[Applause]
Welcome, ladies and germs. To the Cactus Atlas.
Greetings from the Pioneer Arizona
Living History Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.
On today's adventure we're going to be
taking a tour of this property and
viewing lots of old-time west buildings.
I'm excited for this so let's go on this
adventure but first got to rob the bank.
[Music]
So we're in this old bank which is
actually a reproduction of a bank
modeled after one in Phoenix from the
year 1884 but it really is an awesome old
time feel in here so it feels authentic.
Here's my grandpappy hard at work.
He's hard of hearing so he's
not gonna even know I'm here.
I could sneak up on him if I want to.
Hey grandpappy. Hey.
Hey, teller. I'm here and I need to make a withdrawal.
I've come to hold up the bank.
How are you gonna hold up a bank
if there's nobody here to let you in?
That's a good security strategy.
Just don't have anybody in the bank and
you can't do anything. Genius!
[Music]
Welcome to the old tonsorial parlor.
No, this is not where you come
to get your tonsils removed.
Tonsorial is derived from Latin, I believe.
The word sheers.
This is an old-school barbershop.
Here at the old barbershop
you can get a variety of services.
Maybe you need a shave,
trim up your hair but you can also get a
boil lanced, get stitched up...
These were very versatile people.
They took care of a lot of your needs.
Maybe even some dentistry while you're here.
You got a tooth problem?
Come see the old barber.
He'll take care of you.
Dude, they have totally rad toilets.
They're rad.
[Music]
Here we are at the old sheriff's office.
This is another reconstruction of an adobe
building based on a sheriff's office
from Globe, Arizona from the 1880s.
Sometimes it also served as a courthouse.
A one-stop shop for all of your crime needs.
There's people asleep in there.
You see that?
I don't want to wake them up.
They're bad guys anyway.
Now the way they did the reconstruction according to
the information here is they had an old
glass plate photo of a similar structure
and they must have used that just as a basis.
One thing that wanted to point out
here is a lot of the buildings we're
seeing so far are not original buildings.
Although they do have some originals here I read.
Many of these are reconstructions
based on old photos and things like that.
One thing you may have caught on by now is
you can't enter a lot of the buildings.
You can walk up to them and
get a really good look and I'm,
you know, sticking my camera in there.
I was a little skeptical coming here knowing that.
I was a little, like, worried that it wouldn't be good.
Now that I'm here...
It doesn't bother me that much actually.
You really get a good view of the buildings
and it actually works out pretty well
so not a bad thing actually.
Looks like there's lots of bounties.
Make some money over here.
Now, of course, part of the business of being
a sheriff and upholding the law...
you got to do some executions.
Now this style of gallows, I think,
would be a luxury back in the day.
They had a trap door, snap your neck,
I'm assuming almost instant death
if not instant death.
However, a few weeks ago we
were traveling to another ghost town
called Vulture City here in Arizona
where we saw this famous place called
the Hanging Tree where they used to hang
men from trees without a trapdoor.
That sounded like some really gruesome stuff.
If you want to know more about that I'm
gonna put a link in the description down below
to that video we made if you want to learn more.
This is another reconstruction
of what they call a daub house
and assuming I'm pronouncing that correctly.
It's basically a structure of just wooden poles
and what looks like just mud.
This is an example of a
really early pioneer style home.
Now I did some additional reading about this
online and there's some pretty gross
stuff associated with this.
What I was reading is...
It was an account from, I think, a
pioneer who lived in these or built
these things back in the day
and they were saying they preferred to sleep out
in the open air rather than in here
especially during rain because when it
rained they had mud on the roof so when
you're inside not only would you still just get wet
you'd have mud dripping on you.
And the most grisly thing that just gives me the willies
is that we have scorpions here in the southwest
and when the rain happened and things fell down,
scorpions would fall on you in addition to that.
So why the heck would you even bother?
Frontierland!
It's made of wood and mud and scorpions.
It's no surprise to me that structures
like this don't survive because with
time that mud just melts away and then
the wood crumbles.
[Music]
And here we have an example
of a house that is original.
It came from up north near Flagstaff, Arizona.
It's known here it's the northern house and it's a
really good example, I guess, of a cabin from up north.
Interestingly this was built around 1885 they believe
and this housed 10 people if you can believe that.
It was a couple who had eight kids.
Just so you know I'm not lying...
This house belonged to a Jeff D Newman
which included his wife, three sons and
five daughters, totaling ten people.
I suppose back then he didn't spend as
much time indoors sitting in front of
the TV playing video games and watching
Netflix but ten people in that.
Woo!
[Music]
And here we have another original structure -
the Ashurst Cabin.
This was the boyhood home of Henry F Ashurst
who was the first senator of Arizona
and this was built circa 1878.
Really curious to stick my head inside
there and see what I see.
Wow. This is pioneer livin' here.
[Music]
Once again another original structure
moved here apparently piece by piece in
a very painstaking fashion.
One of the neat things about this museum
is that it's rescued so many buildings that
were doomed for demolition or
would have just deteriorated.
[Music]
Here we have a prime example of the Old West.
The lawless times
when men lived here in the Arizona Territory.
The Flying V Cabin.
Another original structure here and for me
this might be one of the highlights
of the Pioneer Museum.
This cabin was built in the 1880s.
It was moved here from Pleasant Valley, Arizona.
Come check this out.
All around the cabin there are slats,
like this one and another one over here,
which allowed them to shoot their gun
through the holes and protect themselves
from raiding Indians at the time.
Another interesting thing about this
cabin is it was built by a family
that was involved in one of the bloodiest
conflicts I think in Arizona history.
It was a range war, a feud, that makes the
Hatfield and McCoys look like child's play.
It's known as the Tewksbury-Graham Wars
or the Pleasant Valley Wars and I
think a couple other things.
You may want to read about that.
I think we're gonna do an
episode about that in the future.
It's so interesting.
Many men died in that.
It was so bloody and so bad that
many believe that Arizona was
delayed in getting its statehood
because it was such a lawless
territory at the time that
they didn't want to incorporate
Arizona as a state into the United States.
But this is a piece of history.
If only walls could talk.
Imagine living here always under the
threat of natives in the area. Apaches.
We'll take you around the cabin.
Notice the slats in the walls on all
sides of the house giving them
360 degrees of protection.
Old chimney over here.
It's amazing how this thing didn't burn, really.
Wow.
That was really neat seeing the Flying V Cabin.
I think so far that maybe my
favorites structure here mainly because
a lot of that bloody history around it.
There are a lot more original structures
here than I thought.
Like this whole section that we've been
walking through with all the cabins...
They all seem to be original structures.
[Music]
Here we have the old schoolhouse where
you would go to get a good old-fashioned
learning back in the day.
Looking at the interior is really beautiful.
It just feels authentic.
Gives me a sense of what it may have
been like to be learned back in the day.
Back then if you wanted to
keep warm you'd have to throw another
log in the fire as you did your studies
and don't dare you complain.
Another really nice touch... that looks like a dunce cap.
I think they need to bring those back
in our education system, don't you?
[Music]
This church is a reconstruction of a
church that was built circa 1880 and was
in operation till about 1927.
A church from Globe, Arizona.
Apparently there were plans for the original church.
They did a bunch of painstaking research to
recreate this authentically.
[Music]
You can really hear how your voice echoes in here.
If you're giving a sermon or something...
hellfire and damnation type thing...
I assume that echoing would add to the effect.
The bell in the original church
was dubbed God's alarm clock
and it was used to notify people of church services
as well as to warn of Apache raids
and other impending dangers.
[Music]
Here's a beautiful example of a Victorian era home.
This is actually one of the first examples
of a wood frame house
originally located in downtown Phoenix.
Before Phoenix had a railroad,
houses typically weren't built from
lumber because it was hard and
expensive to ship lumber here so houses
back in the day were built with adobe
and we've seen some examples of that so
far in our journeys today.
[Music]
It's a beautiful example of Victorian home.
A wood frame home.
Out of all the structures and
homes we've seen here today,
this might be one of the most
relatable ones after seeing some of
those cabins and seeing how people lived.
This is absolute luxury.
Although living in the pioneer times or the olden times
would have been wrought with problems...
You would have to survive disease...
If you could survive childhood I'm sure that
would be quite the accomplishment.
But every time I visit sites like this or
any of the ghost towns, something about
them just calls out to me.
Life just seems simpler to me despite the hardships
and despite the constant danger.
I don't know.
It just seems like living to survive
and living to feed yourself
just seems a lot simpler than having to go to and office
for 40 hours a week or more
and dealing with all the personalities
and all of the unpleasantness we have today.
I just sometimes I wonder as human beings,
is modern society the right way?
What do you guys think?
Leave me something in the comments below.
Would you rather be able to go back in time
and live more simply
or do you prefer your modern conveniences
and modern ways of life?
Gonna give you a few final thoughts
about our experience here today at the
Pioneer Arizona Living History Museum.
I kind of came here not knowing too much about it.
I did some research.
I was a little skeptical but this place ended up
getting an A on our list.
It's really awesome.
You really get a good taste of
what pioneer living was like.
There's a lot more original structures here than I
had accounted for and even the
reconstructed ones feel authentic.
They feel old. They feel natural.
I would highly recommend coming here.
It's very accessible.
You get a nice little walk in but it's not too too hard and
yeah, this has been a great experience.
So big thumbs up from Cactus Atlas.
If you're new here, please subscribe to our channel
and if you like this content give it a big thumbs up.
Also, use that notification bell
to be notified whenever we release
new content on our channel
which we are doing all of the time.
Until our next adventure.
please take it easy and we'll see you really soon.
Thanks for coming, pardner.
[Music]