Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Salero



Salero is a ghost town in Arizona. We have visited a number of times. The name has an interesting beginning. The priest at a local mission were expecting the Bishop of Sonora. They planned a feast in his honor. All the local delicacies were served in exquisite manner the only thing missing a saltcellar. The priest in charge shamed at his oversight sent men into the nearby mountains to mine silver and mold the required table piece. Thus the name Salero which means saltcellar.

Our visits took place at a much later date. A good friend of my parents lived at the mine which was no longer in operation. The walls of his home were adobe about a foot thick. Cool in the summer and held the heat from the fireplace in during winter. There was no electricity on the ranch he used lanterns. His water came from a well. This well was very deep and had no pump, when visiting the man of the house was sent to pull up enough pails of water to last several days. His reward was a few shots of El Presidente a favorite libation of the host.

The shell of several old buildings were still standing and we discovered many treasures. Pieces of old pottery, bottles, books and rusty tools. The main house was like a museum. Our friend had worked in the movie industry and had posters and pictures of stars from the twenties, along with other memorabilia from the films.

On one visit we were startled when a scruffy looking miner appeared out of nowhere. At first we though he might be a ghost from the past. He spoke and asked us what day it was. We replied "Saturday". "No I mean what is the date"? We told him the month and date and he was surprised. "I have been here longer than I thought." Turned out he was just an eccentric writer living in one of the old buildings.

Our friend passed away quite a few years ago. The ruins are now fenced off to the public. We still have some of the items we collected there and cherish our memories and this little part of Arizona History.






4 comments:

Anonymous said...

moosh I have more pictures of the ranch if you want to post them It is to bad no one can go there now , it makes me sad but I have a lot of memorysof the place they can not take that away from me

Anonymous said...

how sad that it is closed off
I think the man was a ghost still.
please take more pictures of your treasures and post them for us to see from this place!
i love ghost towns.
that picture would be neat hanging up in your home.
its neat that you got to experiance time there and learn neat things about it.thanks for sharing!

Rambling Woods said...

It is too bad that they closed it off as I am sure people would love to see it...I thought you were going to say that the man was a ghost..LOL..
Michelle From Rambling Woods

moosh said...

Cry it is private land so they can do whatever they want. In a way it is better because many of the ghost towns have been destroyed by people taking things. I will have more pictures and ghost town stories in the future.

Michelle have been in many ghost towns never seen a ghost but If you listen carefully you can here whispers.