and Oak Creek
Canyon Country
By Bonnie and Ed Peplow
So read on, slip back in time, forget the traffic, the air-pollution, and the haziness shrouding the Sedona- Red Rocks today and travel back in time to a day when Sedona was pristine, pure, and virtually undiscovered.......
Other Sedonans told us, "We esteem Mr. Ernst highly and respect his opinions--all except that one. there is only one place in the world to live, Sedona."
However, Mr. Ernst and his wife, Dorothy, modify in action their opinion by spending most of every year in Sedona and visiting Paris only occasionally, thus making the latter a negligible second choice. Among those who have flocked to Sedona in unprecedented numbers in the last two years, the Ernst's have a good claim to fame as two of the world's foremost artists; but they have a truly great claim to fame as pioneers in what promises to become one of the nation's favorite Shangri Las for those seeking a fabulously beautiful, serene and inspiring place to live.
When Max and Dorothy Ernst first saw Sedona, as tourists, in 1943, it was the tiny trading center for the Oak Creek Canyon red rock region of Arizona. A sleepy country store, a tiny post office, a few ranch houses and orchards sprinkled in the hills 'round about were all the town consisted of. Thousands of magnificent ranch home sites were to be found in the midst of the scenery which Hollywood has hailed as the most beautiful and varied in the world.
Immediately after the end of the war, in 1946, the Ernsts did what many people before them had talked of doing; they came back to Sedona, bought a little place on a hillside, and settled down. "Why did we come back?" Ernst asked. Then, gesturing to include the view of the lush green valley of Oak Creek and the spired and domed red rock cliffs, he said, "It's obvious."
Yet, until about 1948, the majority of people who wanted to live in and near Sedona were restrained by the lack of proved water supplies. Grasshopper Flat, about a mile west of Sedona toward Cottonwood on U.S. 89-A, is a large, gently rolling green park bordered on three sides by the red rocks; it seldom failed to evoke from the tourist the exclamation, "What a place this would be to build a house!" But the dream was short lived, quickly killed by the sad news, "No water."
At about the same time, George Jordan, one of the famous orcharding Jordans of Oak Creek, decided that a municipal water system in Sedona center would be necessary before Sedona could achieve the growth it might have. Working closely with state and county health departments, Jordan designed and installed a seepage well and filtration plant to trap and purify creek water. Further purification which brings the water far above minimum state and county standards is accomplished in a chlorination process in the reservoir. Pumping power is delivered by a water wheel for regular service, while an adequate standby electric pump is ready for emergency use. Large storage tanks, with more under construction, stand on a nearby hillside, thousands of feet of water main have been laid in the area served and scores of new residences and business properties already are enjoying the benefits of a good city water system.
Meanwhile, following Mrs. Gulick's lead, others have ventured to drill for water in Grasshopper Flat, in Big Park and in other choice home site locations near Sedona center, which already is entirely sold out and built up.
Just how many new residences have been constructed since the momentous bringing in of the first well is not known to the Sedona chamber of Commerce. That unusually active and imaginative body says it will leave census taking to Uncle Sam; it has more urgent matters to attend to, such as the formation of a volunteer fire department and the organization of a system of garbage disposal.
In addition, the chamber has succeeded in bringing to town most of the other basic conveniences to be found in any city. Gas for cooking and refrigeration is readily available. Electric power is available in all parts of the area through either a public utility or an REA organization. A lumber yard, a hardware store, a beauty parlor, two complete food markets, a dry goods and department store, real estate brokerages, garages and welding shops, laundry and dry cleaning service and a new post office are among the basic service enterprises which have been brought to town in the last couple of years. There are half a dozen contractors in town now, all busy keeping pace with Sedona's growth.
The Wayside Chapel, a nondenominational community church, has been built recently, while there are also Mormon, Assembly of God and Roman Catholic services in town each week. A new and very modern grammar school has been built in the last two years. High school students are transported by bus to Flagstaff.
The Chamber of Commerce's most unusual activities have been in the realm of publicity. The handful of original founders of the organization met about three years ago and decided that if Sedona ever were to realize fully its tremendous potential, it was going to be through the concerted efforts of everyone in town. A fellow who knew about plumbing or firefighting or taxation or statistics obviously must be pressed into service on a committee where his experience would be most useful. But what about this matter of publicity to attract the tourists and potential home builders? What about this matter of glad-handing the newcomer and selling him the town?
Unfortunately, with the small membership and the large number of projects on hand competing for the limited funds available, the Chamber could not afford to hire a professional promoter. They found a couple of ex-advertising executives who had moved into town. These latter became the advertising and promotion committe of the Chamber, and launched a pair of enterprises unique in the experience of anyone who has heard of them.
Sedona is in the most photogenic country in the world, the ad men reasoned. They also reasoned that since they hadn't the money or means to launch a comprehensive advertising or publicity campaign, they'd pick out a special market and appeal to that. So they inaugurated the Annual International Oak Creek Canyon-Sedona Color Photography Contest. (They say they tried to get one letter into the title for every two people in Sedona!)
Since photography is the most popular hobby in the world, this contest was calculated to have a snow-balling benefit for Sedona and the Oak Creek Canyon area. If even a relatively few people could be induced to participate the first year, they would take their prize shots home to all parts of the country, show them off and thus inspire more people to come next year. Needless to say, the contest was extremely successful.
However, Oak Creek fruit was for many years undisputed occupant of first place as Sedona's principal economic asset. Back about the turn of the century, it was the lush green of the Oak Creek valley as it opened up out of the canyon that attracted the early settlers to the present townsite. The climate, so much milder than that found on the Mogollon Rim and the high plateau area around Flagstaff, made farming a profitable venture. Orchards did exceptionally well, and Oak Creek fruit quickly became known all over the state and, finally, throughout the Southwest.
It was from these early settlers that the town of Sedona and many of the mountains around it derived their names. T.C. Schnebly and his brother Ellsworth were early immigrants from Missouri. Ellsworth became the first postmaster of the newly created post office, which the residents decided to call "Oak Creek Canyon Station." That name was disallowed by the Post Office Department, however, since it had too many letters. When Ellsworth got that news at breakfast one morning, he said to his sister-in-law, "What shall we name the place, Sedona?"
Then he did a mental double-take, looked at his sister-in-law and said, "By golly, Sedona, I think you're going to have a town named after you! There sure aren't too many letters in that name. Sedona! That's it."
Sedona Schnebly was a beloved resident of the town for over half a century. Her death in the spring of 1951 left her husband, T.C., as the present chief authority on the town's history and progress. It was he and his brother, along with others of the rugged pioneers, who originally hewed out what today's tourists acclaim as the most spectacularly beautiful drive in the world, the road up Schnebly Hill.
"Hill" is a gross misnomer, however. Rising majestically to the east and north of the town, Schnebly Hill reaches an altitude of nearly 7000 feet. In the early days, before a road had been put through Oak Creek Canyon, the main route from the Verde Valley to Flagstaff was via the Schnebly Hill Road, which snakes its way up what appears to be an almost vertical mountain side. While engineers have relocated parts of the road for easier ascent, still the old and new finally reach the same eminence from which a breathtaking view is had of Sedona nestling in the emerald green of its valley in a fantastically beautiful setting of milti-colored red rocks.
Situated at an elevation of 4200 feet on the average, Sedona's climate is very different from Flagstaff's, although, because of its proximity to Flagstaff, a good many people assume that Sedona's winters are as cold as those of the northern metropolis. While Sedona enjoys four distinct seasons, none of them is extreme. During the usual winter there may be a few nights during which the temperature drops below freezing. In the last five years the lowest temperature reached was 18 degrees, and that only once. On the other hand, winter days are generally balmy, sunny and bracing, the kind of weather that keeps you out-of-doors.
In the summer the temperature may rise to a maximum of about 105 during the day; but fresh breezes coming down off the mountain usually keep it cooler and always prevent summer heat from being oppressive. Summer nights are cool; in fact, there scarcely ever is a night when a warm blanket is not welcome.
While there are no official weather bureau statistics available to give exact climatological data, personal experience is a more reliable guide than data which may be interpreted a number of ways. Sedona claims, honestly enough, to have a total of some 90% of possible hours of sunshine, an average relative humidity of something between 10% and 15%, and, all in all, a climate that is at once salubrious and stimulating. The only change some Sedonans might ask would be a little more rain. As it is, they have only about 15 inches a year.
Over the course of years the scenery in and near Sedona has brought Hollywood producing companies to the area. Dozens of class A feature pictures have been filmed there, including such smash hits as California, Leave Her to Heaven, The Angel and the Badman, Copper Canyon, Broken Arrow and many others. The names of the stars read like the Actor's Blue Book starting away back with Tom Mix and William S. Hart and coming up to James Stewart and Hedy Lamarr.
The future? Faye Crenshaw, realtor and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, says, "In the past five years I have seen Sedona grow from a wide spot in the road into a busy and economically sound community. We are just beginning to attract the national recognition Sedona deserves as one of the nation's outstanding resort and residential areas. I believe all the folks in town agree with me that Sedona's future is just beginning....As for me, well, I expect to spend the rest of my life here--which is quite a statement for a native Texan to make!"
Perhaps that future includes Sedona's assumption of a place of prominence among the nation's art centers. With the Ernsts, Dick Sprang (creator of Batman and other comic strip features,) Randolph Pyne (well known illustrator and commercial artist,) George Brolley (prominent Chicago advertising artist) already there, it is safe to assume others will come. Writers are beginning to find Sedona's charms conducive to better writing. Musicians find inspiration there too. No doubt new motion pictures will be made there.
Sedona also has made a start toward recognition as a cultural center along other lines. The Verde Valley School in nearby Little Park is an unusual and already successful new prep school which has attracted international attention as a result of its program of imbuing its students with the ideal of international and intercultural understanding and friendship.
During the last two summers the International Friends Society has used the facilities of the school for seminars devoted to this same goal. Students from all over the world have attended and have carried away with them, among other things, inspiring memories of Sedona's beauty.
But, principally, we think, Sedona will continue its sound growth and prosperity as the home for lucky folks of independent means who can build there to live in the midst of indescribably beauty and as an outstanding attraction for tourists who can't yet live there but who almost universally dream of coming back someday to settle.
Sedona Legend Helen Frye