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Draft:Cucamonga Junction, Arizona

Coordinates: 35°18′09″N 112°23′08″W / 35.30250°N 112.38556°W / 35.30250; -112.38556
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I have recently acquired access to city officials in Williams with living memory of Cucamunga Junction. My effort is to access physical records of the community.
A list of citations for this topic is being developed here.
Morrison–Knudsen surveyed at least the northern edge of the village, but how can those records be located? Some ended up in the KHS archives when the ATSF offices closed. There is another box of unscanned Morrison-Knudson pictures to look into that may reliably record the community.
Pretty much done with Sharlot Hall. Should spool up reserach with Northern Arizona University, Museum of Northern Arizona, Baptist Church of Williams, and Williams community.
There are now several dead links to recovere from the Wayback Machine
Cucamonga Junction, Arizona
Previously populated place
1976: Kaibab National Forest highway map marking Cucamonga Junction, the only residential occupation area in the district.[1] Most homes were evicted and demolished in the 1970s; the remaining holdouts were eliminated by the end of the 1990s. Sections 9 and 10 are designated as "Cucamonga quarries" in recent resource[2][3][4] and environmental damage surveys.[citation needed] 1962 : Residences among the quarries;[5][6] the blue pin next to the church marks the Cucamonga Junction GNIS entry.[7]
1976: Kaibab National Forest highway map marking Cucamonga Junction, the only residential occupation area in the district.[1] Most homes were evicted and demolished in the 1970s; the remaining holdouts were eliminated by the end of the 1990s. Sections 9 and 10 are designated as "Cucamonga quarries" in recent resource[2][3][4] and environmental damage surveys.[citation needed]

1962 : Residences among the quarries;[5][6] the blue pin next to the church marks the Cucamonga Junction GNIS entry.[7]
Cucamonga Junction is located in Arizona
Cucamonga Junction
Cucamonga Junction
Location within the state of Arizona
Cucamonga Junction is located in the United States
Cucamonga Junction
Cucamonga Junction
Cucamonga Junction (the United States)
Coordinates: 35°18′09″N 112°23′08″W / 35.30250°N 112.38556°W / 35.30250; -112.38556[7]
CountryUnited States
StateArizona
CountyCoconino
Elevation
5,860 ft (1,790 m)
Population
 • Total200[8]
Time zoneUTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (MST)
Area code928
GNIS feature ID37733

For a span of four decades, Cucamonga Junction, also locally called Rock Quarry, was a settlement of hundreds[9] of laborers and families at the southwest edge of the high desert in the northwestern Arizona.[6] Workers were drawn to the location to work the outcrop of the Coconino Sandstone that became popular throughout the U.S. and around the world as an unusually fine and thin architectural flagstone.[10][11][8] Occupying a slope rising from the upper branches of the ephemeral Ash Fork creek within the Kaibab National Forest public land, the community earned a reputation as a loose collection of rowdy, uneducated single men, large families, and older couples. Aside from the nature of the work, the remoteness of the location, and the lack of local water sources, this particular demographic arose from the United States Forest Service's residential occupation policy that generally provided a refuge for persons unable to afford, or simply wishing to avoid, the particular costs of "living in town".

However, such residential occupation of public land, legal and illegal, became problematic for the Forest Service in the 1970s. Over the decade, the Forest Service evicted the whole community, demolished all homes, and then completed reclamation of the original public quarries. Only a few home foundations remain. The old community ground is now re-wildernessed and designated for dispersed motorized camping (no utilities, water, or toilets) on Forest Service Road 124 north of and about halfway between Williams and Ash Fork.[12][13] Later geographical maps pin the abandoned community's name where the community's church stood.[14]

Naming

[edit]

The records of the name "Cucamonga" in its various spellings are almost exclusively related to county, state, and Federal functions, both in public maps and in the names of private claims and mines registered with the state of Arizona. No less so than the origin of the conjectured namesake hundreds of miles to the west, Cucamonga, California, the origin and meaning of the name Cucamonga Junction is not clearly recorded.

The addition of "Junction" can simply mean a diminutive reference to some original place name and does not always refer to a railway junction. In this case, the name Cucamonga Junction does not signify that the location was a railway junction because the name was used before the ATSF Railway built a new line just north of the settlement. Maps of the rail line do not indicate a railroad junction or siding there although a short siding a bit to the west is designated for the now abandoned Double A Ranch.

The base name "Cucamonga" for this settlement is attested to in 1956 by a Williams flagstone wholesaler identifying Cucamonga Junction as one of his two sources of the stone.[15] While the original quarry at the location was public, later private claims in and around the location evoked the community's name. In the earlier 1950s, Emma Mae Cox made an expedient mineral claim north of the settlement, naming it "Cucamunga X".[16] The Jack Horner family (with eight children) lived in the community in the 1950s[17] and the Horner Stone company operated the "Cucamonga Quarries" claims until 2007.[18]

Especially when capitalized as a proper name, "Rock Quarry" was used by citizens of Williams when referring to the concentration of residences at the west end of the one "good" county road that the Williams residents previously used to collect flagstone. Baptists in Williams raised a church for the community, naming it "Rock Quarry Church."[19][20] The 1950s also saw the beginning a great expansion of the number of quarries miles to the west. While "the quarries" might refer to this larger distribution of mines, USGS maps record that most of the homes were within a mile of the church.[5][6] This usage of "Rock Quarries" then influenced how the community was referred to in the state capital, Phoenix.[cite the Phoenix newspapers].

Ash Fork, which had less direct communication with the community in the National Forest and was more connected with the other quarries surrounding the town, used the general term "rock quarries", and referred to workers living in any of the quarries as "rock doodlers".

Geography

[edit]

See User:IveGoneAway/sandbox/Cucamonga Junction, Arizona draft notes#Topos and road maps.

[ geology, geography, pre-Columbian settlement ][citation needed]

  • Creation of the Kaibab National Forest in 1906 resulted in a sort of community commons where, subject to some generous regulations, private people could enter and gather common rock and firewood for personal use at no cost beyond their labor and gas money.
  • Families and community organizations drove into the now public Coconino outcrop, recovering flagstone for construction back in Williams or Ash Fork.
  • Enforcing exclusive access to any outcrop required private persons or business filing approved mineral claims and actual work on the claim.
  • Quarry workers were often illiterate.
  • Corporate exploitation of the flagstone on the Federal land requires both mineral claim, leasing, and active operation.
  • 1915 act encourages recreational residences
    • Under the 1915 Occupancy Permits Act, the USFS had permitted Recreational Residences (summer homes).
    • Reversal of this policy began in the 1950s and some communities established under this program were demolished.
    • Of the Coconino quarries, all of the early quarries and most of the later quarries are within the Kaibab National Forest.


Development

[edit]

[ 1930s original rock doodlers ][citation needed]

  • [the judge's initial exposition of the flagstone at the World's Fair]
  • Initial Coconino flagstone exploitation required no capital investment other than individual ability to cross the miles of high desert to pick up loose rock and haul it back.
  • Any actual early quarrying required only "doodling" with sledgehammers and simple wedges. Loose overburden was removed with simple labor to uncover more flagstone to split.
  • Full production quarrying required only drilling and blasting of the overlying Kaibab Limestone. After mechanical removal of the loosened overburden, splitting and loading of the freshly exposed flagstone continues with the same manual methods as before.


Quarries were known at the location from the early 20th Century.[21][22][23]

The independent quarry workers, known in nearby towns as rock doodlers,[21] built places to live among the quarries, sold flagstone to wholesalers from Williams and Ash Fork, and called the place Cucamonga Junction.[17][15]

Even as private business opened more quarries to the west, hundreds of people continued living at the site without electricity, water, or sewer until the 1970s when the Forest Service evicted the settlement from the Federal land and demolished the structures.

In 1957, members of the community began construction of a church at the fork in the road below the homes within the quarries. Measuring 20 by 30 feet (7 by 10 meters), the church was a mission of the then Cavalry Baptist Churches of Williams and Ash Fork with services beginning around 1959. The first minister was Ray Taylor who would deliver Sunday sermons in his church in Williams in the morning, but in the afternoon he and his wife would minister to dozens of rock quarry residents in the mission. Rev. Taylor installed a donated generator, and the church could then hold evening activities. Mrs. Taylor taught night classes, including Red Cross education. At the church's dedication, some expressed hope that the community would become an incorporated town. In 1964, the Santa Fe Railway recognized the community with a donation of a locomotive bell for use as the church's bell.[19][24][25]

Eviction and demolition

[edit]

[ seeking RS for date of the 1970s demolition ][citation needed]

Environmental impact and remediation

[edit]

removal of building debris(?) and remediation of latrines

Owing to the aridity, human waste in the latrines did not decompose and contaminated the run-off within the Ash Fork draw. 

Establishment of dispersed camping

Note to self; update and correct dispersed camping and boondocking (not just RV, but RV mentioned).

Transportation

[edit]

The first quarries were located here because this place was the shortest and easiest distance people could easily drive from Williams to collect flagstone on public land. Over the first years of people using the quarries, road improvements were extended from Williams as far as the east edge of Ash Fork Draw in the 1930s. By 1949, the road from Williams was designated Forest Service "highway" 124 and extended down into the draw, up the quarried slope, and then to the Double A Ranch; so, FS-124 is also designated as Cucamonga Road and Double A Ranch Road past the settlement. Thus, one good, graded road served the community. The very poor roads elsewhere into the range were considered a hindrance to the industry, especially from Ash Fork where most of the commercial stone was handled for shipping out of state. Rather than traversing the shorter but much rougher distance down the Ash Fork Draw or down the 1,000 feet (300 m) bluff of Fitzgerald Hill, loaded trucks would run the 17 miles of graded road to Williams and then turn around and coast down "Ash Fork Hill" on US 66 to the stone yards.[ citations coming from here ][ and here ]

In 1959, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway constructed the Crookton New Line from Williams to Crookton. The new route passed just on the northern edge of the homes and active rock claims here. However, this 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) "Santa Fe Racetrack" provided no service to the place. There was never a railway junction or even a siding here, and trucks continued to haul stone to the train yard in Ash Fork.[26][ and more here ]

Education

[edit]

Owing to the one good road restricting reliable road travel from the community to Williams and owing to the location within southern Coconino County, the school children of this community were assigned to the Williams Unified School District. From the 1950s to the evictions, the children were bussed from here to the Williams schools as were other students from the residential area named Parks and from elsewhere within the national forests.[27] Attendance was actively enforced by truancy officers. [2 more citations coming]

After an electrical generator was installed in the Rock Quarry Church,[28] night classes were held there, mostly related to health and first aid.[27] [ citations coming from here ]

Further reading

[edit]

The following are witnesses to the environment and community of Cucamonga Junction. Each bolded date represent the years that the source witnessed the community.

  • 1949 to 1955 : Marshall Trimble credits the boyhood years he spent in Ash Fork for his carreer as an Arizona historian. The community-contributed images in his Chapter 9 "Rock Doodlers" represent the quarries and rock doodlers he visited as a boy on his bicycle.
Marshall Trimble (January 23, 2008). Ash Fork (Images of America: Arizona). Arcadia Publishing. pp. 109–114. ISBN 978-0738548326.
  • late 1958 to 1959 : In this corporate promotion film of the historic construction of the Crookton New Line; Cucamonga Junction is briefly seen in the background at 11:31-34 and 15:13.
Marvin C. Lupton (1959). Better Way for the Santa Fe. Crookton New Line: Morrison–Knudsen. Retrieved 2022-01-08. Cucamonga Junction was the only populated place ever actually located on the right-of-way of the entire 44 mile distance.
Note to pre-reveiwers: I am proposing this self-published book as "Further reading", in spite of the low-quality, editing because of the verifiablility of the content. Please, provide patient feedback. I am not committed to including it. Before, submitting the draft, I want to engage pre-reviewers.
Edith Depew (November 10, 2022). Ashley Jones (ed.). Kukamunga Junction. Xlibris. ISBN 978-1669854548.
  • late 1970s to 1980s : Charlotte Madison (d. 2020) was a Canadian widow who, having raised her children, moved to Ash Fork in the mid-70s to begin painting. There, she met and married the supervisor of the Western State Stone Company office in Ash Fork and maintained a trailer home near Cucamonga Junction. Her paintings depict features of the landscape and the living conditions of the community as well as portraits of the quarry workers.
Madison, Charlotte (February 6, 2020). "#38 Cucamonga Junction". Retrieved 2022-01-08. Each painting day we loaded up the camper and headed out early to Geronimo, Santa Cruz, Supai Red, Golden Buckskin, White Elephant, Mills quarries and Cucamonga Junction — where 'tis said, "Back in the fifties out to Cucamonga Junction, ya used ta be able ta help yerself, ta all the stone ya needed — fer nothin' —an' ya'd get a little hooch besides." [Notice that she named Cucamonga Junction separate from the quarry names.]
Madison, Charlotte. "Stone Quarries of Arizona". cmstudio.ca. Retrieved 2022-01-08. Quarry Girls Walking Flag, Rock Doodler's Residence by the Rubble, Doodlin' Rock See also Rock Doodler's Daughter.
  • 1980s to 1990s: Having moved his family to Ash Fork to live "off the grid" in Kaibab Estates West and working various jobs, including driving for the quarries in the area of Cucamonga Junction, Frank Bohan wrote a fictional mystery centered on a town resembling Ash Fork, but named Cucamonga Junction. Set in the time of the Fall of Saigon, which is incidentally the time the real quarry community was evicted and the residences demolished, that book's characters, businesses, and plot elements are based on persons, history, and geography of Ash Fork and the military reservations nearby.
Frank Bohan (2019). Cucamonga Junction. Independently published though KDP. ISBN 978-1730703737.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Cucamonga Junction -- Chalendar-Williams Ranger District" (Road map). Kaibab National Forest road map. Arizona: United States Forest Service. 1976. p. reverse. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  2. ^ K.A. Phillips, N.J. Niemuth, and C.R. Bain (1997). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2023-01-15. [Page 6] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
    Two companies working the old quarries under the Cucamonga name in the Cucamonga sections in early 2000s. The Horner Stone company is notable for the founding Horners raising 8 children at a relatively improved home within the Cucamonga quarries in the 1950s.
  3. ^ K.A. Phillips, N.J. Niemuth, and D.R. Bain (2001–2002). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2022-12-20. [Page 11] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ N.J. Niemuth, D.R. Bain, and F.S. Kimbler (2007). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2022-12-23. [Page 8] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b "Cucamonga Junction, AZ". NGMDB topoView. USGS. 1962. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  6. ^ a b c Hearst Mtn. Quadrangle (Topographic map). 625,000. 15 Minute Series. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1962. (church and dozens of structures)
  7. ^ a b "Feature Detail Report for: Cucamonga Junction". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  8. ^ a b Helen Pearson (April 3, 1963). "$3 Million Industry in Sandstone". The Arizona Republic: 8. One of the major economic mainstays of the Williams and Ash Fork areas is the sandstone industry. About 75 per cent of Arizona's $3 million sandstone industry is centered in Coconino County . Most quarrying is done in Coconino and Yavapai counties near Williams, Ash Fork, Seligman and Drake. Quarried and loaded by workers known as "rock doodlers," ... markets as distant as Hawaii and Alaska. But Californians buy the bulk of Arizona's sandstone.
  9. ^ "Along the Avenue". The Williams News: 6. March 31, 1955.
  10. ^ J. D. Bliss, C. T. Pierson (January 1, 1994). Mineral resource assessment of undiscovered mineral deposits for selected mineral deposit types in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona. USGS. Retrieved December 1, 2022. The discussion on Coconino Sandstone is generally applicable to outcrops found in the Ashfork [sic] area (tract FS-4, fig. 12) which is the primary production area for flagstone in the KNF [Coconino extraction is largely restricted to the Kaibab, See Figure 12]
  11. ^ Ralph Mahoney (July 28, 1957). "Beauty in Stone". The Arizona Republic: 96-98. Retrieved 2022-12-11. The first flagstone -- on a commercial scale -- was quarried 30 to 50 years ago seven miles northeast of Drake. It wasn't until 10 or 11 years ago, however, that ornamental stone users began to realize the potential value of this architectural adjunct to store and residential building. ... EXPERTS SAY the most beautiful flagstone in the world comes from these quarries. The largest major deposit runs from north of Williams to north of Seligman and is 30 miles long and 10 miles wide. The second largest, near Drake, is 20 miles long and 5 miles wide. ... They ship ... to markets in every state and several foreign countries.
  12. ^ Motor Vehicle Use Map, Williams and Tusayan Ranger Districts, Kaibab National Forest (Road map). Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Department of Agriculture. 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  13. ^ McGivney, Annette. "Ash Fork to Williams". Arizona Highways. As FR 124 descends off the ridge, railroad tracks parallel the road on the left, and the ruins of an old mining town at Cucamonga Junction are on the right.
  14. ^ Fitzgerald Hill Arizona (Topographic map). 24,000. 7.5 Minute Series. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1989. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  15. ^ a b "56 Prospects Bright for Sandstone; Two Chief Operators". Williams News. January 5, 1956. Retrieved December 1, 2022. Maetas buys sandstone from the quarries at Cucamonga Junction northwest of Williams ....
  16. ^ Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Emma Mae Cox : United States of America v Emma Mae Cox, and M. D. And Edith Rawls, IBLA 70-103 (Interior Board of Land Appeals January 31, 1972) ("The contested claims, which are within the Kaibab National Forest, were all located for deposits of flagstone. They lie in a line running east to west as follows: Cucamunga X, Blue Bird (which was not contested) adjoining it to the south, then the Blue Jay, Cuervo, Lucky Seven, White Rock No. 2, Mystery to the south of it, and White Rock No. 1.").
    Note: The ATSF constructed a new rail line through Cucamunga X in 1959, but, according to court discovery, that claim had was never worked and the BLM's voiding of the claim was permitted to stand.
  17. ^ a b "Getting Acquainted". Williams Daily News: 1. September 2, 1958. Retrieved December 1, 2022. These quarries are where rock doodlers as they call themselves dig the flagstone ... Met Mr. and Mrs. Jack Horner ... and several of their children. Mr. Horner has a claim in this section and works on gettng [sic] the flagstone out to sell.
  18. ^ N.J. Niemuth, D.R. Bain, and F.S. Kimbler (2007). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2022-12-23. [Page 8] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
    Note: Horner Stone seems now defunct. The last owner was Jerry Horner, mentioned as a boy in the 1950s in the biographical book Kukamunga Junction.
  19. ^ a b Helen Pearson (October 17, 1964). "Rock Quarry Church Has Acquired a 'Bell'". The Arizona Republic: 18. Retrieved 2022-12-11. ... northwest of Williams ... Situated between a fork in the road, ... [the junction where the GNIS pin is set] ... 17 miles from Williams. ... A bell was donated by Santa Fe Railway. Mr. Taylor conducts services on Sunday afternoon, after delivering the morning sermon at the church in Williams. The church is a mission project of Calvary Baptist Church in Williams. Under the direction of Rev. Ray construction of the building was begun in 1957 and Taylor started meetings even before the work was finished. Note: Ray Taylor and his wife are interred in Ash Fork Cemetary.
  20. ^ "Cavalry Baptist Conducting Bible School At Quarries". The Williams News: 3. August 6, 1959.
  21. ^ a b Heide Brandes (5 July 2022). "The Angel of Ash Fork: Fayrene Hume continues her contributions to Ash Fork history and families". williamsnews.com. Retrieved December 12, 2022. By the time the 1930s rolled around, rock quarries were the economic driver in Ash Fork. [observe that all of those quarries are over 10 miles out of town]
  22. ^ Coconino County Arizona, General Highway and Transportation Map (Transportation map). Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Corps of Engineers. 1937. p. 10 of 13. Retrieved November 20, 2022. The map shows quarrying on Ash Fork Draw with roads to Williams and Ash Fork (through Corva station).
  23. ^ Willams (Topographic map). 250,000. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1948. Retrieved November 20, 2022. The topo shows quarrying on Ash Fork Draw with roads to Williams and Ash Fork (through Corva station)
  24. ^ "Out of the past: Week of June 16, 2010 / 50 Years Ago". williamsnews.com. 15 June 2010. [clips from Williams News archive] Work is progressing on the Calvary Baptist Church building at the rock quarries northwest of town. The frame structure, 20 by 30 feet, has been in use for the past year. But from time to time additional work is done on it. At present the exterior rock walls are placed and sheet rock is on hand for the inside. Services are held at the church each Sunday afternoon. Attendance averages about 25.
  25. ^ Helen Pearson (October 20, 1964). "Rock Quarry's Church". Arizona Daily Sun: 5. Retrieved 2022-12-14. The Rock Quarry Baptist Church northwest of Williams is now open and holds services each Sunday.
  26. ^ Marvin C. Lupton (1959). Better Way for the Santa Fe. Crookton New Line: Morrison–Knudsen. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  27. ^ a b Helen Pearson (November 10, 1965). "With Help of Several Williams Organizations, Rock Quarries Get Red Cross Course". Arizona Daily Sun: 19. Retrieved 2022-12-23. There are approximately 50 families living in the area about 15 miles northwest of [Williams] generally referred to as the "rock quarries". The men are engaged in extracting flagstone from the ground, and the women keep house and tend the children under conditions somewhat less than ideal. There is no power, natural gas, modern plumbing, or telephone service to the quarries. Water is hauled from town, and the children are bussed to Williams to school. ... Students in the [Red Cross] class ranged from fifth graders to adults -- one of whom cannot read or write.
  28. ^ "Williams Aids Rock Quarry Baptist Church". Arizona Daily Sun: 3. September 25, 1965. Retrieved 2022-12-23. One Williams man donated a generator, and another a building to house it, making possible electric lights for the church building at the quarries. Rev. Ray Taylor ... installed the generator. And now his wife, Madeline, Williams school nurse, is going to offer a Red Cross ... class at the quarries two nights a week. ... she will also offer a Civil Defense course ....

Category:Populated places in Coconino County, Arizona Category:Ghost towns in Arizona

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