User:IveGoneAway/sandbox/Cucamonga Junction, Arizona

Coordinates: 35°18′09″N 112°23′08″W / 35.30250°N 112.38556°W / 35.30250; -112.38556
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is sandbox was established as general workspace for collecting citations for disposition of Cucamonga Junction, Arizona. It is transitioning into a draft space for DYK expansion of the topic.


That page is presently under discussion for deletion. The page was Draftified here. My sandbox for the notes for the draft is here.


As I understand it, the primary case for deletion is a dearth of online evidence that there was ever a settlement named Cucamonga Junction (or any other name) located at the point the Kaibab National Forest maps and other maps label as Cucamonga Junction.

  • There was in fact an unincorporated community of hundreds of claim holders there for decades, raising families, recognized by neighboring communities as culturally distinct.
  • So, the question remains, wrt WP:GEOLAND, that "Populated places without legal recognition are considered on a case-by-case basis ..." to be notable, given non-trivial coverage by their name in multiple, independent reliable sources.
    Notability is supported by the community being the primary original source of the "Flagstone Capital of the World" claims of neighboring communities and the state. Aside from the few periodical mentions, published independent witnesses to the community under that name are to be consulted. Even if the "Cucamonga Junction" was "made up" by the Forest Service before 1950 the fact remains that these authors use that name to identify a real community:
    • 'Editor of The
    • Marshall Trimble, notable Arizona historian from Ash Fork, Arizona (aquired contact information, but Mr. Trible is recovering from surgury)
      • Ash Fork (Images of America)
    • F.J. Bohan, self-sufficiency author and 15 year resident of Ash Fork/Cucamonga Junction area (attempting contact)
      • Living on the Edge, living off the grid near Ash Fork
      • Cucamonga Junction
    • Charlotte Madison, painter living in Ash Fork in the 1970s-80s (deceased, 2020) (Mrs. Madison probally arrived in the area just after the c.1974 bulldozing of the recidences)
      • Gallery of quarries and living conditions in the vicinity
      • #38 CUCAMONGA JUNCTION February 06,2020, profile a familly of 1970-1980 community.
        "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.""
      • G. B. and the Strange Canadian Painter Lady
      • Ash Fork Madness
      • Stone and Canvas
    • Ashley B Jones


Draft[edit]

Cucamonga Junction, Arizona
Populated place
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
CountryUnited States
StateArizona
CountyCoconino
Elevation
[1]
5,860 ft (1,790 m)
Population
 • Totalover 200 workers with families (1,950s)
Time zoneUTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (MST)
Area code928
GNIS feature ID37733

Cucamonga Junction was a settlement for quarrying flagstone in Coconino County, Arizona.[2][3] It has an estimated elevation of 5,860 feet (1,790 m) above sea level.[1] Now a ghost town, its ruins can be found in a campground on Forest Road 124 north of and about halfway between Williams and Ash Fork.[4]

While active, the quarries and the community that worked it were the primary source of flagstone in the United States, owing to the quailty and popularity of the Cononino Sandstone.

Settlement[edit]

As in the Grand Canyon, the Coconino Sandstone outcrop here shows pre-Columbian petroglyphs and ruins of ashlar buildings. Obsidian flakes evidence the working of cutting tools. "The Ash Fork area follows this trend and is particularly noteworthy for the large amount of prehistoric rock art pecked into the local sandstone and basalt. "

The only community building was the Calvary Baptist church.

Children were bussed to Williams for schooling.

The site is a waterless campground with cleared campsites

Quarries[edit]

Demographics[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Feature Detail Report for: Cucamonga Junction". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ Hearst Mtn. Quadrangle (Topographic map). 625,000. 15 Minute Series. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1962. (church and dozens of structures)
  3. ^ "Cucamonga Junction (in Coconino County, AZ) Populated Place Profile". AZ Hometown Locator. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  4. ^ 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.

Research[edit]

An aerial survey suggested an interesting history of the location, and other searches suggested notabilty, which I am trying to dig into. Even though I have been resigned to thinking that the actual settlement(s) are located miles to the west and northwest, t The only place where the United States Forest Service "puts the pin" and the only place where I am finding clear building foundations is around the Cucamonga Junction's church site, incidentally the Junction of the road from Ash Fork with the road from Williams to the DoubleA Ranch. The latter would be called the original DoubleA Ranch Road, but in 1960, railfans began calling it Cucamonga Road.The AfD has been "relisted". The 1962 USGS topo for the location shows the church and dozens of structures. The Arizona Republic profiled the community in 1963, naming the church's minister and denomination, and the location of the children's schooling (Williams).

I am open to the following results:

  • Delete Cucamonga Junction, Arizona, because we find nothing there.
  • Keep Cucamonga Junction, Arizona, because we find evidence of the settlement or some other notable case for the location under that name. Update 2022-11-20. There was a settlement there for decades. There was an unincoporated settlement, and the name Cucamonga was used locally before the apperance on Forrest Service maps (but ATSF already had one of those).
  • Move to another title it the Cucamonga Junction site is notable, but under a different name, e.g., Fitzgerald Hill, Yavapai County, Arizona, or DoubleA (BNSF's name for the signals there, named for a nearby famous(?) ranch).
  • Merge as a place associated with Ash Fork, Arizona, Kaibab National Forest, or some other topic.

I have started working with the Ash Fork Historical Society, but the contact works there one day a week.

Settlement[edit]

Was there a settlement there, and what was its name if it had one? YES

  • It is a bit bold (and speculative) to unequivocally state "There was never a community here". There seems to have been a hundred workers, give or take, in the wider quarries for decades (horse-drawn decades). The nearest town was 10 miles away across open, waterless desert. Before the development of trucking, housing at the quarries would have been essential to survival. Yet to be confirmed.
  • Emailed to me, 11/18: "I asked Roy [Hume] and he said the only thing there were a few shacks and a church. The Church minister was Sherman Watson, a rockdoodler.
  • Emailed to me, 11/18: "Roy said the Forest Service came in and tore everything down."
    • The Forest Service rangers had a policy of demolishing all "abandoned" buildings, yet there is a small church sized foundation amongst the abandoned quarries in the particular vicinity.
  • With the improved surveys that came with the construction of the Crookton Cutoff, the 1962 USGS topo shows the location of the church and dozens of stuctures.
Hearst Mtn. Quadrangle (Topographic map). 625,000. 15 Minute Series. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1962. Retrieved November 19, 2022.

Rock doodlers[edit]

  • DYK ... "rock doodlers" living on their claims at Cucamonga Junction made Ash Fork, Arizona, "The Flagstone Capital of the World"? Remember the term "cutters" in Breaking Away?
    • Heide Brandes, Route Magazine. "The Angel of Ash Fork: Fayrene Hume continues her contributions to Ash Fork history and families". WilliamsNews.com.
      By the time the 1930s rolled around, rock quarries were the economic driver in Ash Fork. In fact, "until the mid-1990s, 'rock doodlers' still lived on their rock claims around Ash Fork," said Cox.
      "I'm the pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Ash Fork, and one of my first weddings in the '80s was for a rock doodler. That's what we called the rock workers. It used to be a tradition that when a rock doodler got married, he had to push his bride around at least one block in a rockhand track, which is what they hauled rock in."
    • Helen Person (April 3, 1963). "$3 Million Industry in Sandstone". 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," the sandstone is handled mainly by three dealers. They are Western States and Dunbar Stone, both of Ash Fork, and T. A. Maestas, of Williams. Initially, hard work and muscle is needed to mine the sandstone. But once the stone reaches the dealers, the process becomes modern and mechanized. Cutting, stacking and shipping of the decorative and colorful stone is completed by power equipment. The stone is shipped by railroad or truck and has markets as distant as Hawaii and Alaska. But Californians buy the bulk of Arizona's sandstone. Demand for the stone is based on its durability, variety of natural color and ease of cleaning. Its main uses are exterior and interior decoration of homes, walks, patios and fireplaces.
      In the cedar-covered hill country northeast of Ash Fork and northwest of Williams lie the quarries. Tucked among the trees and clinging to the hillsides are the homes of the doodlers. Some of the houses are modest dwellings, attractively veneered with the flagstone or sandstone. Others are mere shelters. A few of the homes are equipped with butane for fuel, but most of the families are dependent on wood for cooking and water must be hauled from Ash Fork or Williams. No TV antennas or utility poles clutter this area. There are no commercial buildings. The schoolchildren are transported to Williams each day. The only community building is the neat little stone Calvary Baptist Church where the Rev. Ray Taylor of Williams conducts services on Sunday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Thompson are typical rock doodlers. Natives of Missouri, they have lived in Arizona for several years and in this area four years. They recently moved into a cabin and are working to make it snug and comfortable. While Elmer works in the quarry, Rachel cleans the yard and does a little carpentry repair, In the evenings they both work on the two-room frame house. On Saturdays they come to town to shop. The fact that the rock workers are away from town doesn't mean everything is serene. There are incidents of claim jumping, domestic quarrels and sometimes even a shooting that brings the Coconino County law officers to the scene. Only the younger generation are Arizona natives. Most of the older workers came here from Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia or other states where quarry work is common.

DoubleA Ranch Road[edit]

Everybody I contact knows about the ranch, but nobody thinks it is a big deal.

  • David Cox explained that the DoubleA was a huge ranch from the 1880s, but when the Kaibab was founded 1909, their reservation was restricted to 1 square mile, so the business collapsed. As noted below, the home is gone but there is some operation.
  • On today's Maps, the road FS 124 is named DoubleA Ranch Road, and it carries this name all the long way around from Ash Fork to Williams.
    • The DoubleA Ranch home was a couple miles north on the end of the road through Cucamonga Junction.
  • One writer says it was her grampa's ranch; the "original" DoubleA.
    • And there are many "DoubleA" Ranches in Arizona, alone.
  • ATSF named the block signals "DoubleA" rather that "Coucamonga". Cox says the DoubleA operation extended south of the realigned tracks, and you can see where the cattle underpasses are, but you can see some are abandoned.
  • So, you would think that somewhere you could find someing on line about the ranch itself. (I haven't found anything.)
  • From the aerials, you see two abandoned buildings, the "big house" reminding me for all the world of McLintock! and Giant.
  • I am going to have to go to the locals to find out the history of the ranch.

quarry railroad[edit]

Was there ever a railroad there? (before the 1960 Crookton Cutoff got there, of course) NOPE

  • Not all Places named "Junction" are related to railroads, examples: Junction City, Kansas (river junction), Grand Junction, Colorado (river junction), BETO Junction (highway junction). The church site is at the junction of "DoubleA Ranch Road" and the shortest trail to Ash Fork (Ash Fork Draw), and the road to Corva.
  • Yet, there is the suggestion that DoubleA Ranch Road served as a rail easement, connecting a curious wye junction in Ash Fork to bare foundations at "Cucamonga Junction".
    • Update 11/18: A local resident stated that there was no railroad at the quarries. I reckon that the spur on the 1945 map may have been for transferring stone from quarry wagons to railcars.
    • The route from the quarry is relatively moderately graded not for a railroad but for heavily laden horse-drawn wagons, or, simply, the easiest way for a lower maintenance road (it goes the long way around).
    • I found the abandoned wye junction in Ash Fork while looking for a basis for the Frank Bohan book and traced the road to Cucamonga Junction before I knew of McGivney's guide. (So, looking for a rail junction was something of a red hearring.)

Birth records[edit]

Mission 66[edit]

  • When I think of flagstone in the Mountainous West, I would think of the park facilities of Rocky Mountain National Park, but now also think of the larger Mission 66! So, I would like to look at any newsprint of NPS buying flagstone from Ash Fork quarries.
  • Quarry workers could identify their flagstone in the 1960s Grand Canyon buildings.
  • This particularly keys me up to get the 1966 Newpaper.com hit.

Beale's Wagon Road[edit]

Hoover Dam concrete[edit]

  • An early proposal for Hoover Dam was to make the cement mix from the limestone in these quarries.

Topos[edit]

Shows quarry on Ash Fork Draw with road to the Corva station.
Shows quarry on Ash Fork Draw with road to the Corva station.
Shows the site now on the Williams road with the projected allignment of the 1960 Crookton Cutoff.
Shows Williams road passing through Cucamonga Junction to the DoubleA Ranch.
Shows the church and dozens of structures among the quaries.
Shows wider range of quaries to the northwest. Shows "streets" for Cucamonga Junction.
Shows the name Cucamonga Junction at the church location. Very few structures remain.

To do[edit]

  • Contact FS Rangers about access to campsite.
  • Breakdown and subscribe to Newspapers.com. Done
  • Work with Ash Fork Historical Society. (ongoing, low bandwidth)
  • Breakdown and start a Facebook Account for IveGoneAway to collaborate with local Historical Societies that run Facebook pages. Done (is this some WP violation?)
  • Buy/Borrow Bohan book. waiting on delivery of two books
  • Buy/Borrow Marshall Trimble's Ash Fork book / Try to contact Marshall Trimble.
  • Contact artist Charlotte Madison, artist and blogger familiar with the quarry community. Deceased 2020. I could try to contact her surviving daughter.

Some of the Citations[edit]

  • The original trail from Williams to DoubleA Ranch is called DoubleA Ranch road. After the Crookton Cutoff was completed, railfans began to travel through Cucamonga Junction to chase trains, and the began to refer to the road or the veiwing site as Cucamonga.
"BNSF's Seligman Sub Map and Railfan Info: Yampai Summit, AZ to Bellemont, AZ". TrainWeb.org. TrainWeb. 2002-12-10. Retrieved November 19, 2022. The other route to the cutoff out of Williams leads to Double A. From Williams follow Rt. 66 west out of town and go over I - 40. Just past the interchange is a road that is marked Double A, not Cucamonga like on most maps. ... You'll see flagstone mines just to the west of Double A [East] and this will give you an indication that you are getting close.
"Western Railroad Discussion > Crookton Cutoff, is now cut off". trainorders.com. 2005-10-13. Retrieved November 19, 2022. On the west end at Double A, where Cucamonga Rd meets the tracks there is an identical gate. (This road comes from Williams, exit 161 off I-40)
All this demonstrates is that a person claimed to be born in Cucamonga Junction, in Coconino County. If taken in good faith, there was at least one woman living then in the heavily quarried location. The location was already in the National Forest, and the name may simply reflect the NFS's title for the local administrative division. Update: So, actually, there was a settlement there. The next question is when was the settlement abandoned?
"Cucamonga Junction" appearing on a USDA topo.
Of the dozens of quarries on Fitzgerald Hill, many still active, the statement calls out the Cucamonga Junction site for its environmental impact.
  • Cucamonga Junction by Frank Bohan (2019, Trade Paperback)
Probably based on Ash Fork (To be confirmed), if anything, the name being drawn from the park where the author hiked.
  • Ashley B Jones (Nov 10, 2022). Kukamunga Junction. Xlibris Corporation. Retrieved November 26, 2022. Kukamuga Junction was not officially the name of where I grew up. But that is what the people in the community called It. The people who lived there leased quarries from the forest service. All the people who lived there had to haul drinking water in fifty five gallon barrels.
I feel like I have been accused of somehow intentionally promoting this book because I am trying to find citations for the community. Yeah, even if the book is a total fake, I wish I had her sources.
The Western States Stone Company’s employee cheques were processed in California, so every new employee had to wait two weeks for their first paycheck to arrive.
Coconino Sandstone - Arizona Geologic History - The Coconino Sandstone (by Jan C. Rasmussen, Ph.D.) The Coconino - Arizona's Ancient Desert, by Jan C. Wilt, 1968. "Most Arizona flagstones are quarried near Drake and Ashfork from the buff colored sandstone named the Coconino Sandstone."
Williams News 03 May 1956, Thu · Page 4
Episcopal Rock Doodlers Doodle 8 Truckloads
The Episcopal church Rock Doodlers, 4 strong, hauled in 8 truck loads of rocks Sunday afternoon.
Mrs. Albert Knopf
Irritating
Arizona Republic 06 Jan 1968, Sat · Page 14
I's much opposed to a postal rate raise until we can have better service. This is a real hardship on some of our "rock doodler" families whose paychecks come from Santa Clara.
Williams News 31 Mar 1955, Thu · Page 6
Along the Avenue
I have been running into what is a new term, lately. The term is "rock doodler." Seems as though they are the boys who dig the beautiful sandstone from the inexhaustible quarries northwest of Williams.
They tell me there are 200 of them out at the quarries. Seems to me this community [Williams] ought to do more to encourage an industry that employs so many men ....
Williams Daily News 02 Sep 1958, Tue · Page 1
Getting Acquainted
Found some interesting rock formations around Williams. These quarries are where rock doodlers as they call themselves dig the flagstone from which many beautiful homes are built,
Met Mr. and Mrs. Jack Horner (nor the nursery ryhme) and serveral of their children. Mr. Horner has a claim in this section and works on gettng [sic] the flagstone out to sell.
Heide Brandes, Route Magazine
The Angel of Ash Fork: Fayrene Hume continues her contributions to Ash Fork history and families
By the time the 1930s rolled around, rock quarries were the economic driver in Ash Fork. In fact, "until the mid-1990s, 'rock doodlers' still lived on their rock claims around Ash Fork," said Cox.
"I'm the pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Ash Fork, and one of my first weddings in the '80s was for a rock doodler. That's what we called the rock workers. It used to be a tradition that when a rock doodler got married, he had to push his bride around at least one block in a rockhand track, which is what they hauled rock in."
A surprising new chapter
The stone industry grew, and Ash Fork proclaimed itself to be the "Flagstone Capital of the World." Fayrene's father and brothers went to work at the quarry soon after arriving.

Timeline of the community site[edit]

  • Jeffrey Davis mission
  • Beale's Wagon Road
  • ATSF/Ash Fork, 1880s
  • Flagstone Quarrying
  • Kaibab National forest, 1909
  • Railroad for quarries No
  • Crookton Cutoff, 1960
  • Mission 66, installing Ash Folk flagstone in the National Parks through the 1960s
  • Housing torn down by 1974 (Jones, 2020)

Historical and structural features[edit]

  • There are several DoubleA Ranches, but apparently this one is the original.
  • The Kaibib/Coconino rock escarpment causes a rise in elevation and a change in soil type and subsoil structure that favors evergreen forests. The Kaibib is laid out to encompass this escarpment. 
    • This escarpment is where the Kaibib/Coconino outcrop can be quarried.
    • The concentration of flagstone quarrying is therefore north and east of Ash Fork, just within the borders of the NF.
  • Pre-Columbian petroglyphs and ruins owing to the particular Coconino Sandstone outcrop.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:IveGoneAway/sandbox/Cucamonga_Junction,_Arizona&oldid=1128548299"