A visit to PHX's George Washington Carver Museum
Jen’s Museums of Phoenix quest brought us to the George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center1 just south of downtown yesterday. It was my second visit, though the site has been vastly improved since my first time here. In fact, I’d now consider it a local historical gem (side note: discovering stuff like this is exactly the reason we have so many quests).
The museum, set in the first segregated high school in the state, features a slew of interpretative panels detailing the civil rights struggle here in Phoenix, with some additional exhibit and event rooms.
There’s also an interior courtyard featuring the sculpture That Which Might Have Been, Birmingham 1963, dedicated to the four black girls killed in the famous church bombing (side note: we’ve visited that site, too).
I learned quite a bit here, especially about the local struggle against segregation (including a successful challenge to the system a year before Brown v Board), the centrality of Eastlake Park to the movement, and about a now largely defunct neighborhood known as the Harlem of Phoenix, among other random factoids and episodes.
Check their website for visitor information; apparently, tours must be prescheduled and no walk-ins are allowed, though the museum’s Executive Director was quick to let us in anyway.
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The historic school had no direct association with George Washington Carver, but was instead renamed after him soon after his death. We’ve been to a number of Carver-related sites, including his birthplace and childhood home (the very first National Park unit dedicated to an Afrcian American), the Tuskegee Institute and its George Washington Carver Museum, and his nearby gravesite. ↩︎
OTD in 2017, I ran across a tag for my old college-era backpack, an absolute beast that I had absolutely no business using. I knew I had perhaps over-purchased when I saw someone donning the pack during an IMAX film about serious mountaineering. 😂
Quick stop at the Salt River this afternoon. #fb
Do not exit
Wickenburg apparently has a rattlesnake problem.
We made our way to the wrong side of the tracks to grab a pint at Vulture Peak Brewing Company in Wickenburg, one of the few breweries in the state we hadn’t yet visited since covid. The beer was decidedly not good, and the old timers live music was far from lively. Oh well, glad we marked it off.
Before the rise of specialty license plate styles in the 1990s, this classic Arizona design was one of the best in the country, imo.
(The one that replaced it was pretty good too).
Made some big improvements to our Travel Map over at AdventuresAroundthe.World. Used Claude to add some additional functionality, including new pin colors for Countries We Haven’t Posted About Yet, as well as Upcoming Trips. Damn it’s fun to indirectly produce code that does fun stuff.
This painting is titled Lone Saguaro…
…but there’s clearly a second saguaro visible near the left edge. 🧐🤨
I haven’t celebrated Valentine’s Day since high school, when I struggled to find an appropriate gift for my then-girlfriend and was eventually guilted into overspending on a necklace, overpriced roses, and a crowded dinner out. Since then, I’ve simply opted-out of it entirely—and it’s been great.
In true Scott-and-Jen fashion, we dealt with the cancellation of our Central America trip yesterday exactly as you’d expect from us—we booked another trip! We reserved campsites in the Canadian Rockies later this summer, a trip we had to cancel last summer for other health issues. Get ready, Banff!
Welp, we officially pulled the plug on tomorrow’s Central America trip. Seems likely that we’ll kick that to Jan or Feb 2027 instead. I think a breather this coming week is in order, ahead of two other trips later this month.
If you’re trying to visit every National Park unit (or every US county) and still need to visit Kalaupapa, you’re in luck! They’ve opened some limited tours in Feb & April. The site (and entire county) has been otherwise closed since 2020. Future public access remains unclear, so jump on this!
(Photos from our Dec 2016 visit)
I’ve been pretty quiet since my brain mri, unfortunately for a serious reason. The scan showed a rare but serious and disconcerting condition. My primary care doc didn’t know what to do or even who to send me to, but told me to cancel our travel this weekend. Surgery was required and seemed imminent. I’ve been a bit of a wreck since. I spent all day yesterday working with the referrals department to cold call various specialists around the area in hopes of securing an immediate appointment, and eventually managed to line one up for today.
Well, it turns out that it was just a false alarm of sorts. I don’t have the rare condition, and what led to the diagnosis is actually a nonissue. In short, I’m fine. Whew! Not sure if we’ll still do the overseas trip this weekend at this point; I’ve sorta lost any excitement for it.
It’s looking like the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial might become the 434th National Park unit. The dedication ceremony has been scheduled for October 24, 2026. The Memorial will open to the public after the ceremony, and—presumably—will be officially established as unit 434 that day too.
Adam Sowards on being Unconfined in the Desert:
Americans were slow to embrace the desert as a landscape worthy of preservation. Geysers and canyons and mountains were one thing; dry expanses with prickly plant life and poisonous creatures were another. The National Park Service existed for a generation before it started protect desert spaces, and the American public did not really change their attitudes until after World War II. For most of the nation’s history, “desert” meant desolation.
It’s a good piece, though I bristled a bit when reading the above paragraph. Sure, this was certainly true for most Easterners, but I’d also remark that this wasn’t true in Southwestern communities.
Phoenix, for instance, just a small unassuming town at the time, purchased 16,000 acres to establish South Mountain Park in 1924. Similarly, nearby Papago Saguaro National Monument had been designated ten years prior, before even the National Park Service itself existed. Tucson Mountain Park was created in 1929. Several other desert landscapes had been protected as national park units, though often due to archaeological sites or other scientific fascinations. But, really, nearly all national parks were designated for something unusual, not just a standard representation of their flora, fauna, and geology.
Just finished getting another brain MRI, which I managed to survive without taking the anxiety meds my doc gave me. 🥴 Right on cue, as I reach my car to drive home, Apple Maps suggests the local brewery as my next destination. It’s not my next stop, Apple, but it sure will be visited today! 🍻
Boom! I managed to secure pre-sale tickets to the musical Spamalot this summer. Funny enough, I’m squeezing it into a trip itinerary when I’m on the other side of the country.
Jen and I just realized that we got our marriage license on Valentine’s Day in 2020—a coincidence that had apparently escaped us back then. We’ve only celebrated Feb 14 as Arizona’s Statehood Day. 😆
