Faithful customers appeared in person each month to pay their storage fees just so they could have the opportunity to visit with Bill.

Bill’s passion for Clarkdale history pre-dated the founding of our museum.  His office walls were adorned with photos and relics of Clarkdale’s past.  He had the foresight to retain and preserve original blueprint plans for Clarkdale’s homes, buildings, and infrastructure which he donated to our museum a few years ago. In 1989, Bill successfully convinced the US Postal Service to accept his proposal to repurpose the old Clarkdale High School home economics and wood shop building into our present Post Office, retaining the original maple wood flooring and exterior historical elements.  Post Office officials had originally proposed relocating Clarkdale’s Post Office from today’s Community Development building to a new facility on the bypass road, upsetting town residents.

Bill’s involvement in his community and state was extensive.  Among the many organizations that he served are the Clarkdale-Verde District Kiwanis Club, Verde Valley Youth Football, Clarkdale Chamber of Commerce, Town of Clarkdale Design Review Board, and Clarkdale Fire District Board.  He also served as City of Cottonwood councilman and was a member of the Arizona State Liquor Control Board.

 

Bill loved Clarkdale and the events that brought people to town and filled the streets with activity and music.  Donations can be made in his memory to the The Clarkdale Foundation, P.O. Box 345, Clarkdale, AZ 86324.

Memories of Bill contributed by Michael Lindner

Have a comment? please email clarkdaleheritage@gmail.com

Growing up in the 1960’s and ‘70’s in the Verde Valley was an amazing experience and the adventures memorable.  Everyone knew everyone in the surrounding towns, they knew your parents and all your relatives and neighbors.  Whatever happened hit the gossip lines immediately and most kids knew their parents would learn of their behavior within hours if they did something they probably shouldn’t have done in this small community.

Perhaps one of the most interesting taboos to me during high school was the commonly understood edict “don’t date those Clarkdale boys”; we lived in Cottonwood.   The Clarkdale boys, and Jerome boys by association, were touted as not being good choices because they only liked sports and music.   Listening to wild music of that long-haired group from England and playing every sport imaginable leaving little time to cultivate a romantic relationship.  After all, there wasn’t much else to do in this small community for a teenager once the chores and/or work at a job was done for the day.   The Sedona boys pretty well stayed in their neck of the woods or frequented Flagstaff.  No matter, it was too far to travel from here to Sedona anyway (even though $1 worth of gas would get us to Prescott over Mingus Mountain).   The Camp Verde boys were also off-limits because of their reputation for racing fast cars and fighting, both of which they excelled at greatly.   We were reminded often that we only need look in our own little town of Cottonwood to find perfectly suitable dates for high school events and weekend movies. 

There were eight girls in our family and all but one of us ignored that advice; sister # 7 married a fine young man she met while serving in the Air Force.  However, they moved to Clarkdale to live and raise a family, so the brothers-in-law accept him as “home grown”.   As for the other seven of us girls, we sought out, dated, and each married a Clarkdale boy.   Six of those boys served their country, many during the Viet Nam war, then returned to Arizona with some coming back to the Verde Valley and others throughout the state. 

 Just in case anyone is wondering how those Clarkdale boys’ marriages are working out …. Sister #1 celebrated her 52nd wedding anniversary this month, and this year sister #2 will celebrate 49 years, sister #4 celebrating 50 years, sister #5 celebrating 49 years, sister #6 celebrating 46 years, sister #7 celebrating 35 years, and baby sister #8 celebrating 37 years, (sister #3 marriage ended after a tragic car accident). 

Clarkdale boys weren’t the only hot item riding the bus to MUHS in Jerome, we had three brothers who found the love of their life in Clarkdale girls!  Two of them are still married to their sweethearts as well (we lost one brother eight years ago).

Do any of these names sound familiar?  Schwab, Wombacher, Carpenter, Duncan, Ayres, Franquero?   Home grown Clarkdale Boys with some families going back three and four generations; and they chose to marry Osborne girls from Cottonwood.

Happy Valentine’s Day folks!  

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The first item donated to Clarkdale Historical Society & Museum came to us in 2004.  It was an Oak Pulpit Chair from the Mountain View Methodist Church.

The big "C" was built on April 5, 1922 by the Senior Class of Clarkdale High School. (from page 54 of a 1922 Alchemist Yearbook)  Alchemist Yearbooks can be viewed by clicking here.

In 1976 and every few years thereafter, the C has been repainted. 

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For the past 6-8 years Dinah Gemmill has been volunteering to lead the caroling for the Town of Clarkdale’s Caroling in the Park annual event.  The event was cancelled this year by the Town.  If all goes well, Dinah said she plans to resume in 2021 her volunteer duties of coordinating the Song Books that the Town prints, and serving up Hot Chocolate.  Although Dinah said she hasn’t been singing much this past year, she and some others from the church will be singing outside St. Thomas on Christmas day at about 11:00AM.  The song list for Christmas day includes Joy to The World, Silent Night, and The First Noel.

Have a comment? please email clarkdaleheritage@gmail.com