| 1.-5. Covered Walkway of the Ranch House |
11. Views from top of Spook Hill |
14. Cookouts on the Mountain |
Show Introductory window |
| 6. Apartment Managers |
12. Video from 1985 |
15. Aerial view of the Ranch |
| 7. - 10. Below the Ranch House |
13. Activities in the Ranch Arena |
16. Trail Ride in the Superstition Mountains |
My Introduction to
Red Mountain Ranch
Ron Zellner
In the summer of 1966 I quit my job at Bell Aerosystems and left for Arizona to complete a
BS in Psychology at ASU. I drove my 1964½ Mustang convertible (one of the first
ones produced)
with most of the trip along the original Route 66.
A short stay in Tempe quickly gave way to a move to East Mesa and soon therafter I
discovered the Red Mountain Ranch out on Bush Highway.
The ranch was a wonderful place to live: it was isolated in the desert, no freeways or housing
developments back then. It had a rich history, wonderful people, was teeming with desert wildlife,
had it's own band
(both kinds of music: Country and Western)
with Friday night jam sessions, horses, cookouts, etc.
When I left it was to live & work in nearby Apache Junction until I graduated.
This site contains some of my memories, mostly from old slides that I have recently scanned.
I know the ranch is gone and there is no way to go back; but if I could, I would!
This site has a menu that shows what the area looks like today.
The menu has a floor plan of the ranch house: menu items are
numbered and
located in relation to their relative content.
1. Courtyard between Recreation room and Apartment 2
with close up of one of the cacti (visible just in front of the back wall).
Click to close
2. Dogs playing on walkway in front of the courtyard & recreation room.
Click to close
6. Billy & Jackie Stewart were the apartment managers and lived in a
mobile home above the parking area.
Click to close
This is their dog after getting bit on the nose by a rattle snake. All the dogs roamed freely and seemed to survive these sorts of things.
My dog became adept at removing cactus thorns but my cat wasn't so lucky; Billy had to help me one time when the cat was
covered with Cholla- which were basically balls with barbed thorns protruding in all directions. The balls would fall off and cover the area around the base of the plant.
I still have scar marks on my fingers from that ordeal.
Cholla: called "Jumping Cactus" because when they were mature and dry the balls
seemed to jump off the plant and embed themselves into anything that passed by.
Click to close
9. In corral area, Me & Heidi on the precursor to the Mehcanical Bull. This one was on springs and
had four ropes that your "Friends" pulled on randomly and vigorously to try and remove you. Click to close
In corral area, Heidi had her own horse
Click to close
The ranch had an arena and there were often competitions on the week-ends for both kids and adults.
Barrel racing, goat roping, and various other races were popular. Click to close
A Rescue Race with Billy Stewart & Roger Hartman.
Click to close
Click to close
Barrel Racing
 |
 |
There were a number of competitions for the kids. Shannon Stewart needed a little boost in this shot (left).
Cindy Wolfe (Stewart) competing in a race where they had to ride to one end of the arena, dismount, crawl through an old tire, remount, and race back.
Note, the kids and adults had white shirts with "Red Mountain" in red lettering. |
Click to close
On week-ends there were groups that would come up for hay rides up towards the microwave station above the ranch area. Most rode on the wagon,
some rode horses.
It was always interessting, sometimes it would be a business group, sometimes a group of pilots from Luke AFB, etc.
Often the pilots were from other countries like Japan or Germany. They tended to buy fancy western clothes and it was funny to be out in the middle of the desert
with a bunch of "cowboys" who were all speaking German or Japanese. Click to close
Cowboy coffee, beans & chicken with Billy Stewart, Roger hartman, Bill Booth, and Dan Crum.
Click to close
Chicken on the grill with Bill Booth & Dan Crum.
Sun setting in the background, everyone helping out.
This is approximately the same location in 2011 (Realtor's picture, the lot is currently for sale: 1 acre for a mere $330,000) Click to close
View from that general location looking to the East/SE showing the desert & Superstiton Mountain in 1967 Click to close
This is a picture of the ranch taken from Jim Williams' plane. We flew out of Falcn field.
It was especially enjoyable to fly around the area at night under a full moon.
Click to close
View from the east side of the ranch.
Same view with labels. Click to close
Approximately the same perspective using Google Earth showing current view.
Can you see the differences?
In Spring 1967 we took an over-night trail ride through the Superstition Mountains with Don ( one of the ranch hands), the other tenents, & some of the Booth kids.
These are a few of the pictures from that ride.
Click to close
Main overnight camp
This location was used by the cowboys who worked with open range cattle. They had fenced areas and a pipeline from an
underground spring leading to a concrete water trough for the cattle & horses (and any other critter that learned of its existance).
We even had a facuet on a pipe sticking out of the ground for a ready supply of drinking water. Click to close
Taking care of the horses by the water trough.
Riding along the trail. |
Steer watching us pass. |
Click to close
