Patagonia, AZ

By Mark Lipsky, October 24, 2020

 

Over a dozen years ago, my friends Cliff & Linda moved from Cave Creek AZ to their dream house just a few miles from downtown Patagonia AZ. The dream lasted less than a year when they discovered that a Canadian mining operation (they’re almost always Canadian) had begun exploratory drilling just over the mountain. So began a decade-long battle between Cliff, Linda and the Patagonia Area Resource Alliance (PARA), an organization they co-founded, and a succession of mining interests determined to rape and pillage the Patagonia Mountains and vicinity.

Very briefly, the General Mining Act of 1872, still in full force in 2020, essentially dictates that nothing trumps mining where federal land use is concerned. Any entity from anywhere in the world can make a claim, purchase land for $5 per acre – that’s not a typo – and pay a small royalty for what can be billions of dollars in minerals that they rip from the Earth at any environmental and quality of life cost, inevitably leaving behind unconscionable, unrecoverable mayhem. They then pull up stakes and do it all over again across some other previously pristine, long-cherished American landscape.

But that’s not the point of this post. That’s a movie or a TV series that I hope to write, produce or otherwise inspire one day. This day is for sharing a handful of views of Patagonia. I landed here this past Monday for a week. Next is a short mosey down the road to Kartchner Caverns State Park in Benson Az. then back to Mesa/Carefree for what I hope to be final work on the trailer…at least for the near term.

First night in town was plenty of beer and a delicious burrito with Cliff at the Wagon Wheel.

Night two I picked up a few things at Red Mountain Foods including bananas and blueberries for morning oatmeal. Do buy the Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream. Don’t buy the Cucina & Amore tomato and red pepper ‘Italian’ pasta sauce.

This so-called arrabbiata sauce claims to be a product of Italy. It’s the product of a delusional mind. Watery, bland and sad.

Dinner tonight may be take-out from the deliciously named Velvet Elvis Pizzeria (or pizza company depending on which sign you believe). I’ve eaten there before but not in years. Certainly not during a pandemic. As with all pizza joints, hopes high, expectations low.

(I got take-out from Velvet Elvis. Didn’t think to take a pic until half way through. It was a ‘mini’ Pancho Villa. It was good.)

I got it from a very reliable source that this is the finest Pilates studio in the southwest. Way better than any lumber company.