Draft:Cucamonga Junction, Arizona

Coordinates: 35°18′09″N 112°23′08″W / 35.30250°N 112.38556°W / 35.30250; -112.38556
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I have recently acquired access to city officials in Williams with living memory of Cucamunga Junction. My effort is to access physical records of the community.
A list of citations for this topic is being developed here.
Morrison-Knudson surveyed at least the northern edge of the village, but how can those records be located? Some ended up in the KHS archives when the ATSF offices closed. There is another box of unscanned Morrison-Knudson pictures to look into that may reliably record the community.
Pretty much done with Sharlot Hall. Should spool up reserach with Northern Arizona University, Museum of Northern Arizona, Baptist Church of Williams, and Williams community.
Cucamonga Junction, Arizona
Previously populated place
1976: Kaibab National Forest highway map marking Cucamonga Junction, the only residential occupation area in the district.[1] Most homes were evicted and demolished in the 1970s; the remaining holdouts were eliminated by the end of the 1990s. Sections 9 and 10 are designated as "Cucamonga quarries" in recent resource[2][3][4] and environmental damage surveys.[citation needed] 1962 : Residences among the quarries;[5][6] the blue pin next to the church marking the Cucamonga Junction GNIS entry.[7]
1976: Kaibab National Forest highway map marking Cucamonga Junction, the only residential occupation area in the district.[1] Most homes were evicted and demolished in the 1970s; the remaining holdouts were eliminated by the end of the 1990s. Sections 9 and 10 are designated as "Cucamonga quarries" in recent resource[2][3][4] and environmental damage surveys.[citation needed]

1962 : Residences among the quarries;[5][6] the blue pin next to the church marking the Cucamonga Junction GNIS entry.[7]
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
5,860 ft (1,790 m)
Population
 • Total200[8]
Time zoneUTC-7 (Mountain (MST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (MST)
Area code928
GNIS feature ID37733

For as much as forty years, Cucamonga Junction, also locally known as Rock Quarry, was a settlement of hundreds[9] of laborers and families at the southwest edge of the high desert in the northwestern Arizona.[6] Workers were drawn to the area to work the outcrop of the Coconino Sandstone that became popular throughout the U.S. and around the world as an unusually fine and thin architectural flagstone.[10][11][8] Occupying the vicinity of a nearly mile-long (about one kilometer), rising slope within the public land of the Kaibab National Forest, the community earned a reputation as a loose collection of rowdy, uneducated single men, large families, and older couples, generally providing a refuge for persons unable to afford, or simply wishing to avoid, the particular costs of "living in town".

Such residential occupation within the public lands, legal and illegal, became problematic for the Forest Service's jurisdictions in the 1970s. The community was generally evicted and all homes were eventually demolished while the original quarries were reclaimed. Few foundations remain in the present recreational campground[12] on Forest Service 124 north of and about halfway between Williams and Ash Fork.[13] Later geographical maps pin the abandoned community's name where the community's church stood.[14]

Naming[edit]

The records of the name "Cucamonga" in its various spellings are almost exclusively related to county, state, and Federal functions, both in public maps and in the names of private claims and mines registered with the state of Arizona. No less so than the origin of the conjectured namesake hundreds of miles to the west, Cucamonga, California, the meaning of the name is not clearly recorded.

The addition of "Junction" can simply mean a diminutive reference to some original place name and does not always refer to a railway junction. In this case, the name Cucamonga Junction does not signify that the location was a railway junction because the name was used before the ATSF Railway built a new line north of the settlement. There was never a railroad junction there.

The name Cucamonga for this settlement is attested to in 1956 by a Williams flagstone wholesaler identifying Cucamonga Junction as one of his two sources of the stone.[15] While the original quarry at the location was public, later private claims evoked the community's name. In the earlier 1950s, Emma Mae Cox made an expediant mineral claim north of the settlement, naming it "Cucamunga X".[16] The Jack Horner family (with eight children) lived in the community in the 1950s[17] and the Horner Stone company operated the "Cucamonga Quarries" claims until 2007.[18] 7", especially when capitalized as a proper name, was used mostly by citizens of Williams when referring to the concentration of residences at the west end of the one "good" county road. Baptists in Williams raised a church named the "Rock Quarry Church"[19][20] The 1950s also saw the beginning a great expansion of the number of quarries miles to the west. While "the quarries" might refer to this larger distribution of mines, USGS maps record that most of the homes were within a mile of the church.[5][6] This usage of "Rock Quarries" then influenced references within the state capital, Phoenix.

Ash Fork, which had less direct communication with the community in the National Forest and was more connected with the other quarries surrounding the town, used the general term "rock quarries", and referred to workers living in any of the quarries as "rock doodlers".

Geography[edit]

See User:IveGoneAway/sandbox/Cucamonga Junction, Arizona draft notes#Topos and road maps.

[ geology, geography, pre-Columbian settlement ][citation needed]

  • Creation of the Kaibab National Forest in 1906 resulted effectively in an community commons where the land could be entered and stone and wood could be recovered at little or no cost by private individuals, subject to some generous regulation.
  • Quarries workers were often illiterate. examples include families and community organizations driving into the now public Coconino outcrop and recovering flagstone for construction back in WillIams or Ash Fork.
  • Any individual exclusivity to any part of the outcrop required registration of a mineral claim.
  • Corporate exploitation of the flagstone on the Federal land requires both mineral claim, leasing, and active operation.1915 act encourages recreational residences
  • Under the 1915 Occupancy Permits Act, the USFS had permitted Recreational Residences (summer homes).
  • Reversal of this policy beginand 1950s and some communities established under this program were demolished.
  • All of the early and most of the later Coconino quarries were within the Kaibab National Forest.
  • Initial Coconino flagstone exploitation initially require no capital investment other than the ability to cross the miles of high desert to pick up and haul back loose rock.
  • Initial quarrying required additionally only sledge hammers and simple wedges. Loose overburden was removed with simple labor to uncover more flagstone to split.
  • Full production quarrying required only drilling and blasting of the overlying Kaibab Limestone, with removal of the loosened overburden, splitting and loading of flagstone continuing with the same methods as before

Development[edit]

[ 1930s original rock doodlers ][citation needed]

Quarries were known at the location from the early 20th Century.[21][22][23]

The independent quarry workers, known in nearby towns as rock doodlers,[21] built places to live among the quarries, sold flagstone to wholesalers from Williams and Ash Fork, and called the place Cucamonga Junction.[17][15]

Even as private business opened more quarries to the west, hundreds of people continued living at the site without electricity, water, or sewer until the 1970s when the Forest Service evicted the settlement from the Federal land and demolished the structures.

In 1957, members of the community began construction of a church at the fork in the road below the homes within the quarries. Measuring 20 by 30 feet (7 by 10 meters), the church was a mission of the then Cavalry Baptist Churches of Williams and Ash Fork with services beginning around 1959. The first minister was Ray Taylor who would deliver Sunday sermons in his church in Williams in the morning, but in the afternoon he and his wife would minister to dozens of rock quarry residents in the mission in the afternoon. Rev. Taylor installed a donated generator and the church could then hold evening activities. Mrs Taylor taught night classes, including Red Cross education. At the church's dedication, some expressed hope that the community would become an incorporated town. In 1964, the Santa Fe Railway recognized the community with a donation of a bell for the church.[19][24][25]

Eviction and demolition[edit]

[ seeking RS for date of the 1970s demolition ][citation needed]

Transportation[edit]

The first quarries were located here because it was the shortest distance people could easily drive from Williams to collect flagstone. Over the first years of people using the quarries, road improvements were extended from Williams as far as the east edge of Ash Fork Draw in the 1930s. By 1949, the road from Williams was designated Forest Service "highway" 124 and extended down into the draw, up the quarried slope, and then to the Double A Ranch; so, FS-124 is also designated as Double A Ranch Road and Cucamonga Road. Thus, one good, graded road served the community. The very poor roads elsewhere into the range were considered a hindrance to the industry, especially from Ash Fork where most of the commercial stone was handled for shipping out of state. Rather than traversing the shorter but much rougher distance down the Ash Fork Draw or down the 1,000 feet (300 m) bluff of Fitzgerald Hill, loaded trucks would run the 17 miles of graded road to Williams and then turn around and coast down "Ash Fork Hill" on US 66 to the stone yards.[ citations coming from here ][ and here ]

In 1959, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway constructed the Crookton New Line from Williams to Crookton. The new route passed just on the northern edge of the homes and active rock claims here. However, this 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) "Santa Fe Racetrack" provided no service to the place. There was never a railway junction or even a siding here, and trucks continued to haul stone to the train yard in Ash Fork.[26][ and more here ]

Education[edit]

Owing to the one good road and the location within southern Coconino County, the school children of this community were assigned to the Williams Unified School District. From the 1950s to the evictions, the children were bussed from here to the Williams schools as were other students from Parks and from elsewhere within the national forests. Attendance was actively enforced by truancy officers.[3 citations coming]

After an electrical generator was installed in the Rock Quarry Church,[27] night classes were held there, mostly related to health and first aid.[ citations coming from here ]

Further reading[edit]

The following are witnesses to the environment and community of Cucamonga Junction. Each bolded date represent the years that the source witnessed the community.

  • 1949 to 1955 : Marshall Trimble credits the boyhood years he spent in Ash Fork for his carreer as an Arizona historian. The community-contributed images in his Chapter 9 "Rock Doodlers" represent the quarries and rock doodlers he visited as a boy on his bicycle.
Marshall Trimble (January 23, 2008). Ash Fork (Images of America: Arizona). Arcadia Publishing. pp. 109–114. ISBN 978-0738548326.
  • late 1958 to 1959 : In this corporate promotion film of the historic construction of the Crookton New Line; Cucamonga Junction is briefly seen in the background at 11:31-34 and 15:13.
Marvin C. Lupton (1959). Better Way for the Santa Fe. Crookton New Line: Morrison–Knudsen. Retrieved 2022-01-08. Cucamonga Junction was the only populated place ever actually located on the right-of-way of the entire 44 mile distance.
Note to pre-reveiwers: I am proposing this self-published book as "Further reading", in spite of the low-quality, editing because of the verifiablility of the content. Please, provide patient feedback. I am not committed to including it. Before, submitting the draft, I want to engage pre-reviewers.
Edith Depew (November 10, 2022). Ashley Jones (ed.). Kukamunga Junction. Xlibris. ISBN 978-1669854548.
Madison, Charlotte (February 6, 2020). "#38 Cucamonga Junction". Retrieved 2022-01-08. 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." [Notice that Cucamonga Junction is not listed within the names of the quarries.]
Madison, Charlotte. "Stone Quarries of Arizona". cmstudio.ca. Retrieved 2022-01-08. Quarry Girls Walking Flag, Rock Doodler's Residence by the Rubble, Doodlin' Rock See also Rock Doodler's Daughter.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Cucamonga Junction -- Chalendar-Williams Ranger District" (Road map). Kaibab National Forest road map. Arizona: United States Forest Service. 1976. p. reverse. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  2. ^ K.A. Phillips, N.J. Niemuth, and C.R. Bain (1997). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2023-01-15. [Page 6] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
    Two companies working the old quarries under the Cucamonga name in the Cucamonga sections in early 2000s. The Horner Stone company is notable for the founding Horners raising 8 children at a relatively improved home within the Cucamonga quarries in the 1950s.
  3. ^ K.A. Phillips, N.J. Niemuth, and D.R. Bain (2001–2002). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2022-12-20. [Page 11] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ N.J. Niemuth, D.R. Bain, and F.S. Kimbler (2007). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2022-12-23. [Page 8] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b "Cucamonga Junction, AZ". NGMDB topoView. USGS. 1962. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
  6. ^ a b c Hearst Mtn. Quadrangle (Topographic map). 625,000. 15 Minute Series. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1962. (church and dozens of structures)
  7. ^ a b "Feature Detail Report for: Cucamonga Junction". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  8. ^ a b Helen Pearson (April 3, 1963). "$3 Million Industry in Sandstone". The 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," ... markets as distant as Hawaii and Alaska. But Californians buy the bulk of Arizona's sandstone.
  9. ^ "Along the Avenue". The Williams News: 6. March 31, 1955.
  10. ^ J. D. Bliss, C. T. Pierson (January 1, 1994). Mineral resource assessment of undiscovered mineral deposits for selected mineral deposit types in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona. USGS. Retrieved December 1, 2022. The discussion on Coconino Sandstone is generally applicable to outcrops found in the Ashfork [sic] area (tract FS-4, fig. 12) which is the primary production area for flagstone in the KNF [Coconino extraction is largely restricted to the Kaibab, See Figure 12]
  11. ^ Ralph Mahoney (July 28, 1957). "Beauty in Stone". The Arizona Republic: 96-98. Retrieved 2022-12-11. The first flagstone -- on a commercial scale -- was quarried 30 to 50 years ago seven miles northeast of Drake. It wasn't until 10 or 11 years ago, however, that ornamental stone users began to realize the potential value of this architectural adjunct to store and residential building. ... EXPERTS SAY the most beautiful flagstone in the world comes from these quarries. The largest major deposit runs from north of Williams to north of Seligman and is 30 miles long and 10 miles wide. The second largest, near Drake, is 20 miles long and 5 miles wide. ... They ship ... to markets in every state and several foreign countries.
  12. ^ Motor Vehicle Use Map, Williams and Tusayan Ranger Districts, Kaibab National Forest (Road map). Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Department of Agriculture. 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2022. The old community ground has been "re-wildernessed" and is now designated for "Dispersed Motorized Camping", although there is no availble potable water or pit toilets.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ Fitzgerald Hill Arizona (Topographic map). 24,000. 7.5 Minute Series. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1989. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  15. ^ a b "56 Prospects Bright for Sandstone; Two Chief Operators". Williams News. January 5, 1956. Retrieved December 1, 2022. Maetas buys sandstone from the quarries at Cucamonga Junction northwest of Williams ....
  16. ^ Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Emma Mae Cox : United States of America v Emma Mae Cox, and M. D. And Edith Rawls, IBLA 70-103 (Interior Board of Land Appeals January 31, 1972) ("The contested claims, which are within the Kaibab National Forest, were all located for deposits of flagstone. They lie in a line running east to west as follows: Cucamunga X, Blue Bird (which was not contested) adjoining it to the south, then the Blue Jay, Cuervo, Lucky Seven, White Rock No. 2, Mystery to the south of it, and White Rock No. 1."). Note: The ATSF constructed a new rail line through Cucamunga X in 1959, but that claim had never been worked and was voided by the BLM.
  17. ^ a b "Getting Acquainted". Williams Daily News: 1. September 2, 1958. Retrieved December 1, 2022. These quarries are where rock doodlers as they call themselves dig the flagstone ... Met Mr. and Mrs. Jack Horner ... and several of their children. Mr. Horner has a claim in this section and works on gettng [sic] the flagstone out to sell.
  18. ^ N.J. Niemuth, D.R. Bain, and F.S. Kimbler (2007). Directory of Active Mines in Arizona (PDF). Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources. Retrieved 2022-12-23. [Page 8] AMERICAN SANDSTONE [operates at] Cucamunga Quarries T22N R1 W Sec. 9 [page 15] HORNER STONE [operates at] Cucomunga Quarry{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) : the Same two companies. Horner Stone seems now defunct. The last owner was Jerry Horner, incidentally, mentioned as a boy in the book Kukamunga Junction.
  19. ^ a b Helen Pearson (October 17, 1964). "Rock Quarry Church Has Acquired a 'Bell'". The Arizona Republic: 18. Retrieved 2022-12-11. ... northwest of Williams ... Situated between a fork in the road, ... [the junction where the GNIS pin is set] ... 17 miles from Williams. ... A bell was donated by Santa Fe Railway. Mr. Taylor conducts services on Sunday afternoon, after delivering the morning sermon at the church in Williams. The church is a mission project of Calvary Baptist Church in Williams. Under the direction of Rev. Ray construction of the building was begun in 1957 and Taylor started meetings even before the work was finished. Note: Ray Taylor and his wife are interred in Ash Fork Cemetary.
  20. ^ "Cavalry Baptist Conducting Bible School At Quarries". The Williams News: 3. August 6, 1959.
  21. ^ a b Heide Brandes. "The Angel of Ash Fork: Fayrene Hume continues her contributions to Ash Fork history and families". williamsnews.com. Retrieved December 12, 2022. By the time the 1930s rolled around, rock quarries were the economic driver in Ash Fork. [observe that all of those quarries are over 10 miles out of town]
  22. ^ Coconino County Arizona, General Highway and Transportation Map (Transportation map). Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Corps of Engineers. 1937. p. 10 of 13. Retrieved November 20, 2022. The map shows quarrying on Ash Fork Draw with roads to Williams and Ash Fork (through Corva station).
  23. ^ Willams (Topographic map). 250,000. Cucamonga Junction, AZ: United States Geological Survey. 1948. Retrieved November 20, 2022. The topo shows quarrying on Ash Fork Draw with roads to Williams and Ash Fork (through Corva station)
  24. ^ "Out of the past: Week of June 16, 2010 / 50 Years Ago". williamsnews.com. [clips from Williams News archive] Work is progressing on the Calvary Baptist Church building at the rock quarries northwest of town. The frame structure, 20 by 30 feet, has been in use for the past year. But from time to time additional work is done on it. At present the exterior rock walls are placed and sheet rock is on hand for the inside. Services are held at the church each Sunday afternoon. Attendance averages about 25.
  25. ^ Helen Pearson (October 20, 1964). "Rock Quarry's Church". Arizona Daily Sun: 5. Retrieved 2022-12-14. The Rock Quarry Baptist Church northwest of Williams is now open and holds services each Sunday.
  26. ^ Marvin C. Lupton (1959). Better Way for the Santa Fe. Crookton New Line: Morrison–Knudsen. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  27. ^
    "Williams Aids Rock Quarry Baptist Church". Arizona Daily Sun: 3. September 25, 1965. Retrieved 2022-12-23. One Williams man donated a generator, and another a building to house it, making possible electric lights for the church building at the quarries. Rev. Ray Taylor ... installed the generator. And now his wife, Madeline, Williams school nurse, is going to offer a Red Cross ... class at the quarries two nights a week. ... she will also offer a Civil Defense course ....

Category:Populated places in Coconino County, Arizona Category:Ghost towns in Arizona

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