August 20, 2013

Tuzigoot National Monument: a castle in the desert

while in the Cottonwood area on an adventure i saw a sign for the Tuzigoot National Monument. now in my many drives up and down i17 i had often seen signs for it, but i never had a chance to stop there until recently. honestly once i passed through old cottonwood and onto what looked like a pretty empty road i was not expecting much. even upon crossing over the Verde river and seeing what looked like a pile of rocks on a small hill, i will admit i wasnt impressed. but when i entered the information building to pay my whole five dollar entry fee (cheap as shit, and totally worth it) and proceeded to read about the people who called this stone city on the top of a hill home, i started to be impressed.




Tuzigoot was originally built between 1125 and 1400 CE by the Sinagua people. they built this city on the top of  hill, the highest point in the valley that they farmed- giving them an incredible view of everything around them for miles. there were over 110 rooms built and yet, doors werent very popular, instead they used ladders through trapdoor like openings.


walking up the steep, winding path to the ruins i must admit i began to feel awe. looking around me at the lush, green fields and the distant but distinct sound of the water of the Verde i began to see what was tactically speaking a fabulous location. off in the distance i could even see the city of Jerome.



the buildings seemed haphazardly stacked on top of each other and while i walked i began to see a layout that made sense to me. the walls are made of what looks like stones roughly shaped, but modern at the same time. the rooms sit on each other, tightly stacked and as you end up higher and higher in the complex the view becomes more and more amazing.


there is one building that they restored enough to have you walk on the roof to look out over the valley and its pretty awesome. honestly, the inside reeks of bat guano, but with it totally open to the elements it makes sense that they would make a home there.
 

some of the details i found really interesting were the importance of the valley for trade routes, the pottery, and the mining history of the area. seriously, now shit. without the use of modern technology the indigenous tribes of the area had mined 20 feet into the solid rock mountain side to harvest minerals to decorate pottery, make dyes, create jewelry and make up for the lack of salt in their diet. badass, considering that was accomplished with rocks on rock violence.


also, the trade of the pottery was really interesting. the pottery done by the original indigenous people was very simple and utilitarian, but there were gorgeous pieces decorated with lovely patterns that were from other locations and were obviously highly prized by the families that lived there.

August 01, 2013

The Domes: urban decay in the middle of nowhere

there is a place near Casa Grande in Arizona that holds a great deal of stories and embellishments. of course because of its current state of decay and off beat location it has also developed a bit of an odd reputation. this place is the Domes, and not a whole ton of information is known, but wild mass guessing is quite prevalent.

i first heard of this place two ways, one was by a bike friend of mine who just love riding any and every road he can. his current goal is to ride every paved road in arizona. more power to you man, good luck and be safe because im a bit jealous of your quest.

the second way i heard about the Domes was through a website called Atlas Obscura (www.atlasobscura.com) that i enjoy haunting because it has helped me plan some interesting trips. i highly recommend going to the site and looking up your home area because it might blow you away to see whats hiding near by.
 

now the atlas says the Domes are haunted, used for satan worships, teenage beer drinking and graffiti- i would say yes to 90% of that. i find the satan worship a little hard to believe but thats mostly because im from new england and when i think satan worshippers i think stepford smilers which makes me think WASP families hiding their evil ways behind perfectly maintained colonial styles homes build on the edge of the national seashore under the veneer of protestant christianity and old world blood/trust fund life styles.
 

what i did note while there was that the was certainly a lot of garbage abandoned there, there was a ton of graffiti, what looked like the camp of some squatters and probably the most awesome acoustics ever. i was also surprised by the lack of structural supports of rebar to reinforce the concrete buildings- so the collapsed holes in the wall and ceilings were quite unsurprising. i would also was the site is fabulous for a backdrop for a shoot.

after digging on the net i found an article that said the site was originally built to be a computer technology and manufacturing site owned by Patricia Zebb back in the early 1980s. searching for more information involving her does pop up, even the business she owned back then and planned on moving to the Domes- InnerConn Technology Inc.. so having found that she is in fact real i have more interest in why the idea and site was abandoned. apparently a loan was defaulted on, as well as contaminated ground water was found.

i will say it is private property. so trespassers understand that you can be persecuted for exploring. i will also stress that there is a lot or sharp broken glass and rusted debris all over the place as well as a tunnel system- so be very careful.

p.s. i will be going back to take better photos. sadly that involves me buying a better camera.

July 31, 2013

When life drives you to a glass house: the Biosphere 2

the Biosphere 2.



i cannot ever stress enough how much this place blows my mind. i drive two hours and over 100 miles to see what i have always thought of as a temple of human dreams driving achievement.
 
 


i have always been a science geek, a science fiction enthusiast, a bit of a space exploration nerd and an engineering buff. i like seeing how things go from people talking about how awesome it would be, to drawing on a napkin, to finding the money and then building it. now the Biosphere 2 is a little bit of all of this, from a science fiction space colony on an alien world, to an engineering fete of mind boggling proportions, to a fertile ground of imagination what ifs.

 


ive always wonder as i walk the pathways if someday years down the line if generations removed from me someone is going to walk the paths of our first colony is a strange echo of a memory or maybe architectural child of the Biosphere 2. but if im honest the part of me that is in love with the movie The Thing and the Lovecraft Prophecies then runs wild and thinks of it as a survival or containment chamber of the things that shouldnt be disturbed.
 


Originally the love child of Ed Bass, a philanthropist, businessman and environmentalist, who committed to financing the construction and experiments of the Biosphere 2 in 1984. he did this as a way to experiment with the plausibility of settling on Mars, self contained ecosystems, green energy and environmental studies in sustainability.
 

 
 
the world looked on in 1991 as the environment was sealed with a crew of eight people consisting of Roy Walford, Jane Poynter, Taber MacCallum, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling (who replaced Silke Schneider), Mark Van Thillo, and Linda Leigh for the first 2 year mission. now i know some of you will think, 'huh, wasnt that a movie called biodome?' and then stoner humor will ensue. kind of. obviously hollywood needed a way to make money off of tits/violence/and a stretched connection to a current event.
 


at this point the public mind will remember the first mission as a failure- which it was not. the scientific data alone was a gold mine. what they did however learn, was that humans are shitty and will preen and politic over the stupidest shit. so while sealed in the group grew to have difficulties and formed cliques, and the outside groups involved in the management and financing of the experiment began to have trouble that would eventually boil over during the second mission.
 

 

 
i dont think ill go too deeply into the history simply because its all over the net in a much nicer form than i could write and far more scientific information about the experiment, habitats, diets, flora and fauna, sunlight, carbon and oxygen issues and of course, the infamous injury. so i will continue with my quickie with just enough to leave you curious to explore on your own.
 
 
 
 

the second experiment that sealed Norberto Romo, John Druitt, Matt Finn, Pascale Maslin, Charlotte Godfrey, Rodrigo Romo and Tilak Mahato was however a failure. But not entirely due to those inside. the financial and management team melted down due to many issues and forced a closure on the experiment. with their collapse Columbia University took over and the Biosphere 2 eventually passed from Columbias hands to the University of Arizona.
 
 
 

a few of the details i found most interesting during my multiple tours through the Biosphere include in no particular order...
many insects need ultraviolet light to survive- partially because its how they see and in some cases their body needs to absorb it just like humans need the vitamin d from the sun.
the crew quarters have their own small spiral staircases to their living lofts and have a stunning view of the area that they grew their food.
the air inside the Biosphere actually smells different from outside, and even more specialized inside from area to area.
the vegetable heavy diets that were high in nutrition and low in calories caused the scientists to lose over 10 percent of their body weight and though they were very healthy- they looked gaunt and were often fatigued.
to combat the chance of the expansion and contraction of the heated air within the Biosphere they created two giant 'lungs' that consist of humongous rooms at the end of a long and steep, very claustrophobic tunnel that leads into a chamber with a huge concrete disc suspended by a rummer diaphragm that will rise and fall with the internal pressure to regulate it so as to keep the glass walls from exploding from the pressure.
that chamber has a pool of water (to help cushion the drop of the concrete disc) that looks like a portal to hell or another dimension that Cthulu will emerge from- or at least giant tentacles that in my imagination the concrete disc is dropped onto to seal it off.
i want to live inside this Biosphere more than any other piece of real estate i have ever seen in my life but im bringing my cats and books with me if i can.

in conlusion. go, give them your money. its a small price to see science, the future of man and the dreams of life not limited to a single planet.