The Old West Revisited

There is more to the Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg Arizona than just the annual Cowgirl Up art show that I posted about last weekend.  The museum is also home to some historic artifacts and documents from the history of the town of Wickenburg.

On the lower level of the museum is a recreation of Wickenburg in the very early days.  When you look inside the grocery store, you are greeted by this ghostly fellow who tells stories of the town and what it was like to run the local grocery.

And the grocery is well stocked with provisions that would have been available back in the late 1800's.

Next door to the grocery is an area made up like an early settler's home.  All kinds of antiques salvaged from some of the old homesteads grace the rooms.

I tried to imagine myself cooking up a meal in this little kitchen.  It must have been unbearably hot during the summer months before air conditioning made cooking and baking during desert summers a common thing.

Down the street from the home is the Vulture Saloon named for the famous Vulture Mine that drew people to this location all those years ago.

Inside the saloon, the bar was well stocked and in one corner was the piano topped with a "saloon-style" lamp.

Across from the piano was a table set for a poker game in progress.  It looks like something scared off the players, they left leaving their cards and chips in place.

Let's not forget some of the hard work of the old west.  There was washing to do and clothes to be ironed.  That's another job I wouldn't want to do in the heat of the summer months.

Lastly, we have a view of what it would have been like for the miners to get their meals when they were out working the mines.  Today we have food trucks, back then they had covered wagons fitted with what was needed to cook up a cowboy style meal.