Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Swansea Township, AZ

Yesterday we went with The Mossman’s and The Doyle’s to investigate an old ghost town of a former cooper mining operation. It was only about 20 miles from Shea Road but it took about 1 1/4 hours as it is all on gravel roads with different surface conditions.

Swansea

After about 10 miles we came to a four way stop….in the middle of the blasted desert!!! Why is there a four way stop in the middle of the desert??? This is crazy…it’s not like there is a lot of cars converging at this corner at the same time!

 

Then we drove across this canal – part of the Central Arizona Project. It’s a cement canal!  Really cool to see.

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It was built in the 70s to bring Colorado River water from Lake Havasu to central and south Arizona.
300px-Arizona_cap_canal
It is 336 miles long! It is the largest and most expensive aqueduct system ever constructed in the United States.

Swansea (8) Just before arriving at Swansea we saw this interesting natural rock arch on the side of the road.

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the views we saw along the way. Pretty awesome!

Swansea (3) Swansea (2)

Swansea (4) Once we got to Swansea it was mostly cement slabs left on the ground with very little else.  This is the worker’s cottage building which has a roof put on to protect it from deterioration.

 

Swansea (6)

 

 

The view was fabulous though. Those are some of the slabs in the foreground.

 

 

 

 Swansea (5)

 

 

We did have a great lunch on the tailgate of our truck.

 

 

 

The ghost town experience wasn’t so great, but the scenery and fellowship was wonderful.

Remember, you are loved.

1 comment:

  1. Cool trip. I sure wish that there was something left of the town where I went to High School in Arizona. Ray mines division of Kennecott Copper company's open pit mine swallowed the whole town up. The town was moved and re named Kearney.

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