20TH CENTURY
HISTORICAL-SITE PANORAMAS
Biosphere 2, Paradise, Pecos River Canyon, Point Vicente, Rhyolite, Route 66, Santa Fe, Singing Hills
Pre-Columbian / 16th-18th Century / 19th Century / 20th Century
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BIOSPHERE 2, ARIZONA
Biosphere 2 was buit in the desert north of Tucson between 1987 and 1991 as an experiment to see if closed ecological systems could support and maintain human life in outer space, as a substitute for Earth’s biosphere, through a variety of artificially constructed biological biomes. While the original effort was not successful, it did provide useful information. Experiments continue to this day.
PARADISE CEMETERY, ARIZONA
Paradise is a ghost town that in 2011 boasted a population of 5. Located in Cochise County, the town was settled in 1901 in what was then the Arizona Territory and abandoned in 1943. The scenic “Road to Paradise” passes this cemetery on its way over the top of the Chiricahua Mountains from the slightly larger town of Portal.
POINT VICENTE LIGHTHOUSE, CALIFORNIA
The classically elegant Point Vicente Lighthouse is quite different from the Victorian-style Point Fermin Lighthouse shown on the 19th Century page. This spectacular location on the Palos Verdes Peninsula makes Point Vicente a popular spot for visitors. It was built in 1926.
PECOS RIVER CANYON, NEW MEXICO
This spectacular portion of the Santa Fe National Forest follows the storied Pecos River from its origen high in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains above Taos, Santa Fe, and Pecos and incorporates the Pecos River Canyon State Park. As the handmade sign notes, the area’s Hispanic history spans centuries.
- See Martha’s historical-site photos of this area from previous centuries.
- See Martha’s landscape photos of this area.
Found along the scenic drive is the one-room El Macho Church, located along with its cemetery in the tiny yet “living” community of El Macho. Local men rebuilt it on the site of a previous church that had been destroyed. To this day, it lacks electricity, but is lit by lanterns and heated by a wood stove.
RHYOLITE GHOST TOWN, NEVADA
In 1904, prospectors found quartz that, as one described it, was “full of free gold… a crackerjack!” A gold rush ensued with 2,000 claims.
The town boomed: 3-story buildings, stock exchange, board of trade, hotels, stores, school, newspaper, ice plant, electric plant, machine shops, ice cream parlor, dances, tennis, churches, and brothels. In 1906, one miner built a Bottle House from 50,000 beer and liquor bottles (photo below).
In 1907, even as the town electrified and built a mill, the national financial panic hit hard. People left. Businesses and banks began failing. In 1911, the mine and mill closed. Five years later, the electricity was turned off.
ROUTE 66: WILLIAMS, ARIZONA AND ELSEWHERE
There’s both a sense of whimsy and a sense of sadness in this hand-painted sign on a commercial building in Williams, Arizona.
Like so many other once-thriving towns along Route 66, the famous “Mother Road” that through the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s offered thousands of motorists a direct route from Chicago to California, Williams suffered economically when Interstate 40 was built to its north.
Williams did benefit, however, in being the best “jumping-off spot” for tourists driving I-40 to get to Grand Canyon National Park. Thanks to that coincidence, its hotels and restaurants have survived better than most other towns that didn’t have such a superb natural attraction to draw visitors to them.
SINGING HILLS FOREST PRESERVE, ILLINOIS
This barn near the town of Round Lake is a relic representative of thousands that once dotted the Illinois landscape. In 1997, the Lake County Forest Preserve District acquired the property for the protection and restoration of wildlife habitat and as a vital link in the county’s 33-mile Millennium Trail.
Martha Marks was a member of the LCFPD board when they acquired these 700+ acres. She’s still very proud of her role in encouraging the protection and restoration of properties like this.
The farm’s interesting name dates from 1942, when a new owner renamed it. “There were so many birds on that land,” his son wrote later for a Forest Preserve publication. “Great Blue Herons nested in the trees along the north edge of the farm… pheasants, grouse, songbirds of all kinds. The land was so musical that my father called his farm The Singing Hills.”
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
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SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
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During the early 20th Century, Santa Fe experimented with a variety of architectural styles, seeking a look that, as the town grew, would be both unique and authentic for the area.
Eventually, town leaders settled on a look described as “Pueblo Revival”… a combination of adobe walls and wooden architectural support details reminiscent of Native American pueblos of the Southwest. The effort succeeded to such an extent that it’s now widely known as “Santa Fe Style.”
Also shown here are photographs of Santa Fe’s historic Plaza that include a 19th Century memorial obelisk, which stood in that spot for 150+ years until it was destroyed in a riot in the summer of 2020.
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