Pioneer Village in Arizona

[4v50 Gary]

If you ever go to the NMLRA's Ben Avery Range (North on I-70 from Phoenix, AZ), go a bit further North from it to visit the Pioneer Village. It's AZ's answer to Colonial Williamsburg and depicts early life in AZ. Operated by a non-profit foundation, costumed interpreters staff the various buildings and explain life in AZ. Realism is provided by several authentic houses that have been moved to the museum. There's a real western opera house made of brick, a Victorian house, working blacksmith shop (don't go in Sept. like I did cuz the 'smith is gone), a wheelwright shop, a church, a jail (with bars and bunks salvaged from a old timey jail) and across from the jail, a wood gallows (an Eagle Scout project), a bank (neat vault door and teller counter), an authentic school (log construction) as well as a schoolteacher's cabin, a ranch house (log) with firing ports. As you walk through the collection of houses, you'll hear distant gunfire from the Ben Avery range which is right over the hill. There's a small corral where the sheriff will shoot it out with an outlaw. Both are armed with 4th Generation Colt revolvers. Some, but not all, gunslingers are CASS.

For those of you who are AAA members, bring your card for a $1 discount. Also bring water as AZ is scorching hot.