Welcome to Wellick Field, Wickenburg, AZ. Elev. 2235'

Bench Marks - U.S. Geological Survey - Prescott, AZ

This "Bench Mark" is embedded in the sidewalk behind Yavapi County (AZ) couthouse in Prescott. Took pic, then Googled to learn more re: Bench Marks. Info courtesy of WVBike.org
All across the continental US as well as in Alaska and Hawaii there is a network of survey monuments which are bronze disks about 8 to 10 cm. in diameter set in rock or permanent structures. The exact number can only be guessed at, but some estimates suggest that one million or more are in place in all manner of locations from city sidewalks and bridges to remote ridges and mountain tops. These have been set by surveyors since 1879 and are the basis for horizontal and vertical control for all the mapping done in the US. The survey monuments used for horizontal control are called triangulation stations, triangulation marks, control stations, or simply stations. A benchmark is a monument that is part of a leveling network and is a point of precisely measured elevation.

Yavapi County/Prescott, AZ Time-Line.

It was back in the mid-16th Century that European explorers first set foot in what is now north-central Arizona. You can read the fabled, fascinating history of this area -- Prescott, AZ and Yavapai County --  inscribed by hand in a sidewalk-art tour de force on the central square in Prescott.

War, birth, death, the Great Depression, college and hospital start-ups, busines failures, famous people -- it's all there, etched in cement, colorfully illustrated in some caes, impressive as it is interesting.

The time-line stops in the year 2000 for some reason -- maybe the city/county fathers (and mothers) ran through their budget?  Vital events have surely transpired in the past 12 years  -- and they ought to be worthy of commemorating for posterity.

Steam-Powered Tractor, ca. 1906.

One of my neighbors here in Wickenburg, AZ has a fully-restored 1906 steam tractor gracing his front yard.  As I stopped to take this shot I wished the homeowner would have appeared to explain the history of this turn-of-the-century (20th that is) workhorse.

Thoughts Make You Wealthy - 2/19/12

Love every quality in your life, finances, profession, mate, relationships, and most importantly yourself. The more you love, the more you enlist the Powers of the Universe to bless, prosper, and heal you. You influence your own world in very positive ways. Love, love, and love. Take at least five minutes a day to journal about everything you love. You are now tuning into the Wonders of the Universe. You have just said goodbye to opinions, judgmental comments, and wishes to change people and the world. You have just said yes to the Universe and a healthy, prosperous life. And it all started with your decision to love.

C '61 Classmate Bill Mohan Fetes Ann Marie Engstrom.

The photo tells it all.

My Choate School classmate Bill Mohan sure did enjoy lunch last week in Washington, DC with a very special friend of the Class of 1961.  Ann Marie Engstrom, Director of Alumni Relations at Choate Rosemary Hall, and go-to person last year for the very successful C '61 50th Reunion, was in the District on official School business and called Bill to keep alive the special reunion momentum we'd developed.  


Bill (a member of our organizing committee) would be quick to tell you how much C '61 came to count on and respect count on Ann Marie. We sure did appreciate her talents, enthusiasm and deft touch. And the great thing about Ann Marie (one of many terrific attributes) is how much she loved working with our guys and their guests, and how genuine the friendship has become with our entire class .


We're lucky to have classmates like Bill, and alumni association friends like Ann Marie.  Wish we all could have been on that fancy banquette in Georgetown!

Revenge of the Maine Mooses.

My old Choatie buddy Ken Phillips sent me this the other day. Ken claims the foto was taken in Maine, and the story goes something like this.

Four hunters bagged their moose limit up in the Alagash. As the dead-eyes toasted their good fortune, a brilliant idea came over these extreme sharpshooters.

Why not a comic change of place that put the hunted in the driver's seat and the hunter on the rooftop, where the quarry should have been. This seemed way funnier to the hunting guys than to the Maine State Troopers, who took a dim view of our boys as they went through the tool booth on I-95, hi-fiving hooves and raising all sorts of hell.

My freind Ken didn't tell me the end of the story, though I would guess some alcohol could have been involved.

Wickenburg Gold Rush Days Parade Grand Marshall.

If you hang out at the Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce long enough, you're sure to meet one of our town's gorgeous, living legends.  I had the good fortune to just that this week when Parade Grand Marshall  Ms. Jeanne Tirpak and I chatted it up about the Great State of Arizona ... our Centennial Celebration .... and fancy cowgirl outfits worth with classic elan. Grand Marshall Jeanne  was very cool with stopping passers-by and asking them to snap a foto for the Velo Blog.

64th Annual Gold Rush Days take Wickenburg by storm the weekend of February 17-19. Ms. Jeanne will be doing her thing Saturday AM, 2/18/12.