Sunday, February 24, 2008

Big day in Ash Fork

Ashfork is classic small town Arizona -- hanging in there despite a life of boom and bust. The railroad -- big and then rerouted. Its main street fabled US Highway 66 -- bypassed by the interstate. And, currently, a possible slow-down in its current employment mainstay, flagstone, thanks to Arizona's real estate bust. Nonetheless, a local development association has a few plans up its sleeves.

However, today was a big day in this small town just north of I40. A local boy who made good as Arizona's official historian was in town to sign copies of his just published Images of America: Ash Fork. The sponsor, the local historical society, was overwhelmed with the number of people who turned out for the event at the local museum.

Here's a first look at the line of folks waiting to get their copies of the book autographed.

And here's the author, Marshall Trimble, who lived in Ash Fork from 1947 to 1955. Those were my formative years, and many of the stories in this work are gathered from a youngster's personal experiences and observations, he writes in the introduction. He arrived early to begin signing books at 1 p.m.; the original schedule included a talk by Trimble after the signing.

A splendid array of homemade goodies awaited people who finally got through the long line.

Later: the line is still long.

It was thanks to Georgene that I was able to photograph this event; here she talks politics with local residents. Note line in the background.

Since the author was still busy signing books, local talent entertained the audience in the small seating area.

With a long drive ahead, at 4;30 we gave up waiting for the program. Though the line was beginning to dwindle, Trimble was still signing books! BTW, this small town museum holds many fascinating relics of the Arizona past -- coming soon, a sampling.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's encouraging to see the kind of fetch-up that an occasion like this attracted in "small town USA".

Hermano

Ps: did you bring any flagstone home??

Anonymous said...

It's encouraging to see the kind of fetch-up that an occasion like this attracted in "small town USA".

Hermano

Ps: did you bring any flagstone home??

Anonymous said...

My apologies, I didn't mean to hit twice--of course it'll be good for the numbers.

Hermano

Anonymous said...

GJ, keep us posted on how Ash Fork survives the remodeling and building slump. AZ flagstone is so beauty-ous!
~Anon in AV.

Changes in the wind said...

Hi there, I guess I am one of those delurkers...I visit your site nearly everyday but haven't commented before. Prescott is dear to my heart, my grandmother lived there as well as a aunt and some cousins but I grew up in Ash Fork and in fact my parents owned the store there, it has the same name today. My husband went to school with Marshall Trimble and he honored me with writing the foreword in my book "Buckskin Bessie - Her Lost Letters", there is a link to the book on my blog.
We had received an invitation to the book signing but didn't make it so was nice to see the pictures and know that there was such a great turn out.

TomboCheck said...

I love looking through those books and seeing the similarities between then and now. Great post! :)

Granny J said...

bro-- I think everybody was surprised at the size of the turnout. Not quite as big as the entire population of Ash Fork!

anon av -- I haven't heard how the quarries are doing in the current building slump. Of course I doubt if a single California has ever shown up in Ash Fork. It's probably been 50 years since there was any remodelling there.

windy -- terrific that a native daughter showed up for this blog! You would have really enjoyed the big little museum, BTW.

tombo -- in this case, it's sad to see what's changed and/or gone in this little town.

Anonymous said...

The post was most enjoyable. Glad to see the big turnout.

Granny J said...

Interestingly enough, for such a small town, Ash Fork was the home of at least two of Mom's fellow residents at Las Fuentes. One was a railroad engineer on the Santa Fe -- logically enough. The other is the delightful little German lady who made those beautiful pressed flowers.

Anonymous said...

GJ, I've been to Ash Fork at least 4 times! LOL On the way to Williams.
~Anon in AV.

Granny J said...

anon av -- Ah, well, my Scrabble friend saw the book tonight and there were 1) her sister's first love and 2)her stepsister's father! My, what a small world!

smilnsigh said...

Good for them!

But I don't think that gentleman in the last picture, likes your photography one bit. ,-)

Mari-Nanci

Granny J said...

SnS -- he does look less than gruntled.

 
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