10/20/2011 and it was hot here in Apache Junction so we decided to head to the mountains and visit Show Low to cool off. Bill, Karen, & Lucy came with us. We drove to Globe and had breakfast at Jerry’s. They have great food and reasonable prices. We stayed on Hwy 60 driving north. The drive through the Salt River Canyon is gorgeous. We made a number of stops to take in the view and take pictures.
Bill & Karen with Lucy.
The scenery was out of this world.
The road winds down to the river and then back up. Finally we reached Show Low. The history of how Show Low got its name is very interesting. There was a ranch claimed by Marion Clark and Corydon Cooley. A creek made its way through the little valley and provided water for irrigation and cattle grazing. Sometime around 1876 the partners knew that one of the should leave but could not decide which one.
A card game would settle the issue. The game believed to have been called “seven-up” began and lasted through the night and into the early morning hours. Clark finally told Cooley “Show low and you take the ranch.”
Cooley turned up a deuce of clubs and won a reported 100,000 acres, the cattle, crops and buildings. a century later the main street through the town was named “Deuce of Clubs”.
Corydon Cooley was the 1st Postmaster when Show Low was approved for a post office in 1880.
We had our pictures taken with Marion Clark & Corydon Cooley.
The weather was perfect in the 70’s sunny, and no wind.
We took a different route home and stopped for a short visit at Fort Apache. It was and Army Post from 1870 to 1922 and a Boarding School since 1923. It was getting late and we still had a long ways to go to get back home so we didn’t take the tour which would have included the historic park and the Kinishba Ruins. Maybe another time.
It was a great day and by the time we got home it had cooled off here in the valley to a respectable 85.
