Flagstaff: At Home Away from Home

Sunday morning found us safely in Flagstaff, but without the muffling power of a muffler. We looked into repair places there in Flagstaff and since it was Sunday, nobody was open. Back in Phoenix, there were dealerships open, but no service departments. There was no way to have the car repaired that day. Decisions are really easy to make when there aren’t very many options. We decided to drive around to all the places in Flagstaff we wanted to see regardless of the noise that would make. If you want a sense of the sound the car was making, press your lips together firmly (but not too firmly) then try to blow out, as if you were blowing out a candle. That sound you just made, multiplied by several thousand, is what our car sounded like.

We first went to the Museum of Northern Arizona. They have all kinds of exhibits about the natural and cultural heritage of the Colorado Plateau. Flagstaff is down near the southern edge of the Plateau, the Grand Canyon forms part of its western edge and on its eastern side it encompasses the Four Corners area. Matt overheard a lady teaching her son a mnemonic device to remember the Four Corners states: yoU Can Name them All stands for Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Now you can name them all too! Grand Canyon is Arizona’s “thing.” The state is called “The Grand Canyon State,” the Canyon is on their quarter, and both of the geology things we’ve been too in Arizona use the canyon as a way to explain the whole “older is deeper and deeper is older” aspect of geology and paleontology. The geology gallery in MNA has all kinds of fossils on display from all different times. They are arranged around the room in chronological order. Every so often there is a diagram to show at what depth in Grand Canyon rocks of the same age would come from. Huge ammonite shells, a turtle, a complete Dilophosaur skeleton, a massive leg bone of something, and sections of petrified trees are all on display. We learned an interesting fact about the Canyon there: there are “missing” layers. Layers of rock that at other sites are observed to be separated by other layers appear in the Canyon next to each other. How is this possible? No one knows…

The majority of the Museum houses archeological and ethnological materials about the various Native American cultures of the Plateau. In the archeology gallery there were old yucca-fiber sandals, plenty of decorated baskets and painted pots, maps of village sites and a section of mural removed from a kiva. There was also a really interesting time line of the human activity in the area. The cultures have scientific handles like Basketmaker I and Pueblo II. Each of there observed development as listed along with what are typical artifacts for that culture. The really interesting aspect is that there was also a tube running along the wall that contained the typical foodstuffs of each culture. You can see the corn cobs appear, then get larger. Beans are added and after the Colombian Exchange you get European fruits and in modern times you add canned goods and such. It was a strong visual way to represent the information. In the ethnology gallery there were all kinds of modern objects from the recognized nations of Plateau today. There are Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, Apache and Pai. On display are pieces of jewelry in different styles, examples of weaving, lots of little pots and katsina dolls galore. The walls have photos and text panels that explain each group and the state of reservation life, often in their own words.

Attached to this room is a small gallery that recreates a Hopi kiva. The kiva in Hopi culture represents both the womb and the sacred underground from which the Hopi first emerged into the world. The main exhibit in the kiva is a modern mural on the wall. It details the whole history of the people (most Indian names for themselves mean something like “the people”) and it points to a mostly hopeful future.

The last big gallery in MNA was all about a recently-found dinosaur skeleton. It’s from a little-know group called the therizinosaurs. The specimen is so recently-discovered that it doesn’t have a scientific name yet. The therizinosaurs were basically dinosaur versions of the giant sloth. They had huge front claws and were apparently related to the “standard” meat-eating dinosaur, except that the therizinosaurs seem to have been plant-eating. The exhibit is set up like something of a mystery – the Mystery of the Sickle-Claw Dinosaur. First the mystery is, “What is it?” but then it changes to, “What is it doing here?” It seems that Arizona was under the ocean at the time and there doesn’t seem to be any good reason for a terrestrial animal to be 60 miles out to sea. The team that dug up the bones had been looking for plesiosaurs. The exhibit was greatly enhanced by the many large paintings by Victor Leshyk of the animal in its supposed natural environment. Environments, actually. Since so little is known for sure about the animal there are several possible habitats and life-styles depicted. All in stunning color!
After the museum we went to the Riordan Mansion. As many trees as there are in Flagstaff today, there used to be even more. Back in the days when no one had heard of Phoenix, Flagstaff was one of the more important cities in Arizona. In 1882 the second trans-continental railroad line was built through Flagstaff. This line allowed all that wood to exported. It was the Riordan brothers that ran this huge lumber operation. The two brothers, Timothy and Michael Riordan, married two sisters, Caroline and Elizabeth Metz. With all this family togetherness they decided to have a mansion built for themselves in 1904. It was actually two very large houses with a great room built in between them that connected them together. The style popular at the time is known as the Arts and Crafts style. It focuses on utility, the workmanship of the craftsmen, and fitting into the surrounding environment.. There are a lot of built-in shelves and seats throughout the house. Natural light is maximized with interior windows set high above the doors that let light into the hallways even when the doors to rooms are closed. The most amazing thing was the huge ovular dining room. There were window seats around it and the dining table was with amazing, solid, dark-stained table in the shape of a mandala (the pointed oval that forms when two circles meet each other – think of the MasterCard logo) so it would fit in the space. This shape meant the table had no head and not foot and Timothy Riordan liked this idea. Caroline had a button in the floor by her seat so during dinners she could tap it call the servants to come clear the dishes and bring the next course. Amazing. We totally want that dining room. There was a lot to the Arts and Crafts style that we liked. Someday when we build the Clan Castle we will be incorporating a lot from the Riordan Mansion.
Our last stop on the way out of town was the Beaver Street Brewery and Whistle Stop Café. We had planned to eat supper there on Saturday after the Canyon, but we just didn’t feel up it after those adventures. So went for lunch. The brewery is about a block south of Route 66 (the historic Route 66, not the new one) and is close to the old train station. It is another indication of how cool Flagstaff is that Route 66 is one of the main streets through town. Beaver Street was a great place. The food was really good. Maya had a pizza with pesto, sun-dried tomatoes and various cheeses and Matt got the Arizona quesadilla with black beans and all kinds of good stuff inside. Since it’s a “brew-pub” we had to try the beer. Matt tried the Rail Head Red. It was quite good. Even better was the R&R Oatmeal Stout mixed with the Bramble Berry Brew. That’s what Maya got. She’s come to really enjoy stouts. It was so good we got a growler of it. This was new term for us. It’s a half-gallon jug. Half a gallon of beer! If we ever go back, we’ll get it filled up again. It’s about the best small scale brewery we’ve found. They are so small scale, they don’t distribute so you have to go to Flagstaff to get it. We could defiantly see ourselves going back. The smaller size of the city, the fact that it’s a collage town, the climate, the natural beauty all around: it’s our kind of place.

On the way home we got our last “Wow!” of the trip. We had started earlier in the day and we were headed back to the warmer southern regions so, even with the windows down (car still leaking exhaust), it wasn’t cold. We could actually appreciate the falling of night. Somewhere south of Verde Valley, the sun was going down behind some hills and it colored the clouds in alternating red and blue rays. Not kidding. We saw the Arizona state flag drawn out by Mother Nature. We can only conclude that it’s a frequently-enough-occurring natural phenomenon that the flag is made based on it. The rays on the flag are supposed to represent a general idea of sunset and Arizona’s western-ness (the sun lands in Arizona when it sets, according to Calvin’s Dad). But this was so close in appearance it seems likely that the whole flag specifically references the kind of sunset we saw. In any case, it was quite a sight. Other people have seen it, and photographed it, but we’ve not seen anything like that before. Wow!