Welcome to Stairizona

JULY 2022 13 Welcome to the Stairizona Trail

By Thea Wilshire

Have you discovered the Stairzona Trail, Globe-Miami’s newest recreation resource?

Recently, Globe residents and visitors have temporarily lost access to trails in the national forest and the Old Dominion Historic Mining Park. To compensate, volunteers with the local public art initiative I Art Globe proposed a creative solution: an art-filled urban trail good for the body and the soul.

Several routes were discussed, and finally the organizers landed on a unique alternative: a trail featuring the hidden, historic concrete staircases scattered throughout the neighborhoods surrounding Globe’s downtown.

Many longtime residents have been amazed to learn of the existence of these staircases, some located only half a block from their own homes. Other residents have been asking for maintenance of these historic stairs for decades and felt these were untapped community gem.

The staircases were built in the mid-1930s by federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers. They formalized routes that historians think residents first created as shortcuts for getting around town. The Stairizona Trail includes these staircases, as well as sidewalks and huge retaining walls created by WPA workers. The WPA stamp can be seen everywhere once a person knows to look for it.

President Franklin Roosevelt created the WPA to combat the joblessness and despair of the Great Depression. Employing 8.5 million workers, the WPA focused primarily on the construction of roads, parks, schools, and public buildings. Globe was a base for a large WPA crew who created many public safety and recreation features in the Globe-Miami area, in the Tonto National Forest - including the CCC camp and the Kellner Canyon Picnic Area - and even Besh ba Gowah.

Highlighting the history of the WPA in Globe is a secondary benefit to creating this outdoor walking route for the community. Borrowing a name Dezi Baker coined a decade ago, the Stairizona Trail was proposed, and Regina Ortega stepped in as the champion overseeing the project.

The proposed route is designed around the historic staircases, a pedestrian bridge, and art. I Art Globe committee members selected a theme of flora and fauna that will unify all the trail art.

Community members were asked for input, and people loved the initial concept. They pushed to include other staircases and another footbridge not part of the original design. In response, both a 1.5-mile and a 2.5-mile route were designed. Then additional residents asked for inclusion of the stairs and bridge near the “G” and also wanted to include the historic cemetery, so a third route was mapped.

With the routes roughed out, I Art Globe began fundraising, with plans to install art along the route one piece at a time. Since the City intends to build a playground, skate park, and parking lot on the site of the former Pascoe Livery on Broad Street, this site made the most sense for a future trailhead, so the art started here.

Freeport McMoRan jump-started the project with a $10,000 grant to begin three art projects on the first staircase - an 82step monster now named the Pascoe Stairs. Brandt Woods painted a cascading poppy design, where each step has the number of flowers corresponding to its location, resulting in more than 3,400 flowers in this mural.

Local artist Rob Portero completed the Gila monster and poppy mural at the top of the stairs, and another local artist, Jim Ohl, started a creative lighting project, which unfortunately was derailed due to the historic nature of the site.

Next, BHP awarded $50,000 to continue adding art along the trail. Artistic benches have been ordered (including one with a Chinese design to honor the former location of Chinatown), and artist Katie Stewart was hired to create a quail-themed mosaic on the Yuma staircase.

The BHP grant will also fund murals on the Sutherland wall (leading to the footbridge), Sutherland Stairs, East Street Stairs, Sycamore Street wall (between the East and High staircases), and High Street Stairs.

Globe Mayor Al Gameros has adopted the Sutherland pedestrian bridge. Gameros has also invested $1,000 from an Arizona Creative Communities Initiative grant to purchase copper paint to repaint the bridge. Currently I Art Globe is awaiting approval of designs submitted to the City of Globe for three additional painting projects - one of which will be completed by community volunteers if approved. The Sycamore Street wall mural is scheduled to be finished in July by Averian Chee, who will paint an impressionistic landscape on this massive wall.

Keep your eye on the Stairizona Trail as new art arrives over the coming year. And please volunteer if you can, to help create more beauty!

Helping to secure your future.

Fernando Shipley, Agent 928-425-7656

1400 N Broad Street • Globe, AZ 85501

www.fernandoshipley.com

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1635 E Ash Street | Globe, AZ 85501 (928) 425-7676

Floyd Krank near the wash. The bridge is the Abiquiu bridge, which will be stabilized during the process.

SIX SHOOTER, Continued from page 1

But residents along Six Shooter Canyon Road are frustrated with the part of the plan that will remove several more large trees along the banks that they say will “denude” the area, reducing the value of their homes and making the properties unlivable.

Dickison Drive parallels Six Shooter Canyon Road between E Abiquiu Trail and Thetford, a private road that was the location of what neighbors say was an illegal bridge that may have exacerbated some of last year’s flooding.

The bridge was removed after the floods, and now the County is preparing to clear out vegetation and stabilize the sides of the wash with concrete.

While the County has said it will not remove trees from private property through eminent domain, there are areas where it already has easements. Dickison is a small access road for a handful of properties, and is one of those places controlled by the County.

At the June 7 meeting, Krank took the opportunity to address county representatives directly.

“They’re talking about repairing some road washouts that took place in our area five years ago when I brought it to the county’s attention about an illegal bridge that was downstream from my property,” he told the gathered officials. “What they’re proposing right now in our area is removing a tremendous amount of the trees up Six Shooter Canyon.”

He added that as yet, no one from the County has gone to the property despite multiple requests.

Krank says he had five feet of water and debris during the big flood, but in subsequent floods last year, once the bridge was removed, it did not happen again.

Dickison Drive is a short, tree-lined lane on Six Shooter Canyon Road between the Gila Pueblo campus of Eastern Arizona College and Besh Ba Gowah Archeological Park.

The larger cottonwoods there are decades, if not hundreds of years old.

“I have heartburn about it,” says Ira Dickison, whose family has owned property there since 1964 and gave the county and easement in order to build the access road.

Dickison is concerned that once the trees are gone, the value of his property will go down significantly, a feeling shared by several of his neighbors.

At a June 29 public forum the County hosted to provide details of the project, eight-year Dickison Drive resident Margo Flores voiced her displeasure via phone to Humphrey and county administration.

She said her property has gained at least $100,000 in value since she purchased it, but the value is in jeopardy because of the plan.

For a description of the Six Shooter Canyon NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Project, go to www.globemiamitimes.com, where we have posted a document from J.E. Fuller about the project. From bank stabilization and bridge upgrades to tree removal, the document describes what the County intends to accomplish with the work and the justifications for doing it.

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“The only reason I bought this property is because of the seclusion, because of the foliage,” she said. “My huge concern is, if you take away all the natural greenery and what attracts us to these places in the first place it’s going to reduce the value on my property and I’m not happy about it.”

Flores, like others, believe they have not been consulted in a meaningful way about what is going to happen.

The project is being designed and will be completed by J.E. Fuller, a hydrology and geomorphology engineering firm that operates all over the state.

According to Joe Loverich, who represented the company at the June 29 presentation, the trees must be removed to allow the County to stabilize the sides of the creek with riprap—strategically placed rocks that help create a foundation—and shotcrete, a “blown slurry” that will cover the banks with added steel mesh for stability. Several bridges along the creek will also be shored up in order to handle more water and debris.

Loverich says clearing the wash is not necessarily to increase capacity, but to help avoid future “scour,” or erosion.

“We love our riparian areas, because there’s not a lot of them,” he explained. “We’re trying to limit our impact to the trees, but in certain areas, some of the trees have to come down to put this in.”

He added that the county will not exercise eminent domain and take property it does not own, but since the county has an easement on Dickison, it can move forward with the work there.

From the county’s perspective, trees are important but protecting lives and property is the priority.

Recently retired Gila County Assistant Manager Homero Vela weighed in on the project just days before his retirement.

“We have to decide what we want to do: protect trees? Or do we want to protect life?” he said. “Our decision is basically that we want to save lives. ... But when the trees get in the way of saving lives, we’ve got an easy, quick answer for you.”

The project still needs to get federal permits, but plans are nearly complete for work to begin this fall.

Toward the end of the June 29 meeting, Krank hinted that the issue is far from over in his eyes.

“If this thing gets tied up in litigation, you will have to prove that it increased the flows below for the purpose of making it better,” he said. “And you won’t be able to do it.” u