Steps from Here to There -- and Nowhere

Stairs, like railroad trains and highways, are links between Here and There. Once in a very great while the There is obscure; usually, we're talking about the usual Up and Down. Example: these RR ties made into steps from the street up the incline to a yard here in Prescott.

Similarly, the pair of steps here (above and below). What caught my attention was how the stairs were integrated into the driveway. An interesting local innovation.

Back last month on my trip to Cajun country, which is also oil country, I scored these shots. I find stairs mounting a great tank (above) to be absolutely elegant and was pleased to get a replacement for pictures I took last year in Flagstaff, lost when my hard drive crashed. However, the tangle at the bayou oil collection point below is a bit of a puzzle. (One problem with Prescott is that we really have no interesting industrial stuff to photograph, except maybe old mines.)

But best of all in my stairway folder is a set of steps that deliberately go absolutely Nowhere. At all. Found at the National Ornamental Metal Museum, a favorite hometown showcase of the Famous Niece from Memphis. Names of cities and companies are featured on each rung; we couldn't figure out if all were steel mill towns/companies or not, though that's what we suspect.

Steps and stairs everywhere you look

Why staircases? Better, why not staircases? They are, after all, not only photogenic, but quite necessary landscape items in our world of hilly ups and downs. Besides, many are built of local stone, which can be quite handsome.

This pair of staircases leads down to the trail alongside Granite Creek. Above, the wooden steps from the Dinner Bell; below, stairs from the patio behind Coffee Roasters. Both on Gurley Street.

While rough-hewn stones are, frankly, more attractive, one is less likely to stumble on a smooth cement step. However, the Congress Street staircase (above) is inset in an neat rock wall. Nice curves in the Park Avenue steps (below).

More concrete -- rising up to the tennis courts at ERAU.

Now I'm not really sure whether or not these steps on South McCormick are ever used. However, I like them, as they are each cut from a single stone.

These stairs out at the Thumb Butte picnic area are built from flagstone quarried out near Drake. Dramatically different from what one finds in the Prescott area.

The stone work over at the Smoki Museum and the former armory dates from WPA days and is a splendid example of what can be done.

More flagstone steps beginning where the sidewalk leaves off. On Beach Street.

Here's one of my favorite sets of steps that are probably never used, inasmuch as the house above sits on High Street, not Coronado where the stairs start.

Oh, what grand granite slabs one climbs at the Shrine of St. Joseph down in Yarnell. And almost too many to count!

But nothing in Prescott can match the industrial staircase I saw last summer up in Flagstaff with the dotter's family. Up and around it went. Makes me wish for a wee bit of industrial stuff hereabouts -- makes such great photos!

The Mysterious Staircase

Many local folk are familiar with the hillside staircase that goes from the foot of Willis Street up to the Sacred Heart Church and school. Far fewer are aware that there is another set of steps up a hillside. These stairs start behind the Middle School and take one up to McCormick Street at the spot where it turns west for the final climb up to the Pioneer Home, barely visible at the top of the picture above.

I've no idea of the history of these stairs. I can speculate that they were put in place for use by residents of the home back in the world before autos were so ubiquitous. However, they don't take the user toward downtown -- it's much easier to take the sidewalk straight down McCormick to go shopping or to Whiskey Row for a beer. There are even benches to rest along the way.

Maybe the stairs were for students who lived up the hill? No, they don't actually end up at the school, either, but rather wind up at a path to Aubrey Street. Is there anybody out there with an answer?